House divided over housing bill
Source: Burlington Free Press, by Terri Hallenbeck
February 18, 2008
MONTPELIER -- Cameron's Run, a housing development under construction on Railroad Street in Milton will produce 50 homes that sell for $169,900 to $300,000, targeted at middle-income working Vermonters who will be able to walk to stores and services.
As the project's developer, Don Turner knows how difficult it is for builders to find the space, navigate the permitting and make such a project pay off. It worked only because his company was able to buy the parcels over several years; the town changed its zoning to allow higher density; and a land trust is offering subsidies, he said.
As a state legislator, Turner set to work with the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee, on which he serves, to find ways to encourage construction of such modest homes around Vermont.
"I think there's a huge demand for that," Turner said.
People on all sides of the issue concur with the goal, but the 4-3 committee vote is an indication that there are mixed opinions about whether the bill succeeds.
House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, heralded the legislation. "I think this looks at a range of challenges developers face and that Vermonters face as they try to find housing," she said.
Turner voted against it. He supports the basic premise, he said, but two pieces of the bill tipped the scales against it. One would set a course for creating a rental housing inspection system, and the other would tighten development regulations in rural areas.
"It was gut-wrenching for me to vote no on a housing-creation bill I helped write," Turner said.
As the legislation heads to three more House committees for review, supporters and opponents are well-entrenched in disagreement whether the bill will help relieve Vermont's housing crunch.
Location
The bill's goal is to encourage housing to be built as close to a town or village center as possible -- giving residents easier access to services and limiting sprawl. To do that, the legislation would lift Act 250 land-use regulations, making it easier and presumably cheaper for developers to build in areas connected to downtowns and town centers.
"It levels the playing field to make development in complicated areas easier," said Brian Shupe, program director for Smart Growth Vermont, an advocacy group that supports the legislation. The bill would particularly help nonprofit affordable housing organizations, he said.
From his office in downtown Burlington, Shupe said he looks out at several mixed-use redevelopment projects going on in downtown Burlington similar to what the bill seeks to encourage. "This is really intended to benefit areas in towns that are more complicated to work with."
The Douglas administration contends that the targeted areas are too tightly defined to produce much housing. Commerce and Community Development Secretary Kevin Dorn cited the area near the District Environmental Commission office in Essex Junction as an example. It's surrounded by housing, within walking distance of Hiawatha School and the fairgrounds, yet would not be eligible for eased permitting, he said.
Pointing to a map of St. Johnsbury, he said the community would be in line for little new development because the areas outlined is already built up.
Builders agree. "I don't think it's going to build many houses at all," said Tayt Brooks of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Northern Vermont. His organization wants adjacent land that would help enforce the vibrancy of a downtown to qualify.
Symington said the legislation allows for more opportunities than the administration gives credit. She had a set of maps that showed numerous parcels that would qualify in small communities. Pointing to St. Albans, she said the bill allows a community to include a noncontiguous parcel if it makes sense. "It's not that restricted," she said.
Rural offset
While the legislation seeks to encourage building close to downtowns, it would tighten the Act 250 land-use regulations on development of rural land, requiring projects there to meet smart-growth criteria. Supporters of the idea said it's another way to discourage sprawl.
"It makes sense to look at development criteria that exists outside those areas and make it so development inside those areas is even more attractive," said Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, a member of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee that is continuing work on land-use aspects of the bill.
Rep. Joyce Errecart, R-Shelburne, vice chairwoman of that committee, is among those who disagree. "Requiring smart-growth principles means projects in rural areas could be litigated for several years," she said. "This could well have the impact of almost shutting down development outside the core areas."
Pricing
The legislation would also require 20 percent of housing projects to be priced "affordably" to receive the reprieve from Act 250. In Chittenden County, that price would be no more than $220,000.
The Douglas administration wanted to set the mark at 15 percent of the housing selling for no more than $275,000.
Helen Head, chairwoman of the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee, said she did not consider that affordable to working-class Vermonters.
The affordability piece was particularly important to Erhard Mahnke, coordinator of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, who wanted the mark set lower, to $168,500, which he said would fit the salaries of teachers, postal carriers and health care workers. "What this is about is to make sure as the Legislature looks at this bill that we're taking care of the housing needs of everyday, working Vermonters," Mahnke said.
The most controversial part of the affordable pricing aspect is that it would have to remain so for 15 years. Mahnke said otherwise a buyer could sell the house in a year and the affordability would be gone.
Molly Dugan, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs, said most long-term affordability requirements are attached to projects that receive a cash subsidy, which these houses would not. "They're restricting resale," Dugan said.
Rental inspections
The bill is mostly about housing creation, but Head said equally important is preserving housing. That's why the bill sets a course for establishing a rental housing registry and inspection system.
A task force would take a year to craft a system for enforcing housing codes throughout the state, including licensing and training of private inspectors. "We have one of the highest fire death rates in the country," Head said. "Testimony we received was that inspection is done on only 1-2 percent of the rental units."
A 2006 Supreme Court decision also said the state is obligated to inspect and enforce minimum housing codes, she said.
Critics said the system would drive up the cost of housing. "This is an additional cost. It's going to be borne by the tenant," Dorn said.
Turner is also Milton's fire chief. He said he understands the need for safe housing and supports creation of a task force to look at it, but he couldn't go along with the way the bill is written because it calls for implementing the registry without knowing what it will entail.
Symington said she's heard a lot of support for the registry in the Legislature.
The bill is due out of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee this week and is expected to hit the House floor before Town Meeting Day. Turner said he'd like to vote for it. "I'm hoping it goes through the process and gets better," he said.
ROADS AND BRIDGES: The House Transportation Committee will chat with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The topics will include raising the federal truck weight limits on interstate highways from 80,000 pounds to 90,000 and relaxing the standards for federal highway projects that significantly add to costs.
ENERGY: The Senate is expected to make a decision about whether to agree to the House energy bill, perhaps with small changes, or request negotiations. The bill, a compromise written in the wake of a veto of an energy efficiency measure last year, promotes energy efficiency in heating homes and other buildings and offers incentives for renewable energy sources.
FARMS: The House Agriculture Committee will likely vote on a bill that would repeal the January 2009 date when milk haulers, not farmers, would begin paying the cost of transporting raw milk from farms to processing plants. The Vermont Milk Commission recommended repeal after taking testimony from farmers, cooperatives and processors that suggested the change would hurt Vermont dairy farmers.
CORRECTIONS: The House Institutions Committee expects to do the final rewrite of a bill that outlines a new strategy to handle people convicted of crimes who also have substance-abuse problems -- because they are the drivers of growth in the prison population.
