 Good morning and a big thank you for our federal and state regional local partners as well as many distinguished guests For lending your valuable time here today and your expertise as we come together and try to shape Vermont's future I'm Josh Hanford. I'm the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development at least for a few more weeks Many you already know that after a fairly lengthy career in state government over 18 years with the department I've accepted a new role with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to be their director of intergovernmental relations and it's You know it's been quite the journey Throughout my time at the department. It's been an honor and privilege to collaborate with some of the most talented individuals in our state Most of you in this room You know as I embark on this new exciting chapter. I carry a lot of these experiences and lessons with me a lot of Friendships and relationships that were forged over that period And I might be biased, but I think some of the best some of the best and brightest in the state serve at ACCD You know while while commissioner I watched the agency surmount many obstacles initiate deliver essential policy changes Funding programs and it consistently exceeded the limits of what I thought was possible I want to give a special thanks to the collective expertise the dedication creativity and collaborative spirit That enables the community planning and revitalization team here today. They hit well above their weight. So please stand up Those secret are folks stay stay standing up Keep dead it up. In fact, if there's any former or current DHCD staff in the room also, please stand up It's a few how about any former a CCD staff? I know there's a few so thank you It's been a pleasure and honor to work with you and As I leave I want to extend, you know the deepest gratitude each of you for your unwavering support your dedication guidance and friendship It really has meant a lot and seemed like a second family Rest assured even as I transitioned to a different role my strong commitment to advancing the quality of life in Vermont remains steadfast Well, my approach will change from top down to bottom up my dedication to Vermonters and ideals We all share in this room will not I'm genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead and eagerly anticipate today's conversation on ways to strengthen Vermont's communities My shift to work directly with Vermont's communities and this conversation about the future of Vermont's designation programs Couldn't have more overlap or be more timely This significant work was initiated by the legislators foresight and Allocating funds to bring natural experts to assist us in renewing and enhancing our state's Designation programs, so I want to offer a thanks to all the legislators in the room I know there's many of them for Enabling this and thinking ahead to what's next I'd also like to give a special thanks to the downtown board members who commit their time and expertise every month to maintaining Vermont's historic development patterns I've served as chair of the downtown board for the last five years and I can tell you this group works very very hard behind the scenes hours of application review short turnarounds and So I also want to have them stand up any of the board members that are here. I know there's several In a special round of applause goes to Mike McDonough from Bennington who's been on this board since its inception in 1991 I don't think he's missed more than one or two meetings in all those years Reviewing the state's designation programs beginning long before the July rains flooded downtowns and villages washed out roads and bridges Submerged homes and businesses and halted commerce in many of our communities The floods washed away personal possessions and the livelihoods of too many Vermoners Families have been separated from their communities and daily routines upended The stress and anxiety brought about by these events can't be underestimated From downtowns and village center businesses the impacts range from the cost of building repairs to service disruptions closures inability to transport goods and services temporary or permanent unemployment for workers The broader economic impacts have a crippling effect on the tax base when you add in the infrastructure Repairs that need to come to bear You know I witnessed this with Irene in my town at the time of Rochester and being cut off for a week and sawing How that really threw the town for quite a loop for a number of years and it just seems to keep happening Step-by-step we've made incredible progress and have showcased how Vermont strong resourcefulness self-reliance in a sense of community spirit Again is alive Well Vermont faces many climate risks from high heat drought Flooding still remains our most significant and costly economic threat you can look at the data and Years after Irene I still served on the hazard mitigation grant selection committee the state's Assessment of our vulnerabilities and flooding by far is our most a cost our most costly natural disaster year after year the ripple effects and Damages to individuals businesses homes roads utilities extend throughout the local regional and state economies While climate adaption and resiliency were always part of the scope of work I want to also express a special thanks to the agency natural resources in their climate action office For their leadership and contributions to this crucial conversation They kicked in some extra funding to really explore this as part of the designations going forward And that just happened a few days after the floods for for this deeper dive of Rebuilding with climate change in mind while still balancing the importance of what we love about Vermont Preserving our working lands our floodplains our open spaces and the