 All right, everyone, we're running a little behind today. My name is Chris Haysley. I'll be facilitating this evening. I have some items here for the discussion. So I'm going to pull up the agenda. I'm going to let the other steering committee members go around and introduce themselves. I'm from Ward 3. I'm Jess from Ward 3. I'm Thomas from Ward 3. I'm Patrick Johnson. Ward 2. That's everybody from the steering room. And remind everyone that. We are open to you agenda items. So you have. In a future meeting, please visit the website. They get that to us and we'll get that on the agenda. Reminder that the next meeting will be Thursday, June 9th, or slating to have your technical review on all of this. we're slating to have this one at Burlington City Hall meantime recordings of this meeting and prior meetings can be found on the youtube or the cctv's quest also importantly we have a survey here and i'm going to put the link up there just a minute agenda cool we have a survey here on the role of the mpa's good stuff i encourage you to check it out and then finally we're going to be coming full circle to the mpa resolution votes regarding the pods so i'm going to open the public forum for folks that want to speak on that issue chris should we start by reading the resolution so that folks know the topic of discussion yeah i gotta find that here or i can read it since i just yeah here we go to the appendix here great there so i'm just going to read i'm going to read the resolution and then there will be ample time for for a discussion i'm jess hyman live in ward three and the resolution that i've proposed is the wards two and three neighborhood planning assembly endorses the establishment of a temporary shelter pod village and community resource center on elwin avenue to support community members who are experiencing homelessness and we encourage the city to take proactive efforts to keep a budding neighbors informed about development plans and activities at the site so this is a resolution that i proposed last steering committee meeting and we've the steering committee their last npa meeting rather received a lot of input from concerned residents about this resolution and so we'd like to open it up for for for comment i'm going to speak louder because if you speak this way really quietly nobody can hear you i'm lucy gluck i live on blodgett street in ward three um yeah i want to speak in support of um the plans for the pods i think it's really important need right now with the emergency we have around housing and i would definitely if we vote on it i would i would vote to support it i know there's concerns about safety and i know we'll need to work on making sure neighbors in the area are supported um but i do want to say that i think this will serve a need we need you know we need many many solutions to the housing crisis that we're in right now and this is one um that could really make a difference for some folks who are houseless i'd also like to say this is just a personal preference if joe and gene are out there anywhere it would be really awesome to have you guys in person so we could talk to you i know there may be covid concerns or other things but i just would love to see you um again in person and we could do it in a safe way uh at some point so hello if you're there and come join us when you can thanks anybody else here i'm so sorry charlie just um made a note of a of an error in the process here so when i after i read the resolution i should have said that i'm i move that we vote on the resolution and then we would need a second for that great and then and then the discussion and comments were supposed to happen so my apologies for skipping that one that one line just got hi there everyone um my name is sucker right i live around the corner from the proposed pod village and i am asking the npa not to not hold a vote but to not hold a vote tonight until more information has been shared with the immediate neighbors of the pod village we have not been engaged in a meaningful way by cito or the city i've shared this with all of the members of the steering committee who have email addresses earlier today we were not delivered a mailed letter to every single neighbor which cito admitted at the neighborhood meeting last week it was dropped off in person to the mailboxes where that was eligible we weren't deserving of a postage stamp and an envelope we were not given any due diligence around who is going to run this and how it will be run because they let us know last week that they have not found someone to run this due to staffing shortages and they can't provide us with a timeline of when that detailed information will be provided which they noted last week but not only that for those people who had to work last week during the time of the meeting or who were not able to attend because they didn't get an invite none of the new information that was shared during that meeting has been posted on their website how is that engagement where is the equity and the true involvement of the neighborhood in this project is it perfunctory is it a checkbox so they can go to the development review board meeting and just say we did it or will we be engaged will we have an equitable seat at the table at any point because thus far we have been told this is approved this is moving forward give your comments how is it that we should believe that if it is approved at the development review board meeting before we've had a chance to talk to the people who will run it as to how it will be run that our voices will be heard because we've already been told once at this same meeting last month that our voices won't be heard all I'm asking is that we be provided the information that's required for us to have meaningful informed conversations before you vote on our behalf we deserve information if we don't have it we're just continuing the disenfranchisement of the old north end by the city of Burlington and the npa is supporting that path thank you right um we've got some hands up in the virtual space on zoom i'll go with mr reddington and then we'll revert back to folks here in the room i think we'll do an alternating approach yeah hi uh tony reddington i live in ward three and um i've had some time to think since last meeting about uh this uh about podville on elmwood and um based on my own personal experience uh as a uh both a housing planner and a director of the new executive director of the new hampshire housing commission when we brought thousands of of truly affordable housing units uh to this to that state mostly to small rural communities where the residents pay 20 or now 30 of their income max for rent and i do know that this mayor and we know uh for sure that uh brian pine who was here last month knows and the state representatives and the counselors know this city and this state has never ever spent a penny to provide actual affordable housing assistance to those who rent like the 2500 renters in the city of burlington today who enjoy and are sheltered with uh security uh with that kind of help from the feds and what is being proposed last meeting i think for anyone who was there knows that the one of the landlords in town asked brian pine what's the rent what was the equivalent rent of one of these pods well it doesn't take too much calculation with a million dollars for a three-year program and 30 units to figure out that the monthly cost is roughly 1600 a month for a one which is right now a one bedroom apartment that's available in burlington i know they're tough to find um is 1400 a month this makes no sense if the city spent a penny like it does for parks it could have 124 units of of uh section eight type housing it's ignored the problem it's exploded in their face and their answer is to go out and build podville i have a friend who's in the mid eighties who is without housing who's warehouse right now who should come before uh who should be getting affordable housing really affordable housing assistance it's not happening that group that's in uh shelters right now should be the first to get those units although some of the homeless also so that the homeless who are there now who are not being served could fit into the cots and the other shelters i'll stop there this is just a terrible idea it's bad for the neighborhood the there has been no public engagement and the reason is no public engagement is the proposal makes no sense at all thank you mr reddington we're going to pause for a minute here they would like to speak in person okay we'll go with solvay over here in a moment my name is solvay overby and i live in ward two and i actually am not going to be supporting this resolution and i support the proposal that we do not vote on this at all until we get additional information i did prepare a list of reasons why i would vote against it but i've heard that we now may have the option of just not voting on this at all until we get further information all right i will speak up i am not in support of voting on this resolution about the the village pod village at elmwood avenue and i'm going to tell you what my reasoning is i i realized it was it's an idea that's been put forward by very well mentioned well meaning people well meaning housed people but i voted against the proposal uh at the march 16th public works commission meeting because of lack of detail about what we're talking about here and frankly we are still in that same situation we do not have the details that we need so i'm going to be advising we do not vote on this resolution or vote no and these are my reasons the number one the the plan is expensive which i think was just referred to and it frankly perpetuates dependency of the houseless population on social service agencies there was no consultation with the homeless population and in particular the sears lane residents whose homes are demolished prior to the elmwood lot being chosen house people have decided what houseless people should have for housing the plan denies houseless residents the dignity of making choices for meeting their housing needs and preferences there is no opportunity for or credit given for being resourceful in managing one's housing with limited resources another point no budget has been provided to the public showing the projected costs for the construction and operation of the pod village for three years no social service agency as has been mentioned no social service agency has agreed to manage the facility in fact there's apparently discussion i know i dropped some last minute information it's still a joint operation of people that no no one is actually stepping forward to be responsible no signed document for commitment to that responsibility there also has been no document provided to the public that specifies the state regulations which will govern that the management of the low barrier shelters and just about an hour ago i received a draft of a commitment letter between the the shelter village and the city with residents and it's actually quite shocking and i'm wondering if it was actually run by the homeless population and i'm sure that maybe we can get an answer to that so i just want to say that this it's well intentioned but it's not been thought through we don't have enough details and i do refer to part of my opinion is based on a book a bunch of books by a guy named john f c turner called housing by people and this really talks about what happens one of the things that happens and he quotes i'm going to quote him and then i'm done where dwellers are in control their homes are better and cheaper than those built through government programs or large corporations and in both cases here we're spending a lot of money which has been quoted and we're not really getting anything but a little bandaid for three years and it's i don't i don't even need to mention the safety concerns that are already in discussion from the neighbors that live nearby that i know is is a big issue because of the lack of supervision we don't know what's going to happen and if you actually do look at the document that was is now draft form about what these residents will sign it's shocking and i just i just can't imagine it's going to actually be executable and enforceable so thank you very much i would vote not to vote on this we don't have enough information and or if you decide to vote on it i would vote no thank you we're going to go with patrick johnson so quickly address tucker's concerns sorry if you can't hear me it's a stupid covet it's not a foregone conclusion we're not voting on it as word two and three npa for you you are part of it uh you're part of the discussion process so i believe your foregone conclusion that we're just here to approve something is is really not correct um first of all there isn't a budget clearly because there's no agency only an agency can provide it a proper assessment of the needs a needs assessment needs to be done per each pod so until an agency signs on the needs assessment will then be done and then funding will then be sought that can take six months easy um the rules would to govern this would actually be the same as any rental housing and i think we should be careful in our biases to think that the people living in these pods would be any different than your neighbors so asking what rules would be imposed upon these folks i i think is is very unfair um i do agree with neighbors concerns i do agree with tony's well researched and poignant uh figures and facts regarding the cost and a classic maneuver by the mayor to look good and not actually provide something um he loves to herald inclusion there and and housing and hasn't done diddly squat but he loves to do something glossy like this uh i do worry that if we don't start it now that come winter we will