To the editor: Rural Caucus members urge repeal of Tier 3, Road Rule in Act 181

Due to the widespread concern about the potential impacts of Act 181 (the reform of Act 250) I will be holding a discussion/Q&A at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 19 at the New American Grill, 5700 Vermont Rte 100, in Londonderry. Please join us.

What is Act 181? And what are people concerned about?

Act 181 was passed in 2024. It is both a housing bill and a conservation bill. It was a long overdue overhaul of the important, but flawed, Act 250 which is largely responsible for the preservation of our landscape over the last 50 years. Act 250 needed reform to keep up with the times, especially the need for a streamlined housing development process.

Act 181 is a well intentioned bill with unintended consequences that have come to light as implementation has rolled out. It is a huge bill with many components, most of which I won’t touch on. A good part of the bill was to professionalize the otherwise volunteer driven Act 250 process so results are consistent across the state and more sophisticated reviews can take place. The Act did this by creating the Land Use Review Board.

Act 181 divides the whole state into three Tiers:

Tier 1 (a&b) is focused on town centers that have water and sewer. The goal is to promote housing development by removing Act 250 review (which can be costly and time consuming) in these areas.

Tier 2 is everything that is not Tier 1 or 3, and the rules of what would trigger Act 250 remain the same. Except for something called the Road Rule.

Tier 3 is critical natural resource areas that should get tighter oversight because of their ecological importance.

So what’s the problem? Three things:

• The timeline set by the legislature is too tight to roll this out with 1) proper input from Vermonters and 2) the necessary groundwork to map the state into the Tiers properly.
• The Road Rule. Designed to mitigate forest fragmentation in Tiers 2 & 3, the road rule would limit people’s ability to build driveways and roads under certain circumstances. The Road Rule is not well thought out and would make it more expensive and difficult for Vermonters to put the next generation on their land, or otherwise make use of their land.
• Initial draft Tier 3 mapping was overly inclusive – meaning way too much of Vermont was included in this most restrictive Tier and people and municipalities across the state are upset.

There is MUCH more to Act 181 and the dynamics of the fallout from the ongoing implementation by the Land Use Review Board.

Key takeaways:

1. The LURB is coming out with new Tier 3 maps and Road Rule guidance at the end of the month, so everything is about to change (for the better), and
2. There is a bill (S325) that the House is considering now that will postpone implementation for 2 years, among many other things. The controversial part is that there is a movement to fully repeal the Road Rule and Tier 3 entirely. I have signed on to this effort. While the intent of the bill was good, it does not take into consideration rural Vermonters, our property rights and how we conserve our lands. Rural VT was not consulted properly before the creation of this law.

For more on this, please read the letter from the Rural Caucus, which I signed onto, dated 4/9 here.

Please let me know your thoughts: morrowforvt@gmail.com.

Rep. Chris Morrow
Weston
Chris Morrow represents the Windham-Windsor-Bennington District.