This. Rutland, Burlington, the upper Valley, and the Montpelier / Barre area all have under-utilized urban areas. Remove parking minimums, loosen zoning restrictions, and encourage more infill development around existing infrastructure. Rebuild and reuse what we already have before destroying what’s left of Vermont’s natural land. We don’t want to become another Connecticut or Rhode Island, where just about every inch of the state is covered in sprawling single family homes.

I’m on a DRB and it’s infuriating how easy it (usually) is for us to approve people with 50+ acres subdividing into 3 ~15 acre parcels when it’s almost impossible to permit someone’s desperately-needed 8-unit rehab / conversion project.

We don’t need 2 new vacation homes. We need 400 units of mid-tier housing.

Yep. Downtowns need to build up (even just 3-5 stories). Nice and dense and compact and mixed use - like European towns. That leaves lots of space for nature, and makes services easier and cheaper too.

Right. Exactly. Those undeveloped areas are what I'm saying should have nil development. I think that would happen organically anyway - nobody is gonna build a gigantic housing project in the middle of nowhere, and act 250 should take care of that already - but definitely less outward spreading the better.

The other problem though, as in Burlington and the O.N.E. as an example, is that these old houses have been subdivided so much and poorly taken care of that we have neighborhood blite along with increased density and no parking, and they're taking away even more parking as they resurface the streets. Not good for those of us with disabilities, then add in the universities and COVID pushing students into what USED to be family housing. And lets not even get taking about THE PIT downtown. Increasing wages without increasing available housing will just add to the gentrification already going on across the state. If we are going to lower housing cost, available units need to exceed density. The universities have a huge roll to play in the problem.

Else we turn into what everyone who is wanting to move here is trying to get away from. I grew up in Northern New Jersey, and lived in Philadelphia, no thanks. I was lucky to get out while the getting was good. Some Vermont small downtowns could stand some residential redevelopment. Doing that everywhere is nothing more than suburban sprawl. That means more cars and traffic, higher costs, and deteriorating environment. Gotta be a better way. I believe the act 250 laws try to address that and are the way to go unless you are on the wrong end of the restrictions. Relaxing zoning restrictions for housing makes sense until the capacity to handle waste is exceeded. People need to scale back, drive less, spend less, consume less and be satisfied not having a McMansion in the suburbs.

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Yeah but only is a corresponding infrastructure is in place and maintained. That costs money. The alternative is a ghetto.