have a disenfranchised group of people who don't get representation on a level that is adequate uh to uh support themselves um i will you know these are a vulnerable population this is not an easy decision for them to move inside i would like you to take into that that into consideration um they're going to be labeled by living in these pods uh labeled as less fortunate and perhaps disabled these are stigmas that this population will have to endure um i agree with the neighbors concerns i am only peripherally a neighbor but it is my community and therefore i feel obligated to assist uh people who are i don't want to say impacted because that sounds negative um who are living with a new and adventurous form of housing um anyways thank you so vague as well is a good point thank you patrick do we have anybody here we're uncharted faith contract unhoused people don't trust how our society has been treating them every society member was a organization has a name and they don't this project i support for a lot of reasons it's never been done in vermont and other communities and other parts of our state might will have to take this on someday then what do we do not in our own backyard is becoming a little annoying to me i've seen too many things my native american people we were thrown off our lands and had to become part of a society that we did not want to become my point of view is this we cannot pass the buck every time or we'll have actually no social programs in the future oh not those people uh no we don't have that space oh that building oh we we don't want to give that to the shelters we don't want to put any money in it but we'll just make it a a coffee house or a a nail salon i mean there is a point i'm making i live right across from the pot housing and i have faith and the people who are running it and who are trying to put it together we have to give hope to a bunch of people that just don't trust anyone anymore and that's a sad thing so let's please try to think maybe how would feel one day when we had nothing and just imagine how would feel that we don't have a place to go so if we don't try this it's then another chance in this in the future is not going to happen i'm seeing there's a place on archibald street an empty jewish synagogue and the lady the rabbi is now living in our society in baronton unitarian society and the building she said is not getting any support from the jewish community so they don't know what to do with the property they're just going to sell they're going to sell it and it's going to become something completely different a perfectly good building that we could do something with so good faith contract is scary but how many times in our lives people gave us a chance to do things that they don't think we were capable of and we showed them we could do it thank you i'd like to recognize steven carry steven you're muted sorry my name is steven carry and i've lived in the old north and for 43 years this year and i love it here and i love burlington i'm not in support of the pod village although i do think it's a good idea and a positive movement for experimental type of housing like this to deal with the homeless issue that we have here and throughout the united states so i like the idea but what i'm not really happy about is that that the old north end seems to me to be the part of the city that that absorbs all of the social issues that we've encountered over the years now i live on elmwood ab and we have a fantastic homeless shelter on elmwood ab that's been in functioning for 25 probably 25 years now um i don't like the idea that the pod village is um less regulated i think it's a formula for disaster in terms of alcohol and drug use i really wish and i'll stop here i really wish that other sections of the city like the new north end like the south end where our neighbors have chosen to live in the past would absorb some of the social responsibility for these issues so i am not in support of the pod village as designed i think it's um i think it's just a way to you know clear out the south end in many ways and maybe that's a nasty old north end view but anyway those are my thoughts i wish that some other sections of the cities would step forward and accept these kinds of housing solutions to the serious housing issues that we have in burlington in vermont and in the united states thanks i am sorry thank you i i couldn't i couldn't really hear um i'm sorry i'm not there in person but i have cobit um and i would just like to say that i would like for the npa steering committee to hold off on voting on the resolution until after more information is gathered um i agree with many of the things that folks have said um i'm not not in favor of the pod village right i just want more information about um how it's going to be managed right and and also looking really and have been asking for more information about um i guess i'm curious as to why they haven't found a partner yet you know and for for organizations in the community that have been providing services what their thoughts are on it um and it does feel a little bit like it is getting dropped into the old north end you know and i just want to say i've lived in the old north end for a long time i've welcomed lots of services and i think the thing that works really well when there's a lot of transparency and neighbor engagement um and so i just ask that folks hold off on passing the resolution until more information is gathered did i just hear someone say that something about my hand thank you it's hard to hear what you're saying um so i'm going to make this quick because i need to get back to the floor of the house we're in the final moments right now but someone let me know that this was discussion was happening and i just wanted to say i do support um having um the pod um village or whatever we're calling it um in in the center of burlington i think where we need to step up is is engagement with neighbors and engagement with the community around it and i support with the previous speaker said i think we should if we can hold off we should hold off and give feedback to the city that we think there needs to be a lot more outreach and engagement with the neighborhood but ultimately we we can't keep um brushing those who are unhoused to the margins we have to create a space where they where they feel like they belong and they have opportunities to build relationships and to restore their place in society unfortunately there's been a lack of transparency um around the whole sears lane situation um and around the plan for the people who live there all along and one of the fundamental problems has been a disconnection between the people who live there and their neighbors um and we have an opportunity here to do better um with building this encampment so i hope that we can do that thanks for listening to me so i would support the previous um person's um suggestion that we wait if we can um thank you thank you brandtina liz curry you're next in the queue thank you i'd like to uh vote i'd like to speak in support of the shelter pod community um i have been working on homelessness and housing issues and development since 1985 and these are what people are saying tonight is the same stuff people said about st john's hall and it's the same stuff people said about every the family shelter every time we've tried to create the first run on the ladder that helps people move out off of the streets we hear these same comments over and over and they're and and we and it's very hard to make progress that people want to see the other neighborhoods have absorbed affordable housing and shelter um there's a place i'm playing in is on shelburn road the new north end has franklin square and a lot of other affordable housing that you wouldn't know is affordable housing um because it's been responsibly managed and the other thing is i agree with someone who said the residents who are going to live there are the same people living among us now they just the people living us among us now just happen to have a little more money or a section eight to stay housed and our wealthy neighbors have addiction and our wealthy neighbors have mental illnesses but they have the money to keep them hidden so as a society how are we going to move forward if we can't take responsibility for each other and compassion that the sears lane situation was tainted by the media there was there was a fine community that city supported until one person who had a background in crime and violent crime disrupted things and that was dealt with that's evidence that the problems addressed not maybe not in the best way because it was a situation that didn't have a um a positive inclusion in the neighborhood a formal inclusion in the neighborhood by formally including people in the neighborhood there is accountability and transparency the problem with a delay vote as someone who develops homeless shelters and developing one in lamoille county now is that the permit process and the construction situation right now is so difficult because of the pandemic there's not going to be time to go through the permitting and the site preparation um in time for the pods and the weather and the winter and all the schedule just doesn't work the the other thing is like if it's if it's not on elm if it's not on this parking lot this is a temporary situation then we're just going to continue living with the same situation we have now which costs the city more it costs all this more societally and and most of all it costs these people more in terms of their physical and mental and social emotional health so i don't people seem so threatened but you know it's easy for people to say all these terrible things are going to happen when you have the privilege of your own home and your financial security it's easy to cast dispersions on people who have nothing and i just would like to see people reach into their hearts and think really hard about why we would condemn people to the life they're living now which is incredibly difficult rather than provide them with a safe warm secure place to go every day and stay there until they can be supported by all of the incredible housing agencies we have to move them into a more permanent situation it's only a positive development thank you i'd just like to say was we're not against the pod village were for information meaningful detailed documented transparent objective information i don't think that it is unfair to ask for meaningful detailed documented information if we are supposed to be engaged we deserve that if requesting that is offensive can i take offense to that all we are asking for is to be included to be equitable and to be truly a part of the conversation and not a speed bump a checkbox or perfunctory public relations checkmark which is how we are being made felt today that is all so there's a lot of rhetoric right now around how the people how people are thinking about the pod village i'm actually in support of the pod village but with due diligence equity and inclusion of the neighborhood not after approvals but beforehand that's all that we are asking for and if that is too much to ask then the city should be forthright and say your voices are not welcome and they're only welcome in a reactive reflective way not in a meaningful included way be forthright and be objective with us about what our role is and what it isn't and stop playing this game with us our lives and our time because this takes time so please don't mistake requests for information for anything against individuals or populations that is not fair to the people who are requesting objective information from the city in cito which has not been provided be proactive in that in that outreach and communication with the neighbors so i think i mean i think we've had a really good discussion here and really valuable comments and you know i would like i'm wondering chris if we could call a vote on on the resolution because i think that we should vote on it and not put it off because there is a you know it's part of the development process development review process next week and i think if we can make a vote on the resolution as it stands or if someone wants to pose an amendment to that resolution that's totally fine but i would like to reiterate my support for the shelter pot village and for the city's proactive inclusion of abutting neighborhood residents and making sure that they get the information that they need to be involved in the process this project is really is a really important step to meeting the needs of our of the of our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness it is not a permanent solution it's something that folks really need there you know there's there's several comments about you know social service agency is taking charge of the site um that's still in the works as far as i'm as far as i know but there is a social service agency cvoeo who i happen to work for that has been operating the community resource center um and will operate a community resource center on the site providing essential supports and resources for folks to help them take the next steps in there in there their their journey towards having a safe and stable and sustainable home that we all deserve and and and so um i hope that we i would like i would like to propose that we vote on the resolution as written unless someone wants to amend it and go from there i would like to propose an amendment to the motion that notes the lack of proactive engagement by the cdo and city and that we encourage them to start it rather than that we continue to encourage them because things have not improved since the last npa meeting when that last amendment since that last meeting is when another meeting was held and the