character of our historic centers So much of what we cherish about Vermont is shaped by the thoughtful development patterns Vibrant villages and downtowns abundant agriculture working lands robust network of forests and recreational assets For over 25 years the Vermont state designation program have left their mark on nearly 260 municipalities The designation programs encompass five programs village centers downtowns neighborhood development areas growth centers and new town centers These programs have provided vital benefits such as tax incentives grant funding technical assistance Regulatory relief to help villages in downtowns thrive across the state We have so many success stories from our smallest villages like Hancock to our larger downtowns like St. John'sbury Their their work and their vibrancy stand as a testament to the positive impacts of this program Yet we must acknowledge that many of our villages Many of our communities are built near the water on the water and face increased risks and challenges This demands that we ask them hard questions How will we adapt to climate change? The intense housing pressure are evolving demographics and equity needs. What will Vermont look like in 25 years from now? Today we have a unique opportunity to contribute to this conversation so that in 25 years When we or our children or grandchildren look back and wonder how and why Vermont changed so much or why it didn't change enough From the place we know and love today It's what we're here for to discuss and talk about So here are some of the questions we might explore today to guide this conversation How can we enhance accessibility and address equity barriers for diverse communities and users of the designation program? How can we better align programs with regional plans and future land use maps? How can we modernize simplify and streamline administration to increase program efficiency? How can we enhance the program's ability to address emerging Vermont priorities such as housing climate change transportation demands and changes equitable state investment and more We welcome all of your lived experiences and big ideas for the state designation program We invite you to share your feedback your concerns your dreams What you think will help shape Vermont's future? One village in one downtown at a time With your support, I'm confident Vermont will take the steps to ensure our community's businesses and people can quickly bounce back and not break When the next disaster strikes Together we'll continue to build a bright future for Vermont and I'm grateful for the privilege of having played a small part in this journey And I want to thank you all for being here today I think almost know more than half of the room and have worked with you and that's been a privilege Now is the time where we roll up our sleeves minor already up and we get to work And so I want to Invite our colleagues up today, and I'm excited to introduce our consultant team led by smart growth America and community workshop Smart growth America as many know as a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing sustainable equitable development Specifically promoting better connectivity between land use and transportation We're delighted to have the mission-driven approach and their knowledge of nation's best practices and policies on our team Community workshop is a Vermont based consulting firm specializing creative community engagement planning Placemaking design and facilitation Community workshop is led our engagement efforts and has done a fantastic job designing and engaging strategy for this project Community accumulating in today's event and so without further ado I want to invite Katharine from smart growth America to come up and get us kicked off and just thank you for being here and being Part of this Vermont's future depends on you Thank you so much Commissioner Hanford and thank you to the entire DHCD team for all your Collaboration and commitment to this project, and I have to also recognize this is a really incredible group of state leaders Thank you so much for joining us today, and we feel so lucky to have your expertise your perspectives and your energy To collaborate with all of us to determine strategies to take the designation programs to the next level My name is Katherine Burgess, and I lead the land use and development team at smart growth America As you've heard smart growth America is a national nonprofit focus on sustainable equitable development And our North Star is a country where no matter who you are or where you live You can enjoy living in a place which is healthy prosperous and resilient and on the ground We envision these places to include housing of a range of types and costs good transportation choices Easy access to jobs civic facilities and shopping without reliance on a car And this is a vision that is really in line with the potential and the goals of the designation programs But unfortunately, it's countered a standard development practice across most of the US Which typically favors single family residential and separated commercial and institutional uses So our organization works nationally, but I'm especially excited on a personal level to be a part of this project because I live in Montpelier We've also greatly enjoyed partnering with community workshop, which as you've heard has led our Creative and exciting engagement strategy culminating in today's event So first before we get started I want to make sure that you're aware of everyone on the team All of whom are here to be a resource to you today really excited to share more about this work and to also get involved in the collaborative Discussions and can folks on the team stand up, please You know our core team includes Jerry mincer who's backed by the resource table She has managed the project adeptly with many moving parts in a