Op-Ed: Meeting the Moment to Build More Housing

OP-ED: Meeting the Moment to Build More Housing
By Secretary Lindsay Kurrle

This is a pivotal moment in the history of Vermont that will determine our future. It's imperative we all realize that housing is the foundation of how we will meet this moment to create the momentum that will reverse our demographic decline. Housing will bring more working age people here and help fill our schools with kids. More housing will improve public safety outcomes. Housing will give those most vulnerable Vermonters a chance to access and achieve stable rental or homeownership options. Turning the tide on housing will grow municipal grand lists, increase the tax base, and ease the property tax obligation we all share by spreading it out over more properties. As Governor Scott repeatedly says, we need more taxpayers, not more taxes.

Housing is the key that can unlock so much of what will make Vermont a vibrant place, not just for us, but for our children and their children. This is the moment we find ourselves in.

And here's the thing - We can accomplish the goal of adding more housing without losing the Vermont we love.

Governor Scott recently said "…we don't want houses to litter our mountainsides or development that replaces our farmland." What we DO want is to improve the current system to make it easier and faster to build and rehab houses, condominiums, and apartments where we want them.

Adding more housing requires all of us to be engaged advocates for growth. For too long we have allowed the voices of opposition to dominate our local discourse on housing. We need Vermonters to loudly and publicly advocate for progress. Preserving Vermont's beauty does not mean placing our state in a time capsule, freezing potential progress with our nostalgia. We cannot create starter homes, residences designed for aging in place, and homes for our kids and grandkids unless we embrace building in our communities.

We need more places to rent and buy in every corner of Vermont at every price point. To learn more about the scale of the issue, I encourage you to look at the Statewide and Regional Housing Target report released earlier this week. Look up what the recommendations mean for your community. Then see the building that has been happening in your community the last few years via the new Housing Development Dashboard. The picture is stark and every region can be doing more.

We recently unveiled our proposal and will begin working with lawmakers on our Omnibus Housing Bill in the coming days which contains policies intended to preserve Vermont's beauty and natural resources while bringing more housing online. We can't fix this problem overnight and we can't buy our way out of it by asking taxpayers to fund all new housing. The bill calls for, among other things, further appeals reform to expedite cases, shift the cost of permit appeals to the appellant, and raise the standard for petition appeals which are widely viewed as a mechanism for preventing the construction of new homes. We want to add tools to help small communities that don't have the capacity to manage development projects so that they can expand their grand lists and welcome new people to town. And we want to remove barriers for adding homes to areas that are already served by public water and wastewater.

I am optimistic despite the immense housing challenge we face. Legislative leaders are now embracing the need for more housing and the integral role housing plays in affordability. I look forward to working with them to increase housing options for all Vermonters.

I am also hopeful that Vermonters will embrace this mission. Affordability cannot be achieved for all of us until we build more homes.

The stakes are high, but so is the opportunity to shape Vermont's future.

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