outcome of that meeting including the documents that this person brought up was not posted to their website people who did not attend the meeting to review so again if we're going to put this forward as a part of the development of the new work process so that cdo can say it has the npa support at the development of the new work meeting i would like to note that they have failed their communications thus far and it's not encouraging them to do so is requiring them to truly engage the local neighbors encouragement is not enough so uh tucker how would you like the proposed amendment language to specifically read and we will need a second to get the amendment on the floor encouraging cdo in the city requiring the local neighbors yes yes any uh so so this is it yes so this is an amendment so the amendment takes precedence over the primary motion which was the motion to discuss and vote so now the process is is we would have to vote on chuckers friendly amendment and then if that passes the revised resolution text suggested by tucker which would substitute the word required instead of encouraged would be ultimately the text that we would be voting on so the process is is we need to uh first take a vote on do we want to accept the proposed language changes that tucker has put forward so anyone any objections all in favor of the amendment to the proposed resolution um i'm gonna ask for a roll call vote here because it does sound like we have a couple of objections sam if you could facilitate that uh all those in favor on zoom please raise your hands say i well virtually i okay perfect awesome please read the amendment um in terms of process um we have heard from a number of folks who have expressed the desire to postpone this vote um and at present we don't have any motion to table on the floor so folks are feeling that that's the direction they want to go we would need a motion to move in that direction so they the motion is made and we would have a discussion so that we could decide when we're not to go that's what i thought we were talking about originally if i would even have a discussion we would have a motion on the floor so yeah so yeah so i'll try to explain so strict parliamentary procedure you don't have any discussion at all until there's a motion on the table so we have a motion on the table which was the text that's uh if it's not up i'll pull it up here shortly uh from the agenda um at so before under roberts rules of order parliamentary procedure in order for a debate to take place on any given topic or issue there has to be an active motion on the floor Jessica Hyman made a motion uh to adopt the resolution that is listed in our text here hidden behind the little poll box um related to the shelter posman that resolution was seconded by tony ginoni so that is our active motion on the floor mr right has come along and proposed to amend the resolution to change the word from encouraged to require that was deemed by the primary motion sponsor miss hyman to be friendly uh so we are at a point now where we have the modified motion on the floor we can either vote on the motion to support it we can vote against it we can vote the table it not have a vote tonight at all um but if folks are wanting to not vote it all tonight there would need to be a motion from the floor to table the uh matter so a motion to table would take precedence over the primary motion so i i think really in layman's terms the crux of this is do we want to take a vote tonight or do we want to postpone the vote on this that's really what it comes down to correct yes that's the vote that was going on i was deemed a friendly amendment so we did not need to vote on the motion language change that tucker had uh proposed because the original resolution jessica proposed she's the primary sponsor of that and she agreed friendly to take his amendment so we don't need to vote on it so we're basically we're back to the main motion now okay so i still have my scriptographic booklet um yeah so our folks wanting to vote now what are what are we wanting to do because at this point there's a motion on the table and unless yes this is the time if you want it to postpone the vote to make a motion to table the issue okay as they're second okay we have a second all right discussion on the motion microphone because on zoom can hear we really love to participate yeah didn't hear i'm making a motion that we postpone the vote on the resolution number one about the pod village that motion has been seconded it is now the active motion on the floor the discussion at this point we'll be focusing on do we wish to table uh this issue that is to say postpone the vote on the issue so we are now entertaining discussion on whether or not we should actually have a vote tonight or whether we should postpone the discussion on when motion to postpone just guidance i would not like to postpone this vote because if we do the uh collective npa's opinion and it is a little isn't as relevant because the during this next week so if we postpone this to the next meeting there will be decisions made between now and then that will not be influenced by what the neighborhood planning assembly says tonight so right there is that we vote that we that in response to solvage's uh motion that we table the resolution vote um i would not endorse tabling it and i think we should just go ahead and vote i second your motion she was that's probably yeah so we have public comment if you have an opinion on whether we should vote tonight or whether we should postpone it now is the time to speak up yeah we have our hands raised i don't know if they see it so let's try to clarify what we're trying to do do the right thing and vote according how we feel and that way we'll be recorded and documented and not have to get confused on so many different motions that we have to figure it out any uh i see a hand is that mr representative china yeah sorry i can see it it's okay and um you know i'm participating now as a neighbor i don't i hope people aren't taking this as from an official stance um so i would support um i would support tabling it and coming back if there was definitely not going to be harm from doing that but in general um uh in general okay there's an echo sorry i pause that it's myself that i'm hearing so um so it was very distracting i'm sorry just give me a second so i the motion on the before us is should this be tabled the order to lie that concept i would support that if it wasn't going to cause any harm and it was going to truly give people more information so that they felt like they would be making a more informed decision however if if people feel like they they they are ready to vote i wouldn't stand in the way of that and i just want to say that like i'm not sure if i'm going to stray from the motion too far saying this but the amendment that we were discussing before we made this motion it i don't even know if we have the power to require the city to do something as an mpa i just don't know so i think instead of getting caught up in that um we should really think about like i would be nice if somebody spoke and shared maybe the timeline and the urgency and and why this would be needed to be voted on tonight and if if not if there is an urgency i would support postponing it if there is i think we should vote and the last thing i want to say is someone mentioned about you know just vote how you feel and something i've learned is that the wise mind is the intersection of our rational mind and our emotional mind and it's important to vote with our gut and how we feel but it's also important to step away from how we feel sometimes and look at um logic and look at why we feel the way we feel because sometimes we feel a certain way because of bias and so i'm not saying that about anybody specific at all or accusing anyone of anything it's more self-awareness that you know like i feel very passionately about this i'm going to be quiet and think for a minute about that and try to understand why i feel so strongly before i make my decision and i hope everyone has a chance to do that so they feel like they're making a decision from their wise mind thank you okay we're gonna say take steven curry on zoom followed by tony reddickton and then followed by liz curry yeah in terms of brian's comment about the difference between encouraged and required i mean i would be in support of the resolution if the wording and i wasn't clear because i didn't hear the microphone that well if the change in wording has occurred or not for me it's it's a requirement that the city maintain and not an encouragement of the city to remain tan so i would be in favor of the resolution if that if that wording was changed if not no tony reddickton you're up just a comment first some of us spoke on this whole subject during public forum and never got a chance to have a second hit at it when the policy came up so hopefully next time we'll be careful to separate public forum and questions that where there's back and forth discussion i don't mind voting i think that's what everybody wants to do anything the npa does is advisory only we can't require anything but we can use the term require and that's fair in our in our advice i just mentioned that the only other item i had in my mind in terms of why i'm voting no is because there's a very simple alternative to the quad bill and the state right now has 2000 folks in motels including 300 400 kids a motel is a lot better than a pod and so therefore the city has that alternative this is a again a problem that the city is trying to to pretend that it helps people but in fact it really is a negative all the way around thank you eliz career up um thanks i just wanted to in terms of a procedurally a number of people were recognized on the floor to speak on the first amendment and no one virtually was recognized so could you please keep an eye on that and secondly just tony you should know the motel program is ending June 30th that's why people like me are developing homeless shelters i'm doing it in lamoille county and i also want to say that you know champlain housing trust in a new place have stepped up and developed and cuts of course have developed a ton of homeless housing and they are maxed out that's why the city's taken this on because everybody else is so maxed out trying to manage the hotels i mean it's just this the system is so overburdened and this form of housing making it a temporary situation allows people to find a safe and healthy place for the winter i also want to say that there is a formal process where a lot of information has been shared and that's called the permit process the city met with the neighbors a number of times the city has talked with the people who are going to live in these pods so there is a formal process where people can get all of the information that's available in a comprehensive way through the permit processes through the planning commission through the development review board this is a not a formal process this is just about who shows up because we have the time and the leisure to participate in a in a forum like this this is a very small sampling of our neighborhood so we can come in with all kinds of opinions but it's not the kind of forum that allows for a ton of information to come forward given the agendas that are so packed every month so um i can't i and then i wanted to ask if you could please repeat the amendment because it's very hard when somebody offers an amendment and seconds it and then you recognize people on the floor right away it's very hard virtually to follow the language and then the process and then just want to ask you to please repeat the um the amendment that's on the floor right now thank you uh so the amendment was deemed to be a friendly amendment which was why it was not voted on um with respect to the actual resolution text uh we are going to substitute the word require instead of the word encourage here i'm going to highlight that and throw it up on the share screen so you all can see that so this is the resolution right here and the friendly amendment was to change this word to the word require and so the language that we will be voting on eventually is to have the word require now presently i do believe we have a motion to table which is what we were testing so unless there's any more discussion i'd like to call the question uh on the motion to table so a yes vote would be a vote to postpone the discussion of this item a no vote on the motion to table would be a vote to move forward with voting on the actual resolution itself this evening uh so they so they i just want to repeat that this is a vote on whether or not we vote or not right and there's only a dozen people in the room here and maybe i don't know how many online thirty people online so those people are going to have to be voting method the point of this and i know uh representative chenna pointed out is it is there a reason why we are trying to be forced into making a vote tonight and the reason being that next tuesday is the development review board which is going to decide whether or not the plan goes forward and they want to have as i think someone pointed out uh a checkbox checked that the npa has endorsed this plan and as far as i'm concerned i since march 16th when i was on the public works commission i have been trying to get this information that we still don't have i am i am appalled that we are being forced to vote on this without the information that i listed earlier so my recommendation is despite the pressure that we are supposed to be check checkboxing that the npa loves this idea we don't have the information to do it and that's that and if you want to vote on it you're going to be basically you know pursuing a vote on something that