Dear Editor, Vermont’s housing crisis keeps colliding with another reality we can’t wish away: our rivers are moving. As the recent Waterbury proposal shows, the only places with water, sewer and walkable access are often the same places shaped by the 100-year floodplain. That tension is n’t going away. But we can choose whether it becomes a barrier or a catalyst for smarter building. Right now, the Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP) helps communities use future tax increment to support housing in designated centers. It’s a good tool — but it’s incomplete. CHIP doesn’t currently reimburse the cost of flood-resilient lower levels: elevated podiums, structured parking designed to wash out safely or ground-floor space intentionally built to take the hit so homes above stay dry. READ MORE These aren’t aesthetic upgrades. They’re the price of responsible construction in a climate-changed Vermont. And they’re exactly the kinds of public-benefit investments — protecting residents, reducing downstream damage and keeping housing in walkable cores — that tax increment financing was designed to support. When developers are forced to absorb these resilience costs alone, projects stall or shift to sprawl. When communities share the cost through future increments, we get what we say we want: more homes, built safely, in the places that can support them. Vermont doesn’t have to choose between housing and flood resilience. Updating CHIP to include engineered lower levels is a targeted, fiscally conservative fix that meets both needs at once. If we want our downtowns to remain livable — and our housing goals to be achievable — this is the next step. Gabe Lajeunesse  Montpelier, Vt. Read the story on VTDigger here: Gabe Lajeunesse: Update CHIP to build flood-ready housing. ...read more read less