“Nothing Like I’ve Ever Seen”: Rural Pushback Drives Rethink of Act 181
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- Created on Thursday, 16 April 2026 04:52
- Written by Eric Agnero
MONTPELIER — A Northeast Kingdom lawmaker says an unusually fast and widespread public response is now forcing Vermont leaders to reconsider key parts of Act 181.
“This is nothing as I’ve ever seen in my 12 years at the State House,” said Scott Beck, a Republican who serves as Senate Minority Leader.
Beck said the response came from rural communities reacting to Act 181, a law designed to guide development into town centers while protecting rural land.
Speaker Jill Krowinski acknowledged that parts of the law are not working as intended, saying the “Road Rule” and “Tier 3” provisions need to be repealed following feedback from communities across Vermont.
“While some aspects of the law are working, there are some that are not,” Krowinski said in a statement.
In parts of the Northeast Kingdom, including communities like Lyndon, town centers are often located near rivers that have experienced repeated flooding in recent years, complicating efforts to concentrate development in those areas.
“While we want to build housing in our city centers, we should not be building them in floodplains,” Beck said. “People do need to be smart, and communities need to be smart.”
Beck also pointed to a broader change in how development is regulated under the law.
“What was done in Act 181 is that Act 250… was turned into something that was location-based,” he said.
According to Beck, that shift could have extended state-level review requirements to a large portion of Vermont.
“All told, the road rule and Tier 3 would affect about 60 percent to two-thirds of the state,” he said.
Beck said the scope of the law helped drive the rapid public response.
“When they mobilize and push back on government, they can make a huge difference,” he said.
Lawmakers are now considering changes to those provisions as the debate continues over how to balance development, environmental risk, and local control.