really is only intended to facilitate the city going forward with this project however they want to do it with with however they want to do it without and they can also inform us but they will never actually listen to what the comments are that people have and concerns okay so our motion is to brian sorry director pine i think solve just summarized really the main point which is the d rb meeting next tuesday is unless they were to postpone action and hold a hearing at another time that's where a decision will be made the idea was that the npa discussion and vote which started a month ago should happen in order to inform that deliberation i would also note that the city has gone to the city council the dpw commission to npa's the mckenzie house to community meetings of the unitarian church all of which are not required except for this meeting right here this is the requirement okay so the dpw vote happened the city council vote happened and those happened as publicly warned meetings um i agree there's information that still isn't found that is still isn't available i think sometimes you can't confuse or conflate lack of answers with refusal to information and i think the conflation here is a very purposeful argument to try to undermine public support for something that is otherwise has really broad support over 4000 people responded to the arpa survey and what did they say the number one issue dealing with homelessness the idea that we are choosing the pods versus permanent housing is really not fair because permanent housing takes two to three years to finance and permit and build there's a major construction crisis with materials with labor so the idea that we're somehow gonna wait around to build housing we're fiddling while rome is burning we need to do something now and that's why we're proposing to do something now it is pursuit of perfection often kills the good and that's what i hear thank you thank you director fine so we're going to be voting now vote oh sorry uh representative chena then miss hobs so uh earlier i had said i was going to think about this a little bit and i was thinking about the urgency and i feel like i i wouldn't be um fair to the people i represent if i didn't just share some info we just adjourned like like in the middle of this debate we were adjourning the legislative session passed the state budget um passed um historic housing bills historic workforce development bills we can talk about that during the update but but what i'm realizing is what director i think you're at your title director pine just said about construction about permitting even though we just reduced barriers for smart growth and and invested all this money and in all different kinds of housing there are people suffering right now who used to live at sears lane the other night i i came out of a nightclub i'm a dj is one of my jobs for those who don't know and i saw two people from sears lane and they were telling me everything they've been through since then um i talk regularly with other people in the community and people are struggling because there's people who need supportive housing the hotels don't work they need community they need supportive housing and the reality is there's people all over vermont who need that right now and i can tell you that there's the eyes are on burlington people are looking at how we handle this encampment as a potential model for welcome centers in the state so when someone's transient or someone loses housing there could be a place they go where they're taken in and they're immediately surrounded with a circle of love and offered services and offered jobs and offered housing when it's available but the reality is all of my clients who are homeless and my private practice are homeless because they can't find a house if there's no housing and some people need supportive housing and they need services so as a emergency measure i do think that there's urgency to this and like everything we do in a legislature it's never perfect we have to compromise and like you have to come back to the table and make it better we need to get moving on this and then improve engagement with the community so that the neighbors feel like this is part of their community and not like an internment camp or some like nether region like what happened to sears lane so i think we could take a step forward and then follow up with aggressive advocacy and engagement with the city and as neighbors reach out to the people there there's no reason why people can't go in and bring food and meet people and get to know them um that's all i wanted to say is that i thought about it more and i actually wouldn't want to table it because we need to line up that construction we need to line up everything director pine said so thank you happy to talk more with people all you know later about their concerns about this thank you mr cheena um so uh once again the motion on the table right now that we will be voting on very shortly is to postpone the discussion or the adoption of the resolution a yes vote now on this motion means i want to postpone discussion of the resolution a no vote means i want to vote on the resolution itself tonight all right so sam you're going to probably do a poll uh jess you want to facilitate in here postpone discussion okay postpone discussion on the resolution so i guess all those in favor of postponing the discussion raise your hands and say i in the room but i'll abstain uh sam's doing the poll uh i'd like to interrupt real quick we're on one zoom line and i can only vote once so janet here would like to vote no on proposing to delay the vote she wants to go forward with it so please add that hopefully you heard that we want to do the tally here and everyone that's voted is a resident of wards two and three right all right so the the tally of folks in the room and on zoom is 10 i'm sorry 11 people total in favor of tabling the vote 26 people total against tabling the vote right so now we're moving on to consideration of the main motion which was the text that jessica had read with the friendly amendment from mr right we're voting on the original resolution uh with the friendly amendment proposed by mr right that was uh agreed on by miss hyman the text of the resolution is as follows the wards two and three neighborhood planning assembly endorses the establishment of a temporary shelter pod village and community resource center on elmwood avenue to support community members who are experiencing homelessness and we require the city to take proactive efforts to keep abutting neighbors informed about development plans and activities at the site so call the question all in favor of the resolution say i raise your hand on zoom poll i i'm abstaining it's a facilitator did you get my vote we're telling the votes here between the zoom meeting and the in-person attendees we we we we think we think so no way of proving that we are more towards the people that are watching online and yeah okay yeah i'm not sure i'm not i don't see the list perfect so i'm going to i'm gonna i'm gonna read the i'm gonna read the total of the votes and i also want to point out that there was a question concerned from from the room that everyone online who voted is in ward two and three so we ask everyone who's online if there's anyone who is not in ward two or three if you did if you are not in ward two and three and if you did vote to please let us know maybe raise your hand sam what would be the best way just to just so that everyone can be comfortable with the process and to trust the process that only ward two and three members are voting okay so if you if you are not in ward two and three and you voted put a note in the q and a so we can we can make a change and what you voted so we can make that change assuming that everyone is i'll read the total and we will adjust it we will adjust the total if needed so the total votes in favor of the resolution was 23 the total votes against the resolution was eight so once again if you happen to have voted online and you're not in wards two or three please put a note in the q and a and let us know what you voted so we can subtract your vote from from the count otherwise we will go with that total so thank you okay everyone so now that we've moved so i just want to say one thing so this is this is the npa's in burlington neighborhood planning assemblies we do the best we can um we don't have a professional staff we don't have a city attorney we do the best we can it turns out that we do have someone chris the facilitator tonight that's familiar with robert's rules so we're very grateful to have that normally we don't have that but all i can say is we we had this discussion tonight in good faith and we did the best we can and so the outcome is whatever the outcome is i thank everyone for participating thank you thank you tony okay uh now back to our regularly scheduled agenda about an hour behind schedule uh thank you max for being patient uh we're now move on to hear about the uh champlain street park renovations and community projects so uh appreciate that there sam hi everyone thank you very compelling discussion being had at our npa tonight i'm going to try and jump right in and i will try to be quick here and give a presentation on some design concepts we have for a champlain street park from the screen here and just a quick verbal confirmation can everybody see my screen now and the uh first page of my presentation slide deck okay thank you all right so my name is max medalinsky i am a project coordinator for your parlington parks and recreation department and i'm here to talk to you a little bit tonight about south champlain park uh south champlain park is a little pocket park located about mid block if you can see where my cursor is on the upper image here where the green dot is on champlain street between king and maple streets uh in the below image is just your typical google street view of the park quite a few of the amenities here are quite out of date and needing replacing and we've heard quite a bit from the community about updating it so we allocated some funds towards fixing this up about two years ago prior to the pandemic and unfortunately things got put on hold for about a year due to all of the uncertainty and reprioritization came with that starting up last winter we went around to the different npa's started tabling in the park got an online survey posted and also worked with a alb to get some of our surveys translated into a few other languages that are spoken in the neighborhood and really kind of dove back into doing a lot of our outreach in total we ended up collecting about 89 survey responses and heard from a lot of people in person and through email and things like that and if you took our survey or have spoken to me about the park before thank you so much for your time and your feedback and just want to review a little bit of what what we heard through that process the left hand side of my screen here we'll see a few open-ended quotes that we got from some open ended format questions and on the right hand side is just a count of you know sticker dots that were put on in-person activity boards as well as a count of sort of a compilation of what we heard through a more data-oriented type question about the activities people like to have park and generally what we heard both from both of these things is people would like to continue to have the park be oriented more towards passive recreation so things like relaxing swinging gardening to just clean up the park a bit keep it fairly simple and try to make it into a more open welcoming comfortable place and more specifically we from all of that feedback that we heard we kind of came up with a few sort of basic design directions and things that we wanted to tackle and thinking about a redesign of the park and what its future might look like so one is to add some additional lighting to the park so that it's more visible at night to open up the view to the west there's a very small view out to Lake Champlain from the southwest corner of the park and also to increase that sort of visibility through the park to replace and expand the playground to replace the benches in the park and add additional seating and to remove the garden beds that are damaged in the park but to add additional landscaping to sort of place those and then generally to just remove brush open up the fencing replace the sort of older fencing that's there and try to make it a more welcoming space so moving into what we came up with is sort of just a broad design concept for this park we looked at placing the new playground sort of in the back third of it here to leave a sort of more open informal lawn area in the middle and then to have sort of a dedicated seating area or sort of guard any mixture up at the front this sort of puts sort of your passive just hang out space right up at the front of the park makes that space somewhere you could pop in really quickly if you're walking by and also just keeps that sort of very visible and very active and and you know offering eyes on the street into and from the park and then having the playground sort of activated in the back here we're picturing something that'll be much very brightly colored there which we'll see in a second and also makes it so that the most active thing which would be children playing in this little pocket park is sort of pulled into the back activating that rear of the park that is generally the most hidden of it and then we also would add in two concepts that I'm going to show you a little bit of a light in the back corner here and by leaving sort of that green space open in the middle it allows things to kind of overflow from either side so in planning this out we came up with just a