 Welcome to everyone who is joining us in Contois and to those who are joining us online for the Burlington City Council meeting. It is now, it is now, the time is now 5.34. The first item on our agenda is the agenda. And is there, this is item 1.1, a motion to adopt the agenda. And with that, we do have a bit of reading. So I don't know, should I call on someone for whom it's last council meeting or does somebody want to volunteer to make a motion to adopt the agenda? Councillor Miki. Thank you, President Paul. I would move that we amend and adopt the agenda as follows, add to the consent agenda item 6.51, communication, Mary Gade, re neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.52, communication, Michael Long, re neighborhood code, send it back to the drawing board, add to the consent agenda item 6.53, communication, Kason Hudman, re support for neighborhood code change, add to the consent agenda item 6.54, communication, Evan Gould, re neighborhood code support petition, add to the consent agenda item 6.55, communication, Rye Sherman, re please pass the neighborhood code on Monday, add to the consent agenda item 6.56, communication, Jack Tiano, reassessment of and support for the neighborhood code. Add to the consent agenda item 6.57, I did not see this extra reading. Jake Tuarag, re forward, neighborhood code must pass, add to the consent agenda item 6.58, communication, Colin Larson, re 325 comments, support the neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.59, communication, Midori Little, please pass the neighborhood code for a sustainable future in Vermont, add to the consent agenda item 6.6, communication, Benjamin Cooley, re please pass neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.61, communication, Ashley Dembinski, re support for neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.62, communication, Chris Yoon, re in support of neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.63, communication, Tim Stevens, re support for neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.64, communication, Evan Gould, re support for the neighborhood code responses, add to the consent agenda item 6.65, communication, Paul Bierman, repetition with 303 signatures to send neighborhood code back to committee for refinement on 7.7 ordinance comprehensive development ordinance ZA 24-02 neighborhood code part 1 ZA 24-02 amendment 125 v2 for ccph 2 on 3 25 24. Thank you so much, Councillor McGee. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded by Councillor King. Is there any discussion on the motion to adopt the agenda? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion to adopt the agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. That motion passes unanimously and we have our agenda. The first item where we're going to begin our evening with two exciting presentations. The first is regarding the creation of a sister city relationship between the city of Burlington and TS east Senegal. For this presentation, I'll turn the floor to Councillor Jang who has worked many months in developing this relationship. And I understand you have some guests that want to speak as well. And do you need to get them on? So the guests are not online yet. Maybe you can allow the assistance. Okay. All right. Well, with that, as long as the other parties are able, we'll go to the sister city relationship with Keelnik, the community in Ukraine. For this presentation, we do have with us Colin Hilliard who is here as well with Adam Roof who is unable to be here due to an illness. Colin, actually, I don't know. Councillor Travers, did you want to speak to this or was there others you wanted to speak to this Mayor Weinberger? Okay. Why don't you go ahead and we can go on to Colin after. Thank you, President Paul. My colleagues may remember at the state of the city last spring that I charged Colin as well as Adam Roof with exploring a sister city relationship with a city in Ukraine. We are almost a year later and I am more excited and believe creating such a new relationship is more important than ever after the events of the last year in which we have seen the terrible war there continue. And we have also seen our federal government increasingly struggle to play a role in supporting the people of Ukraine and I think we find ourselves perhaps in the not unfamiliar position of being able to take meaningful action on the local level that substitutes brings light to the inability of our federal government to take action. I think this Colin and Adam have taken this charge seriously. They have done a great deal of work as you can hear some from and as Colin can answer questions about if there are questions I know we're very pressed for time tonight. But they have made a relationship with USAID which has supported this exploration and I think they've found a community that is in the Odessa region that is the comparable size to Burlington has many similarities in terms of the way in which the society functions and my hope is that this is the beginning of a long relationship that will be important for the people of both communities and that perhaps with a focus on rebuilding efforts from the start that could be exciting for city officials to it could be an exciting part about working for the city of Burlington having this relationship in the years to come as well. So I'm excited that Colin is here to make this report out and that we could take this action tonight before the end of the year in which I charge him with doing this. So thank you President Paul. Thank you so much Mayor Weinberger. So Colin you're on. Tell us about the tell us about the sister city relationship. Awesome well thank you council for your support of this initiative and taking the time here today and thank you to Mayor Weinberger for for this opportunity. So this sister city that that we're proposing is Kealnik village in the Odilsk district in Odessa Oblast that's in southwestern Ukraine. Folks might be familiar with Odessa as a major city in Ukraine in the south right on the Black Sea. This community is about three hours north of that. So this is far western Ukraine quite far from on the front lines of the war. The Kealnik village population is around 20,000 people but you can kind of think of them as a district seat or county seat excuse me for for their region of about 45,000 people so comparable to Burlington. Their major industries include agriculture, specialty foods and green tourism. Some areas where they've expressed a really strong interest and opportunities for educational and professional exchanges and partnerships include agriculture those specialty foods and solar infrastructure as well. Community energy efficiency and energy independent projects are really a top priority for this community and communities across Ukraine given the that Russia continues to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure so there's some really unique opportunities there I think for us given Vermont's real success in in solar infrastructure and solar investment and with tech startups like Verde Technologies right up at Beeset doing some really revolutionary stuff on on solar technologies there's some really interesting opportunities partnered there I think as well on in areas of specialty foods they have a big honey industry specialty honey industry which I think is very interesting and and so some comparabilities there with Burlington's really diverse and and successful specialty foods industries. I also add that the Podilsk excuse me medical college is located in the community and they've recently opened a rehabilitation hospital for soldiers. Lastly also they kind of some of the the unique cultural things that I think are very interesting and really critical to a successful partnership like this. They have one of Ukraine's largest borscht festivals that they are very excited and proud about every time we're on the phone with them they they are a zoom they invite us to come to their borscht festival. They're one of the regions in Ukraine that claims to have the the best and inventors of borscht and it's something that they're they're very proud of and they also have a very popular folk choir scene and festivals around that in my experience with with our Yarslavl sister city the music exchanges were something that were really important around both our jazz festival and theirs so I'm excited about opportunities for for music exchanges there as well. I think lastly just want to highlight that you know given the situation in Ukraine finding community with the administrative bandwidth to take on a new sister city relationship was really important for us and we believe we've we've definitely found that here. A lot of communities are are really entirely focused on the war effort and so being in western Ukraine and being a little bit farther from quite far from the front and investing in things like rehabilitation hospitals and things like that we see them as a really exciting partner that has the bandwidth and it has expressed you know very serious interest in a sister city. They've been seeking a sister city for about a year and a half or two years and we we how we got connected with them was through a Ukrainian member of parliament Alexei Ganashchenko and he represents this region in the Ukrainian parliament and he had been a been a really key contact and helping this relationship come together. With that I'll just thank some folks that that have been involved and open up to questions but want to thank my colleague Adam Roof, Avery Anderson who formerly worked at the Vermont Council on World Affairs who's supporting us in this effort, Ellen Yut who lives down in Bristol and works at Tetra Tech. She lived in Poland for a year courting Tetra Tech's efforts in Ukraine and also Peter Kovell all who we've had conversations with given their experiences with this and have been really important in helping us form this this relationship so thank you to all those partners. Thank you thanks so much Colin. If there are members of the council who have questions or comments on this item the floor is open now for those comments and questions and also to just keep in mind that there is a resolution formally creating the sister city relationship we have that on our consent agenda we'll be voting on that later this evening. If there oh I'm sorry Councillor Travers. Colin I just want to briefly express my thanks to you and Adam and those you referenced for putting the work in. I recall the mayor in the state of the city address a year ago pointing to you and Adam saying to get it done and you've got it done. So thank you very much for that work and credit to you all really for representing Burlington and for bringing our community with you in your travels overseas and representing us in this region at this at this time so thank you very much for this work and I'm looking forward to supporting the resolution. Thank you. Thank you thanks so much Councillor Travers. If there are no others Councillor Jang are you are you ready? Okay so we will go back to the other sister city and thank you again for hot Colin for being here. Thank you President Fallon. Also just wanted to very briefly add that they've this community's invited us to on a trip to go visit them so we're in discussions on that of a date in April or May and finalizing that and would would be very happy to share that with the council and welcome any members of the council that would like to join us on that trip to really officially meet our counterpoints in this community so thank you very much. Thank you again Colin. We will now go back to Councillor Jang and the floor is yours. Thank you President Fallon and I just also wanted to recognize that we have couple people from green across the world Peter Lynch and Adam Mbeng they are online we also have Mr. Pabba engineer civil engineer right here in in in attendance and as you know just last night Senegal elected its fifth president 44 year old Mr. Jamar Faye Basiri Jamai Faye was elected for the first time as the youngest Senegalese who ever held the presidency in Senegal. We are very happy for what has happened in Senegal lately. Senegal is known to be a very stable country many active members of our society live here in the city of Burlington they work here they have their children in the schools and as you know the Vermont National Guard has a sister's military partnership with Senegal since 2008 it's been 15 years that they're working together and also they helping the Senegalese people in terms of security in terms of medical responsiveness in terms of climate change. The Major General Knight has been invited both the past Senegalese presidents such as Makisal came here in 2014 and also President Abdulai Wad came here in 2008 I believe they both one of them at least met with Mira Weinberger. Major Henry Kez is joining will be joining us soon he has a presentation about this military partnership between Senegal and and the Vermont National Guard. In August 2003 I traveled to Senegal to start the establishment of the sister city relation between Chess East where I grew up and the city of Burlington where I reside work raised my children right here when I was there Mira Weinberger and the mayor of Chess is Adama Usman Jang have discussed the establishment of the sister city relationship between the two municipalities this potential exists for the continued development of educational cultural environmental and economical opportunities between the two municipalities I think this will be a very beneficial sister city because the city of Burlington has never had any sister city relation with the country in Africa this will be the first time in the history of this city and also Chess is where I grew up the mayor and I went in the middle school together it's when where I sat at his office that he recognized me telling me that we went to the middle school same class I I could not know because I was not a good student maybe now I think it would have been great to have the presentation but I was just wondering if you can promote Peter Lynch he's one of the attendees and also Adama to just talk about also the work that they do here and also the people in Senegal and around the world yeah Peter we were wondering if you have something to say go ahead Mr Peter the floor is yours greetings hello thank you councillor jen we I'd actually strongly encourage you to support both of these resolutions I have a a Ukrainian flag flying outside of my house right now but I'm here to talk about Senegal and say tremendously valuable relationship Mr Jung mentioned the National Guard's relationship we've been in discussion with the National Guard I'm actually I should I should make it clear who I am first I'm the executive director of Green Across the World and we do environmental cultural exchanges for middle and high school kids both virtually and travel exchanges we've taken kids from Woodstock to Senegal currently Essex High School has an online exchange with fatigue in Senegal we also work with Burlington High School with respect to Japan and would happily add Senegal to that list it's an incredibly vibrant and welcoming culture with remarkable textiles music and a perspective on history that's linked to our history but adds to our understanding of of American history in a great way so it's a valuable educational tool in that sense um councillor Jung just mentioned that you know they we just had an election and there's there's a back story which was that it really is one of the safest and stablest democracies in Africa and there was some effort to delay this election until I think it was December from all the way from February to December and the court stepped in and said no no no we're going to hold the elections just yesterday and as you pointed out an opposition leader very young Mr. Fay won the election so there are checks and balances there the electoral system is working and it's yeah it's really pretty exciting to see the promise of this election here and the last thing I'll mention is that we are working with the National Guard and several you know Vermont Council and World Affairs several other organizations to promote the bill s 30 which is a a bill originated in the Senate to establish a sister states committee for the state of Vermont and Senegal would almost certainly and Japan will be on that list but Senegal is almost certainly going to be one of the five sister states that that are established initially so it means there could be continuity of support for this kind of work from between Burlington state off you know a state committee and ultimately sister states can be supported by an umbrella nonprofit that's national that supports sister city relationships all over the country so I think there there's some real funding opportunities for this kind of work that go well beyond what you know any I know I understand that the taxpayers of Burlington are under a little bit of strain these days and I think there's money outside of the tax base for this sort of activity and I would love to hear Audema speak to this if we don't have Major Enriquez here yet but Audema is our Director of International Outreach at Green Across the World she's from Senegal and I think can speak to the importance of of connecting Burlington the Senegalese community immigrant community in the larger Burlington area and Senegal itself which I think is has creates powerful opportunities for learning for both adults and children youth in all parts of the Burlington community and and beyond so thank you for taking the time and I surely hope you will vote in favor of this resolution okay hello everyone thank you for having us tonight thanks Peter for giving us the giving them the history of the organization so I'm not going to go into that it's just going to be a repeat so I'm just going to introduce myself my name is Audema and Jai and I live in Winooski for over two decades I'm from Senegal I also work at the Medical Center UVM and also like Peter said I'm the International Director of the Green Across the World so she just he just described what we do for work but I'm here today to just support this bell and telling you guys the good work that's going to be being ahead of us to do this is very important because it's all about it's all about connection we need to connect to solve problem in the world and as a Senegalese living in Vermont for over a decade and also having some knowledge on connecting people working with students and community so I will be willing to be part of this to um to help us um achieve our goals so I hope you guys pass this bell because we have a little community of Senegalese here who will be willing to do the work thank you so much for having us tonight Ms. Elhaji Mamodouba, Vermont since the 2006 moved straight from Senegal to Vermont I just want to share a little bit of my experience uh when I was in Senegal since 2000 I can say I was always welcoming Vermonters coming to Senegal staying with me learning the culture of Senegal because I was a dance teacher there and I have them stay with me over two years sometimes to just study the culture it has always been a connection between Senegal and Vermont that's not surprising when I came to the United States I just wanted to come to Burlington and since then I've been living here I went to school here I went to Vermont Tech that's why I graduated graduated and I'm working here as a civil engineer an inspector and I will really this is a really good opportunity for us to just come together ensure these two countries have always a connection which is has always been a connection between Senegal and I have felt it I have seen people from through my dancing career came from different parts of the world but I always feel good being around Vermonters being around people from Burlington and it's really exciting to hear about this when I was really excited to come here and start an experience with you and would you appreciate everything you guys have are doing for the city of Burlington and just as well thank you all right thank you Peter thank you Adama and thank you and we know we don't have a lot of time but thank you also to all the city councils for sponsoring this resolution and for putting it on the consent agenda thank you president thanks so much councillor Jang if there are any members of the council that have any questions or comments on this item the floor is open at this time or or or the mayor as well Mayor Weinberger I just wanted to um voice my support for for taking this action tonight improving this resolution I want to thank and congratulate councillor Jang for the leadership and hard work he's put into this effort it was really a privilege and a highlight to be on a on a call with councillor Jang when he was on his last trip to Senegal and speak to some of leaders there that will help make this relationship a reality and I think councillor Jang is quite right that it is overdue and important that we have we have we have many sister city relationships none of them up until now have been with any city in Africa and as you know especially as Burlington changes and involves as a community it has more and more direct links to cities and countries in Africa I think this would be a very fitting and important thing to do at this point and it's quite a poignant that councillor Jang in his last meeting is able to bring this forward and for our action tonight so I thank you councillor Jang