I wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post with Allie Cannington – at The Kelsey, a disability-forward affordable housing developer – about how America's elevator accessibility rules backfire for small buildings, and about how a clarification from HUD could fix it www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Thank you to Liberty Fund for inviting me to Texas for a a few days of lively discussions of the American Dream.
Not one but two structure of government articles at town meeting in my neighboring towns came down to a single vote. Certainly validates that both elected vs appointed treasurers and Australian ballot budgets have merits on both sides
Water department laborer and government accountant does kinda conveniently add up to infrastructure-focused public official and regional planner.
Mr. Eliason, who advocates allowing single-stair construction for small multifamily buildings as a solution to the housing crisis, said he learned how common the design was outside the United States while working in Germany in 2019. After seeing an 11-story tower his firm at the time had designed, Mr. Eliason recalled, he turned to his boss and said: "Something is wrong here. Where's your other stair?" "He's looking at me, and said: 'What are you talking about? If there was another stair, there wouldn't be any room for the homes'"
Single-stair gets the New York Times treatment. @holz-bau.bsky.social reminds us why they call the last line the kicker: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b... (gift link)
Newly-elected millennial Select Board member is planning to feed ~200,000 words worth of my reports into an AI to help the town govern as they still haven't hired a replacement a year later. Strong opinion that town admin/managers should keep detailed activity logs to aid continuity of operations.
There's a reason (at least some) states have to asses fines for the most basic fire administrative task, filing NFIRS reports. (legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/sec...)
Ouch. Must finish bathroom renovation soon so there's a tub to soak in.
Set up my bike trainer again and the toddler has decided he's now a personal trainer urging "bike" every few minutes.
Here is Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey's executive order creating a technical advisory group to study the issue of single-stair buildings taller than the state's current three-story height limit. A report is due within one year, and the Center for Building will be one of the TAG's members.
Government of the Norman Rockwell town has been run by a former Olympic biathlete for a number of years, which indeed feels very American
Landgrove Mentioned!!!
Just polished off the draft of the regional plan housing element. Beyond the extremely aggressive state-proscribed housing targets (~50% net increase in 25 years), lots of new institutional positions and unwinding past policy mistakes. Highlights to come once the draft goes public.
In our family's political news of the morning, my lovely wife Ali has joined as treasurer of Lt. Gov John Rodgers' reelection campaign. More detail at the link: www.facebook.com/share/p/19HD...
My experience: 3 crew plowing 10ish road miles each were taking about 6 hours per pass. Probably 30ish miles of driving each. About $150 per hour for staff and equipment plus salt at $800 per 10 ton truckload.
100% accurate, plow routes typically place main roads first but nominally should cover everything, but the bottom of the list gets bumped to re-plow main roads as the event unfolds. Typical routes are timed to 2-6 hour lengths depending on staffing/equipment/materials location.
The one tip from recent hazard mitigation planning work is to stock up on waterproof signs and sharpies now and prepare to post them at key intersections. The back of zoning permit posters work reasonably well and are probably on-hand in town.
Preparing to potentially open the emergency shelter for the first time in 3 years and my first as town Emergency Management Director. Thoughts going out to small town EMD peers in the south where the ice will have conditions much worse.
Flagging H.602 and its companion bill in the Senate which would shift to an opt-out framework rather than opt-in, and enshrine many other housing reforms and protections from municipal planning abuse. legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/...
Towns opting in to opt out of a second, regional layer of review of housing projects which comes with onerous requirements and expensive appeals has been my project of the last year. It is the VT legislative majority's chosen mechanism of addressing the housing crisis.
Maximalist mapping of Tier 1B areas has been recommended forward by the North Bennington Planning Commission and will be put the village trustees in 3 weeks. It's a small victory of VT planner gobbledygook, but one expected to facilitate meaningful amounts of new housing in SWVT.
Vermonters: they also are hiring a part time zoning administrator and an assessor assistant, could be combined into a decent, flexible gig.
Met with my old employer and they're still recruiting for my old role as Town Administrator in Arlington, VT.
$70k, no existing government experience required. Random benefits include CDL training and ability to train to run heavy machinery (as well as literally running the town).
Sitting in awe at the pre-WWII plumbers managing their cast-lead septic line joints on 1/2 inch wall cast iron pipes, or the post-war plumbers bending galvanized in ways that later copper-based plumbers could only dream, inside an extremely flammable house without torching everything.
Back at the renovation and hoo boy little beats the catharsis of removing old cast iron piping and replacing it with modern plastic that goes in in just a few minutes.
Pro-housing voices from the right of center are increasingly focused on a "we need housing For Families" framing.
In a new column I explain why broad-based liberalization, especially for inexpensive types of housing, is important for helping people start families: www.governing.com/urban/to-sup...
I don’t know what to make of this, but the group that usually pushes back against greater use of wood in buildings (whether mass timber, ordinary light wood frame, for fire-treated light wood frame) at the ICC hearings is the concrete industry. The firefighters have nothing to say about it.
Local governments own a lot of stuff, paid for with taxpayer dollars, yet asset management is an often-overlooked management function.
I'd settle for a federal ban on historic review for sidewalk projects.
I both agree with this and also point out that the average local government has under 100 employees, total—a number skewed upward by teachers and cops. The median number of local government employees per government is 3. Drowning is an understatement.
