The Senate Economic Development Committee and the Senate Natural Resources Committee met jointly on Thursday to review the House changes to the Act 250 bill, H.687. Representative Bongartz was there to help walk them through some of the changes. There were some minor changes to the implementation dates. The first major change is that the Land Use Review Board (formerly the Natural Resources Board) would not hear appeals to Act 250.

Chairwoman Kornheiser opened the Tuesday House Ways & Means Committee meeting by sharing the Representative Demrow had a suggested amendment to the housing and Act 250 bill, H.687, which the Committee had some jurisdiction over.

This year’s “major” housing bill, H.687, reached the Senate Floor on Thursday for an informational session. Senator Ram Hinsdale stressed the need for additional housing and the replacement of the 5,000 housing units damaged by the recent flooding.

The Senate Economic Development Committee convened on Wednesday morning to review the new version of H.687, which incorporated parts of the bill they had worked on earlier in the session – S.311. Chairwoman Ram Hinsdale noted that there was a new amendment from Senator Bray that had just been released. She noted that Bray was claiming this amendment was the “holy grail of negotiations” between her and the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

Senator Bray opened up the Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting on Wednesday morning by stating that they are “evaluating elements” of S.311 to be integrated into H.687. Indicating that the plan was to vote the bill out today while they wait for “Counsel makes any changes… for things that we can resolve, non-showstopper issues… the plan is to set aside a basket of those, and we will have about a week during which Senate Economic Development will evaluate.”  See draft 3.1.

Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board) was first to testify In the Senate Natural Resources on Wednesday Morning on S.311 after Chairman Bray gave some housekeeping remarks. The bill aims to overhaul the Act 250 land use system and install a tiered mapping system that makes it clear which land is available for development and which is not.