Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Leading Environmental Groups, and Let's Build Homes Announce Roadmap to Comprehensive Wetlands Reform

Agreement identifies short, medium and long-term actions intended to increase housing production while maintaining Vermont's strong protection of key wetlands

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC), and Let's Build Homes (LBH) today announced a Joint Statement of Commitment laying out a shared roadmap for reforming Vermont's wetlands permitting system. The agreement charts a series of short-, medium-, and long-term actions intended to accelerate housing production without compromising the protection of significant wetlands that provide Vermont with flood storage, drought resilience, clean water, and wildlife habitat.  

The roadmap includes an impactful immediate change – a new, temporary ANR rule that will reduce the size of wetlands buffers in the state’s designated areas starting August 8 – and a commitment to attempt to codify critical elements of the agreement in legislation in 2027.

"This roadmap reflects months of hard, honest conversations about how Vermont can balance its urgent housing shortage and the environmental benefits of compact settlement against the need to safeguard wetland functions,” said ANR Secretary Julie Moore. “Completing these reforms will provide greater regulatory certainty for builders and municipalities, while ensuring ANR continues to protect wetlands that are critical to flood resilience and clean water. We appreciate Let's Build Homes, VNRC, CLF and LCC working with us to find real, durable solutions."

Vermont faces a well-documented housing shortage that touches nearly every part of the state's economy and civic life, from declining K-12 enrollment to the difficulty employers face in attracting and retaining workers to our strained healthcare system. The parties agree that Vermont's designated downtowns and town and village centers are the most economically and environmentally sound places to grow the state's housing stock quickly. 

"This roadmap is an important breakthrough at a time when Vermonters urgently need housing relief,” said Miro Weinberger, Executive Chair of Let’s Build Homes. “Our wetlands regulations have successfully protected natural resources, but they were not designed to address other critical needs. After years of conflict, there is now a consensus on how to evolve the system to advance both housing and wetlands goals at once. We appreciate the commitment and collaboration of the environmental leaders and Scott Administration that made this breakthrough possible, and are eager to start the hard, urgent work that will be needed to fully implement the changes the agreement envisions.”

The agreement affirms that permitting must be administered clearly and consistently, and that better, more accurate wetland mapping is essential to giving landowners, homebuilders, and permitting agencies the regulatory certainty they need.

"This agreement strikes an important balance between addressing Vermont's urgent housing shortage and protecting wetlands that are so critical to the state's resilience,” said Elena Mihaly, Conservation Law Foundation Vice President for Vermont. “As communities work to build more homes in our downtowns and town and village centers, it's equally important to preserve the natural systems that help reduce flooding and protect Vermonters. Thanks go to the State and Let's Build Homes for working collaboratively with environmental leaders to reach a practical compromise that advances both of these important priorities." 

"This agreement enables all of the parties to work toward shared goals, by increasing clarity on the scope and extent of wetlands within those areas of the state that best support compact development," said Jennifer Patterson, Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Committee. "Now we can focus on creating a streamlined project approval process within designated growth areas that avoids unnecessary delay while still promoting clean water and flood resilience by protecting the most important wetlands functions and values."

 “Vermonters need more housing, flood-resilient communities, and a healthy environment. We appreciate the collaborative work that went into developing a set of strategies the state can pursue to make it easier to build housing in and near our designated growth areas while also maintaining crucial protections for wetlands that reduce flood risk, filter water, and provide other community benefits,” added Lauren Hierl, Executive Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

Key actions in the Joint Statement of Commitment include:

Short-term:

• Set a 25-foot buffers within defined designated growth areas for projects registered with ANR on or before January 1, 2030 as set forth in the proposed amendments to the Vermont Wetland Rules effective August 8, 2026.

Medium-term:

• Develop a general permit to allow fast-tracking for housing and mixed-use development that includes housing with minor wetland impacts statewide.

• Adopt a professional certification program to authorize private consultants to delineate and classify wetlands.      

Long-term:

• Continue to improve wetland maps, with the goal of improving mapping to the point where they will serve as the primary basis for regulatory review of wetlands in designated growth areas.

• Establish a streamlined wetland mitigation system for unavoidable buffer impacts resulting from housing and mixed-use development in designated growth areas.

The full Joint Statement of Commitment is attached.

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