Vermont can’t build its way to affordability

Dear Editor,

Act 250, now maligned by builders, real estate agents and financiers, has kept unmitigated growth and sprawl at bay in Vermont for years. It was enacted by people who wanted to keep the natural beauty of Vermont’s woods, fields and open spaces protected from the wanton destruction of urban growth and capital greed.

And it worked. 

But the Vermont of half a century ago is gone. The idyllic, romantic view of old rural Vermont has somehow persisted while our towns have become cities and suburbs and our state population has grown nearly 50%. That’s a lot of growth. So much that our infrastructure and resources struggle to keep pace. And during that time, nothing got more affordable. The narrative that municipal sprawl and population growth are our salvation is an oft-repeated story from real estate agents, business associations and chambers of commerce who put money in and want money out. It’s a marketing campaign by Let’s Build Homes and the Vermont Business Roundtable, posing as community outreach and nonprofits with endorsement from the University of Vermont Health system. 

It’s false, and it’s why Vermont is in trouble.

Both Vermont and the world have changed, as has the economy: Vermont is no longer commercially isolated from its neighbors or the Northeast corridor as it was 50 years ago. The gig economy pushes air traffic, employment and urban money through the state. Vermont is a destination for all sorts of recreation, activities and lifestyles. Seeing Vermont as precious, many visitors long to own a piece of the state as seasonal getaways or weekend retreats. They seek the woods, the trees and clean waterways and all the natural things that make Vermont, Vermont. Outside money and urban privilege have been — and will always be — a threat to Vermont’s rare natural beauty.

And anything rare or precious is ultimately going to come with a higher price. You can’t stop or force revaluation on a desired commodity using the precept of “fair and equitable” because they aren’t making more of it. But you can devalue it.

Cut down trees, eliminate forests and kill wildlife. Build shopping areas and residences on every open field, turn towns into cities. If you want Vermont’s growth to equate with sprawl, it will lose its pristine value, demoted to the same suburban malady as Massachusetts and New Jersey. But don’t expect affordability; just like those citified centers, growth has never reduced taxes or made them more affordable. Ask your neighbors, as many of them came from there.

Unmitigated growth won’t fix affordability, nor will it reduce taxes or school budgets by one penny. It will simply erode the natural splendor of Vermont and devalue it. Don’t let rallying memes and slick marketing pitches conflate housing, growth and population with affordability. Vermont needs economic growth and revitalization, not a population explosion or a new high-rise. We need to grow quality, not quantity.

Wiley Searles
Colchester, Vt. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont can’t build its way to affordability.