general playground concept that we've included in two design concepts that I'm going to show you for the park all of this we were looking a lot at equipment that all has a very high visibility and the activities we've kind of chosen here were mostly based on what we heard back from the community about what they would like to see so swinging being really high up on the list of an activity that people like to do in the park followed by climbing and then through our open-ended questions and through meeting with people in the park throughout the week back in November we heard a lot about school groups and daycare facilities that bring younger children here so looking to have a dedicated playground that's oriented to children who are in the age two to five range and on the right here is just sort of some concept images of what we sort of picture some of those amenities might look like so a group swing located to take advantage of that view and lots of open arching equipment that has really high visibility that can be seen through and so we built a little 3d model just to sort of show what this could look like in that back corner of the park so we would remove quite a bit of vegetation that's currently there lower the fence line so that you still have fencing on three sides but you've increased the visibility taking advantage of that little bit of the view to the lake and putting the swing right there so that if you are happening to be swinging on it you can take advantage of that too so the first design concept we pulled together here is something we call the gentle curb this puts just a main sidewalk along the southern edge of the park there's going to be or there is a permitted like three-story duplex that is set to be built at some point in the future on the south here so we're just pretty aware that this is going to become a heavily shaded area of our little park so citing that hardscape in an area where we're going to be have a more limited plant palette for what we could do if we were to plant that with gardens and vegetation looking at using stone dust to sort of create a pad with bistro style tables up here and really allowing that to kind of spill out into the sideway kind of extending the park a little bit into the sidewalk right of way and then using just a couple boulders to sort of demarcate and make an entrance and add some additional seating there and then in terms of landscaping knowing that that building could be coming down the line moving a lot of vegetation up to this northern edge and taking advantage of where there will still be full sun within this park looking site a couple benches sort of strategically along that gently curving pathway in this version we're looking at could we potentially do some kind of swinging benches again looking at that sort of swinging activity that we heard a lot about from the community and having just a small section of fence here where we would mount our sign but also just to offer some screening to things like trash receptacles and bike racks and what you might think of is like back-of-house type stuff and here is just a 3d rendering of what that concept looks like to sort of provide some visualization to what that type of seating table looks like and how the space how the different elements play together excuse me one moment i just need to shepherd my seven-year-old out of the room i'll be out in a second okay and then here's a view just looking from the middle of the park back out towards the so the second concept we came up with and it's called the wandering walk so sort of the main difference you'll see here is that this walkway has sort of been routed to create a little bit more of a meandering experience here to make it itself a little bit more engaging we've also sort of tucked in the hardscape made it a little bit smaller and adding in some site-built planters here having heard from quite a few community members that they really enjoy the wooden garden beds that are there trying to continue to provide that as feature but making them a little taller so they could be more accessible for people with nobility challenges in this concept we're looking at putting vines growing up the fencing on either side of the park on the north and south to sort of offer some screening and add some additional vegetation to plant some shade tolerant shrubs kind of on either side of the lawn so that that space is a little bit contained and again taking advantage of that sunny spot the northern side of the park where it will actually be a little bit of a sun trap with sunlight reflecting off of that building there and placing the bike racks out here in the right of way so that it's very clear where to park your bike if you are arriving on a bicycle and mounting our sign on the outside of one of those new planters again we've just got a 3d visualization for to sort of show a little bit better what this could actually look like this is looking from the sidewalk into the park and then looking back in the opposite direction so in addition to just hearing your thoughts on if you have a preference between these concepts if there's anything you like or don't like in either one of them we really would like to hear from the community about what things might be highest priority here if you're familiar with this park playground fencing and landscaping seating area or lighting at night we have a very limited budget for this project and we just want to make sure that we are moving first on the things that are highest priority to the community we've already gotten started in partnership with a neighbor who's been organizing a bunch of volunteers to open up the park and remove a lot of the vegetation along fence lines we're working on getting some picnic tables and things like that going but really thinking about those bigger capital projects and where we should invest our community and some next steps so I mentioned a little bit on some of the stuff we're already been working on there we're also going to be proactively removing a number of ash trees along the western edge park just knowing that emerald ash borer is coming up here we have been to the ward six npa and we'll be going to the ward five npa next week in addition to another community meeting we had specifically about this project last week um and then we're about to finish rep designing and posting an online survey which I will send back to the npa coordinators here so that that can be shared more broadly for anybody to sort of give kind of feedback that way and then we'll sort of incorporate what we hear into either refining and sort of finalizing the final concept here make sure we get some review from our maintenance team on how to sort of tweak things so that they fit their ability to maintain the space well and then start putting some of those capital projects out to bid and really looking to make improvements in the park so thank you all so much for your time and at this point I would like to just open up for questions ideas comments thoughts and anything you might want to share it looks like we have a question from genie online hi um both look great I mean any improvement to any park is great I do think it's impractical to have the wandering walk as much as it might look pretty um eagle eye view the truth is people are just going to walk straight through and you're talking about erosion on grass and you know I mean we know people are just going to want to go to the playground and a toddler is not going to be like oh i'm actually going to make a little bit of a right before I go to the swing right that's all any effort I think thank you genie Liz curry hi um ditto I agree with Dean um especially because if if people are going to bring their dogs to the park and if there are kids and families from cultures that don't relate to dogs or just regular or just like the regular issues you have with dogs around poop and stuff it kind of separates a nice you know lawn area away from the sidewalk so the other thing I wanted to ask is um you may have gone over this is there a drinking fountain and I do support at least one light initially and longer term like addition of lights thank you it's it's great it's a great design it's an exciting project I really like the screening I really like the seating area and and um it's been a long time coming thank you thank you Liz do we have any for the guy looks like mr david shine is I say the crowds David yeah yeah that's how it is I'm just really fast because I'm a performer and I sometimes work in the rain and I have have kids that sometimes get wet is there any shelter where people get out of the rain and david and these particular concepts we're not showing that we have not heard many requests for a shelter on this site and not that that is totally out of the realm of possibility but it would be a much more expensive thing to add to our very limited budget of seventy thousand dollars for this park I just recommend some sort of the shed roof in case you get caught with your one year old in a downpour okay easy thing all right thank you David uh any questions here in the room so they over bay you're up I can't tell from the picture does the winding path uh show the benches facing like toward the west or you're looking toward the playground I can't tell what I'm looking at I'm sorry can you hear me yes I'm sorry I have a very small dog that is barking very loud right in my ear at the moment and I'm trying to prevent that I'm sorry could you repeat your question for me I'm so sorry I was just curious of whether I can't tell from these drawings if the winding path has the benches facing toward the west so that the parents watching the kids on the playground are watching them that way or are those tables I couldn't tell so right now in this design these are picnic tables here they're oriented in a sort of north south way but that could be the layout of those kinds of things could easily be tweaked there's a bench here as well as here and these are facing south and then this one would be facing north but yeah they could be tweaked slightly in pretty much any direction and that's totally doable yeah I was just familiar with the little rosy park which is the playground and very active in the old north end and the benches the parents are sort of watching from sitting at things there so I was trying to figure out where you put benches for parents to be watching the kids thanks I'm not sure I know one time they proposed putting tables like that in Roosevelt Park around the edges you know putting a bunch of concrete down and tables and and that sort of got nixed so I'm not sure if hopefully you run that by the people that live in that neighborhood whether the picnic tables in that corner there actually are something they would use that way. All right thank you Solvei. Jeannie do you have a new question or comment or is that your hand from previously? Sorry I'm I'm unraising it lowering it thanks. I didn't have a chance I wanted to respond Liz had asked about a water fountain in the park it's certainly again not something that is completely out of the possibility here it would be a more expensive thing to add to this park just because there currently isn't a water service here so we would have to invest in putting in the piping cutting into the street cutting through the sidewalk and getting that meter pit put in so that we could seasonally turn that on and off so it's kind of a high dollar value item so if we got a lot of response from the community that they really wanted to see that we could start looking into it but so far that has not risen to the top of the list. Thank you Max. Do we have any other questions? I guess we're going to call time and move on and through a question to the participants all righty thank you Max. Great thank you all so much for your time. So moving on to the next agenda is the Department of Work Construction Plans and we have Robert Goulding here still available. Yes ma'am thanks for having me thank you and apologies again for the very lengthy delay. Not a problem we really appreciate the agenda time we know that space is valuable so very thankful for having us this month but we like to come every spring and often sometimes more throughout the year but especially in spring to let folks know what our construction plans are for the year and then specifically to zoom into the specific neighborhoods and wards that we're speaking with so you have an idea of what some of the benefits and clearly what some of the impacts are going to be to your neighborhoods for the summer it's also very important you know a lot of additional bond money has been authorized over the last five years we like to come here for an accountability perspective just to share with you what has been done and what is being done with the limited funds that we have available as a city. So I'm going to share my screen and given the hour I will try to breeze through this I think everyone can see that is that right? Yes. Great thank you so here we go so we manage a lot of infrastructure at Public Works in the city the things I've highlighted here are mainly what I'm going to focus on as we talk about the implementation of the sustainable infrastructure plan and now we're kind of well into that about five six years into the implementation of that plan what informs our work and what informs what projects we're choosing is a combination of many things all overlapping and intersecting but residents funding and city plans and council priorities are really the things that dictate what we do and generally when we get to do it. I've mentioned the sustainable infrastructure plan but if you're not familiar with that that was originally proposed in past in 2016 by voters approved by council put forward by the administration to reinvest