Governor Scott issued an Executive Order last week taking meaningful steps to address Vermont’s housing shortage by targeting regulatory and permitting challenges slowing development and driving up costs.

The Governor’s Order will:

• Allow builders to comply with 2020 or 2024 Residential Building Energy Standards.
• Halve discretionary permit review timelines for qualifying housing projects.
• Grant priority to residential, multi-family, mobile home, and shelter projects in the permitting process
• Grant automatic permit approval if agencies miss statutory or regulatory deadlines.
• Allow developers to pursue concurrent permitting across state agencies.
• Defer permit fee payments and reduce fees applicable to affordable housing units.
• Pre-map Class II wetlands in growth areas and reduce associated buffer zones.
• Assign teams to coordinate review of multi-family and mixed-use housing projects.
• Establish an inventory of underutilized state-owned land for housing development.
• Extend the Brownfield Economic Revitalization Alliance program to support housing redevelopment.

It will now be incumbent upon the agencies historically charged with regulating these processes to implement the Governor’s directives with consistency, transparency, and a commitment to meaningful progress. While legislative action remains essential, this Executive Order reinforces a message the Vermont Chamber has long championed: Vermont cannot address its housing crisis without thoughtful regulatory reform at all levels of government. Permitting delays, inconsistent timelines, and an unpredictable process constrain housing creation, limiting Vermont’s ability to meet workforce housing needs. Allowing developers to deliver projects more predictably without sacrificing environmental or safety protections will make building housing easier, faster, and more affordable.

As Vermont businesses continue to face workforce shortages and recruitment difficulties driven by limited housing availability, the Vermont Chamber remains focused on advancing policy and regulatory changes that remove barriers and accelerate smart, community-centered housing development.