and and happy Ramadan to you and it's been a privilege serving with you for all these years thank you so much Mayor Weinberger I think we'll all we'll all second that if there's no one else we will move on and again this is the same situation we do have a resolution formally creating the sister city relationship it is on our consent agenda when we get to our consent agenda we will we will be voting on that that will move us since we do have some time we have two local control meetings and since we do have a little bit of time we'll go to those the first so we will recess the council meeting at 603 and we will go to the local control commission at 603 the first item on that agenda is item 1.01 which is a motion to adopt the agenda commissioner Shannon would you be willing to make that motion yes i move to adopt the agenda thank you so much seconded by councillor Travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to adopt the agenda please say aye aye any opposed please say no thank you and we do have a councillor grant who's joining us by zoom the second item is the consent agenda commissioner Shannon is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated thank you so much seconded by commissioner travers all those any discussion on that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no that passes unanimously so we have three items on our deliberative agenda the first is 3.1 which is a first-class liquor license application for Queen City cafe commissioner Shannon move to approve the 2024 2025 first-class liquor license application for Queen City cafe at 377 pine street contingent upon the fire marshal approval and with all standard conditions thank you so much seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion is made by commissioner Shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which moves us to 3.2 an outside consumption permit application for the same business Queen City cafe commissioner Shannon move to approve the 2024 2025 outside consumption permit application for Queen City cafe at 377 pine street thank you commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which brings us to the final deliberative item which is 3.3 a first and third class liquor license application for rogue rabbit uh commissioner Shannon I move to approve the 2024 2025 first and third class liquor license applications for rogue rabbit with all standard conditions thank you so much uh commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion is made by commissioner Shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously and with no other business on this agenda and see point of order president Paul there is a 3.4 there is okay my apologies thank you for bringing that to my attention so item 3.4 is an outside consumption permit application for the archives commissioner Shannon president Paul on this one it's going back to the old days when we actually didn't have the prompt of what the actions were so I'm going to to wing it and move to approve the 2024 2025 outside consumption permit application for the archives at 191 college street with all standard conditions all right well we will our somewhat someone will let us know if that's not correct seeing no one who's letting us know that that's not correct we'll go with it uh seconded by commissioner travers uh is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no uh that motion passes unanimously and now we can say that with no other business on the agenda and seeing no objection will adjourn the local control commission meeting at 608 and call to order the local cannabis control commission at the same time um the first item on that agenda is 1.01 motion to adopt the agenda uh commissioner Shannon move to adopt the agenda thank you so much uh seconded by commissioner travers any discussion on the motion seeing none um all those in favor of the motion please say aye hi hi any opposed please say no we have our agenda and we have one item on this agenda i believe and that is item two which is a 2024 local cannabis control commission application 2.1 for judy's holistic solutions uh commissioner Shannon move to approve and authorize transmission of local approval of the following local cannabis control license application to the state cannabis control board subject to all municipal conditions currently in effect on such local license for judy's holistic solutions at 64 archwald street thank you so much uh commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no and that motion passes unanimously with no other business on this agenda and seeing no objection will adjourn the local cannabis control commission meeting at 609 and will reconvene the recessed council meeting at 609 with our thanks to the members of the license committee which this year was commissioner Shannon travers and grant um we do still have a little bit of time before 6 30 so we will go to item number four which are climate emergency reports is there any counselor or the administration that wishes to offer a climate emergency report at this time uh mayor weinberger thank you bresen paul um sorry just one second so um since we last met um we did provide a important update to the the public i'd like to summarize it and share it here as well it's been five years since we city the city council together announced the most um ambitious climate policy of any city in america our net zero energy roadmap in the five years since we did that we have seen 100 year storms warming winters early frosts and of course a multi-year global pandemic response that through families and businesses and a crisis and ultimately costs us the lives of over a thousand brahmans and that unleashed an enormous economic volatility here in burlington and around the world through all of that and more burlington has stayed focused on our climate goals and is making substantial progress towards them in those five years we've installed 2,300 heat pumps increase the uptake increasing the uptake of our heat pump rebates 25 fold we've helped over 700 families switch to hybrid or electric vehicles and each of those households can charge the new cars on 100% renewable electricity and and more uh you notably we are we are electrifying our city fleet with 25 new EVs and 16 new hybrids um we can say uh tonight as of the last couple weeks with confidence that these efforts are working to bring down our emissions last week we released the five-year net zero roadmap update which showed that we are now 18 percent below our 2018 emissions levels a reduction of about 40 000 metric tons of co2 annually um this demonstrates that with pioneering policy and collective action across the community we can end our reliance on fossil fuels and save vermont families and and businesses money at the same time i think it's important to note that this documented now measured progress has taken place um even while we are building hundreds of new homes we have more homes being built right now than any other point in the city's recent past and before the new financial incentives of the historic late 22 biden inflation reduction act have fully kicked in um we certainly expected in 2024 and future years that federal action will put wind to the sales of of this effort um but we are not just going to leave it to the federal federal uh government we um also announced a new slate of programs and incentives um simultaneous with this announcement last week i encourage burlintonians to check out these new programs on bd's website there are new opportunities for home owners and renters and people commute by car or bike um as well as more exciting news about new chargers and electric buses thank you president paul thank you so much mayor weinberger uh if there are no counselors who wish to offer a climate emergency report then we will move on to item number five which are the public health and safety emergency reports uh counselor dority uh thank you thank you president paul president paul as you know uh you and myself and counselor grant attended our monthly public safety committee meeting last thursday where we received our um monthly reports from chief murad and chief lechance um i wanted to highlight one thing that was in uh fire chief lechance's report that i think is worth drawing the public's attention to um and that is uh his report and the public can go to the website uh the city website and uh and see this slide deck for themselves it's public information um but but chief lechance reported to us um in in a pretty demonstrative and clear graphic um that the monthly the monthly overdose um uh reports the monthly overdose responses um is down dramatically and specifically uh around august in september uh if you look at this chart and i won't i won't try to describe it but uh the numbers look like they have fallen off a cliff and have maintained um i wouldn't say a low but it's considerably lower uh level through the months of september october november january and into february um president paul you and i and counselor grant asked um chief lechance and chief murad and some of the other professionals that were in attendance uh at the committee meeting um what they thought might be responsible for um this uh dramatic improvement um albeit temporary uh or short term um but hopefully will extend to longer term uh no one understandably had definitive answers um but one of the issues that was discussed um was that in the fall our federal and local law enforcement partners um engaged in a number of significant law enforcement uh activities against uh out-of-state drug dealers um who were supplying the community with xylazine which is a substance for those who are not aware uh that is more resistant um to uh overdose prevention drugs or overdose prevention reversal drugs like narcan um and um speculated um that there might be some connection between those enforcement activities uh and the decline in in overdose rates no one understandably was willing to say for sure that there was a causative relationship as opposed to just a correlative relationship um but i think it's worth noting and we all urged uh the professionals um to continue to look hard at what they think might be going on and what might be responsible for this improvement in the overdose um situation and i i hope that as we move into a new city council year um with a new mayor uh that we keep our eye on on what we're doing in the city uh and its relationship to these overdose rates so that we can really assess what's working and what's not working um rarely at this point in the city council meeting do we hear hopeful news um but this is certainly a a a ray of sunshine perhaps um that hopefully will continue thank you so much uh councillor doherty um i would agree with you that was certainly encouraging news at our public safety meeting um if there are no other councillors or the do you uh mayor weinberger i think uh councillor highter may have had an update too oh my apologies sorry i must not understand um so this is the public safe the time for the public safety update so um i do have a few updates i'll try to keep them short um we've communicated this some with the council already but i want to discuss here the benefit of the public operations of the cherry street shelter which was open for about 10 days closing today um there was very little communication with local communities before the opening of this shelter by the state only about 72 hours notice um but i supported that the action was clear that closing the shelter if it was well used by guests would um really not be acceptable it would be a huge mistake after what we saw last summer when we had unprecedented levels of unsheltered homelessness in chitin and county on dozens and dozens of people sleeping outside um intense under awnings and really no reason to think that those conditions have changed substantially um uh so um we communicated through the week that we thought the shelter needed to remain open um uh the state actually closed the shelter on friday morning um but uh fortunately i am grateful that they at the eleventh hour they did see the need to keep it open with the storm that was coming and the shelter was well was substantially utilized it didn't open until 8 15 on friday night but 12 people used in that night 28 people used it on or 26 people used it on saturday night and then on sunday night um almost 40 people 38 individuals stayed there um one wonders uh how much that count would have continued to rise um as if it had been kept open longer um my uh people will remember council i'm sure will remember that we advocated for a permanent additional shelter to be open in the spring of 2023 and it's clear to me that's still what is needed at a time when we have almost no vacancy when our existing shelters and social services are overwhelmed uh i am concerned that without a additional facility um that we will have another difficult summer with uh unprecedented levels of unsheltered homelessness um what i've communicated i know the mayor elect has communicated the state as well as the city as we always have would be a partner to the state in finding further shelter options it cannot be however that all of this uh falls to the city of burlington to um to to take action on we we already have opened three new shelters in this community since uh since the fall of 2020 no other community in the state has done anything like that and we certainly need help from the state to provide the level of shelter that's needed um i also want to share that the opioid settlement advisory committee met today um it was the last meeting that i attended as a member of and um a decision was made by the committee to issue a letter endorsed by the committee that would be um in addition to the letter that dr levine issued to the legislature uh early in the new year this is a letter that has been controversial the aclu has actually threatened a legal action over this because it short circuited the the sending of that letter really short circuited the process that is supposed to take place at the settlement committee and kind of remove the ability to settle of the settlement committee to communicate directly with the legislature i believe we will now do that um and by um there will be a substantial change to the way to what is recommended to the legislature in that the committee's letter will recommend the funding of overdose prevention sites in the use of settlement dollars to fund that opening dr levine's letter mentioned that the council that the committee was supportive of that but i did not recommend the use of the settlement dollars to be used for that um from my perspective it's important that the settlement dollars be used as the funding source as opposed to a new or an increased tax as the legislature is currently considering for two reasons one this remains a controversial issue and from my perspective the public there are many members of the public who are not comfortable with this strategy and don't like the idea of their tax dollars funding this strategy whereas um there's a considerable additional comfort with these targeted restricted opioid settlement dollars being used for this i think it broadens the number of people for monitors who are supportive of this action it also removes uh one of the reasons in which i am concerned Governor Scott will veto the overdose prevention site legislation in that he uh for many years has made clear he does not support the increase or expansion of taxes or fees and this would give this would violate um that principle of his so my hope is the legislature listens to on this do us on this and finally um i do just uh share with my council colleagues particularly the ones that are going to be remaining on the council that um i hope uh we have not heard back yet as to whether the state will be funding the meta methadone dosing unit that we and the Howard center together have proposed be opened uh in downtown Burlington the need for methadone treatment is greater than ever given the fentanyl and uh crisis and the impact it has on people who need treatment and uh we are expecting a response any day on that that's been pushing a year now since the legislature appropriated money for expanded methadone access and um i hope the council will continue to focus on this and urge uh state action on this so that we finally have this additional strategy in the downtown to build on the uh momentum uh the counselor Doherty uh mentioned where we are seeing some hopeful signs uh with uh overdoses being down to continue that to expand it i think expanded methadone is critical thank you president paul uh thank you so much mayor Weinberger uh uh counselor grant welcome by the way thank you um so this past thursday at the ward five in pa i spoke and i had a member one of the residents of decker towers with me and also a community member that has been very involved with um helping out the residents in decker tower they live uh in a building that's kind of right behind decker towers uh technically on church street and i think it was a really great discussion about what we can do as community members to help residents out in decker towers and other residents in other buildings that are having the same problems although maybe not to the same degree but um since i kind of started this journey with decker towers other places have definitely been reaching out um i was discussing the concept of mutual aid in the community and how once the security issues were under control there could be some uh improvements made in the building for example the residents would really like to have the building painted but they're willing to do some of the work themselves they just need some help in terms of donations uh sweat equity maybe we could get some people to donate art things like that and so it was a really great discussion once again it was at last thursday the ward five in pa which is available to view on town meeting tv um on their youtube channel or on town meeting tv's web page and it was uh it was a really wonderful discussion so i hope you all take the time to consider watching that um i've also been talking to some of our first responders and it is really clear that we can't have another summer like we had last summer we are as we all know are struggling to maintain um our police force this is definitely affecting our fire department as well so we as a community really need to look deeper at these issues and look deeper at what we can do to help both of these departments um and i'll leave it there only to say i hope to have some future ideas around some specific community engagement thank you thank you so much council grant uh if there are any other counselors who wish to speak to a public health um and safety emergency report now would be the time uh seeing no others will close that item and it is now uh 6 27 which is close enough to 6 30 and that brings us to item number three which is the public forum before we begin public forum i'd like to know that we do have a process for public forum and i speak for the full council as we share a strong commitment to an orderly process and one that honors all voices um and includes a very just a very respectful discourse uh for those that are joining us in con choice we have a timer system that's on the table in front of me that has three lights the green light will shine when you begin speaking the second when you have 30 seconds left and the last light will shine when your time is up please complete your sentence when the sound and light indicate your time is up so that everyone has the same amount of time um i do apologize in advance i will need to stop you once the clock runs down to zero as we must keep the public forum moving along uh if you're joining us online there's a timer system that we will set up on zoom um if you we don't have a light system but when your two minutes are up in the clock winds down to zero please complete your sentence so that we can move on to hearing from the next community member if you wish to speak in person there are forms to my right in the back of the room please leave them on the table and we will collect them um as it has been our practice Burlington residents will have first priority to speak we will go to the Burlington residents in conchoice who have submitted a form in person then to Burlington residents online who've completed the online form and then we will go to any a Burlington property owners and or representatives of Burlington based businesses in person and then online and then back to conchoice to hear from any non Burlington residents and we will wrap up with online non Burlington residents who are joining us via zoom uh we do have a large number of people who wish to speak during public forum this evening please um if you um uh please if you wish to speak and someone has already said effectively what you want to say there is no need to repeat what others have said when your name is called if you wish to yield your time to others who have spoken um all you need to do is let us know that your feelings have been expressed by others before you and you will be recognized um and you can just say your thoughts have been expressed um we see you and we will know the support for the sentiment that you that others have expressed okay all right um my apologies we'll we'll we'll hold off on this for just one moment there is a representative from the from on international guard who does wish to speak to the sister city relationship and we will