in a lot of the old core infrastructure in the city that had not been traditionally kept up with on a regular maintenance schedule regular replacement schedule at first that really focused on sidewalks streets and water infrastructure water resiliency plan which we have called sustainable infrastructure plan phase two came next and that came on the heels of a very challenging summer you all may recall at the wastewater treatment plants in 2018. I'm just going to keep breezing through this because I think you all get the probably get the gist and I'm certainly happy to share this if folks want to really spend some time with some of the charts and things that will be on these slides but I did want to make note of a couple important funding updates so we will begin to draw down the recently successfully passed bond that was passed in March that will be informing a lot of our projects this year so making quick use of that money as it becomes available folks probably have heard of a couple different infrastructure bills and those bills that have passed that where money has come to the state come to the localities or is at least on its way a lot of that money is targeted so a lot of people might ask why with all this new federal money can't you pave x amount of more streets unfortunately as we're still learning about a lot of the complexities of the infrastructure federal infrastructure money you know we realize a lot of that is very targeted so we can use it in certain ways like our bridge network but we can't necessarily use it on just repaving or rebuilding a sidewalk specifically and across the board I think we're all wrestling with this as residents renters homeowners construction prices are up inflation is up and the supply chain is stretched that is leading to some serious construction challenges but work is underway you may recall if you live in the area sidewalk work has already been done and is underway on a couple streets and your neck of the woods and Murray and North Champlain Street if you happen to live on one of the few dozen segments of sidewalk we're going to be getting to this year and I'll show you those sidewalk soon you're either going to be seeing some sidewalk signage in the green belt where you'll be getting a flyer at your door it really just depends on who's doing the work but you will find out either from visiting our website or from some direct contact with staff or contractors as this work gets underway we have a lot of other work where you'll be seeing signage or receiving mailings for if you haven't already just to touch really quickly on what I think is an ultra critical part of accountability for the work we do and you'll be hearing more from water resources later in the summer but we've done quite a lot of work since those issues in 2018 I mentioned we have reinvested and completed significant really significant projects at the wastewater treatment plants all three of them we have ongoing work to replace eight miles of our stormwater and sewer network this year including in your neck of the woods on pine street between bank and college that will be a mid-summer project it's going to be impactful we'll be working to reach out to businesses and residents who live around that area but that's critical to the network but also is going to bring some short-term disruption to your walk, bike, or riding commute or driving commute a lot of other work has been done and I'm going to just slip skip over that but I did want to make sure to let you know how how we're using the money that was authorized in 2018 to make sure that some of those failures that happened at the wastewater treatment plant and some of the CSO issues that have been lingering for over a century are being addressed we can't fix everything right away but work is underway we do have some subsurface stormwater work planned in the old north end on rose and school streets this year more information to come but certainly if you're interested in that happy to answer questions and one of my colleagues will be here soon to talk more broadly about water work but she'll also have more details we've normally done about a mile of sidewalk rebuilding a year we've now been nearly tripling or over tripling that over the last five years to try to get our sidewalk network back on a 40-year replacement schedule concrete will typically last about 40 years clearly more heavily traveled streets are going to deteriorate faster a lot of neighborhood streets in neighborhoods where the subsurface soil is really good may deteriorate over a longer period of time but essentially we're trying to get to the three three and a half mile mark a year of rebuilding sidewalk to make sure we're doing this on a sustainable cycle i'm going to keep this up for about 30 seconds so folks can absorb this i bet a lot of you live on or near some of these segments that may be impacting your daily walk to work daily walk to school but these are stretches of streets where sidewalk work is going on one of the things we do in house is very targeted concrete repair work whereby if 50 to 150 feet of sidewalk need to be ripped up and replaced that's the kind of work we can be pretty flexible in house on and pivot to we try to do about a mile of that a year you can see a few dozen segments of street in the new north uh in the old north end are on our draft list right now this list is prone to change throughout the year sometimes it can expand sometimes it may not expand if the weather is not favorable if there's a funding complication if there's a supply challenge none of which we foresee or expect those things can change certainly happy to share this and i'll share some resources with you to keep track of how the work is going this year in terms of paving it's always a hot topic whether you're driving your car or riding your bike good sound pavement is important to a safe commute we have typically done about two miles of paving a year you may recall from a previous slide we're we're almost about four miles of paving a year at this point over the last five years of implementation of the plan we're working through you can see island street in uh in your neck of the woods is going to be fully repaved this year it was scheduled for a prior year paving job as i've mentioned things unfortunately do change pretty quickly in the construction industry we expect to get to this this year we know that doesn't address every road in uh in the city certainly not every road in words two and three we're well aware of some challenging sections and encourage you to report any challenging sections you see on c-click fix we do have additional funds set aside for some more thorough patch repairs patch repair is going to be that middle ground between that full re uh placing of the asphalt that we were doing on these first kind of eight streets uh and it bridges the gap between what we normally do with an in-house crew where we'll fill a pothole so it's a pretty durable repair it doesn't repair the entire street or the entire network but it's a good bridge to the future um so certainly aware of some challenging roads in in your area uh the state is paving this year we're partners with them on this project at least in terms of making sure residents know about it and doing what we can to make it a smooth operation the state is at this time planning a lot of night work that is going to be noisy and disruptive uh hopefully some of that can shift to daytime work to a degree but these are major class one highways and arterials so uh the way they phase that work may be challenged by the volume of traffic expected during the day you can see the streets uh that are definitely happening in 2022 barring complications all in we're really adjacent to uh to your neighborhoods but hopefully these are going to make a big impact on the network and if you happen to bike or drive to work to school hopefully this uh aids your daily commute we have some transportation improvements in design we're planned for this year the north champlain two-way protected bike lane is tentative this year we had expected to get to it last year but complications on design and contractors uh led to a delay we expect to have a good shot at doing that this year um but more details to come on that will be uh building a shared use path on the entire length of the east side of man's field avenue some work on university place which I have on a later slide we may not get to that today uh we're exploring bike lanes on plasper gab which is being repaved this year and we'll be we'll be meeting with the community on a meeting that we're advertising over the next few days actually and that meeting will be later in may we've also expanded and working with the vendor to expand the electric bike share system i'm going to breeze through these right now but a couple big projects are ongoing or about to really roll out uh shelburn street roundabout certainly happy to answer specifics but i'll uh breeze through that since i think most folks are generally aware of that highly uh complex complicated but ultimately i think beneficial project going on in the south end champlain parkway did receive approval from city council to start its first phase of construction likely to start this july would hope that that phase would be completed in 2024 a lot of upgrades a lot of benefits come from that project much more information available on the left side of your screen certainly again if there's time for questions happy to take those uh we want folks to be mindful there's a lot going on in the south end and a lot going on in the corridors into our city we've been mindful of that and we have a project sequence that we shared with city council and at the dbw commission to show how the phasing and the staging of this work would work champlain parkway phase one comes first uh main street great streets rail yard enterprise project as you can see come next in design and permitting right now then the last phases of the champlain parkway uh come after that there's a phasing plan in place construction changes things all the time but we are working to stick to this uh to make sure that the work is phased in a way that's beneficial to the neighborhood and the city i won't touch on main street too much i think you've heard from my colleagues and hopefully heard more about main street great street it is a major revitalization project taking space reallocating it to pedestrians to stormwater to cycling infrastructure still a main corridor into the city we're still mindful of business impacts right now we're looking at a couple different concepts that we've shared with city council shared through a couple community meetings and we'll be back to city council for a regulatory decision on may 23rd you can still take a survey to let us know what you think about our concepts at great streets btv.com we'd love to get your feedback that's open for a few more days um other projects of note i've mentioned mansfield i've mentioned quickly university place i'm not going to dwell on these but if they are of interest i'd love to share more details now or later a couple upcoming key dates and then i can wrap up is through uh through this week you can still take the main street survey available at great streets btv.com you'll get to weigh in on those uh different concept plans that we've shared there are aesthetic differences there are some functional differences overall the project again has some core benefits that will bridge all the concepts such as the stormwater benefits replacing aging infrastructure underneath the roads repaving the roads and building wider sidewalks as well as multimodal uh enhancements for the bike network um on the 18th we'll be going to the dpw commission if you're interested you can also watch another main street concepts presentation on the 23rd i mentioned we'll be going to city council and on the 24th i just wanted to make folks know make folks aware uh to the subcommittee of the city council the transportation energy utilities committee we'll be talking about sidewalks if you have an interest in our plans for the year in greater detail or how we landed and land on our list for any given year we'd love for you to hear that uh that presentation that discussion we'll also be talking a little bit about the champlain parkway at that tuc meeting tuc is the acronym for for that subcommittee and there's always more on the agenda so we look forward to having folks there they're sometimes very well attended and sometimes sparsely attended but they are always good robust discussions there are resources i'll leave up on the screen as i end my presentation uh just for folks to be aware of if you know if you or anybody you know has um limited english proficiency barriers we have a service that we've signed up for called tele language we generally can get real time interpretation between business hours to work with a member of the community if they're having issues with our water service if they're curious about a project we can try to work with you in real time and certainly we'll try to work with you if it can't be real time we'll we'll make it work if there's information you or a community member wants to know we'll work with you on that our construction portal you can find it on the dpw home page but it's a great resource if you want to kind of look at a map and figure out where projects are happening or toggle on specific projects maintenance requests call email you seek like fix we get 3 000 a year i think for the short term requests like potholes water leaks were ultra responsive um some of the longer term issues you may not hear from us as frequently on but they are in the queue once you once you let us know about them vt alert is a great tool to receive texts and emails for