quick timeline Our research director Michael Rodriguez who you'll hear from next who designed the research strategy to assess the impact of the designation Program so far and Rebecca stone who has led the community and stakeholder engagement process We also have a group of key advisors who brought a real depth of knowledge both of national state policy best practices and of Planning here in Vermont. This includes Chris Zimmerman. Who's a up in the very back Who's a longtime smart growth America staffer who also was an elected official in Arlington, Virginia known nationally for its smart growth policies We've been joined with but joined by two Vermont base planners as Advisors Sharon Murray as well as Faith Ingalls root who had a long tenure at DHCD and knows the designation programs extremely well Finally, we also have a pro bono advisor Jim Tishler a redevelopment leader in Michigan who spent time practicing in St. Albans and got to know the designation programs then Now before we begin it's really important to ground our discussion in where we are and the many generations before us So please join me in reflecting and acknowledging the following about Vermont First we acknowledge the traditional unceded homeland of the Western Abinaki people We acknowledge the home heritage and history of Vermont, which is especially relevant to us today given the designation programs focus on historic preservation We need to acknowledge that none of these things are equitable or equal and that historic and current racism and other barriers have presented have Prevented equitable land ownership and access which are key to wealth building and generational opportunity and Finally, thanks to climate change Vermont is warmer and wetter and in the opening remarks You know, here's some reflections on the traumatic and damaging events of this summer And so we must acknowledge the increase in climate impacts facing Vermont and Vermonters as well as the rest of the country So with that grounding we're eager to move into today's Project and agenda and to give you a quick overview into the work that we have been doing over the past few months and to Set the stage to get your input today So reflecting on both the nature of Vermont and the many start challenges before us, you know We're looking at the designation programs and what the opportunities are to Improve and reform these programs to effectively meet state goals So first I have to acknowledge that coming from the national perspective We really see these programs as unique nationally as models of how to encourage Compact vibrant settlements which foster local character and economic development opportunity and preserve the broader landscape You know, we were really excited as an organization to have the opportunity to Assess and learn from this program because it's unique nationally and we really think that this reform presents the opportunity to take it to the next level Notably, we think it presents a fantastic opportunity to develop strategies to To address some of Vermont and the country's most pressure pressing challenges This includes the housing access crisis and inequitable access to housing and the climate crisis So I'll start with a very high-level overview of the designation programs as they stand today Recognizing that within this room we have a range of amounts of exposure to the program Some folks work on this program day in and day out others are more familiar with it at a high level Our teams here to be a resource to you during the interactive portions of today And we also have a large team from DHCD here, which of course knows these programs intimately So I think it's incredibly important to start by acknowledging that this is a program that has been around for about 25 years And it has grown and expanded over time and all of these expansions have occurred You know on account of different goals and the different contexts of the different points in time at which the program grew All of these programs seek to advance smart growth But at different scales in different contexts and with different types of tools available So first I'll start with the downtown designation program Which is probably the program that the most folks are familiar with and we have heard the DHCD Describe it as the top shelf of the designations So there are 24 downtowns located across the state believe in just about every county aside from Grand Island Essex So this program has been extremely successful in terms of economic development Revitalization and has been a key part of the redevelopment story of a number of towns such as Bristol Key challenges however for the downtown designation include establishing boundaries and also the required Participation of a downtown nonprofit which can present capacity challenges for smaller communities Next you have the village center program, which is by far the most prolific with over 230 village centers involved This is the easiest designation to get but the benefits are the most limited and notably we've heard the most positive feedback about the tax credits Next new town centers were established to support communities which lacked a downtown to establish a new mixed-use walkable center And this is the highest capacity program for local engagement because it requires a big vision infrastructure planning and also you know a large site to potentially deliver this vision and you know There's only three across the state South Burlington has made the most progress with this Then the final two programs are considered add-on designations They are for communities which already have one of the prior three designations So first there's the neighborhood development area Which is an add-on for infill and housing to encourage housing in close proximity to a traditional center This is the fastest growing of the designation types and it's the most recent program