One state is preapproving a whole neighborhood’s worth of home designs in advance, and it’s a step that a growing number of local governments across the U.S. are taking to build more homes—and fast.
In Vermont, state officials are preparing a 10-home catalog called 802 Homes that’s named after the state’s sole area code and is expected to be released early next year. Once it’s out, the catalog’s blueprints will be free to use for home builders and developers, and since those designs have already been approved, they can expect to zip through the zoning and approval process.
The U.S. is short 10 million homes, the White House estimated in April, especially starter homes. To fill that gap, local governments have taken to preapproving building plans to get the ball rolling and reduce costs. Vermont is one of the first states to launch its own statewide preapproved housing program, and across the country, more officials are considering it.
“The state needs attainable housing that matches the home types Vermonters want and need, including homes that allow older Vermonters to age in place or downsize, and young families to get their foot in the door,” Jeff Dube, community planning and project manager at the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, tells Fast Company. “We also need housing that is located in places that support walkable communities and our historic downtowns and village centers, which tend to be areas that are served by infrastructure and can bring down development costs.”
About 40 jurisdictions in the U.S. have a preapproved building plan program, according to Pew, the social research center. In South Bend, Indiana, more than 90 units have been built or approved as of June after the city approved seven plans in 2022, while in Kalamazoo, Michigan, crews built nearly 50 units by 2025, a year after it launched eight plans of its own. Hawaii County, Hawaii (on the state’s Big Island), which has been doing it longer, has built 225 units since 2012 out of a library of 56 preapproved plans.
Officials in cities from Helena, Montana, to Washington, D.C., have proposed preapproved housing plan programs of their own this year, while in California, state law mandates that cities offer preapproved plans for accessory dwelling units, a route other municipalities in the country have also taken. Pew says preapproved housing plans available for free or a nominal fee shortens the preconstruction approval time and thus reduces delays and costs.
The houses in Vermont’s 802 Homes were designed to be affordable and versatile. Importantly, they need to meet Vermont’s pressing housing needs for smaller households, or what’s called the “missing middle” of housing, while still looking distinctly Vermont.
The home plans were designed for Vermont’s Agency of Housing and Community Development in partnership with the Boston architectural firm Utile, and they include single-family and starter homes, a townhouse, duplex, multifamily units, and a 981-square-foot single-unit railroad flat.
Architectural features like steep rooflines, clapboard siding, and an abundance of pedestrian-oriented street connections, porches, and porticos were designed into the homes based on responses from a statewide visual preference study. The study aimed to determine whether or not residents thought they looked at home in Vermont neighborhoods, and whether they would be happy to live in them or have them built next door.
The plans in the 802 Homes catalog are designed to be built through either off-site prefab construction or traditional on-site construction, and they’re being tested first in three pilot communities: Essex Junction, Hartford, and Manchester.
Vermont officials next have to finalize construction documents for both on- and off-site construction methods and develop the public-facing catalog and website, and they’re coordinating with developers on potential demonstration projects.
The idea of building homes you can pick out of a catalog isn’t new. Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold and shipped materials to build homes from its catalogs in the early 20th century. Under Operation Breakthrough, a public-private home-building initiative from the Department of Housing and Urban Development under its-then secretary, George Romney, the agency collected proposals for mass modular homes; thousands of units were built before the program was defunded.
Vermont’s plans take the idea of preapproved home designs and adapt them for local aesthetics and community needs in a way that still scales statewide. If this and other programs can deliver quality, affordable housing at a faster pace, the housing crisis could one day meet its match.