let them speak at this time if you want to just come forward right here good evening and apologies for missing the uh initial portion of the sister cities i don't know if the slide presentation was shared but uh on behalf of major general night from the from on national guard i want to thank the city for inviting us to speak on behalf of our partnership with senegal i'll keep this short since i know you only have about two or three minutes before the next agenda item um the republic of senegal has been partnered with the state of vermont since 2008 through the vermont national guard state partnership program in this time over 800 900 national guards men and women have had the opportunity to travel to senegal to provide military assistance and security cooperation for the citizens of senegal this new initiative which has been proposed by uh councilman yang in the last year brings a lot of opportunity for the state and for the city to contribute to our national and international strategic objectives i'd say senegal is a country that always welcomes assistance it is in the far west corner of africa where resources are limited they just recently went through a significant political process to yesterday they went through national elections and with this new election there's a likelihood that there are opportunities for uh the city of berlington to contribute to change especially governance development and peace in in the region so uh like my fellows uh peter from vermont council uh excuse me green across world and our our colleagues in the vermont council world affairs we seek to open the city of berlington for more international cooperation in particular with the vermont national garden who does an annual medical exercise in in the cities in senegal in local health clinics and local military clinics but to close i would say this is a great opportunity for young political leaders educators the health sector and other communities in vermont to to engage with our partners overseas and especially since vermont and berlington have a diaspora of senegalese citizens here gives them an opportunity to work with our fellow countrymen at home thank you for your time and i hope to see a positive result in the vote this afternoon thank you so much so we'll continue of course we'll continue with the uh with the public forum um so we have an order for how we how we speak during public forum berlington residents will go first we will then go to berlington non-berlington residents who are berlington property owners or representatives of berlington based organizations and then we will go and finish up with non-berlington residents um during public forum we ask that you please use respectful language we'd like to remind everyone here this evening and those that are joining us online that there are families who watch our council meetings is their connection to civic engagement parents use our forum to teach our city's children about city government and we expect that everyone will refrain from using profanity let's model the best of berlington as well and given the nature of the items on our agenda i would just ask that it's important that our language and whatever you have to say tonight reflects the presumption that everyone here tonight is interested in what is best not only for themselves and their neighbors but for all of berlington presuming and expressing that in that speakers are here only for self-interest just simply cheapens the level of discords and it serves to prevent us from coming together with reasonable solutions we ask that you please keep us in mind to that end uh when you are speaking at the table i would ask that you please face me direct my director comments to me as the chair and not to anyone else at this table or to the audience that is gathered around you and please do not personalize your comments this rule will be enforced again we want to hear what you have to say and we will listen much more intently if you speak respectfully when i call on you if you do wish to speak in the public hearing later on the agenda on the neighborhood code or the proposed amendments you can just let me know we do have two different forms for the public hearing and for public forum but if you've made a mistake and you wish to speak later just let me know and we will put you to the we will put you in that queue with that we will go to those that are joining us in con choice who wish to speak during public forum the first is jennifer ealy to be followed by david collie good evening if you could just make sure that the microphone is on the green light should be on right in front of you you can move that down how's that that is perfect first off i want to share the good news that burlington is amazingly biodiverse most notable are the presence of medium-sized mammals such as foxes that provide a couple of very very important services for us people our city's biodiversity is in no small way attributable to its topography specifically its streams and its ravines natural ravines not like the big one being worked on here in burlington um burlington has many steep-sided ravines that serve wildlife as their most safe and most comfortable way to travel and to hide from guess who us why should we ever put wildlife habitat ahead of further housing development that's a good question the answer is we don't want to lose a couple of a very important redeeming qualities that wildlife are currently providing to us at no charge burlington's red and gray foxes hunt and feed on species that us people consider nuisance species they are key players in keeping skunk populations in check so that's one thing they do foxes also prey on mice that carry lime disease medium-sized mammals in our city such as the fox are keeping us safer we can keep them safer by protecting their habitat and their travel corridors in closing my request to the council is to specifically include wording in the new neighborhood code such as this wording that ravines shown to be functioning as wildlife habitat and corridors for burlington's red and gray fox and other mammals will have a 30 to 50 foot wide no mo buffer that follows the level ground on both sides of the ravine thank you so much our next speaker is david collie to be followed by um joanne tetzel thank you good evening thank you good evening i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening i'm speaking in favor of the neighborhood code which will be considering later on this evening i'm a resident of ward one and have been a resident of the ward for 32 years the proposed changes i believe are a key step to address the housing needs for our city i want to acknowledge and appreciate the work of the office of city planning cito and city council ordinance committee that developed these concepts and and their ability to inform the public about this vision i also appreciate that the neighborhood code has been supported by notable individuals and organizations such as champlain housing trust habitat for humanity aarp vermont and locomotion to name a few while this neighborhood code removes significant barriers to missing middle housing in our city i'm not afraid that it will result in a runaway development that will completely upset our neighborhoods i believe that will be possible to blend the missing middle into the existing fabric of our neighborhoods and there are many development and permitting processes controls that will remain in place to prevent possibility of runaway the proposed neighborhood code has sparked a lot of dialogue in ward one this has resulted in a few amendment alternatives i support the alternatives proposed by councilor hightower i believe the neighborhood code changes are needed to keep burlington viable for the future not just for those of us who have lived here a long time middle missing housing will welcome young people families and help to stabilize housing for some of us older citizens by adding smaller more affordable housing types please consider this when you vote now is the time for action thank you thanks so much our next speaker is joanne tetzel to be followed by michelle everlith good evening hi um i have come to city council for the first time ever so i also went to an mpa meeting for the first time ever i am not a burlington native but i consider burlington my home and i'm very proud to call it my home i love the community that burlington brings and i'm glad you've got us having the conversation about neighborhood code it needed to happen 100 percent i have um recruited in this area for the 13 years i've lived here and it's hard to bring top talent to somewhere where there is a housing crisis but you've started the conversation we don't need to finish it tonight you've got our attention we're engaged i've left my kids at home i'm here so please consider that the conversation should still be open and let's look at the committee and with a new council coming in find the right solution that works for all of burlington i appreciate those of you on the council who have replied to my emails that i have been sending out i am very appreciative of what we do here in burlington but let's please continue the conversation and not end it tonight thank you thank you our next speaker is michelle everless to be followed by uh janet colburn and we are in the process of opening the upstairs we don't have it open quite yet but for those who are standing uh you need not stand for such a long period of time we will get the upstairs open good evening good evening um i didn't come prepared with anything as a speech but i just want to share that i've lived in burlington for 30 something years i've lived in my neighborhood for 20 i think it's important to stop the process right as you see it for the same reasons that joe had mentioned we have started the process of understanding what you're trying to accomplish here we agree with more housing being a priority in the town of burlington but to do it in a meaningful way that engages all of us now that we are aware of all of the um proposal and the steps that are being asked to be taken we just like to slow it down take a look at what's on the on the books and maybe come together and think more thoughtfully of what's going to be best for everybody involved thank you thanks very much uh our next speaker is janet uh col might be colburn um kilburn and to be followed by uh romeo romeo herman hi there thank you i'm going to ask that you all consider do not pass this neighborhood code tonight please as michelle and joe have said slow it down and let's do it right we don't want to go back and fix things with unintended consequences but this was really pushed through quickly our neighborhood just became aware of it a few weeks ago and it hasn't really been vetted with a lot of public input diverse public input so first of all in terms of equity if we're going to increase housing we need to make sure it's affordable and we can't just rely on market forces and landlords to do that it hasn't worked we need to tie it to legislation that ensures some of this housing will be equitable and affordable the proposal itself is flawed in that the wealthiest areas in burlington are going to remain or or not change at all or are going to be low density that is not not acceptable furthermore if it violates plan btv and the state uh Vermont state statue 24 why are we even considering it like why why would we do a large zoning change that does not support incremental slow changes in keeping with the neighborhoods i've lived in burlington over 30 years and i've rented and i've owned a house and i've lived among college kids for 20 years in my current neighborhood and if we're going to increase the density of college kids in a particular area what i've seen is their responsibility and kind of civic involvement with their neighbors decreases so i we really just need to think this through i also say um if uvm as the state auditor found has really increased the pressure and the burden on the city for housing then we need uvm to be part of the solution so let's work with them on the half million half half million feet of parking space that they have to ease up the zoning for uvm so they can build up and house more students on campus and finally climate change anybody who's lived here for a long time thank you thanks very much our our next speaker is romeo herman to be followed by uh mary and danis thank you good evening madam president and uh i haven't prepared any remarks as usual but uh mr mayor counselors uh fellow burlingtonians uh city residents everybody um i know there's a lot to talk about tonight but i want to specifically not to put you on the spotlight madam president um i want to recognize that um your indouble indelible mark that you're living in this council and your presidency at this council it's been outstanding and one to be remembered and it will be on the history books without a doubt and i equally want to thank um other counselors who really uh leaving their you know mark in this city as well as our wonderful mayor here regardless of what anybody thinks out there i'm grateful for your service to our city um i just want to just share my thanks for the service that if you've contributed to our city the level of calmness that you brought to our council i know there's been quite a number of situations where things got a little bit out of hand but you find a way to bring back to measure so thank you for everything that you've done for us for our ward as well as for the city and as well as the rest of the council and our mayor so thank you thank you very much uh our next speaker is mary and danis to be followed by um Laura hallowell good evening slow my name is mary and danis i have lived in lakeside my entire life um my parents were part of the organization that got the historical neighborhood past and i'd like to see that stay and i believe the new zoning and possibly the new neighborhood codes are going to change that and i beg you i beg you to look at things again there are certain things within the city that we need to consider we need to block out all the historical uh neighborhoods we need to block out you know the historical buildings we need to you know there's just so much that needs to be thought of before it's past so i'm gonna i know people have already spoken um but i'm gonna beg you to hold off on the zoning hold off on the neighborhood codes and then turn around and even reconsider the parking the ratio between apartments and parking we in lakeside don't have any street parking my son has to come down at six o'clock seven o'clock at night to get even a parking place in front of our house so i beg you i thank you for your time but i beg you to reconsider these things for the sake of everybody in the city thank you very much thank you very much uh our next speaker is laura hallowell to be followed by eric ferrell hi good evening my name is laura hallowell i have been a very long time renter in burlington over 40 years and only recently have become a homeowner as Joan Shannon knows um i um want to say that on close examination the neighborhood code is not about gentle infill and incremental change it's a massive rezoning of burlington i feel the code hands the keys of our city to developers and removes the guard rails that protect our neighborhoods from speculation and over development to suddenly allow this intense development in historic neighborhoods full of compact homes is not incremental in the long run these drastic changes decrease home ownership and the variety of housing in particular the very neighborhoods that are proposed for upzoning contain the type of housing that is very hard to find in burlington these small lots with green spaces absorb storm water and protect the lake they create beautiful streets and sustainable communities our bungalows and trees and birds don't threaten the Vermont landscape they're part of it and they should evolve to create more housing cities especially older ones are full of opportunities for development that don't dismantle neighborhoods and destruct green spaces i urge the city council to reject the current neighborhood code and support a new and better code that protects housing and our neighborhoods thank you thank you very much our next speaker is eric ferrell to be followed by Kathleen donahue good evening eric good evening so i'm here to encourage you to pass neighborhood code tonight without delay burlington needs all the housing you can get and sooner is better than later and more is better than less that's the way i feel about it i'm a housing developer and even though what we're building at cambrian rise and what's planned for the news for the south end and what's being built currently at city place is not the least expensive housing that can be created in the city and i think that what might be overlooked by a lot of people is that the neighborhood code is a serious opportunity to provide affordable housing in burlington housing at scale with smaller buildings smaller footprints i also expect that it will roll out slower than most people expect and that there'll be plenty and it will evolve and there'll be plenty of opportunity to tweak the ordinance as required as we see how that it unfolds so i would encourage you to pass it tonight and let's build all the housing that we can thank you thank you very much eric our next speaker is kathleen donahue to be followed by uh selvae goverby good evening hi my name is kathleen donahue and i live in ward one on henry street i want to recognize the efforts of the mayor's office the planning office and the planning commission for their hard work in attempting to meet the current housing crisis you have succeeded in putting forth a document that has the best interests of the city at heart however now it is time to show that you have listened and understood the public comments and it is time to modify the code so that it is responsive to the many valid concerns and ideas raised this is an opportunity to make the document stronger more enduring and gain wider public approval there is no perfect code but there is a better code that reflects the needs the pressures and the character of different neighborhoods there is a better code that creates greater opportunity for affordable home ownership stable neighborhoods and that values permanent residents old and new and there is a better code that responsibly preserves green space and trees that contribute to the health and well-being of the residents as well as to that of the natural environment my strong preference is that you send the code back to committee to modify and strengthen it short of that i ask you to compromise and adopt councilor doherty's amendment number four given the extreme pressure of student rentals in our area as well as those amendments that shrink units per lot and lock coverage and i ask you to create a realistic plan that deals with the parking demands that will inevitably come with an increase in the number of housing units there needs to be a solid plan to park all of the extra cars other than on the limited green spaces around homes and the already crowded streets thank you for being thoughtful forward thinking leaders your vote is consequential and i hope that your decision considers the long view and unintended consequences as well as the demands of the moment thank you thank you very much our next speaker is solveig overby to be followed by uh anyhow good evening i've learned that these microphones don't work unless you're breathing right onto them despite our best efforts i'm going to try i was told to hold on to it like this my name is solveig overby and i know i've spoken to you before um and the reason i've communicated with my city councillors jean bergman and milo grand about a specific couple specific concerns that i have i'm asking you to not vote approving the neighborhood code and that you actually give the next city council an opportunity and the next ordinance committee an opportunity to review it um and the reason the reason i'm asking for that is that it it really is wishful thinking to think approving 10 units per property lot is going to actually bring in more housing it's it's just wishful thinking to make that happen dependent on private people and my real concern is the fact that we're going to have a possibly a property tax increase this summer and i'm very concerned about the potential for predatory real estate companies private equity people who are once this happens those properties that we have in those neighborhoods that we're hoping that there's going to be people coming along and putting in housing at the scale that we were talked about there's going to be people that are going to go to i'm sure you've heard of 990.com and 72 soul.com which when a senior sees their property tax bill they're going to be calling those people up and then before they're going to be getting a price tag and we are we are basically making the value of those properties as as investment properties rather than as residences more valuable so i'm very concerned that we haven't considered that and i would really like to encourage you guys to recognize that that's going to happen we are going to be subject to predatory real estate private equity firms that are going to recognize that we've just made all of our neighborhoods so much more profitable i have a house a two-bedroom house i could have 10 units on my lot which is completely crazy but i could maybe just cash out and leave