Then finally there's the growth center designation Which is intended for planned growth in close proximity to a center to reduce sprawl And this can include other types of uses which are not found in a traditional downtown such as large-scale Institutional potentially industrial and there are six growth centers across the state So all of these types of designations offer different benefits and the dhcd team Abley advises municipalities and communities regarding the you know the eligibility and the different combinations of benefits As I mentioned earlier by far, you know, we've heard rave reviews about the tax credit opportunities Also a lot of positive feedback about access to the downtown transportation fund in order to improve transportation options You'll also see a wide range of other types of benefits from fee reductions and exemption of land gains tax to Act 250 benefits which offer arguably the highest potential for impact So of course the act 250 benefits, you know present the opportunity to promote and support housing development And our team has spent the past few months intimately getting to know the designation programs and we're aware You know of the many intricacies complexities and intersections with act 250 also, you know High and it's of course highly relevant to look at the potential to of reform to act 250 as well Notably, we heard very positive feedback about the 50% fee reduction in neighborhood development areas Pictured is when you ski cited as a success story in terms of the form-based code and the The act 250 benefits which supported new multifamily development So where are we now? We're now at a really opportune moment to revisit these programs and their purpose and determine whether they're meeting state goals And it's also exciting because the state has 25 years of a body of work And this complex portfolio to learn from and to assess And so we see today's event as an opportunity to step back And to think about the goals and how these programs can more effectively meet them and be more effectively designed Both to achieve some of these these big picture goals. We've discussed and to provide a smoother experience for users You know, it can't be underestimated What an uh the increase of capacity that is required to deal with a program Which is now, you know, some have described it as more unwieldy So, you know, we're both looking at the big picture and what the opportunities are to Make it every day more user friendly So I'll quickly share some framing thoughts before you hear a more data-driven analysis from our research director michael We uh having gotten to know the programs and spent a lot of time speaking with stakeholders this summer culminating in today's event Two topics really rose to the top The first is the housing access crisis and we're at a moment when the state team is ready for reform of these programs But more importantly, we're at a point where reform is desperately needed We have to recognize the current housing access crisis in the state and the potential for designated areas to play a key role In producing more housing, which is well located for quality of life and reduced reliance on cars And without producing more housing designated areas run the risk of becoming increasingly expensive and inaccessible Especially to households that could really benefit from having reduced transportation costs And evidence of the housing crisis access crisis is almost everywhere. We look in the state I know many folks in the room are leaders on this topic and You know authored some of the analyses that we read as we began this project I think everyone's aware that the cost of housing is skyrocketed rocketed and A number of tragic statistics show the stark divide in the small state Notably the high homelessness rate the low vacancy rate and the problematic racial home ownership gap A few quick illustrations are here and again, you'll hear more from michael in his remarks We have both that left and a depiction from the house of ramon housing finance agency Of the recent rise in median primary home sales prices Which again has skyrocketed since 2019 And then at right, you see an analysis from the national low income housing coalition Which puts together a state by state analysis each year And showing how this housing access crisis is hitting low income households the hardest And you know their analysis found that more to the 87 percent of extremely low income households are cost burdened in the state But this is a daunting challenge But we feel that the designation reform is really poised to contribute to addressing this It's an opportune moment given the recent passage of s 100 Given investments across the state in bylaw modernization And the current level of political will after the floods And with that i'll share the second big theme that has really uh risen to the top in all of our analysis As we've gotten to know the designation programs You know, we see them as really having the potential to support firm honors in addressing the climate crisis And since those tragic floods, there is an increased awareness of and commitment to resilient building And rebuild rebuilding is already underway for many damaged homes and businesses So we know that flood events like this will continue to be more frequent and more intense And unfortunately that low income firm honors stand to lose the most given the burdensome cost We think that policy must address this to support safer rebuilding And direct future housing and growth out of harm's way as well So we hope to work with you today to address many of the tensions Between supporting safer development in beloved downtowns and as you'll hear from michael many of these designations are Located in vulnerable areas. That's um, you know easy to come to that conclusion knowing the number of historic communities on riverfronts And many