As Vermont leaders struggle to ease the state’s stubborn housing crisis, they have turned to a new strategy for speeding construction of new homes: making public land available to developers.
State agencies have identified about 140 properties that could be considered for sale or lease as housing sites, including a former prison, a Job Corps center and a dog park.
The list of underused and vacant state properties was compiled in response to an executive order by Gov. Phil Scott. The inventory is not yet complete, and no decisions have been made. But state housing leaders hope the list will lay the groundwork for adding a significant number of new homes in coming years.
Vermont municipalities are considering a similar strategy. Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak released a plan last week that proposes using parks, parking lots and underutilized public parcels for housing.
Federal efforts to make millions of acres of public land available for housing faced bipartisan backlash last summer, with conservation groups rallying opposition to what they viewed as a cynical effort to sell off prized public assets to the highest bidder. But Vermont’s need for new homes is so acute — and current strategies have accomplished so little — that political leaders are open to fresh ideas.
The state says it is not on pace to create 30,000 units of housing by 2030, the number needed if Vermont is to solve the acute shortage that has hampered economic growth, contributed to a shortage of workers and contributed to the affordability crisis.
On September 17, Scott instructed state agencies to conduct an inventory of all “underutilized properties suitable for multi-family housing development, housing infill, mobile home park and shelter construction and rehabilitation.” Scott also called for an “expedited disposal process” that gives preference to “homebuilders and housing developers in sale decisions” and allows the land to be sold or leased at below market value.
The inventory was part of a broader executive order on housing and provoked relatively little comment at the time. Other elements of the order proved controversial, including a directive to roll back energy standards for new homes and to loosen environmental protections for wetlands.
Behind the scenes, administration officials have been considering which properties might make sense for housing and how to make them available.
Most of that responsibility has fallen to the state’s top housing official, Alex Farrell. He’s commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, and agencies have submitted their property lists to him for review.
“I think this is a real opportunity,” he told Seven Days earlier this month.
Preliminary lists from the Agency of Transportation and the Department of Buildings and General Services include about 140 properties. They range in size from half an acre to more than 500. Some are undeveloped parcels with no municipal water or sewer service; a former state office building on the list is just steps from the Statehouse.
The task now, Farrell said, is to investigate the properties further, confirm their boundaries and ownership status, and sort them into categories based on their development potential. He’ll then talk to lawmakers about the likeliest sites and work with them to establish a process for disposal.
The state already has a system for selling off surplus properties, but it rarely happens, Farrell said. He said he hopes that will change with this new approach.
“I don’t know what that looks like yet, but it’s exciting to think about,” Farrell said.
There is no dearth of ideas about housing strategies. Advocates, lawmakers and administration officials have been trying to figure out for years how to speed construction, mostly within designated growth areas near downtowns and village centers.
Last year, the legislature passed a bill designed to funnel up to $2 billion into housing infrastructure over the next 20 years, as well as another to exempt some areas from environmental review under Act 250.
Just last week, the advocacy group Let’s Build Homes released a multipronged plan meant to make housing easier to build. The group wants to limit opportunities to oppose housing permits, expand Act 250 exemption zones and allow towns to designate areas where housing is allowed without public hearings.
The idea of using state lands for housing is not brand-new. Last session, lawmakers considered a bill, H.50, that would have required the Department of Buildings and General Services to identify land and buildings suitable for conversion into affordable housing.
“We need to start looking at things we haven’t looked at before,” its sponsor, Rep. Conor Casey (D-Montpelier), said at the time.
The measure didn’t make it across the finish line last session. Last week, Casey expressed frustration that the Scott administration opposed his bill — and then included the idea in Scott’s executive order.
“We’re either working together, or we’re not, here,” Casey said.
Regardless of who gets credit, Farrell stressed that making state lands available for housing won’t alone solve the housing crisis.
“I think the scale of the housing need is such that there’s no one thing — not in the executive order, not in the bills we pass — that’s going to be the thing that changes the game,” Farrell said.
Cities and towns are increasingly open to using public land for housing. The Town of Dorset is pursuing a proposal to build 100 homes on its land next to the Owls Head Town Forest.
In Burlington, Mulvaney-Stanak’s plan includes using public land when appropriate. The mayor said the city, already a leader in affordable housing development, would look closely at models where public land is used to create affordable mixed-income developments. That includes permanently affordable housing. Other elements of the plan include updating the city’s zoning codes and making it easier for property owners to develop more infill housing.
She highlighted the city’s plans to redevelop the blighted Memorial Block on Main Street, as well as a vacant 3.3-acre city-owned lot on Sears Lane in the South End as part of a larger housing project backed by the owners of the nearby Hula coworking campus.
Charles Dillard, Burlington’s planning director, said his department is compiling an inventory of city land and its current usage.
The city expects to “build deep community engagement” before making any decisions, Dillard said. Instead of just selling or giving away property, the city intends to partner with developers “to build exactly what we need and exactly what the community wants,” he said.
One idea is already on the table. As part of a planning effort for the New North End, the Office of City Planning last summer floated the idea of building housing near Starr Farm Park. The community’s response was positive, Dillard said. Conceptual maps show a mix of townhomes and apartments on what is now a playground between a dog park and sports field.
The city also owns parcels along Ethan Allen Parkway that could become housing if the community supports that use, Dillard said. Public support is key, according to Josh Hanford, public policy adviser at the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, who said using public land can make marginal plans affordable.
“It’s tricky if the property is already a valued community asset, which may run up against some opposition,” Hanford said.
Offering up public land won’t ensure its development. Burlington’s Memorial Block development partners informed the city last month that financing for the $225 million project, which includes apartments, a hotel and community spaces, is still short $33 million.
Miro Weinberger, former mayor of Burlington and now executive chair of Let’s Build Homes, said assembling a state inventory is a good first step. In his experience in Burlington, leasing public properties to housing developers was often a smoother route.
“Burlington really cares about its public assets and does not want to part with them easily,” Weinberger said.
At the state level, Vermont’s largest property owner — after the federal government — is the Agency of Natural Resources, which owns about 360,000 acres of parks, forests and wildlife management areas. Much of the land was acquired with funds dedicated to conservation and is far from infrastructure that would support housing, ANR Secretary Julie Moore said.
The agency has only one parcel that it felt fit the governor’s criteria: 29 acres in Essex Junction with a handful of state office buildings, a dog park and community garden.
Farrell wants first to explore large parcels near existing water and sewer lines or in areas designated for housing growth. One such parcel in Berlin looked promising, Farrell said, until he learned that the transportation agency plans to build a maintenance garage on it.
A number of the properties identified by the Agency of Transportation are either too small or remote to be viable, Farrell said. One exception is a 136-acre parcel of woods and fields in Highgate, Farrell said. The former Vermont National Guard armory building in Waterbury, which has been used for emergency housing, is also a potential housing site, he added.
Yet another is the 272-acre parcel around the Northlands Job Corps Center in Vergennes. The future of the vocational training program for young adults remains in limbo following threats of federal budget cuts.
Officials are also eying the former Southeast State Correctional Facility outside Windsor, which closed in 2017. The 118-acre property has long been considered for redevelopment, with a plan drafted by the regional planning commission calling for 96 homes.
While not a revelation, the site underscores the scale of the opportunity state lands represent in addressing housing.
“That property in Windsor sort of immediately leapt to the top of the list of ‘Let’s investigate this,’” Farrell said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Public Accommodations? | Amid a housing crisis, Vermont explores making state property available for home building”
This article appears in January 21 • 2026.