ACT 181, FUTURE LAND USE, and MUNICIPAL HOUSING TARGETS

Taking Steps to Alleviate Vermont’s Housing Crisis

Act 181, passed into law June 2024, overhauls Vermont’s planning framework for coordinating state, regional, and municipal land use. Act 181 reformed Act 250 by amending its jurisdictional thresholds. The overall intent of this Act is to facilitate increased housing production and other development consistent with the smart growth goals of the state, regions, and municipalities.

This Act sets forth standard future land use (FLUs) areas and terminology that regional planning commissions (RPCs) must incorporate into their plans through coordination and collaboration with their cities and towns. 

Since February 2025, ACRPC hosted a public informational session on the new land use mapping standards and methodology and has continued to meet with each municipality’s Planning Commission over the last few months. 

In tandem, as part of the HOME Act (Act 47 of 2023), RPCs must assign housing targets to each town/city taking the assigned future land use categories into consideration. 

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