are at risk due to their location So talking about that tension between supporting safer development in beloved locations and encouraging safe future growth And we also know that flooding is one of only many climate impacts which will impact for monitors and designated areas in coming years So we're here to brainstorm with you about solutions how the designation program can address the climate crisis through both mitigation and adaptation And you know, historically by focusing on denser development that reduces reliance on cars You know in their dna the the designation program is already developing strategies to reduce emissions So let's also look at strategies for adaptation how to direct development to more prepared sites And how to ensure more prepared approaches in historic centers And the image outright is of the mont pealier transit center Which was you know lauded as being an example of new construction that fared relatively well during the flood in this case There's a pretty flood ready ground floor use and then the housing is located above So thank you again for listening to kind of some of our big picture findings and goals for today I'm really excited to introduce michael briefly in a moment and to also walk you through what we're here to accomplish And what to expect you have agendas on our table on the tables So you'll see after starting with the grounding in our assessment will move into two different deep dives one before lunch and one after lunch Keep in mind that we're going to start with defining key outcomes Talking about the purpose and scope and thinking about the places that we hope to see the designation programs impact And then in the afternoon, we're going to roll up our sleeves We've already heard at least one of our attendees has his sleeves rolled up already And look at opportunities for reform and designing those solutions To remind you you remind you where we are in this process We are about halfway through what has been a really rapid fire project We started in may did some pretty significant research and planning for the whole process And then spent the summer with both a deep dive evaluation And as our stakeholder engagement process which then brought us to here today for the statewide workshop After the workshop will be developing recommendations, which should be ready in draft form in late october Final report will be ready by the end of the calendar year with the goal that everything is ready for the next legislative session So again, it's been a quick project But we're really thrilled with the opportunity for impact and are really excited to leverage all of your knowledge And passion for this topic and for vermont communities here today And with that I'd like to introduce my colleague and our director of research michael redriguez. Thank you so much, michael yep morning everyone So as resident data guy and economist here I get the great privilege of presenting a lot of charts and graphs And then hoping that your eyes don't gloss over But I have a feeling a lot of you like this kind of stuff. So I think I'm in good kindred spirits here This morning. I want to talk in detail about the program evaluations very specifically This was a program evaluation that we're doing and we've been doing and continue to be doing and In the 20 or so minutes I have with you to go over specifically three things I hope I accomplished by the end of this conveying what our findings are out of this So first I want to explain what our method was and the actual process of what it is that we did I want to go over two very important topical themes. I think that katherine Previewed some of them and then overall talk about our findings of the Oh, it's then might not Yeah All right, I should know better. I have a fancy mic in my in my home So I want to talk about four of the key program evaluation findings that we that we have at least for the purposes of this morning As we continue to do this project So here's some of the steps of the process looks a little bit like the slide we have before But the point here is that we spoke to many state officials and many people at the hcd and throughout the communities We reviewed State documents so a lot of document analysis that we actually did digging through the actual language there and Here we're moving towards the end of the process As you see in my slides, I'm going to have some quotes here. I want to be clear The quotes we have throughout here are not my quotes or our team's quotes They're the quotes of folks that we heard say things throughout our interviews or throughout our surveys Now here's some key highlights again in the actual methodology Mostly some stats of what we did you can find the website here and I want to Talk that many people in the are in this room who we spoke with So thank you for bearing with us throughout many interviews And we had a chance for four online surveys talked with over a hundred respondents Throughout those surveys and we continue to do these interviews and have these surveys a bit open Now talking about the designation program itself we had some other maps, so here's one version of the map It's very small to see right because it's a whole state these designation areas are a little small But 277 of them by the latest version of your GIS map covering a bit over 27 000 acres One key point that 5.7 percent of land of your developed land is categorized as a designation area This echoes some of findings that we have to plug one of our reports called foot traffic ahead At smart growth america where we look at walkable urban places in metropolitan america We generally find that about two to five percent of a metro areas landmass Is what we would call walkable urban place So this matches in terms of scale with that and the programs mapping wise are a little bit different when you zoom in Specifically we have overlaps one