Chairman Stevens introduced Chris Cochran (Director of Community Planning Revitalization, Department of Housing and Community Development) on Thursday morning, stating that he has relied on him for many years. Cochran agreed that they have a good working relationship.

Peter Tucker (Advocacy & Public Policy Director, Vermont Association of Realtors) joined the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday to discuss S.311 and H.687 which both deal with overhauling Act 250. He was excited at the prospect of the “ways these two Bills will end up working together,” suggesting this is a “real opportunity” to reform land use and housing development. He acknowledged the work of the Summer Study Committee and the Natural Resource Board (NRB) and study of land use designations and the realtors association were participants in both.

The House Ways & Means Committee reviewed H.829 on Wednesday. This bill as originally proposed by Representative Stevens to restore,  enhance, and supplement elements of Vermont’s pandemic-era housing policy  that ceased with the termination of federal pandemic aid by implementing  permanent upstream eviction protections and other rental housing policies to  preserve housing stability for both tenants and property owners, including by  creating a rental registry; allocating resources for eviction diversion;  modernizing policies on just cause evictions, rent increases, and security deposits; and creating programs for property owners to access funding to remediate damages created during recent tenancies.

The House General & Housing Committee returned to a conversation around setting regional housing targets on Tuesday. Maura Collins (Executive Director, Vermont Housing Finance Agency) had comments regarding the Draft 1.1 that the Committee was reviewing. She was very supportive of the “great changes” regarding the Housing Needs Assessment, with one caveat. She pointed to the Building Homes Together Campaign (Chittenden County) which also set a target but also assumed 25% would be “affordable units.” She noted that in some years that program has come close to meeting the targets but fell short of the “affordable” goals.

Chairwoman Ram Hinsdale reminded the Senate Economic Development Committee about the Housing Survey from the HOME Act in order to know “roughly how much housing we are creating through our funding mechanisms.” She preferred to add language to S.311 least referencing a “healthy vacancy rates… about 5% for rental unit vacancy and 23% for home ownership vacancy…”

Lauren Oates introduced a number of colleagues on Wednesday morning to help explain the work they do with Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) funding across Vermont. Michael Monte (CEO, Champlain Housing Trust) reviewed a slide deck profiling a number of projects they have worked on. The three projects reviewed will total 1750 homes over time and about 650 will remain perpetually affordable. None of them would have been possible without the support of VHCB.

The Senate Economic Development Committee spent most of the week working on their draft bill titled 'BE Home'. The bill would overhaul the current Act 250 framework and development designations into a new mapping structure.

Legislative Counsel started reviewing Section 15 of H.719 for the House General Committee on Tuesday afternoon. This section creates some time limits on and on venues where they can be brought.

Under the current language, appeals must be brought within 60 days following the case being filed with the Environmental Division in the court system. Legislative Counsel worried that this may be a first for courts (having time limits imposed) and worried there may be some constitutional issues here. They will continue investigating and report back.

The first witness that the House General Committee heard from on Thursday was Chris Donnelly (Director of Community Relations, Champlain Housing Trust) who lead by saying that “the biggest risk we can take is not acting.” He called for “permit reform, Act 250 reform and more in the form of resources to really help low- and moderate-income people.”

Legislative Counsel started reviewing Section 15 of H.719 for the House General Committee on Tuesday afternoon. This section creates some time limits on and on venues where they can be brought.