PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

To remove barriers to convenient and diverse neighborhoods with affordable housing, Amy Tomasso, planning coordinator for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, said, “Vermont is presently building a toolkit for small-scale developers of less than 10 units.” 

It will show housing types, from an Accessory Dwelling Unit to a six plex, for incremental developers.

Jacob Hemmerick, AICP, community planning & policy manager for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, said the Homes for All project will have community infill case studies and a training summit for small-scale developers. 

The Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, led by Commissioner Josh Hanford, selected five communities across the state — to include a range of demographics and existing infrastructure — and creates visualizations of neighborhood infill.

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PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

What is missing middle housing? A housing term describing a range of house-scale residential building types with multiple units compatible in scale and form with detached single-family homes.

“Going back to Colonial times, Vermont villages had a pattern colloquially characterized as big house, little house in back and barn, small homes above general stores, carriage houses, and buildings with many porches and apartments. 

This accommodated multiple families and cottage commerce and industry in the barn or store,” Amy Tomasso, planning coordinator for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, said.

“Then our mid-20th century zoning code made it harder to build that historically occurring range of options and mix of uses. 

We stopped building missing middle housing, which is very much needed to accommodate a growing population of young families, the workforce and seniors wanting to downsize.”

PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

Jacob Hemmerick, AICP, is a community planning & policy manager for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development

Jacob Hemmerick, AICP, is a community planning & policy manager for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, explained that the Vermont Legislature backed the implementation of the guide with funding for a grant program to provide municipalities with resources to hire consultants to write local zoning that supports great neighborhoods. 

The legislators renewed that two times since the initial round.

The legislature has also added other benefits for designated neighborhoods, including a freeze on land gains tax for properties upzoned under the new scheme, as well as fee breaks for state wastewater permits in Vermont neighborhoods planned and zoned for compact development.

PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

Amy Tomasso is the planning coordinator for Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development.

In Vermont, a pair of energetic planners is creating a new toolbox of affordable housing solutions in one of the nation’s oldest states. 

Amy Tomasso is the planning coordinator and Jacob Hemmerick, AICP, is a community planning & policy manager for Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development.

“We knew we had to do a zoning guide. Local zoning codes in Vermont were stuck on midcentury values with large lots and rules that made it hard to build housing that matched our needs,” Tomasso said.

“We contracted with Congress for the New Urbanism to design a zoning guide called ‘Enabling Better Places: A Zoning Guide for Vermont Neighborhoods’ based on New Urbanist Principles such as complete streets, a mix of uses, and ways of expanding housing opportunities. 

The Vermont Association of REALTORS® (VAR), AARP and others helped fund it.”

PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

Missing middle refers to the range of housing that fits between single-family detached homes and mid-to-high-rise apartment buildings. 

Many people grew up in such housing in the 20th century, but zoning restrictions tended to eliminate townhouses and fourplexes and segregated housing into only larger-lot, single-family zones or denser, taller apartment districts.

ADUs, also known as granny flats, are ancillary buildings on a single-family lot. 

They could be over a carriage house, in a converted garage or in a stand-alone building usually about 500 to 750 square feet. 

They add gentle density to a neighborhood while creating affordable housing and an income stream for the lot owner to help keep up with rising costs.

PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

Using zoning, land use and incentive programs closely linked to the planning/zoning toolbox is the way many cities and states are searching for the light at the end of the tunnel.

The situation is so dire that “red” states that may have shunned subsidies and workforce housing programs are voting for land-use reform. 

And “blue” states that may have been viewed as protectionist are removing restrictions that slow bringing housing to market or drive up its cost.

Many states have grown so tired of local rules that make it impossible to build affordable and missing middle housing, that they have passed laws that preempt local control over some land-use decisions. 

Some have done away with single-family-only zoning — the majority of zoning in all of the land — and allowed Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), or even duplexes or triplexes, by right, in single-family districts.