town or community or municipality could have more than one of these and this here is burlington Just to show you some of the complexities these come from the DHCD map itself Here's another one of your communities just to illustrate exactly what it is that's going on here And we got to do great research and no good research is done without research questions These were the four broad areas of research question or four research questions We have over four broad areas first. We wanted to focus on the administrative processes So what is it about the actual process itself that can hinder or advance the actual success of the program? We wanted to identify some of the conditions for success. What is working or what might be working in the future what you might change On number three. What are some of those program benefits and incentives that are working or not working? How are they aligned? Of course, all these questions are cross tabulating. They all Have little arrows going towards one another Catherine talked a lot of the specific program benefits, but our focus is how do those program benefits advance statewide goals In number four the current and the emerging priorities. What are your state's priorities? What should the state's priorities be going forward for a successful program? So two themes Two themes that emerge that we want to talk about this morning We had several themes that emerge. I want to be clear there. These are just the two that I want to talk about in the short time we have today and These aren't the only ones but We heard a lot about housing housing housing housing So I'd be remiss to not mention that this is a large problem that we heard in a large area that we would like This program to advance in terms of housing affordability and so on And then secondly the issue of climate we heard a lot about that. It's very topical. So it's natural that we're going to discuss some of that and The housing question going right into it number one We heard about whether the designation program is doing much about housing Or even what the state's strategy is and how this program might fit into that straight state strategy such that it is there Some of the outcomes that we bothered to measure because again, we looked at a lot of data a lot And this coming from Zillow. These are your Zillow home value index prices They do track with your median sales prices, but to give you a sense of scale We have about 3.9 percent housing growth from this period about 2010 to 2019 There is a bit of a break point that I noticed statistically out about the pandemic So this might not be a surprise to many of you who I've talked to so starting at that point housing Prices started to increase about 10 to 11 percent This is both a nationwide trend. We see this in a lot of metropolitan areas and across the country But also very specifically hitting vermont pretty hard in terms of your housing costs And we heard it in terms of people said words like housing So when we ask folks, what are the top goals for your program? That's what this shows. This isn't just me making up a word cloud This is actually words that came out of a survey. So when we see Housing pop up that large I get the idea that you think broadly speaking housing is pretty important There's a lot of other themes and a lot of these other themes are going to be discussed in the report But to illustrate and to emphasize that housing is pretty important here And so what's the state really doing about housing? Especially since housing of course is an important part of your overall equity goals when we look at that in particular So this is your supply growth. I want to point out that your state Goals are 802 people by 2035 and 305,000 non-seasonal units by that year. So by 2035 That's just to meet the overall workforce needs of your state Well, so here's supply growth pre-pandemic specifically because I don't want to lose sight of Specific pandemic trends in supply. It's a bit funky But if you just want to know housing supply did go down during the pandemic period by about 0.6 Most of these numbers invert a little bit, but I want to focus on long-term trends So there's a specific reason why why I keep it there And we see that village centers are the largest buy number But they've declined by multifamily units and the new town centers are where we see the growth is supplied most rapidly But these numbers folks I'm going to mention as an economist. They're pretty low These are not high growth numbers Usually in a community or metropolitan area or a state that's growing rapidly or trying to achieve a pretty aggressive housing target that number tends to be Higher than 2% at least higher than about one and a half percent Effectively you want to track with population and job growth whatever you'd like that to be So if we zoom in here zooming in on everything else to note that these rates State housing at these rates state housing goals really can't be met when you just kind of do the math and This is an important equity issue For example, just 20 percent of black households in vermont actually own their own home when you Calculate what that number actually means. That's actually 450 450 Black households in the state that actually own their their home So what we see in the data and what we hear throughout the community is an issue with housing We heard it loud and clear and it's especially they're evident with housing and supply So the second big biggest issue we hear no surprise climate and resilience And of course the major events have underscored this we talked about that and I have a little bit of data on this When it comes to the designation programs So here's some of the flood data about your designation programs What we did here is we took the FEMA flood maps and identified for your designation programs How much of the designation areas are inside the FEMA flood