urgent alerts more information on our website and there's my information if you ever want to reach out or let me know if there's somebody i can connect you with as i do not always have all the answers of the great work my colleagues are doing thank you so much for the time today and we definitely look forward to coming back the next time you ever want to hear from us but if there's time for questions happy to take those and otherwise please email me or call me not seeing any questions in the room we'll see if there's anyone virtually i see a hand from liz curry hi thank you that was a great update um you really packed a lot in it was very useful you mentioned a translation at the end and i was wondering while you were speaking um if you proactively reach out to alv to ask them if they'd like a presentation for their community as well we haven't reached out to ask alv about um their community we have used them for a lot of our translations we have used them for interpreters on-site at meetings um i've been to the family room when um parent university was having kind of a an update on community services and what what local government offers and what services we provide we have met with the family room we've met with the king street youth center we've met with bha cht on a variety of our projects um we we try to especially for big projects that are bringing uh either a lot of benefits or clearly could bring a lot of impacts especially during construction we are trying to make sure that this is now a standard part of our out of our outreach uh we had a very focused effort for the main street project uh to reach out you know we went to the reib commission we met with um different groups uh refugee groups immigrant groups to get a sense of what this main street it's a corridor for everybody and it's the uh it's it should be a home base for the entire community so we don't you know we want words two three five six folks at a butt that street to to really uh be a part of it but we also want everybody to kind of have their say in that project so we've proactively done that uh some of our champlain parkway outreach and community meetings have involved interpreters and translators on-site and we now have snow ban information clean sweep information where we're sharing that in uh five or six different languages we actually now have 10 languages we're targeting which we uh got from the berlington school district on what the most commonly used languages in their district is and we're trying to mirror that since they have just an enormous amount of uh ideas and resources that they've been able to devote to better communication with the entire community so we're trying but we're always open to feedback on how we could do better thank you for that that's a really important question thank you any further questions for robert okay thank you thank you everyone all right uh let's think we have the integrated water quality plan coming up with there and I think we heard that that's going to be postponed so now david it looks like you're up for vermont make music day okay uh a great meeting on what important decisions you are making um i used to live right next to sears lane so it's kind of neat to see that people are dealing with this um so anyway this is really short it's uh um i can share a screen i can share a screen right okay i'm going to share this one i hope share um make music vermont day is the summer solstice uh june 21st it's um part of world music day which is celebrated mightily in many countries all over the world especially in france um it started there um jim lockridge a big heavy world has made vermont like into a city so we are coordinating um make music day vermont all over the state um rattle borough springfield um fairfax uh swanton a big deal in in uh in randolph they're ringing every church bell in town on that day in that morning so there's different stages of development we're working with bitty with burlington parks and rec and we're going to the npa's and um also with church street marketplace and bca but i wanted to reach out to this amazing ward and you're the old north then um i i knew you when i was a kid and and the grandfathers of my hebris school kids a lot lived in the neighborhood still back in the 50s so love this toward love what's happened with the old north end we've got one site so far which of course is junk teak's then his backyard's going to be bopping on june 21st that night but we're looking for other locations um we're very interested in champlain park even though it isn't in the um the ward uh we've been to two or three presentations at mta those guys are doing it um but if there's any other parks or sites that um you think would be nice to have music in on june 21st this is all my contact information and now i'm i'm going to ask backwards as usual so i'll show you another screen which describes what it is a little more and then then i'll be done so i'm going to share screen again here and it is this is the cookie cutter information um whoops wrong one i think here it is can you see this now make music day vermont text okay well it's part of world music day anyone can play anywhere essentially um it's all free music i'm playing ukulele on my back porch at 9 30 in the morning for the dogs and cats in the parking lot and a couple of neighbors um some preschools are making instruments at libraries and they're going to be part of it you know with the instruments they made it you can be a fourth grader you're playing guitar you can do it in your living room for your grandma the thing is to register as part of this world movement the registration information you're a musician um you go down to what i had before big happy world com make music vermont every you see that uh i think i just blew it yeah um and you can play anywhere pretty much i have to get permits from the parks and recs and and uh and from zach williams you know and church street marketplace but you can play anywhere it's it's june 21st if you're interested in playing it or you say oh i have an idea for for this park you know the one across from the boys and girls club or you know my my daughter is a great violinist maybe she'd play in the park you know for for the the mommas on the swings and the kids it's that kind of thing um um do you have enough information to know that if you're interested in any have any ideas to contact me and where to contact me that's a question hello yeah genie hi david um has the city offered any i don't want to say leniency or forgiveness or waiver for you know busking permits or any kind of we're we're working with church street marketplace um they they used to do a whole lot more but they're kind of strapped right now but they're going to put up a stage on church the church street mall i've got different performers around there the shape note singers will be outside of city hall and i'm trying to get a permit for some amplified music i think they'll do it but all the the they used to like supply tech get the amplified music part i mean i get that but i really think like one day a year well we i think we started we started late and next year we will do an all city committee you know i started i started working for a big heavy a while you know a couple months ago covet kind of heard it it was going a little stronger couple years ago last year there were like 13 sites in the whole state i'm going for 80 this year and there'll be stuff going on all over bruneton it will get a lot more city support next year i believe great you know and the parks and wrecks church street marketplace bca um they're they're all behind it and a couple of private people like finn is going to do his backyard thing yeah no i'm just saying like i mean anything that has this permitting process that just deters people in general parks and wrecks has been great since give me your list we'll tell you the rules you know great thanks dude thank you okay thank you david and moving on to the final final agenda item on to this evening we will be getting our legislative updates from the city council school board and state representatives and senators i guess uh counselors bergman and counselors magie here i don't know which one of you wants to go first i think that joe is is gone okay um and um i can be real quick just to say i think that the the most important thing for people to understand is that the council right now is looking at the budget and if you want a one document that is most important in any organization it's going to be the document that deals with what you spend and that's what the budget is and so we have got several meetings that are coming up uh this coming week and let me just share those with you on monday night they're going to be um making presentations about the dpw the airport the library the attorney's office parks and the capital budget that's all a lot of stuff it'll be held uh both live at um the sharon busher conference room and city hall on the ground floor or by zoom so people can um can come uh to that and i would suggest if you want to you know ask questions and stuff and uh you know go to the public forum that that's probably the way that it is set up i am not on the board of finance that's who's really uh sort of conducting these um but they are um that's sort of where and you get you know you'll get your intro into that meeting process if you go and have a hard time with participating um i would ask that uh you contact me uh or joe meggy um and we will complain to folks because uh this is the this should be the people's budget process not the insider's budget process uh it's it's it's weighty stuff and it's real hard to sort of like understand how all of this stuff is working and they're operating at high levels so one of the things that's really important for folks is to be clear about what is working and what is not working with regard to a particular department and laying that out and asking them to comment about it and how the budget relates to that very important that is where the rubber meets the road and for those of you who know that i was fighting for a consolidated solid waste system you will know that uh there was a lot of pushback by the department of public works because they said they didn't have the staff resources this is where those arguments get really decided and um you know we work based on the budgets so on monday night it's at five o'clock um there'll be that meeting that i talked about on wednesday night they will be talking about the arts uh the business support uh what used to be called code enforcement which is now called permitting and inspections cedo uh the planning office and then the tiff project that again is at five o'clock um and then uh the uh the next night at five o'clock the police budget the water department and water wastewater and stormwater traffic uh then they have regional programs we are part of the um like the green mountain transit the bus service we're part of the regional planning commission um we give monies to things like participate in the the vermont league of cities and towns and the the champlain um chamber of converse all those things are there and then the last thing is sort of benefits the health care retirement and the workers cop and other insurance um budget items so that's what's coming up this next week there'll be many more opportunities but these are really the first take at that um and i can't stress how much uh how important it is for folks to to understand what's happening um with this and um if you um are like me and believe that affordability cannot be um solved by austerity uh then you look at these things and you know these budget meetings and you go ah this is really really hard stuff so um that that's the big report that i have that i want to encourage people to do and uh you can contact either myself or joe about um this or any other project and perry as well and uh i'll leave it at that thank you councillor bergman looking at us here looks like we have school commissioner waltz actually poly is an attendee if you want to promote her to panelists sounds so much more fancier than it really is you know that right um so i as much as um i think what is mostly on people's minds is talking about the high school uh what's really on i would say the district's minds is uh filling these leadership positions as in principles and uh the btc director position so there there's quite a few there's been quite a few forums lots of surveys so you know obviously that feels more important than talking about the high school but i am here to talk about the high school also actually poly loves talking about the high school you want to take the i want to take the proverbial baton sir hi welcome to summer can you hear me yes yeah um so i would just say about the high school and tech center that since we had our last npa meeting the board decided on one of the options that was presented and that is option c and i believe those design concepts are still available to people but um basically the architect's recommendation and the board consensus ultimately was that that made best use of the actual topography of the site made best use of funds in that it was the least expensive option proposed and gets us what we need which is um a new high school and tech center on institute road so this is my daughter bernadette by the way everybody fifth grader going into sixth grade next year um so uh we have a really tight timeline and some of the factors we are contending with right now are the demolition of the current school and getting funding hopefully from um funds earmarked for pcb remediation we'll see if that actually happens and comes through but that's one of the factors we're dealing with um also funding for the school itself we're looking at getting our ballot