but please please do not approve this thank you thank you very much so our next speaker is annie howell to be followed by uh touch losberg good evening my name is annie howell and first i wanted to say thank you to the current configuration of the city council and especially to president caren paul and all of your hard work to this matter over the last years i've enjoyed being your neighbor and i look forward to working with you and partnering with you on this side so i want to talk early and briefly about the neighborhood code especially as a city council representation turns a new leaf and there's a lot of newness to the council in terms of what's been going on in the city currently um so in addition to studying the larger city systems the housing needs the water the green spaces the parking that everybody has been referring to tonight i'm hoping that the city council really reviews the specifics at the ground level and pays attention to current developers landlords some of the loopholes that get um uh taken advantage of um understanding how sometimes those very people can not be the best neighbors business people landlords um their development maybe is not always as green as we would hope and use those not necessarily to scare ourselves that they might do it again but as case studies to make sure that the language doesn't just represent the ideal but that it represents the very specific so that we can make sure that um whatever we pass is very specific to what the the less than ideal could be so that's my hope is that the city council really studies what's going on now to put current language in it i'm happy to be a liaison um with our new city council um and help introduce what neighbors have complained about for a long time at the ground level thank you thanks very much um and again just to keep in mind that the upstairs is open uh you don't need to stand um if you would like to go upstairs you're welcome to and if you are signed up for public forum that's not a problem you know we will wait for you if you want to go upstairs and have a seat um when we call out your name um we will uh you you will still be part of the queue whether you are downstairs or upstairs um our next speaker is Todd Schlossberg to be followed by uh Andrew Listerjin good evening good evening thank you i'm Todd Schlossberg i live in ward one i moved to barrington in 1981 um and i've seen a lot of change on my street luma street uh lower luma street to the west of uh willard was largely predominantly um working families and working people either owning or renting properties and now that's almost almost entirely student rentals so we've seen a lot of change uh that go that is consistent with the auditor's report that tells us that um uh two-thirds of the growth in barrington population since 1990 is accounted for by uvm student growth uh without concomitant uh construction by uvm that's been compelled by the city using all leverage available um i am here in favor of neighborhood code and i'm in favor of a neighborhood code that is equitable and responsible by equitable i mean no exemptions no privileges for the widest wealthiest neighborhoods we can't have a city uh an increase in zoning that leaves the largest most vacant lots that have the most room for expansion remain as low as low density it's not conscious it's not it's not a conscientious responsible way to to legislate in our city we also can't have a neighborhood code that places the greatest burdens on neighborhoods in ward one and ward five that are closest to the campuses that have already borne so much impact without an effort by uvm to make up for the student increases um so i'm asking we're asking for an equitable code it's it's been said that the choice between four against is often a false choice and um this is not a question of four against housing we need infill we need responsible growth we need equitable and responsible housing but to allow a change in the code that will end up promoting developers building a small number of units on lots that will cost uh what will require high rents is not going to uh lead to responsible results asking that you send this back to the planning commission and to the committee thank you very much thank you so much our next speaker is andrew listerian to be followed by julie springer good evening hi hi my name is andrew i'm the resident that milo mentioned earlier uh who lives next to decker i'm not here to talk about that tonight i've got a lot of your ears and we're making really good progress as fast as i can anyway i don't know how you all do it uh my uh people who are older and wiser than me tell me that uh all of you have thankless jobs and i think that's probably true so i'm here to thank you all a lot of this is for a lot of you this is your last meeting um so mr mayor and mark jone sarah hannah alley president caron paul ben tim zaria joe milo and jean thank you so much thanks for what you do for the city thanks for all your hard work thank you thanks very much our next speaker is julie springer to be followed by um kathy nielson good evening hi can you hear me just get as close as you can without like eating it eating the microphone okay my name is julie springer i live in word one and um i i'm going to do some dittoing here but i did want to say thank you to the council the neighborhood code has actually gotten me more connected with the council and i've been so impressed with the professionalism and the service that you guys provide to the city so thank you um i wanted to say i love berlington i'm a strong proponent of modifying berlington's zoning rules to allow for increased density throughout the city at the same time i urge caution to the city council and the mayor to not move forward with the neighborhood code as written with or without amendments many people have spoken about lot coverage lake health parking concerns lack of affordable housing increasing uvm enrollment not being offset by uvm sponsored housing and i share those concerns as well but what's most important to me in addition to those is keeping green spaces it impacts our mental health our physical health it's a refuge for people it provides food for people it helps our pollinators it helps reduce runoff it can be a gathering space for friends family neighbors it's a place for our pets for urban animals to thrive it's a safe haven for our city's trees which need green space for their extensive root systems trees that offer a shade oxygen take in carbon dioxide and our green spaces provide places for children to play so i would urge adding a green space a minimum green space requirement to the neighborhood code to keep our people animals plants and our environment healthy so again i increase i support increased density in berlington but i urge a much more moderate approach three to four x density increase is thank you very much our next speaker is kathy nielsen to be followed by nick persampieri to be followed by robert bristo johnson good evening good evening my name is kathy nielsen i live in ward one two minutes is not a lot of time so i will forego the many details outlined by many neighbors around the city that leads so many of us to believe the neighborhood code should be sent back to committee i wish to address the problem that i believe has the greatest impact on the city now and for years to come the push to pass the neighborhood code has been a flawed process it has promoted anger and distress distressed and it has invited deep skepticism excuse me like so many berlingtonians i found out about the proposal weeks ago and frankly my first reaction was this can't possibly be true how could a proposal with this degree of significance with such severe ramifications for our neighborhoods be close to being voted on and i we're just hearing about it now i still don't understand how the process evolved as it did and you as city counselors and mayor who have lived this have a clearer view but it is important that you understand the ramifications of what has happened what started as a moderate upzoning proposal in october turned into a more radical and far-reaching document by the end of january it never should have happened like this those who questioned the final proposal were left to do research and post questions that in the end were not answered please don't say people should have known the reality is they did not over and over again people said to me you know i follow city city politics pretty closely and i knew nothing about this intentional or not the process resulted in a tremendous amount of confusion and distressed and by the end some pretty despicable name calling berlington residents have an important role to play but we desperately need the mayor and the city council to lead the way ensuring that the process of governance is open and honest please stop and send the neighborhood code back to committee this is the only way we can be sure that the final product is one that best serves all of berlington thank you thank you very much our next speaker is nick resampieri to be followed by robert bristow johnson to be followed by uh loren sheppy good evening good evening i feel really lucky to be able to own and live in a condo in a high density part of ward three i urge you to pass the neighborhood code tonight preferably without weakening amendments as others have said this is a needed first step to address our critical lack of housing in our in in particular our lack of affordable housing it will allow multi family units and the bulk of what we should be building should be multi family units because with immediate sales price of four hundred and sixty thousand dollars single family homes are just simply out of reach of the average berlington household which has a household income of sixty five thousand dollars the neighborhood code is also needed to address the climate crisis uh households that live in units and multi family buildings use on average less than half the energy of those who live in single family homes and increased density also helps reduce transportation emissions of greenhouse gases which is our largest source of greenhouse gases in berlington and in the state we need this to allow more development to happen in berlington rather than out in the surrounding suburbs which has all kinds of negative impacts between 2010 and 2020 berlington gained five and a half percent of population at the same time williston grew by over 16 percent in south berlington by 13 percent please pass the neighborhood code tonight thank you thank you very much our next speaker is robert risto johnson to be followed by lauren shepi to be followed by uh philip kiefer kiefer you'll you'll let me know if i've mispronounced your name good evening robert so i don't want to repeat what romeo and this other guy said but i i will anyway i am in deep appreciation uh of our city council president and our outgoing mayor especially 12 years but um do not repeat i'm just going to go to chapter two and chapter two is the flip side of this thing in which um of the 13 policymakers sitting at this table uh six of you are not going to be here next week and i'm concerned about the loss of institutional memory and so um the six that are replacing you aren't there so i can't harangue them at the moment but if i could i would tell them to listen to you the at least the other seven because sometimes there are issues of stability that are that are that become untenable when there is this much institutional change in one in one simple term of government and so um i'm i'm glad that there's at least seven of you that's hanging around so thank you thank you very much our next speaker is lauren shepi to be followed by philip keifer to be followed by uh lisa lax good evening hi uh thanks for giving me time to speak tonight my name is lauren shepi i live in word seven um i don't usually tend these things in person so i'm a little nervous sorry um but i did feel like it was important for me to show up in person tonight uh my partner and i moved here to burlington for the community um this is the type of place that we could see ourselves starting a family and putting down roots uh affordability and housing is a really big barrier to entry for that as someone whose future in this city depends on affordable housing and the development of affordable housing here in burlington i've followed the neighborhood code for the i think seven or eight months that it's been in development and i've seen the immense body of work that has gone into this passing this code tonight is a really huge step in making burlington a more vibrant and more affordable city where myself and my peers can afford to own homes and start families the best time to pass these changes was 10 years ago but the second best time is now so please pass the neighborhood code tonight thank you thank you very much our next speaker is philip keifer to be followed by lisa lax to be followed by um matthew thank you good evening hi my name is philip keifer i'm living ward two i'm here to ask this council to pass the code as written without amendments um accepting the wildlife corridors i'm into that um last time i was here i talked about struggling to afford housing while apprenticing in the trades in burlington tonight i'm really angry um i think many of you might be thinking this is about a couple amendments to the code maybe thinking about it a little more what's the big deal um but the point is that until this city stops entertaining knee jerk concerns about density we're going to continue having this fight every time burlington thinks about building new housing and i'm not talking about a slippery slope in the future we had this same fight over city place and the south end and that delayed new housing for years and honestly i'm sick of being told to pretend that everyone opposing the code is acting with the public good in mind organizers against the neighborhood code have continually misrepresented its effects on public on social media i literally don't have time to list all of the misrepresentations that it violates the home act that it'll lead to building eight units on any lot or that it's going to lead to a giant increase in lot coverage clearly that misinformation has worked the opposition to the code we can go into the details but don't have time is led by people who've opposed housing in their words and their actions full stop any housing any compromise i think that part of a healthy democratic discourse is being able to call that what it is which is nimbyism and i'm sorry to those of you that didn't hear about the code until now but there have been months of outreach that's not a reason not to take this tiny first step at reforming discriminatory neighborhood code we're in a desperate place last week the scott administration evicted hundreds of people from motels if we give in to nimbyism now we're just as responsible thank you so much we're we're gonna try not to do that we're gonna try not to do what you just did so please don't do that everyone deserves to be heard and they deserve to be heard respectfully and not called out for anything you can you can all speak to what you care about and the issue that you care about without doing it at the expense of others uh the next speaker is lisa lax to be followed by matthew pre-meister so hello my name is lisa lex i'm a 39 year resident of ward one and first let me say i do support increasing the density of housing here in burlington but i believe the proposed plan that the council is facing needs to be reconsidered and studied further and the reason for this is there's according to my city councilor there's been no study of how this plan would affect the infrastructure in burlington such as water sewer transportation electricity streets etc the impact on the lake or how it would contribute to the much needed housing specifically for low income and working young families um and i'll say in general i think we have a problem in the city and in our country at large in how we develop policies and plans for development business and economic interests tend to dominate the decision-making process and decisions are often made in a piecemeal rather than a holistic and systematic manner so i my hope for the future is that our council and our next mayor will lead a process in which we engage multiple group and voices to develop a vision for what we want burlington to look like in the next 10 20 30 years and then when the city is faced with proposals for change in housing density and other issues that we have established some principles um and goals in a larger vision thank you thanks very much our next speaker is matthew premeister premeister to be followed by uh sam black thank you sam blackman uh to be followed by uh rye Sherman good evening howdy my name is matthew premisler thanks for the attempt it's a very hard one and i'm a ward 8 resident i'm just here to quickly say i support the neighborhood code i understand there are a lot of there are a lot of concerns about it but right now the housing crisis comes first and there are people who are sleeping on the streets tonight because they can't afford homes and i understand all these concerns and yes it's imperfect but right now what we need to do is build housing so the people who don't have housing can live there um that's really all i have to say thank you so much have a good one god bless you thank you very much uh so our next speaker is sam blackman to be followed by rye Sherman to be followed by jason van der eich good evening uh you can go ahead it'll it'll catch up to you all right uh just like to say i'm here to support the neighborhood code tonight passing it without amendments and without sending it back to committee um this is because frankly it needs to be done and as a speaker earlier said it needed to be done 10 years ago that was the best time to do it um i think we all know that housing prices are extreme in burlington just prices in general are extreme in burlington um as a native vermoner myself and a uvm student i'm you know pretty used to extreme prices let's say and i understand that uvm isn't necessarily um a good actor in negotiations on housing and development and zoning and all that but um frankly i think that uh it doesn't really matter so much because we need housing really desperately like as my friend here said there are people sleeping on the street every day in burlington vermont there are people who want to move to burlington vermont but can't there are people there are students here who want to stay and can't because the housing prices are so high it's unlivable it's an untenable situation and i think this passing passing the neighborhood code tonight without amendments is the best way to remedy this situation thank you very much thank you our next speaker is rye sherman to be followed by jason vandreish good evening good evening my name is rye sherman and i am a resident of ward 8 i'm here today to ask you to please pass the neighborhood code tonight i'm currently in my first year at uvm and i already feeling i'm already feeling anxiety for when i have to navigate finding housing in burlington amidst our current housing crisis burlington desperately needs new zoning policies to replace our outdated policies that caused and perpetuate this current housing crisis we need to enact policy that allows us to build more residential units this is crucial to providing housing for burlington's rapidly growing population and reduce reliance on dangerous and environmentally unfriendly transportation this code will also increase energy efficiency in our buildings by decreasing the heat loss and number of systems per unit the neighborhood code is a small yet critical step towards better zoning policy and burlington this code can act as a launching point for more meaningful policy and work on the housing crisis please pass this code tonight thank you for your time thank you very much our next speaker is jason vandreish to be followed by martin gillies to be followed by kathy allwell good evening good evening my name is jason vandreish i live in ward five my family moved to burlington 16 years ago we bought a sweet little house um that was a stretch for us financially we paid 305 thousand dollars for it which would be a steal these days um and i love our neighborhood i love where we live i love everything about it it's a great place to live i love burlington's historic character and i want other people who arrived after me to get to enjoy that too that's fundamentally what the neighborhood code is about it's about not keeping the drawbridge up and when you hear let's go slower that's fundamentally what is being said let's keep the drawbridge up longer i want the drawbridge down i want more people to be able to enjoy burlington the city that i've come to love so much and if i were to move here i wouldn't be able to afford a house um and i'm not willing to take for myself something that i'm not willing to offer to others please pass the code tonight as is without amendments the city needs this so many people need this the people who need it uh are probably the people who are least likely to be able to turn out tonight and say that so i as a comfortable person who owns a house and have paid off my mortgage i'm asking you to make this change so other people have the opportunity to do the same thank you thank you very much our next speaker is martin ghillies to be followed by kathy allwell and uh karen long good evening