On September 17th, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed an executive order intended to accelerate housing construction and address the state’s housing shortage. This week, advocacy groups across the state called on the relevant state agencies to not act on the governor’s directive.
Governor Scott has been calling for the state legislature to pass bills that would help the state fill a housing gap. As he prepared to sign an executive order last month, he said not enough has been done to address the issue.
“The top issues that come up over and over are the regulatory barriers leading to delays and increase the cost of projects, which means more expensive and fewer homes being built for Vermonters. And although housing is something many in the Legislature have advocated for, that hasn’t led to enough changes in the right direction,” Scott said.”So, I’ll be signing an executive order to address many of the challenges we’re seeing, to help developers and homebuilders, so we can make a dent in the 40,000 homes we need in the next 5 years.”
The order directs agencies to prioritize housing projects and includes reinstatement of 2020 energy standards and streamlining the permitting and environmental review process.
After reviewing the order, the Vermont Natural Resources Council, the Conservation Law Foundation, Sierra Club Vermont Chapter, Vermont Conservation Voters, Vermont Public Interest Research Group, and ACLU Vermont sent a joint letter to the Scott Administration Wednesday saying the governor and state agencies do not have the authority to implement the executive order.
Paul Burns is Executive Director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
“The Governor has exceeded his authority in kind-of rolling back important environmental protections and just unilaterally usurping the power given to the legislature for instance,” Burns explained. “We all want more housing. It’s a terribly important problem for the state to address. But doing it as the governor has really presents more legal challenges down the road and really could slow down the process.”
Conservation Law Foundation Vice President Elena Mihaly says sidestepping established processes by using an executive order will not solve the housing crisis.
“All our organizations strongly support more housing. But achieving it by executive order that is on shaky legal ground really just makes things worse.”
The groups are concerned about the executive order’s impact on water quality, wetlands, and clean energy utilization. Burns says advocates want to work collaboratively with the administration toward the shared goal of increased housing.
“We’ve taken this approach to encourage almost a reconsideration of certain aspects of the executive order. Encouraging the agencies and departments that are implicated here to look carefully at what authority they have and what authority they do not have to move forward with the executive order.” Burns added, “Our organizations stand ready, and I believe legislators would stand ready, to work with the administration to find a more effective and certainly a more legal path forward.”
In an email to WAMC, Governor Scott’s Press Secretary Amanda Wheeler said, “it’s unsurprising that environmental groups oppose housing,” adding that Vermonters as well as state, local and federal leaders have called for action on the need to create more housing.
She said the executive order is constitutional and echoed the governor’s previous comments that the legislature has not done enough to address housing needs.
The executive order is in effect until the governor rescinds it.
