VNRC Testimony on Growth Center Bill

VNRC supports S. 142 as far as it goes. This bill is a necessary first step to maintaining Vermont’s special character. S.142 creates new housing and development opportunities for Vermonters and should bring more certainty and clarity to land use decision making.

VNRC believes that any version of Senate Bill 142 that is adopted should contain:

• A consistent definition of growth centers that recognizes development should occur in or adjacent to downtowns, villages, and new town centers;
• A specific process for designation;
• Financial and regulatory incentives for development within growth centers;
• Insurance that state’s investments in sewer, water, roads, schools and the like will support Vermont’s growth centers and not lead to sprawl;
• Increased protections for valuable resource lands in the countryside.

S. 142 gets a passing grade on the first four objectives, but falls short of the objective for protecting Vermont’s rural natural resources base.

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S. 142 contains a reasonable definition of Growth Center

The issue of defining growth centers has been discussed for close to 20 years. As proposed, it furthers the goal in state planning law of developing “so as to maintain the historic settlement pattern of compact village and urban centers surrounded by rural countryside.”

S. 142 builds on the Downtown Law

Since 1998 Vermont has had legislation to protect downtowns and village centers. Chapter 76A was expanded in 2001 to include new town centers. The Vermont Downtown Development Board administers the designation process. Expanding the law to include growth centers is a logical next step, since the objectives of defining and designating growth centers are very similar to those for the existing three categories, and the existing designation process is working.

S. 142 enables a voluntary program, with two major pieces that:

* Encourage future growth in concentrated areas
* Allow some of the surrounding working agricultural countryside to stay productive.

Municipalities that wish to have designated growth centers, with a benefit package, must have certain planning elements in place in order to be eligible for designation.

The incentives for developing in growth centers in S. 142 are both monetary and regulatory in nature, and state investment policy is strengthened for growth centers.

Designated growth centers will be given priority for various state grant and infrastructure programs, development assistance, consideration for location of state buildings, and eligibility for expanded Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts.

It will be easier for developers to build more mixed use (commercial and mixed income housing) and affordable housing projects in growth centers.

Agricultural soils mitigation for developing in growth centers will be easier and less expensive than outside growth centers.

The regulatory program enables, municipalities that choose to, to act as applicants in the permit process to “pre-permit” growth centers or parts of growth centers to ease future permitting.

S. 142 is a modest bill that provides incentives for developing in growth centers. It should not be viewed as a bill that will protect our natural resources from development.

As pressures to develop land in Vermont continue at a rapid pace, it is an open question whether financial and regulatory incentives alone will be sufficient in the future to protect natural resources in areas that are not within designated growth centers.

In terms of resource protection, the bill addresses only agricultural lands that are covered by Act 250. We will still lose agricultural lands to development. The cost to mitigate loss of agricultural lands will decrease in growth centers and stay the same outside growth centers.

Act 250 covers only about 40% of Vermont’s development. This bill does not address protection of agricultural land or, for that matter, forestland, wetlands, and other unique natural areas that lie outside Act 250 jurisdiction.