hi council um i guess i would start by echoing romeo's comments um there will be a page in history for all of you we'll get working on the wikipedia um right after this meeting updating it um i live right around the corner from jason um i'm in support of the neighborhood code as written um i think it's important that as a city we have multiple tools to deal with the housing crisis new development being one of them that's what we're seeing at cambrian rise city place um there's also redevelopment i think you know the south end up zone has been a great tool to unlock sort of land that's under used right now and then infill will be the third tool and it's not that one of these solutions will be the the silver bullet but all of them need to be in our arsenal all of them need to be in our toolbox um i do think it's unfortunate that that people would would limit us limit us as a city um to only having two of the tools um i also would agree with jason's comments that calls for delay or sending it back to council or it's a little bit of the mark of privilege someone who owns a home and has stable housing can afford to you know delay talks on increasing housing um and so i just would ask that you do the what i think is the correct move in the situation and approve the neighborhood code tonight without amendment thank you thanks very much so our next speaker is kathy all well to be followed by karen long and michael long and then uh jim yes thank you uh kathy go ahead welcome i totally agree that we need housing and i would have no problems still passing neighborhood code but we haven't put anything about affordability into this thing and having worked as a social worker in this city for 30 years i can't sit here and say yes go ahead with it just because we need housing for housing sake we need it yes but i do think that we need to look at the affordability there has to be something in there that makes these dwellings that they're going to start building affordable and i guess that is for me the biggest thing you've heard me many times talk about infrastructure and all those other things but if you if you pass this thing tonight please do not do it without putting something in there for affordability and i would rather see um i want to say congressman councillor dory and councillor high tower's amendments passed before we put this forward thank you thank you very much our next speaker is karen long to be followed by by michael long and uh jim you're going to tell me your name one more time po drosky thank you good evening um i've been here before also like cafe i guess i my biggest problem has been the process as you know finding out in october and i do go to meetings like a lot of meetings um and then finding out in january how radically different it was that i found really troubling and i did help notify neighbors i stopped people walking their dogs on my street and said hey have you heard a neighborhood code nobody had nobody um we do have a petition there are 13 and 313 residents who have signed it and we are for increasing density we are for housing we want to protect the lake we want some protection for affordability and we want some protection for a variety of housing right now i really see um especially in ward one if somebody buys a lot next door to me and we're allowed to put eight or 10 units i think it will be student housing uvm should provide their own housing i think students do need housing but i would like to protect some of this housing for a residence and there's nothing in there for that at all uh i guess and i i get this i have three adult children actually one is in oregon and she does own her a home housing is not inexpensive in oregon my son is in florida and he would die if he could buy a house here for the prices of our houses florida is super expensive so i get that but it doesn't mean i'm a bad person because i own my house and there has been a lot of disparaging remarks um about people who don't want eight or 10 units in their backyard i do want to have a backyard i have grand kids that will play but i have a tiny little postage stamp so that's a big problem here one size fits all is not to me good zoning thank you thank you so much uh so our next speaker is michael long um to be followed by jim padrowski to be followed by uh jack tiano good evening welcome good evening plan btv declares that burlington will sustain neighborhoods with small incremental and subtle change 24 vsa section 4441 requires that every zoning ordinance conforms with or furthers the goals and policies contained in plan btv neighborhood code increases density eight or ten fold and lot coverage by as much as 71 percent this is not small or subtle and a one size fits all citywide mega up zoning is hardly incremental in a court of law i would rest my case open and shut neighborhood code is illegal under vermont law here tonight i will add that there is no downside for the community in returning neighborhood code to committee to be improved made legal and passed by the incoming council the community is unified in its commitment to increasing the affordability the diversity and the supply of housing opportunities but the community is deeply divided over this ordinance and if neighborhood code is passed tonight division will grow and intensify as more and more people discover and witness its actual provisions we will never get it perfect but we can get it right and respect one another doing so the incivility that has come to light among some of the avid supporters of this measure imputing motives wishing death on those who disagree discredits the process the product and the sorry state of burlington politics we have a chance to begin a new chapter together and embrace genuine public engagement but are at grave risk of doubling down on division thank you thank you so much our next speaker is jim padrowski to be followed by jack tiano and uh william morris good evening hello my name is jim padrowski i'm a cab driver out at the airport uh just uh this last week this memo uh gene bergeron has a copy of it uh about us getting a new meter increase but the way they say it here uh you guys can also get it from city hall here uh how is about the meter increase we're going to be getting a dollar which has been increased in 10 years which we all thank you uh but how they're going to set the meter up that's the question uh but i work but like my fellow drivers most of those guys are a emigrants they don't understand it uh we'd like some clarification on how the meter is going to be set up in the next couple weeks that's all i have to say have a good night thank you thanks so much our next speaker is jack tiano to be followed by william morris and amy mentis i had like a quick unrelated comment but there's a lot of people here tonight so i'll skip this and just speak at the public hearing later okay all right um i'll just put you in the queue for the public public hearing oh you did okay so we'll go to william morris to be followed by amy mentis to be followed by um ron wanna maker good evening folks um i think i am fortunate enough to know many of you i've been a homeowner in berlington for 20 years owing to happy accidents and no small amount of privilege um in that time i uh have noticed it somehow become miraculously even more difficult to become a uh a citizen of berlington i am here tonight to encourage you to pass the neighborhood code without amendments uh i think that the um just to echo some of the things that that jason said earlier uh this is a city a city evolves a city changes and a city grows and i uh i think that you know selfishly speaking the time to pass this was in fact 20 years ago would have made things easier for folks in my cohort but at this point waiting an additional 20 years means that my children who are berlingtonians as well uh will have an even poorer chance of being able to continue to live in the city that they love um i think that's about it i'll leave it there thank you great thank you so much uh so our next speaker is amy mentis to be followed by ron wanna maker and janet mcjugal good evening hi everyone um can you hear me can you hear me now all right thanks uh for all you do um i don't have much to say because it seems like everybody said well everybody already said thoughts that i had had had already and i also tried to post on the front porch forum but i think i've been banned and i don't know why because i sent it on friday and it never came out anyway um so i'm a little nervous right now i'm feeling a little paranoid now i didn't eat or smoke anything before i came down here it's not that anyway um i know i'm taking up my time talking about this but i i really want you to revisit this code i do agree that we need more housing obviously i was going to say obs and affordability that's a huge question like everybody said is it going to be affordable probably not um the whole green sustainability thing is new built new buildings are even if you build them to be green when they're already there the whole process of of building new buildings the the carbon footprint everything that's involved the materials they're they're chinsier the materials now the new the best compliment on a new building i could say it could have been worse so um i think we need to look at well we can't anymore the memorial because we were really horrible stewards there um as and that went on for a long time that's a whole other issue however that is a building that's embodied energy that's sitting there um and i can go on about that but there's a lot of yeah i think we need to start small with infill there's plenty of spaces i've seen driving around walking around at that uh for example above old dole boys you could easily pop something up there you can still get a lot of housing that way thank you thank you so much uh so we'll go to ron wannamaker to be followed by janet mcjugel and susan montries and we will wrap up with that dug dug women good evening thank you all for being here thank you for everything you're doing um i appreciate uh all the efforts all the way across the board i'm a nimby i don't want something big and giant in my backyard or next door to me in my backyard so i'll just say that um i think that as previously mentioned we all acknowledge the um the need for housing i think as a carpenter the solution to every problem isn't isn't a hammer and i think that uh the solution to every problem we have been facing berlin can isn't development and isn't just blanket development um i'm also a preservationist and i care about um everybody wants to live here it's a beautiful city and i'm sympathetic i bought a house in 2004 i almost lost it in foreclosure twice didn't and um i understand the struggles it was a big single family home that i turned into four units so again i i live to increase density in housing and and do it in a way that doesn't impact the character of the neighborhoods and the character of the city we love and i'm completely sympathetic to the students here and i notice the big age gap the pros and the cons right so there's a lot of people here my age or older who've been here for a really long time are struggling to keep what they work so hard for and keep the character and the beauty of our city that we come to love and then there's a whole generation of people want to be here and want any kind of opportunity to stay here i think um sending this back to committee for revisions and further work is a necessary part of the process i know that these things take forever and everybody i'm agon everybody's really um trying to reach out and stretch out and get the word out across the board and it just is never as effective as we like it to be and i think there's a lot of room for improvement and i think if we're looking at projects and we're saying that we have to consider a historic building but not the site that's a step in the wrong direction thank you very much thank you very much so we'll go to uh janet mcdougall to be followed by susan montress to be followed by Doug weiman and we will end with mark stevensson good evening how are you great um well there's two things on the agenda the um cherry street the cherry street sidewalk right next to the courthouse is not totally done it needs to be replaced the other thing is that um esti ireland is the one that's building these houses and there's a house up cherry street that is being redone apartment complex they're going to be building houses as well as hotels and motels as well as housing that boston is going to come and help them that's what i heard on the news that's all the things that i have to say great thank you so much our next speaker is susan montress to be followed by Doug weiman to be followed by mark stevensson good evening good evening hi i'm susan montress no worries on the pronunciation it's a tricky one um and i'm here to speak in favor of the neighborhood code and urge you to pass it tonight with no amendments as another resident of ward five and long-term homeowner i've lived through so many processes plannings invitations outreaches and you know when we try to put in a community garden the neighborhood on the other side of the park said we didn't know about it and was in wild opposition um and i've seen bike lanes delayed and walk bike infrastructure delayed for more study and more process and more planning and more input from people who are not skilled or understand infrastructure and its development so i just want to thank you for all the work you're doing and say that i trust that you've done the research and i encourage you to have confidence in what you've learned and figured out and proceed a pace thank you thanks very much our next speaker is Doug Doug weiman to be followed by mark stevensson good evening good evening i'm Doug weiman i'm an architect in town i work with developers i have made myself familiar with the neighborhood code and wrote you a three page document about how it does not make affordable housing it only makes expensive housing um and there are half a dozen suggestions i made on how to make code changes that would make affordable housing and i'm sure there's many other people that could come up with other good ideas on how to make affordable housing um airheart monkey cannot be here tonight and i am going to he's right behind you airheart just walked in the door so um i will uh um the cost to build in burlington right now is it there's just no way you can make affordable housing without some sort of subsidies one of the suggestions i had was to come up with a way to allow people to build modular housing somewhere within the city limits and charge a no profit rent to use that space to find a way to um you know reduce the cost of building housing right now if you wouldn't need wanted to rent a two bedroom apartment or buy a two bedroom unit in burlington you need to make over a hundred thousand dollars and it's that kind of information that you need to do to do your homework on to understand why neighborhood code as written does not make anything affordable just adding units it's just over time doesn't bring the cost to the housing down because other costs go up the cost of the infrastructure goes up the cost of labor has been going up you need to come up with other ways to make this affordable whether it's amendments back to committee or more work on your part over the next year to get this affordable before it actually starts construction thank you thank you very much and our last speaker that's joining us in conchoice who's a burlington resident is mark stevensson good evening mark chairwoman paul city council i've jotted a few notes on the neighborhood code tonight's topic du jour the heart and the soul of new england vermont and burlington is its history it's lake it's mountains and the steeple at the end of church streets it's defined a large part by its architecture and its space the town square the town meeting we live in a community where i can go to the y and see my senator i can go to the tennis courts at the park and see my governor and i can walk down the street or the and i can say hi to the mayor if you think of vermont you don't think of wilson road you don't think of anywhere architecture you certainly don't think of the newly developed canyon corridor into a new ski coming in from st mikes that's recently been done and you don't think about the mall protect the integrity of the city as all of vermont has done to protect the beauty and spaces of its towns four two years ago we were dealing with the same exact issues the exact same vacancy rates and taxes and affordability were big issues regardless of how you vote on the neighborhood code to thoughtfully revise to a more vermont scale or to pass it as is the vacancy rates affordability and tax issues will remain we will then again try to grow our way thank you for your time thank you very much so those are the speakers that are joining us in con toys we do have uh eight people that are joining us online who wish to speak during public forum and um the first is julia randall uh to be followed by paul bierman and julia um i have found you and enabled your um enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now if you just unmute on your side can you hear me yes we can go ahead okay great great um i'm julia randall i'm a renter in ward six um i also work as a community planner for local firm and i serve planning commissioner in berlington and have since 2022 tonight i won't focus my comments on dimensional standards or specific changes uh instead i want to speak on something more fun which is the fabric of berlington's neighborhoods in the process of creating this amendment we've heard from some community members who claim that the neighborhood code will destroy the fabric of our neighborhoods this begs the question what makes the fabric of our neighborhoods strong is that the specific design and shape of buildings for a certain number of homes on the street or is it the sheer area devoted to private lawns i'd argue that these things guarantee a strong neighborhood fabric what does guarantee a strong neighborhood fabric is people and we're losing people in berlington i'm 26 and i'm rapidly losing my community of friends in their 20s and 30s through the housing crisis i've had friends tell me that they no longer feel like berlington has a place for them when they face astronomical home prices and they can no longer justify giving half their income to a slumlord they figure it's time to move on even if they love berlington and want to stay here when my friends move away they take their energy their talents their creativity and their potential contributions to berlington with them this is just my circle of friends there are many other stories like the one i'm describing berlington's intergenerational community fabric is at risk of unraveling because there are simply not enough places for people to live the neighborhood code which i estimate would add about 100 at most is a very very small step towards changing that trend please think of the people that would be homeowners who make up the fabric of berlington neighborhoods today but are being actively pushed out and will continue to do so if this is pushed back to committee and for the delay in this process to maintain so we need people and we need more homes thank you can you hear me so i want to thank you all for increasing housing in berlington as the council has done dramatically in the last year with the south end and other developments it's something we need to do and it's something i'm a strong advocate for i'm also a strong advocate for the environment and i believe that we can and should protect both housing and the environment i forwarded to you all a petition that has names of over 310 berlington citizens and they include constituents in every city ward who oppose passing neighborhood code as is and support sending it back to committee where with more public input the ordinance can be improved i want to make sure that you know this is not about delay this is about doing it right um there's widespread opposition to the current proposal along people who elected you to represent them and i think you've heard a lot about that tonight but i want to focus on the things that we can do to make neighborhood code better we can assure that much of the new housing is affordable we can remove inequality between neighborhoods we can ensure diverse housing options at a variety of price levels for single people couples and families we can protect green space we can minimize runoff that results in sewage overflows into the lake that impacts water quality and closes berlington beaches and we can preserve trees that ameliorate the urban heat island effect as our climate warms i want to say there's an elephant in the room that we're really not talking about and that's the university of vermont and i ask you to put pressure on the university of vermont which the state auditor says has caused much of the current housing crisis to build housing for its students now they could build thousands of beds and it could happen a whole lot faster and with a whole lot less environmental impact than infilling that's proposed in neighborhood code so lastly i urge you not to pass the code now and then try to fix it in the future as some has suggested there's just too much at stake to pass inadequate legislation and hope it'll get fixed later i urge you to take the time to get this right build consensus in the