language together by august to get everything ready to go for a bond vote in november and the architects are working now too on some of the schematic designs that are more detailed so stay tuned um to all of that thank you that that was the option c was the most timely option as well as um affordable well i mean millions and millions not necessarily affordable the least expensive and um yeah so i i just want to clarify schematics the the idea that the next phase of decision making is is going to be not totally detailed but definitely prioritizing how the space is going to be used and there's been a lot of conversation about uh burlington tech center and what that should look like and how best it can be prepared for future tech i mean anything about anything about the you know tech education could change overnight there's innovative things happening all the time you know we've got somebody building electric planes right in in south burlington anything can happen are those spaces going to be able to uh change or flex or be adapted whatever word you want to say so that they're they don't become obsolete so that's really important to figure out supporting also a regional approach to tech education because as you must know uh burlington tech is not just about serving burlington students but also i can't remember how many sendings how many sending districts there are but um is it nine but and also but there is another tech center in ethics but anyway having a comprehensive plan where collaboration is happening especially knowing that there's another tech center you know not duplicating things in a way basically putting our heads together to best serve the students but also to do it in a resourceful way so what else and you know we're almost over the finish line i i don't want to jinx it but waited people study waited pupil decisions um what is it s 287 got the head of unanimous vote on the floor and it's hopefully crossing scott's desk but um i don't know maybe brian can tell us i know that there's a weird thing that happens if he doesn't sign it by the end of the it's not necessarily an automatic veto or is it so wow i'm learning all about how the government works by being interested in this particular bill and but it's fairly promising so i'm not jinxing it but i'm feeling confident thank you do you have any questions for our school commissioners okay i'm moving on to mr china again who looks like he has returned to burlington or returning to burlington yeah i'm just after being on zoom i'm like walking around the old north and i'm feeling very old north end story right now like you know like the npa is gonna just kidding um but yeah um we just adjourned like as the npa was debating the encampment so that's why it was like jumping in and out and a lot happened i'm processing it all i'm kind of in shock to answer the question from the school commissioner before me there's three options the governor can sign a bill the governor can let it go into passage without signature and the governor can veto it and uh this bill has cleared the finish line and it's on its way to the governor like so many others right now um maybe i'll just quickly highlight two things that well i'll say three things i'll try to make it quick for like like like one sentence so the the we passed each 410 which was a combination of two ai bills into one and it looks at um the use of ai in state government and i won't get into all the all of the details but it creates a division of ai in the agency of digital services hires an ai director and and creates an ai advisory council to look at all the ways the state is using ai how it could use it how it can maximize benefits minimize risks and um and providing a transparent inventory of all ways that it is being used with lots of info about the technology so that's one thing that made it to the finish line is on the way to the governor um another thing is these housing bills that we passed um they seem pretty historic to me like one of the housing bills it expands access to safe and affordable housing and invests in all kinds of programs like down payments for first time and first generation home owners subsidizing the construction of low and middle income housing that people can buy so that families can start building equity for themselves not not just be tenants but it also invests in social housing it invests in um in um so it reduces barriers to development of smart growth in specific designated areas so really is trying to promote um the growth of safe and affordable housing and one way we strengthen that bill is um we amended it with a variation of age 273 which was the BIPOC led land access and opportunity act and so what we did is we added a board into the system of housing that's going to influence all of the policy and spending decisions of the entire system and try to help the players address inequities and disparities as this money goes out and beyond and a one cool thing that got added to it was there's going to be a pilot project where the state um looks at public land to figures that how to work with private public sector to develop it into the neighborhood of the future and what that means could be really cool if you think about how do you build an environment to be equitable from scratch um so those are some strange blasting I want to say is um is I see a hand so I'll make this quick but this is important I want to thank the speaker um representative Jill Kroinski who represents the old north end like the you know her district is uh let's see this is my district now that's her right over there on that side of the street and I just want people to know how hard she worked for Burlington she tried so hard to get um people to rally and overturn the veto on just cause eviction and was betrayed um so she deserves credit and love because I think she really it's really was hurtful that people did that um the people who say they support local control in one issue turn around and say that you know we're violating the private property rights of people so we can't do this even though we chose and passed it here strongly so I just want to give her credit for that and I'll stop there and answer questions I tried to be brief thank you everyone Tony Redington you're up okay uh first uh Brian I just want to comment on Brian Sheena uh thank you so much for preserving the pensions for state employees and for teachers teacher retired teachers that was also a tremendous success for Jill Kroinski and our our our district here great work um and and that that hopefully will settle in sometimes we forget that one out of five people who have a job in Vermont work for either local government state government or federal government so when you're talking about and all these all all those governments most all of them have pensions and most all it makes a big difference in terms of retirement and when you retire we spend most of our retirement monies that we get from from our our federal and state and local government jobs right here in Vermont second question which is really a question for you Brian Brian and you know this is a theme of mine which I said when I first spoke at the beginning of the night I said the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont do not provide one single unit of shelter security and 30 and actual affordable housing like the 2,500 households that receive such help from the federal government is there a single unit in all that housing money that'll actually provide someone who is on the waiting list and in Burlington the thousand households for 30 income rent and security that the housing choice vouchers provide did you pass a single unit this year it hasn't been done in the past I'm still looking for an historic change and I'll be bringing that same concern to our city counselors because we could do so here in the city in the budget um so I you know I can't say that I recall something as specific as what you just said but what I can say is that there's investments going into trying to create more options and there is money going into the VHCB for them to work um to you know I think one of my biggest issues and it is that you might be alluding to this in your in your question is that and here we are in Pomeroy Park yes okay so um I got distracted sorry I'm just happy to be outside um so this definition of affordability to me is problematic like what is considered affordable and like the percentage in property but this um particular piece of legislation definitely pushed the boundaries in some ways and if you want to I can walk through it with you sometimes because it's really complicated it was a thing that a lot of people's ideas got added to so it's like 13 sections in the end it was even more they added a whole bunch right at the end so um but I hear your concern which is that we don't we we create this week we it's there's a myth that housing is affordable but it's actually very small amount is and there's all kinds of barriers to access for people especially people with disabilities and people who are BIPOC and people who are LGBTQ which is why that land access and opportunity board is made up of those voices in hopes that they can help advocate from within the system for us to do things better um and hopefully that can also help affordability by looking at those barriers closer so anyway are there more questions yeah I wanted to ask when can we hear about what's going on with the educational sorry I'm sure this sounds insensitive there are amazing needy things going on out there and I'm talking about a surplus of funding but what when do we get to hear about what's happening with the educational funds what are you exactly referring to though the 45 million that was left over that Scott has you know everybody's been saying oh it's going to go back it might be for PCB remediation when do we find out what happens with that well just so you know like what happened in the last few days is that dozens of bills suddenly come back to us in their final form and there's no way I can like read every single one in that time frame so I don't think this is attached to bills though I think it's at the discretion of the well I don't you know it has to be if it's if there's money to be spent it has to be in a budget bill so what I was going to suggest is if you want to talk more later I can look through it for the specific things you're asking about and we can and we can kind of unpack what happened because it's it's unclear to me right now in the in the last whirlwind of things there were multiple big education bills that passed by us so I have to catch up on that Brian definitely take a breather and maybe on Monday I'll bug you okay yeah but I would I would like to say that there is um I do know that there was you know that the concern about aiding schools and construction infrastructure improvement was taken seriously I think the question for me is a lot of things get watered down in the end so you think it's great and then like a study committee comes back and you're like wait a minute yeah study against so I have to ask for us exactly exactly exactly like I'm sorry waiting exactly yeah but maybe we could have like a follow-up meeting between the Burlington delegation and the school board to like just review stuff together like maybe you could send us in advance your questions so we can prepare it and like then I can come in with others because others we we divide stuff up too like some people will focus more on one thing than another is just so much to track so I know I'm sure city counselors would be interested yeah too yeah I'm back on Isham Street All right the number we heard was there was 90 million in the of surplus in the ED fund of which 45 million Scott had earmarked to possibly use toward tax relief not specific to education this came up when we were talking about passing the Burlington school district budget and not knowing whether or not there would be that money because these things don't get decided until May and we have to put forward a budget that gets voted on on town meeting day in March so this this is where this was coming from and then back to the whole question of funding for the high school and I don't know if that's if those things overlap at all but the hope was that there there would still be that money available to education specific causes so finding that out would be awesome thank you you're welcome okay so this is Charlie back at the headquarters at the Golden Thin Community Center we have a nine o'clock firm shutdown date so you have one or two more minutes to make your final comments thank you last call for comments going once twice you know what I'll say is that I do need a little bit of a break but I don't you know I can I'm meeting the constituents starting next week who've been wanting to check in so people could email me we'll find a time we'll talk you know we'll catch up if I don't know everything I can look it up I can ask for help you know I'm happy to like if you email me and you haven't heard back I'm gonna go through all the emails I've been prioritizing people I disagree with who asked me to speak with them and and it's been interesting especially around the transgender rights stuff but um but if people just tell me your opinion or express your support usually I triage you later and come back to you because we're on the same page and I want to give attention to those who may not be represented by me so just feel free to reach out whether you agree with me or not we'll talk sorry if I missed your emails thank you all right thanks everybody anybody want to put forth a martian to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn all right seconded by molly cleppic here all right all those in favor aye aye have a good night enjoy thanks for being