Join the Vermont Zoning Atlas team and help uncover keys to big challenges like housing affordability and availability. Paid positions for both graduate and undergraduate students are available. These generally entail 10-20 hours each week and last for at least a semester (or the summer), with potential academic credits for an internship or independent study. Vermont is one of many states across the country contributing to the path-breaking National Zoning Atlas.
Planning
Help build the Vermont Zoning Atlas
The Vermont Zoning Atlas team is seeking volunteers to help complete its build-out across the state. This is an exciting opportunity to join a national data standardization project, be part of a grassroots team and be among the first researchers to work with raw zoning data across Vermont. The project started this summer by focusing on Chittenden County towns.
Reimagine how Vermont locations are designated for community development
Join local officials, planners, business and property owners, statewide leaders at the Designation 2050 Design Summit on September 12, 2023. Hear about the findings of the Designation Program Evaluation underway and help design the future of these programs – and Vermont.
Another way to contribute your ideas is through surveys tailored to your role in the community, as a member of the general public or with a municipality, agency or partner organization or as an elected or appointed official.
New smart-growth opportunities and resources for Vermont communities
Vermont communities now have more ways to promote inclusive, smart growth. Last week, the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development launched the Community Partnership for Neighborhood Development grant program and is accepting applications.
Is your community passionate about creating new housing opportunities?
Apply to be one of five pilot communities for free neighborhood design infill design services.
Vermonters need better housing options and more affordable homes. Meeting that need requires changing the ways homes are built in Vermont, especially the location and types of new homes. "Missing middle" homes (MMH), like accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and small-scale multi-household buildings were once common but have been increasingly limited by zoning and other regulations. MMH is a solution to providing a diverse mix of housing options for homeowners and renters that creates more walkable and vital neighborhoods.
FHLBank Boston hosts Community Forum on April 19, 2023
FHLBank Boston is hosting the Community Impact and Partnership Forum for Vermont lenders and community leaders.
Learn how members, sponsors, and community developers can successfully partner with FHLBank Boston to support the creation of affordable housing and promote homeownership and economic development in their communities. Network and build partnerships. The second half of the forum will include training focused on the 2023 Affordable Housing Program. Lenders – bring your development partners. Housing developers – bring your lenders!
Why Vermont needs 30,000-40,000 more homes
Earlier this year VHFA projected a need for 30,000-40,000 more homes by 2030. These projections are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and from the Vermont Point-In-Time Count of people experiencing homelessness.They are also based on common assumptions about the drivers of Vermont’s housing needs, such as the ideal vacancy rate among the state’s housing stock.
30,000 to 40,000 more Vermont homes needed by 2030
To meet expected demand and normalize extremely low vacancy rates, Vermont will need 30,000-40,000 more year-round homes by 2030. This means adding 5,000 to 6,700 more homes to Vermont's primary home market each year, well above the 2,100 homes that the state has been generating.
According to the 2020 Census count, the number of primary Vermont households was 9,000 more than in the prior year—an unprecedented increase. Although tempered somewhat in 2021, Vermont continued to show signs of heightened demand.
The two sets of projections reflect different strategies for planning Vermont’s future: planning for lower (pre-pandemic) or higher (pandemic-era) rates of household growth.
Vermont begins Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice
Equal access to residential housing (i.e. housing choice) is a fundamental right that is critical to personal, professional, and community development. If equal opportunity is to become a reality, fair housing is a goal that public officials and private citizens must embrace.
To that end, the State of Vermont is planning a comprehensive Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI) to further the goal of fair housing and satisfy requirements of the Housing and Community Development Act.
A preliminary survey is underway to collect input of housing & nonprofit professionals across the state.
Sara Bronin, nation's expert on broad impacts of zoning, to keynote November Statewide Housing Conference
This year's Vermont Statewide Housing Conference on November 16, 2022 will feature keynote speaker Sara Bronin, a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places.