community follow plan btv and pass updated zoning with broad public support to increase house thank you thank you very much our next speaker is sharon busher and sharon i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now um president paul i wanted to speak during the public hearing thank you the next speaker is jim drummond and jim i have found you and enabled your microphone so this is anna drummond and i'm with jim drummond and the two of us have been looking at this issue as well we would encourage you to delay passing neighborhood code and send it back to committee um we've lived here for 30 years we love the variety of people who live here we love the vibrancy of the community we would love to see more young families working people seniors and students all living working and studying here together enjoying all that we have but my problem is that we believe that there will be unintended consequences of this code revision such that the people who will benefit most are those investors and developers who create housing to increase their profit by renting to students at ridiculously high prices and then not providing decent upkeep adequate garbage removal et cetera and that's not what we need more of so we need to make sure that this is really targeted to have more housing for people who will live here and increase vibrancy of our cities populate our schools enjoy our lakefront um and i have to echo what professor bierman has just said about eroding our green space and looking at the ramifications to the lake and our infrastructure that's pretty much that at all thank you thank you thank you thanks very much our next speaker is uh richard single and rich i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now okay i first want to thank you councillor paul for your years of service to the city um i've written to many of you asking that you wait to finalize the neighborhood code until after a strong mou is negotiated with uvm i support the underlying ideas of the neighborhood code but the idea of trying to address the lack of housing in burlington without the city first negotiating a strong mou does not make any sense as you know the state auditor's report on the uvm mou states that uvm student growth accounts for more than two-thirds of all burlington population growth since 1990 my main concern is the potential for adding more housing that has a minimal impact on the availability for non-students that would make the neighborhood code a self-defeating proposal in the area around uvm this is similar to the concern of only addressing undergraduates at uvm in the mou it only sounds good if you really don't think about it all that long that is why i think that phasing phasing in modifications for the area around uvm after a strong mou makes the most sense please consider amending the neighborhood code with some type of financial disincentive in the neighborhoods surrounding uvm for adding housing that is primarily student housing another option is to limit the addition of infill for the first couple of years to owner-occupied houses it's pretty clear what will happen if these issues are not addressed proactively passing a flawed code with the intention of fixing it later is not a good plan thank you very much our next speaker it appears as though nancy kerby you have a letter that you had and i perhaps might be on our consent agenda and it didn't appear as though you wanted to speak although you did fill out the form and i don't see i don't see you online if you are online um and you can just use the raise hand function i'm happy to recognize you um with that our last speaker who's joining us online is karen dawson and karen i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak good can you hear me uh yes well thank you um i just wanted to register my hope that you do delay the vote and then that goes back to committee for a little further discussion and fine tuning and maybe not such a blanket zoning one size fits all really isn't good zoning i i don't think um it seems like we've got a pretty good object lesson right in this neighborhood i've been a resident of lakeside for 40 years and um there's a project that's been proposed it will pop right up in front of me i'm going to be a nimby here and say i hate to lose the view that i've had for 40 years but i myself and quite a few others will be losing a wonderful view of the lake and it's probably the only view corridor for the entire street that runs parallel from the st john's club down to the end of um central af um so the i didn't know anything about this until about three weeks ago i think many of us just found out three weeks ago so um it just feels like for such a major change um that's been kind of ramrodded through and i don't want to point fingers or accuse anyone um i'm at fault for not catching everything that goes into my spam box uh i just can't get that front porch form to come into my inbox so uh it's my fault but i also know a lot of other people that didn't know about it either and i'm kind of wondering why this kind of major change couldn't be agreed upon by the council and um and then put on the ballot for the city to vote on or at least a referendum item that would get you know citywide approval which implies kind of citywide awareness so that we'd all have been aware and not be feeling so distressed it's been a tough last three weeks kind of trying to make my peace with everything thank you very much thank you very much uh so that concludes the people that are joining us on zoom we do have two non-burlington residents uh they're joining us in contoy so we will wrap up with them the first is michael arnold to be followed by karen seda my apologies i'm sorry oh you wanted to be in the public hearing okay um and then so that would mean our last speaker is karen seda a Beyonce's album comes out this friday so i came to slay okay i do want to say congratulations to the new council i hope that especially uh Joan i all four bold women i always represent bold women i always represent women that are speaking the truth honestly and authentically no matter what opposition that's against them but i'm here to talk about the solar eclipse i really hope that when people look at the solar eclipse that they realize that there is a god and he is real and he is alive and he really doesn't play i mean i'm one of god's favorites so i can speak this with authority so i do want to say that with the solar eclipse when we look at it when we see it when we see the creativeness of god when we realize that he very much is real and that's why we should really learn that our actions are important what we do is important and karma is real like my girl taylor swift loves to say and we need to honestly remember that when we're treating others and how we're treating others and think about our citizens and how we're harming others when we don't let people speak the truth when we don't let other people get housing when we know that they can and deserve housing and things like that so we need to remember that god watches everything everything that's done in the dark always comes to light and to my righteous people who suffer to all my pretty girls who suffer for speaking the truth i'm here for you i represent you and you know the the righteous our afflictions are many but the lord delivers us from everything so i'm here to remind us that he is real he is alive shout out to all my pretty girls my honest girls my real girls my college educated girls shout out to women who are out here fighting continuously and loving each other loving our enemies all the girls that are in their era of loving their enemies loving their haters shout out to girls like us shout out to all the girls who come from nothing and still fight for a better future for your city and continue to come here so i represent those girls i see you my queens and i know that we're going to overcome thank you thank you very much on that note we are going to close the public forum at 759 and before we return to our consent agenda as a number of people have alluded to during public forum this is a special meeting for a number of us at this table along with our mayor we have five city counselors for whom this is our last meeting the mayor on behalf of the city has a gift to give each of our departing members to honor their service to our city and then it has been our long-standing tradition that we will go to the council either departing counselors or others for comments and reflections mayor weinberger thank you president paul and thank you for prioritizing a few minutes for this before we have important work to do that is going to consume a lot of the evening but i think it's important this is happening now instead of one in the morning first i want to start by thanking you president paul not only for for leading this council and the public through a very important and productive two years but also for your long and enduring service to burlington that goes back far beyond that as a lifelong resident burlington president paul served on the electric commission police commission pension task force and joined this council in 2008 we've worked together as council mayor for all of my 12 year tenure and i've always appreciated your meticulous preparation your guidance and council and partnership on so many efforts over these many years i want to extend my deep appreciation to the whole council together we have managed an incredibly incredible body of work over the last year and an important time the city's pandemic recovery our last budget deployed vital recovery dollars and we've secured progress on generational infrastructure projects we've accelerated the city's work in combating the drug crisis with a focus on both harm reduction and enforcement we strengthen the airport through several major projects and partner new partnerships and we've continued to make great progress towards delivering on the promise of housing as a human right and i hope of course that we take another major step forward tonight i'm proud of the work we've done together and i'm grateful for the time energy and focus you've each brought to the big challenges and great opportunities before burlington i want to say thanks especially to those counselors who are concluding their service tonight so councillor joe mcgee allie jang soraya hightower and hannah king i have enjoyed and valued our time serving alongside each other and i know that burlington is better for your service to the counselors who are remaining to start a new year's business in a few days time i hope you're able to get even bigger things done and i want to say to you specifically counselors shannon who i've also served with for 12 years that i've always benefited from your expertise your experience and support and i'm confident the new council will benefit from your wisdom and long experience and leadership on the new council um you will all have my support and encouragement from afar if there's anything i can do to help in a new role i'd be happy to do that and with that i do have some plaques to hand out so for those counselors that are either departing or for anyone else who wishes to offer this is your moment councillor hightower um i'll make quick comments just because i do especially as we're having this discussion i think about inclusivity and diversity all of the time and i do think i am really glad that i was i was somehow the first woman of color in the council but i wasn't the first woman of council to leave the council so i'm mad that i didn't get both of those titles maya beat me into one of them but um i i think especially when i look at the folks in them i think we're all wonderfully professional great people i'm glad we're all in the council and there's two renters on the council out of 12 people and i think that especially as we have housing debates it's very true also of the planning commission it's true of a lot of our um it's true of a lot of our bodies as the folks who somebody in public forum said that the folks who most need to see change in the city in order to be able to live here aren't aren't aren't at this table or can't joan hannah sorry i know you're both renters um but um so i just want to continue to encourage folks to get people who aren't us to this table thank you thank you very much councilor high tower uh councilor king thank you i will also keep my comments brief as i know we have a long night ahead of us first and foremost i want to thank my ward eight neighbors when i moved to burlington in 2018 i had no idea that i'd eventually have the opportunity to represent them on the council hasn't been the easiest road to get here but it really was an honor to spend my last year serving on the council i'd be remiss to not take this opportunity to i'm only going to thank three people there's a lot more that deserve to be thanked but i'm going to keep it at three um first and foremost thank you mayor wineburger you have been such an incredible ally to me and some of the toughest moments i faced while serving you've given me valuable advice and often just let me rant um i'm grateful to have served with you councilor shannon you have been the greatest mentor i could have asked for on the council you are the epitome of what it means to be a strong and intentional leader thank you for always answering my silly questions often with no judgment and i'm so i'm very grateful to consider you a friend and finally councilor dority i know you're embarrassed that i'm doing this i think my favorite part of serving on the council has been the opportunity to serve with you i'm so lucky to have you in my life and i can't wait to continue watching what you do thank you thanks so much councilor king uh are there any other counselors that wish to offer any comments um councilor mickey thank you president paul uh i didn't prepare any remarks this evening but i just wanted to say a quick thank you to my constituents who well we haven't always agreed over the last two and a half years i appreciate folks showing up for public forum for public engagement opportunities and uh i'm grateful to have had the support of of many folks um to to get me here and to have the honor and privilege of representing ward three in the city council for the last two and a half years it has felt like 10 years at some points and i certainly am grateful to be getting monday evenings back uh at least for the time being and uh look forward to playing a role in supporting new counselors and uh and just joining you all and making sure that we have a bright and optimistic future ahead of us thank you thank you very much councilor mickey uh are there any other count councilor jang yes um i also want to say thank you to everyone in the city of birdington um and especially for the people who live in ward seven i also want us to do a particular appreciation to all the city staff especially the department head that i worked with over the past six seven years you all care deeply about the city and i know with the change of administration i hope that most of you will keep on staying to keep on building and keep on making birdington the best small city in north america who would think one day that this new american from africa with no english or broken english will run for city council and win who would have thought of that nobody and i think while doing it i have learned so much this has been an opportunity of a lifetime if i have um misjudged you or misinterpreted you i really want to apologize to every single person because right now is ramadan it is required for us to apologize to every single one of us if i hurt your feelings or have done something knowingly or unknowingly i am apologizing you all have made me a better leader right now you a better person who would think also that this new american will win in the new north end world seven if you don't trust me go to our new north end facebook group the most controversial part of the city and i was able to keep on leading and winning as an independent i am not a democrat i am not a progressive i was just early jeng and you gave me the opportunity to serve to my fellow city councilors those that i that are new those that are old councillor shannon you always come in my dreams i don't know for some reason especially when we have a controversial issue she will show in my dreams and advocating for what she believe in um councillor paul really you have shown deep friendship i mean about this because sometimes you know we don't agree but we became friends along the way and i think you have done a lot for me and also for the people who are suffering back in home in africa i want to say thank you to my progressive city councillors i really tried to be like you but i could not i definitely i could not um yes we still love you babe yes but i you know you all contributed to my leadership style and to the love of the city and let's keep making burlington the best city it can be thank you all mr mayer for governor maybe councillor jang others uh i guess um i can multiply double however long you spoke because i've served a little bit longer than you have so you'll forgive me um i do want to express my thanks and appreciation to the mayor uh councillors jang magie hightower and king for their commitment and service to the city it's been a pleasure with working with all of you and i'm honored to have served with you uh i've thought about this day for a pretty long time i've been here for 16 years and i've wondered how i would feel when this evening finally came upon me tonight marks the end of an immensely rewarding and an honored journey and it is also the beginning of a new one because when a door closes another one opens um over my years on the council um i've served with two mayors five council presidents alongside 42 councillors and i've worked with 46 department heads and many many city employees who come to work every day working to improve the lives of the community that we all serve um i do want to express my sincere thanks to the department heads and many city employees that i've worked with uh you know it's when you're a city councillor you're incredibly dependent on the people that work in these buildings every day because to be honest with you they make you look good you can't you can't do we can't do our work without their help and so i am deeply appreciative of their of the of the efforts that so many have have given to me um so that i can do the job that i do um i can't thank them all personally tonight but please know that i know who you are and i appreciate your work and your dedication i do also want to highlight the work of one employee one of the unsung heroes in city hall um lori thank you so much she's crying so it's going to be hard for me not to cry um for those who don't know um lori is uh she has a long title but basically it should be the glue that keeps the city council together there is no there is no way that you can be a council president and certainly councillor shannon can attest to this without the help of lori olberg um i also did actually count up i know this is a little bit crazy but it's the cpa in me um i have sat at this table through 420 meetings um thousands of hours not only at this table but in committee meetings neighborhood events other gatherings and with few exceptions um it's amazing how with the passage of time you forget the ones that you maybe didn't enjoy the most um with few exceptions i've enjoyed all of it i do want to thank the voters of ward six um for their support their encouragement their wisdom their guidance over gosh can it be 16 years um my neighbors in ward six which is a ward that i grew up in have given me an enormous opportunity they give it they've given me the honor being able to do this work and in return i have tried to honor their vote of confidence in me i am deeply grateful um representing the many counselors there were 42 of them that i've served with are the 11 of you that are here and on their behalf just want to thank um the 11 colleagues that sit with me and the mayor as i'm heartened by the work that we've done together i'm most proud of how much we have all tried and you all know this about me have all tried to set high standards for working collaboratively for bringing out the best in one another for our community for supporting our city's present and the amazing future that we all know that we have in front of us while at the same time honoring our treasured past which is a tradition that i know those who i leave behind um will continue um i do want to also uh mention that uh as those of us who sit here every other monday night and then some know that no one sits at this table alone um for me as for many of us serving on the city council is a family commitment and it was 16 years ago together with my parents um my husband mark andrew adam and caroline our children sat in con toys auditorium when i was sworn in on april 7 2008 we were together when the journey began and we are here together tonight as the journey ends and a new chapter begins um i'll just close by saying that um beyond what what words can fully express that i have been so so lucky to have had my family um alongside with me in this journey they know how i feel now all of you know how i feel i am blessed every day i'm just truly blessed in so many ways thank you so much if there aren't any other counselors who have anything left to say at this moment um we will continue with our agenda um the next item on our agenda