maps? So About less than 8 percent just about 8 percent All of your designated areas are in the 100 year flood zone and about two-thirds of them in total are in what we would call the 500 year flood But it's important to note that that 500 year flood mark was surpassed in the most recent floods in certain areas in terms of the high water mark If we drill down, which is not on this slide But so that you know the highest risk of flood is in the downtown zones They have about 21 percent of their land is in the 100 year flood and about 71 percent in the 500 So of course, this makes sense in a way. We like to build cities near water. That's a natural human endeavor So we should note that but it's an important thing to know where your areas are But flooding is not the only hazard. We want to point this out. This is from your state from the department of safety and Public safety and your hazard risk scores So when the department of public safety puts together, these are weighted scores of what some of the most important risks in the state are They vary from everything from fluvial erosion to ice drought infectious disease and so on So flood is in there in terms of inundation flood number two Related to flu fluvial erosion. Again, this is from your state data from department of public safety On a related note though as part of the broader theme of climate and environmental stewardship Your state is committed to agriculture preservation. This was one of the things we were mandated to look at and we think is pretty important So we got some of the us geological survey Satellite maps and drilled down to identify where is the agricultural land and how much of your land covers agriculture versus developed land Pretty darn stable. These are the most recent data available from satellite usgs survey data Less than a tenth of a percent change over almost a decade period Same thing with development in terms of development increasing Pretty stable for a whole state. So in a way, good job For if you have that goal to keep that pretty stable and everything else that's not either agriculture or developed land sums to pretty to almost exactly stable at 80.9 percent, which is basically everything else from wetland forest and barren land Now your transportation statistics, I know one more related issue is transportation It's a pretty important one when you talk about climate We talk about this in smart growth america climate is related to transportation And generally you would like vmt vehicle miles traveled to be steadier go down the trend is that in vermont They've been those numbers vmt have been pretty steady for about a decade and there's been a dip since the pandemic This is not surprising the the overall The overall state has about Seven to six and a half million billion vmt So There you have it but transit use big hits when you go from 2020 2020 to 2021 the pandemic period not like not unlike other states and other metropolitan areas that is a large hit that you see We'd like to get that number back up because that's an important part of meeting overall climate goals So so, you know, here's your transportation statistics and is one part to consider How do those designation programs play in to mode choice to transportation to the ability of people to take transit Or other transportation modes like walking and biking So moving away from topical areas these are the actual findings and some of the key takeaways of the designation program themselves This is now the program evaluation stuff And I want to focus part on where we consider The evaluation itself there's there's four main takeaways At least for this short presentation that we have this morning The program is challenging to coordinate. That's one of the things we really see some coordination challenges We see that local communities have different views than the state overall So when you talk to state officials and when you talk to local officials, there's some differences in perception, but that's not uncommon to many government programs Really anywhere where end users may think differently than administrators We see that programs are not easy to administer On either of those ends. We heard that the programs are a bit difficult That's there and then to the extent that they're difficult or any of these three things exist There's a difference in this perception of micro versus macro goals I'm going to get into specifics of that but that broadly means that At the micro level some view that oh, maybe it's meeting success at this small scale development At our municipality at these very local levels, but when you talk about higher statewide goals this macro stuff Maybe not necessarily a strong belief or view or perception that it's aligned very strongly So getting into some specifics on coordination Here's what coordination looks like a small view from one of your documents Makes complete sense, right? We thought so and took about 30 seconds to digest it, right? You got the program Everyone. Yeah. All right. That's what we thought so What we heard about this type of stuff is that there's some confusion Of what the program does now look it's not That surprising given that like many Government programs at the federal level at the state level really everywhere. It's a multi layer of five programs There are five different points at which you added programs to one another So you have this layer cake of sorts of different programs and that naturally needs Leads to some difficult coordination. That's probably why we're here today so With that we heard Some mixed views and this comes from our survey participants were mixed to middling about their satisfaction on the designation program Especially if it benefits local goals overall, we heard some points on coordination How does the development? How does development coordinate within the program? Who's tracking anything? How