VNRC’s Smart Growth Goals for the 2008 Legislative Session

January 2008

VNRC has long advocated for smart growth strategies that drive development towards town and city centers and help safeguard Vermont’s rural, working landscapes. Act 250 is one of Vermont’s most important tools to accomplish smart growth land use planning goals. In the 2008 legislative session, VNRC is advocating for targeted adjustments to Act 250 that strengthen the state’s ability to create transit-oriented communities and protect valuable farm and forestlands outside town centers.

VNRC is pushing for the following amendments to Act 250:

Strengthen Criterion 5 (Traffic)
Change the “traffic congestion” criterion to be more “transit oriented” – along with more emphasis on bike and pedestrian alternatives - and strive to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT), rather than simply accommodating increased trips as it does now.

Retool Criterion 9L (Rural Growth Areas) as Smart Growth Criterion
This criterion is Act 250’s Rodney Dangerfield. It doesn’t get any “respect!” Criterion 9L is rarely used and ineffective, and it may be inconsistent with the intent of the Growth Center Law. Criterion 9L should be rewritten as Act 250’s smart growth criterion, so as to incorporate smart growth planning principles in Act 250 decisions.

Update Criterion 9A (Impact of Growth)
This criterion requires that development not significantly affect the financial capacity of the town or region to accommodate growth or cause an undue burden on their ability to provide services like fire, police, sewer and water.  Criterion 9(A) should be modified with appropriate smart growth language.

Eliminate the Act 250 Utility Line Exemption
When a utility line triggers Act 250 jurisdiction, the applicant does not have to look at the impact of the development that the utility line will serve or the secondary growth that may be induced by the utility line extension.

Re-Adopt or Enact the Act 250 Road Rule
District commissions are reporting that they aren’t seeing the benefits they had hoped for when the road rule was repealed and the six-lot trigger was substituted. People are doing long roads, very steep in some cases, on large lot subdivisions below the jurisdictional threshold. And local commissions don’t pay as close attention to aesthetics, wildlife habitat, and primary agricultural soils, if at all, as is the case with Act 250 review.

Eliminate the 10-Lot Act 250 Jurisdictional Threshold
Along with the elimination of the road rule, this is causing rural sprawl and land fragmentation.  Some district commissions would like to see the time period increased to 10 years if the threshold is not eliminated.

Another Smart Growth Strategy
Beyond Act 250, VNRC is also pushing for enacting the Agency of Natural Resources Sewer Rule. In 2002, the ANR adopted this rule to target grants and loans for sewer construction to smart growth locations.  Unfortunately, some projects still do not support smart growth.  Enacting the rule in statute should ensure that these funds do not contribute to sprawl.