is item number six which is our consent agenda is there a motion to move our consent agenda and take the actions indicated thank you so much i can always count on you councilor mcgee um is there any is there a second to that motion i'm sorry my apologies go ahead nope i was just going to make the motion but uh i would move that we adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated thank you so much uh seconded by councilor jang um is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye and any opposed please say no we've improved our consent agenda and keep in mind that our consent agenda did have the two resolutions on the sister city relationships um before we get to the deliberative agenda we do have one item on an agenda for the city council with mayor presiding so we'll recess the council meeting at 8 18 i'll turn the gavel uh one last time to uh mayor weinberger for the city council with mayor presiding thank you president paul and um one last time i will be um a little slow in uh my preparation for it but now i've got it so let me call to order the city council with mayor presiding at 8 18 and the first item on the agenda is the agenda i would welcome motion to accept it so moved thank you president paul we have a second second by councilor mcgee any discussion of the agenda seeing none we'll go to a vote all those in favor the motion please say aye all right any opposed the motion carries unanimously it brings us to the consent agenda which also needs a motion uh so move take the action um take the actions indicated thank you president paul seconded by councilor mcgee and any discussion of the consent agenda seeing none we will have a vote on that all those in favor of the motion please say aye all right are there any opposed and that motion carries unanimously and it brings us to our one deliberative um item which is the appointment to the brolington electric light commission for term expiring on june 30th 2025 and the floor is open for nominations councilor shannon i nominate uh andrew vota thank you are there any additional nominations councilor gee i nominate rob convoy and are there any are there any additional nominations any additional nominations the counselors would like to make okay seeing none i will close the the floor i know um now we typically give um nominees an opportunity to address the uh the body um briefly and i saw at least one of the applicants was here the nominees was here is andrew vota either here online i do not see him i believe i saw rob convoy is he still with us or did he have to go yeah i don't he's not someone just said he's online is that uh i i don't see him nor do i see kathryn is checking to and she does not see him either so um we will open the floor to discussion would um the nominators like to say anything further or when i went out when any counselors like to speak before we go to vote all right seeing no oh council bergman i just want to say that uh rob um reached out to me and um i was just really impressed at the work that they're doing at glauval and for those of us who happened to have gone to city place and seen the work that was done on the foundations there um they are doing a lot of climate resilience and a lot of climate work uh through their building materials and um as his application indicates they're doing a lot of work at their own business i think we could we would uh be very well benefited by having rob on the electric commission particularly with issues related to mcneil so i hope we can um support him great thank you council bergman any further discussion uh council jane yep um and in addition to what you just said i also invite maybe the city councils to go to this electric website and listen to the podcast that rob convoy have done in terms of um climate change i think it's a powerful three minute podcast that i suggest that people to understand and i'm happy to support him tonight thank you council jane um i've got councillor traverse and then uh councillor king uh thank you mayor um i i agree that we have two highly qualified applicants agree with councillor bergman that the work being done by uh glauval is is is very cool that we got to see firsthand in our tour of city place i will be supporting the nomination of andy voda to the electric commission just to notify folks and he had reached out to me prior to the meeting to say that due to a family commitment he unfortunately was unable to make it tonight but pretty much any other community meeting in ward five over the last many many years is a meeting that you would see andy at he's been complete he's a ward five resident has been uh very dedicated to our community into the south end and burlington at large um he also has a very relevant professional background working for multiple years with uh veic supporting different energy efficiency programs and i'm strongly supporting his application this evening thank you i also will be supporting andy tonight i've always known andy to be an incredibly thoughtful dedicated community member i also want to highlight his background working with veic i think it's very relevant and i'm very excited to see him serve on this commission okay seeing no further counselors in the queue we will vote on the nominees in the order they were nominated and stop when one of them reaches a majority of this body so if you will go to we'll vote on andrew voda first all those in favor of uh appointing andrew voda please raise your hand i see eight votes and um that is a majority of this 13 person body and so congratulations um andrew uh thank you for your interest and good luck with your service and point of point of information was it not seven did ali did you vote for oh i'm sorry i stand corrected i apologize no worries um i did just want to say thank you to rob convoy for his interest as well and encourage rob to consider applying again many of our long-serving commissioners board members have not been successful in their first attempt and we appreciate uh the interest so with that we have completed the warrant agenda for the city council of mayor presiding and um we uh i will adjourn if there's no objection this body at 8 25 p.m. and return the microphone to you president paul thank you so much mayor weinberger um so we'll reconvene the council meeting at 8 25 um every year at the end of a council year we we wish well to all of those counselors that are departing um it doesn't happen very often that we wish well to a departing mayor and uh so not to not to be forgotten um i have the rare honor of presenting our mayor with a gift a plaque in honor of your service to burlington um from your beginnings as an airport commissioner and i remember you on the airport commissioner i used to go to airport meetings um to your election as our mayor uh i know that your work your tremendous work for our community will long be remembered and long be appreciated and that this council and the councils to come will always continue to honor your commitment to our amazing city so i have i have a i have a i have a plaque for you so we have a deliberative agenda and there are seven items this evening um and we're going to try we're going to try something new um yeah last last council meeting for me and we're going to try something new um before we get to that um please note that because we do have a lengthy meeting we will be adhering to the five-minute rule as per our council rules please please try to self monitor and be mindful of your time i will kindly interrupt you when your time is drawing near and i will be timing um so that you can wrap up that way we can be fair and respectful to all counselors we do as i said have a lengthy agenda agenda and we want to get to our final item on the neighborhood code at a reasonable hour so we will be mindful of the times that have been set on our agenda which we have agreed to by approving that agenda we have a timer um that will be set up for each of the deliberative items so when we get to some of these items if there's 10 minutes then we will have 10 minutes on the timer and we will try our best to adhere to the item to the times on our agenda the first item um is 7.1 which is an indoor entertainment permit application 2024 25 for taco gordo uh counselor shannon thank you president paul i'll try very hard to take less than five minutes on these next two items combined i move to approve the 2024 2025 indoor entertainment permit application for taco gordon at 208 north winewski avenue with all standard conditions thank you so much counselor shannon uh seconded by uh counselor traverse counselor travers is there any discussion on the motion seeing none you're throwing me off seeing none um all those in favor of the motion is made by counselor shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which brings us to 7.2 which is an indoor entertainment permit application for a tank studio uh counselor shannon move to approve the 2024 2025 indoor entertainment permit application for tank studio 322 north winewski avenue with all standard conditions thank you counselor shannon uh seconded by counselor travers um is there any discussion on that motion uh seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say oh my apologies counselor grant there there's just no attachment fyi no attachment to the agenda item point of information yeah that's correct yeah i i think when we were before the license committee we did find that this application came in via a new system that we've stood up and so perhaps that has something to do with it but we did see the application before the license committee and i trust that uh that can be attached to the agenda if this were to um be voted in favor of so the members of the license committee saw the application yes yes okay um is there any other discussion on this item seeing none uh all those in favor of the motion is made by counselor shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no uh that motion passes so the next item we have is 10 minutes if we can put 10 minutes on the timer um and our next item is 7.3 which is a resolution green mountain transit funding um for this item i'll go to the chair uh the transportation energy and utilities committee counselor barlow for a motion um please uh thank you president paul i'd like to uh wave the reading and adopt the resolution and ask for the floor back after a second of course uh seconded by a seconded by councillor bergman um councillor barlow the the floor is yours and i do know that there's someone who you wanted to have promoted yes we have we have uh director chape and spencer and we also have the general manager of yes who who is who is who is uh if we can get the care the we can get the um but i i would i would just like to say briefly uh to set this up it's it's a uh a topic that we've taken up for two years in a row now um sustainable funding of uh green mountain transit um in this year uh is particularly concerning because we've been made aware of a fiscal cliff that gmt will have in uh fiscal 2026 um they'll have a significant shortfall that right now the only way to address without finding additional revenue sources is to cut it cut 29 percent of the service that they have now um so we've been working hard um and took to sort of make sure that our legislation legislative delegation um is supporting um ideas on how to make that funding more sustainable in montpelier um have been attending some of the meetings that gmt has been putting forward so with that i would turn it over to our two guests i don't know if clayton is online and wants to speak to us thank you thank you so much for the introduction and for having uh gmt here on such a celebratory night and uh with transitions happening uh congratulations to those folks who are concluding their service and thank you so much to the members of the two for the uh for supporting gmt in the excellent way uh that they do uh all across the country urban transit uh public transit systems are struggling uh the cost pressures uh that have been amplified by the pandemic have created a situation where it costs more and more to provide the same level of service and so when you look at green mountain transit um for the past five years there's been a 34 percent increase in the cost of our service uh despite the fact that we've had a 10 percent reduction in that service and a 19 percent reduction in our administrative staff and so this is a classic example of the costs uh and public transit rising much faster than the revenue and so as we heard from councillor barlow we're in a situation where in fiscal year 26 um all of the monies that we received uh from uh covid relief the municipalities like gmt were able to obtain will be exhausted and what that means is that we will no longer be able to provide our current level of service um with such a lean service in fact we have just seven percent of our expenditures relate to non-operational managers which is uh non-operational functions which means that we have the leanest public transit system that's in the state we just don't have room to cut anything other than service and so i know that you have a lot to cover i think that the uh the resolution lays out our situation pretty well i will say that there's one item that um um i wasn't able to do the research before helping the toke with drafting that that when you look at the back of the resolution where it talks about the 10 percent match that happens outside of chitlin county for municipalities i did that research and found out it's actually two and a half percent and so i want to thank the city of burlington and all of our urban members because the 20 percent that you contribute towards our service it's the highest in the state of vermont and it really shows your municipalities commitment to public transit and all of the social equity and climate equity that it provides so thank you very much and be happy to answer any questions uh thank you i didn't know if director spencer had anything to add thank you i will just say quickly that having served on this board for 20 years we are getting to a point where the future viability of this service is in question i very much appreciate the leadership that all members of the toke have brought to this issue we've worked cooperatively on a resolution i feel it is incumbent on our community to lead other communities have been asking for this resolution as they're considering similar action so your action tonight if you so choose i think can go a long way to building momentum we know we're late in the legislative session here but we have to try and i don't want to be in a position as you don't when you have to pass a budget to be passing a budget that is going the wrong direction so this is a move now before in november of 2024 when the board will have to approve a budget for f y 25 6 6 yeah thanks i have nothing thank you thanks so much councillor barlow councillor bergman so i just want to say that since we started taking this up gmt has had two meetings with legislators and it's really important important that they've gotten people's attention so i'm really proud of the work that our committee and hopefully this council will do no matter what we decide on neighborhood code it is clear that more housing is needed and i can i truly believe that if this city does not have a viable vibrant mass transit system that we are just crashing on every level so you know if we pass the code then maybe and it gets what we want what you know people want you're gonna have a lot more density we better come up with a way to uh to move people people we're talking about parking if we don't pass it we still have lots of people who are traveling who need to be able to get from here to there and we need a viable bus system so this is essential we have kicked the the can down the road in the state of vermont for far too long and we need to be able to encourage legislators to do something fundamentally different because it is absolutely necessary i hope we get a unanimous vote thank you thank you so much councillor bergman will go to councillor hightower and then councillor grant and i just want to say that i've just been so like amazed at the timeliness of the buses how full they get um which is you know not what you want as a passenger but certainly fills my little heart when i get on the bus um over the last years um and just the predictability how often the buses run um and so i think losing that would i think i think we've hit the mark where people are using the bus and if we pull back a lot on service and obviously we're going to reduce ridership again it's going to become a spiral to the bottom so obviously supportive of this and glad that city councils past have taken strong action to support um green mountain transit and thank this council for presumably doing the same thank you thank you councillor hightower will go to councillor grant please oh i'm sorry were you not in the queue okay um uh councillor carpenter thanks i just want to say that i sat in this afternoon at a presentation that gmt did for um i'm not sure who the audience was but i was grateful to be invited you know it's really interesting to hear sad but interesting to hear the presentation about the cliff they're gonna hit and i do hope that we all really open up i agree with councillor bergman and when he has to say and there's some solutions on the tables like maybe a tax on a driver's license maybe other things rental car fees um looking at the fact that the gas tax is down so how do we supplement those um revenues and some of that will hit harder in chitin and county which is where we need the transit the most and so i just hope we start talking about all those solutions and be open to them because we need the public transportation thank you so much councillor carpenter uh seeing no others in the queue we will go to a vote um all those in favor of the motion as made by councillor barlow please say aye aye any opposed please say no uh that motion passes unanimously and thanks so much to the members of the toke this year uh that uh for all of your good work on this effort and many others and also to clayton uh clayton for being here with us um from green mountain transit for being with us this evening um that will bring us to item 7.4 oh and also to and also to one of the 45 department heads that i've worked with uh uh dpw director uh chape and spencer um we will go to our next item uh which is item 7.4 resolution on the housing trust fund administrative updates we've allotted 10 minutes for this item so we will set the timer at 10 minutes um before we get to uh um cedar director brian pine we will go to councillor mcgee for a motion thank you president paul i would move that we wave the reading and adopt the resolution and ask for the floor back briefly after a second okay thank you councillor mcgee seconded by councillor carpenter uh councillor mcgee the floor is yours thank you president paul uh i am uh happy to be a sponsor on this resolution tonight uh recognizing that we are facing an unprecedented housing crisis uh here in the city and across the state and uh and we are also faced with uh depleted um federal resources that have supported much of our housing initiatives up to now um and uh we need to adapt and and figure out how we're going to continue to support that work going forward and i'm uh grateful to director pine the folks in the city staff that have brought this forward i think uh with the additional revenue sources going to the housing trust fund this is a an appropriate time for us to explore this change and with that i will gladly hand the floor over to director pine thank you thanks very much councillor mcgee uh director pine i will be briefer than 10 minutes because i both left my glasses at the other table which means i can hardly read my notes but also in 1991 i introduced the five minute rule by the way and it was it was referred to me as uh being anti-democratic but it was intended to prevent soliloquies which was happening frequently so we had a thespian or two on the council and they were carrying on well into the morning so essentially what we're looking for here is the council's approval to do two things the first is to i should note um brian pine the director of the community economic development office also serve as the city's housing trust fund manager and in that role today i'm just bringing to you the uh request that we have the ability to use the housing trust fund resources to do two things that we currently don't have the ability to do one is tonight you'd be approving the ability to take the administrative piece of the housing trust fund and allow us to use it for uh services that the city provides that are related to those experiencing homelessness and that is in the form of of our own staff really we have a a short fall of um of dedicated revenue sources to support that work in addition the ordinance committee would be uh an item would be referred to the ordinance committee to be able to use trust fund dollars which are currently um some pretty restricted and they're restricted by i think a good policy objective which is the dollar should be used to support permanent affordable housing and emphasis on permanent shelters are not that and so we don't have the ability to have the right now use the dollars in that way so we're asking for some flexibility and that will go through the ordinance committee if you adopt this resolution thank you so much uh are there any