does infrastructure align with growth? These are just some of the areas The main points here is that complexity of the five programs. It evolved over time It evolved over five different programs that were put together on this and that naturally creates some challenges for coordination Then we have this other issue that we're seeing of local versus statewide perceptions We heard some differences from local officials again from folks at states And this isn't surprising nor in nor an indictment of local officials or statewide officials Again, it's a nature of many programs where end users and administrators might just have some different perceptions of what's going on It made the locals may tend to be a little more critical of programs that they use And weren't necessarily strong on the idea that programs were heavily serving their communities or their particular goals And back to the idea that programs are difficult here when you ask very specifically Not high scores per se on overall understanding or overall belief that the program is easy on the one hand or other way To say it another way. It's a little hard To administer to comprehend to execute the program There are many points of challenges from creating boundaries to the back and forth between local officials DHCD and the board We have challenges of upward lapping designations and maintaining them Folks the programs simply are not simple We heard that we see it in your documents and we see it ourselves in terms of our expertise to such that it is And then considering a new program framework We need to think about the program structure how it can be improved with ease And how it can be easier for local officials businesses developers and for the state officials who administer the programs themselves And lastly this idea of micro versus macro goals The main point here is we notice that there was a distinction between When you ask is the program really meeting your goals? Well, which goals are we talking about the developer the local community? The very specific stuff are we talking about these big macro? large statewide goals Maybe on the former Yeah We could see for example that maybe a developer likes the regulatory relief here or that the Tax credits or that some of the transportation credits are doing their thing at this local site level or municipal level But when you say about statewide goals You get a shrug How is it meeting statewide goals? Well, I suppose the documents say it's supposed to But from an operations point from a theory of change perspective, how is this program leading to that? There is an indirect path. Yes, but Views from participants from folks that we talked to that maybe that arrow isn't as strong and could be stronger And so with that I'll leave it here as a recap And we'll hear a lot more about these things the rest of today in this presentation in our workshops I'm looking forward to putting together a great program evaluation of our findings with our team and all of us at SGA and We look forward to talking to you folks again or to your legislature Today is very much part of this process. So now I'll turn it over to rebeco I'll have some more fun with actually getting to get your phones out and seeing some of the Getting to give us some direct input And yes, of course we see Thank you so much michael Welcome everybody It is great to be here and see all of you in the room after so many weeks of planning and getting everyone registered I am going to need a minute for tech transition and that's a perfect moment to ask you all to make a little tech transition Michael is actually serious about getting your phones out. We are going to attempt some live polling We are going to need every warm energy vibe in the room for technology to work because of course those gremlins are always here So if you have a phone on you Pull it out on your table is an agenda that has wi-fi instructions for today If you do not have a phone on you or any other device a tablet a laptop would also work just fine Find a buddy A key theme for the rest of the day is going to be that it takes a village to do just about anything Sorry downtown But we're going to have a lot of village energy in the room today So you can certainly team up with somebody nearby you if you do not have your own phone Or if you struggle to understand the technology today If you struggle to figure out how to get on the wi-fi Find a buddy near you who can help you out We'll have our first team challenges here to see uh, which table can get on first And then I'm going to just switch over and get our polling set up If somebody is really struggling wave a hand in the air and hopefully one of our resource team members Who particularly gets set will be able to come around and help you out or somebody else And if you have gotten yourself connected so far you can also just stay on your cell signal if you like But wi-fi may be a little bit better You can go ahead and take a look at the screen And get connected to our polling system here today There are three ways you can do that. You can scan that qr code by holding your phone right up opening your camera And snapping it and that will let you open the link It's not showing. Oh dear. Look at that. Okay. Let's try this again Oh Thank you for that Okay, we have more tech challenges than I thought Sit tight for a second It was working just fine a minute ago a power point All right, I'm going to give you all a challenge here for a moment while we're figuring this out If you've figured out your wi-fi, here's your first challenge to discuss at the table What is one thing that surprised you out of what you just heard michael presenting? So just go around you can start by introducing yourselves to your table members if you want to do that names pronouns Organization or where you're from something that surprised you while we get our display set up