uh uh mayor weinberger thank you president ball um and thank you uh director pine for that summary i i think this is a really important issue that i appreciate that uh council meeting is brought to the floor and that we're gonna start the conversation on tonight this i understand and sympathetic to the idea that the housing trust fund should be used for only for permanently affordable housing that's a it's a great ideal and it's um one that i think everyone who cares about um housing uh is moved by the problem is we right now in this moment are completely overwhelmed uh in terms of our our housing uh needs we our vacancy rate is under one percent and has been for years the shelters that we have available are not adequate to meet the demand we have a completely unprecedented unsheltered homelessness problem right now despite the fact that we've opened two new shelters sorry three new shelters as a community uh since 2020 and um we need to be able to keep working on this issue in the short term we need more shelter and we need staff working on shelter and we need to be able to put dollars into into shelter in a way that is not allowed currently under the housing trust fund ordinance we created a special assistant to end homelessness position together at the end at the in early 2022 i think that was we didn't know how much we needed that position when we did that we we knew we had problems coming we didn't know they would reach the current level um we have paid for that position and other shelter related expenses for federal dollars up until now the housing trust fund because of the actions we've taken together is well funded right now and it will be well funded for years to come in particular because of the change we made with short-term rental and the their revenue that is now generating we've gone from having about 200 000 a year in revenue the housing trust fund to over a million it's time to spend some of that those funds on on shelter in the moment we're in now and uh support by the council tonight is a critical step to doing that thank you President Paul thank you so much Mayor Weinberger we'll go to uh councilor carpenter thanks i don't want to beat their marks for the mayor but just two comments um as a founding housing advocate for the housing trust fund um this is a change we just need to make at this point in time and and it's critical the other comment was we do need that administrative support i've been chided um by constituents and residents of the city about why don't we have a better human service department the city of berlington does not have a human service department we're not set up to do it and we should not be set up to do it but we need the coordinating capacity little that we have to help get the state to the table and the other resources to the table and so this is really important to that thank you so much councilor carpenter uh councilor hightower um i would usually say i'll just bring this up in the ordinance committee but i will not be on the next version of the ordinance committee and i assume somebody at this table will be so um i just hope that folks don't just i think that this is important very happy to support it and i hope that another thing that we look at is diverting a higher proportion of the housing trust fund specifically to supporting folks who are experiencing houselessness in general because i just think that we need to take care of that first and that should be our priority and i think right now at least the way the housing trust fund monies have been going i just don't think that that is reflected um although it does address it i don't think it's reflected so i hope that as you look at this whoever is on the future ordinance committee um that you also look at um prioritizing permanent shelter to address houselessness as well and prioritizing that in the percentages thank you thanks so much councilor hightower uh if there are no other counselors who have additional comments or questions um and seeing no further discussion we have a motion in a second so we'll go to a vote uh all those in favor my apologies uh by all means councillor uh councillor jane thank you um this is a very quick question and in trying to understand the recipients of the funds what are their thoughts about this i'm sorry i didn't i didn't actually get your question the people who receive the funds right what are their thoughts okay yeah sure um we are um annually we get applications for both the bricks and mortar the hard construction costs we also get requests for operating funds to provide what we call capacity grants and so in a sense what we're doing here is giving our department a little bit more capacity and building that capacity and that's a that's a pretty constant request from our partner organizations out there the nonprofits and we're just trying to make sure that we have the capacity in house to to bolster the city's response we haven't specifically it ultimately what it means is that the the percentage that goes to admin first for our work is still the same so it's still the that doesn't increase the admin portion it just means we have the ability to be a little more flexible how we allocate it within our department so it doesn't affect grantees in that way okay thank you thank you so much um seeing no other counselors um in the queue uh and again we do have a a motion and we have a second so we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion is made by counselor McGee please say I hi any opposed please say no uh that motion passes unanimously with our thanks to cito director pine and your the cito staff um that will bring us to our next item which is 7.5 a request to accept and execute a federal aviation administration grant for the design construction manager at risk coordination selection pricing construction inspection and construction of the north concourse replacement project also known as project next we've also allotted 10 minutes for this item and before we get to the entire airport staff which is here with us thank you all for being here we'll go to counselor carpenter for a motion thanks um I would move to approve and authorize the director of aviation to execute a grant from the federal aviation administration to accept an amount up to 34 million dollars with a 15 contingency totaling 39 million 100 000 as allowed under the grant for design construction manager at risk at risk coordination selection pricing construction inspection construction of the north concourse replacement project project next subject to review and approval by the city attorney's office thank you so much counselor carpenter is there a second to that motion seconded by counselor barl a counselor shannon um yes yes oh counselor king okay counselor king um did you want the floor back uh no so we'll go to director of aviation nick longo and the floor is yours thank you very much council president paul we the airport team the leadership team would not miss this meeting for the world and are extremely thankful to uh and honored to be in front of you today not just this particular council but in front of you council president paul for all of your work uh for the many many years particularly through the airport uh and also very honored to be uh shoulder to shoulder with mayor weinberger presenting yet another amazing opportunity and embark on this new project this next project to bring a better airport a more pleasing airport and this is not just about the aesthetics of the airport or even the journey although it will improve those particular items this is about sustainability this is about bringing a new terminal building to lehi btv not just with the building but underneath the building with a new geothermal facility that would heat and cool this building with new solar arrays on top of the building uh and the building that's produced uh and constructed with mass timber to showcase the capabilities uh of what lehi btv can be we are embarking on an extremely busy year with number of passengers we've already broken records this year with number of operations uh and we're really excited this leadership team uh director of engineering engineering larry lackey director finance marie freedman our executive assistant and aduce ablon and our director of innovation jeff Bartley presenting this particular project today we'll be back to city council the next city council um to request a contract authorization what we're here tonight for is uh the authorization to sign and execute a very large federal aviation administration grant one of our largest uh that we've received in history to construct this new facility to accomplish a couple of things one is the safety of this particular airport we are constrained with aircraft size on the exterior of the building and we need to address this because the aircraft that are now landing and approaching the gates are larger they can accommodate more people uh those aircraft of course come up to the gates uh we don't have enough space adjacent our gates and of course with larger aircraft more people we also need additional room inside of our terminal so all of these things are addressing and uh allowing a much better experience and adding sustainability product products into our terminal building uh we're really excited to um present this to you and also kick this off later this year uh into construction um and really thank you for the time and happy to answer any questions thank you so much uh director longo are there members of the council who have any questions or comments um on this agenda item uh councilor barlow i just um very excited about this project when you brought it to board of finance last week and uh i'm happy to support it i think it's really uh really important addition to btv thank you so thank you so much uh councilor barlow uh council bergman so um i think for the council for the public and just in light of this tomorrow we're going to be having a Duke meeting and uh you all are going to be bringing forward a report i believe not just with the air national guard but uh airport greenhouse gas emission update yes that's that's correct we're also going to be presenting some of this product as well uh project as well as a couple of other projects that we've been working on since our last uh two presentation book yes so i look i look forward to that uh airline emissions are important for us to get a handle on to say the least um there's much skepticism about uh expansion of um air traffic um in relationship to emissions so i'm supportive of this knowing that there's this there's a caveat to that because again we've got some some major work that have has to be done in the world of mission control when it comes to among other things transportation and that includes aviation so i look forward to our conversation tomorrow thank you thank you thanks so much councillor bergen we'll go to councillor jang yes um thank you and i think uh echoed the sentiment out of my colleagues but also just wanted to say how appreciative i am with your staff as a member of border finance of the past four years i don't know how many times we approved you receiving grants from the federal government this if it's not billion dollars it's close to it i think whatever you're doing you're doing it very well and i'm appreciative that you know you are an enterprise fund and you're running the airport as an enterprise but at the same time you are also running it with the lens of climate change and i think all of this innovation better technology there i think we are already leading just keep up the good work right um yeah let me leave it to that and thank you for everything that you have been doing thank you great thank you so much councillor jang we'll go to the mayor thank you president paul um and uh to councillor jang's point we we do have a great team at the airport working on this um i think it's also should be noted that this particular grant would not have happened uh without the leadership of senator lehi who this was a congressionally directed um spending item and um it was exciting to be with him at the airport last week um as this new plan was unveiled you know my um my first service rolls for the city of burlington was on the burlington airport commission where i served for nine years so you add that to 12 years here and it's been over 20 years of involvement with the airport i've seen the air through port through some very difficult times and it is moving to be able to bring this to you tonight on uh my final city council meeting haven't had 400 of them but it's got to be a it's got to be a couple hundred i didn't count them up um but to be able to bring this to you the last night um and uh be able to put before the council for action um acceptance of this grant which i think speaks to even brighter days ahead for the airport is uh is exciting and i will have the council strong support thank you thank you so much uh mayor weinberger um if there are no others um we have a motion and a second will go to a vote um all those in favor of the motion uh as made by councilor carpenter uh please say aye all right any opposed please say no uh that motion passes unanimously with our thanks as always to the airport team to all of you for being here ask one person to come and everybody shows up um because you take so much pride in the work that you do and we appreciate it in ncu thanks so much this brings us to the um the public hearing um 7.6 which is a public hearing regarding z a 24 dash 0 2 the neighborhood code uh z a 24 dash 0 2 the neighborhood code amendments one through six this is a public hearing uh pursuant to 24 vsa for uh 44 42 and 44 44 um and this is to speak to the zoning amendment any of the proposed amendments listed as one through six in the effective date um amendment as well so um we have about 20 people that want to speak during the public forum um same rules for public public hearing is public forum um please be respectful please speak only to the amendment or to the proposed amendments to the neighborhood code we'll set a timer for two minutes please wrap up your comments when the sound is heard and we we do have one person who's joining us via zoom and we will go to that person after those that are in con toys so the first is collin hilliard to be followed by uh peter lakowski good evening good evening thank you uh council president paul um speaking to you now um is collin hilliard uh deputy director of the brellington business association i'm also a ward three resident and a runner as well um the bba whole hardly supports the proposed neighborhood code changes um want to thank mayor weinberger director tuttle and members of the joint planning commission and city council committee that put years of work into this proposal to get it where it is today and also want to thank arp for their strong support of missing middle housing both in burlington and across the country or our organization represents over 200 businesses and nonprofits in the burlington area and virtually all of them will tell you that staffing is a challenge more housing and more importantly affordable housing and choice in housing types is critical to moving burlington forward i respectfully request the council pass the zoning amendment as is tonight um we've heard from some that this amendment has been hastily conceived um i look back to my inbox and found that i went on a walking tour of missing middle housing that the planning department put together uh for in sport and neighborhood code back in september 22nd of 2022 and i know that there have been dozens of arp coffee meetups planning commission meetings joint committee meetings um on this proposal heard from so many community members and most critically uh younger folks and renters who want to stay in burlington and this zoning amendment is really critical to that when a similar similar missing middle housing effort passed in minneapolis mayor fry there said that it allowed the city to evolve because that's what cities do is they evolve i hope that you'll vote in favor of burlington's evolution and welcoming more neighbors into our community tonight thank you very much thank you so much colin our next speaker is peter lakowski to be followed by a genie keller good evening well we actually need not just housing but we need affordable housing but unfortunately you don't if you're a developer you don't make as much money with affordable housing as you do with not affordable housing if we do if it were that if that were the case there would be a that's what would be being built we would have lots of it what we need to get that affordable housing is an intervention by the public by the state by the city by city ordinances they govern uh such things and allow more development more money to be made this neighborhood code will lead to a great deal of money being made and we can tap into that as the public and get much a much better deal really uh if we use our leverage at this point to negotiate a situation where more affordable housing is made and also where amendments in in the terms of public public benefit uh based on consultation with the npa's and others the kind of uh input from the public that really hasn't had happened on a big scale if so if this amendment i mean if this resolution fails today we'll have a new administration just as much committed to affordable housing but in a position with uh to look at this with new eyes and extract or construct a better way for the for the public to benefit from this and get real affordability if on the other hand if the resolution tonight passes the negotiating position of the future board and administration will be considerably weakened so i hope you don't pass it tonight give the next chance to do a full fully thought out job thank you very much our next speaker is genie keller to be followed by um evan gold good evening good evening i'm a 40 plus year resident of ward one and a neighbor to peter lakowski and i guess you know there's some kind of thing rubbing off i my written two minute written speech has been given by a lot of people already tonight about why this needs to be sent back to be worked on further and one thing that i heard the other day that has really struck with me and i would just like to lay it out to all of you up zoning creates value for developers and landowners up zoning creates value for landowners and developers and that means we the city the people have the right to get something for us out of this deal and as peter said we can make a better deal than we have here one of the biggest problems with this is that there is nothing specific in this proposal that would link it inextricably to some kind of inclusionary zoning there's nothing that does that portland for example does allow higher density but only if you are providing a certain percentage of affordable housing second uvm is probably just chomping at the bit waiting for this to pass tonight because they want us to house their students and we just can't do that anymore we can't afford it it's killing us especially as their enrollment changes to very wealthy out of state students who can come in and pay a lot that this would go forward without having the uvm mo you taken care of just makes no sense at all from a policy perspective and that's why i joined the 300 plus people signing the petition asking you please send this back so that we can refine this proposal thank you thank you very much our next speaker is evan gull to be followed by um oh actually mark stevensson i believe he has already spoken um lisa lax who was also spoken um our next speaker would be colonel arson um evan hello uh my name is evan guld i'm a resident of ward five i've been involved in this process uh first i do want to say thank you to all the counselors who have been uh involved in leaving um i know i send a lot of emails so thank you for putting up with me um i appreciate it and and all your thoughtfulness um this council is going to be very different without you uh onto the neighborhood code uh so one thing i want to clarify a lot of the things coming out are that this doesn't include affordability um i think one thing i'm a zoning nerd i've read our company comprehensive bill in ordinance a lot of times um one thing uh is that it's it's very good about inclusionary zoning um if you build five five units in a single building or um and the phrasing i don't have my phone but it's in aggregate so if a single developer buys multiple properties and builds five units across the city even two fourplexes that triggers inclusionary zoning so that requires at least one unit um once you get to 10 it could be up to two units um be built as inclusionary zoning units so it does take into account affordability um on the on the other part um i work at hula i i live i'm lucky uh because of privilege to be able to own my house and i commute by bike from my house in uh red rocks condominiums to hula um one thing i thought was very exciting was the proposal on uh right avenue because i know how many of my co-workers are renting starting their careers and have trouble finding good housing and so um it's a triple x with two bedroom units um it's in a walkable neighborhood um that i walk and bike through all the time and so um it's to me i saw that proposal and i was like this is exactly the type of housing this neighborhood code is supposed to enable and i i it made me very hopeful um so i just wanted to say um that i'm hopeful that you all pass this tonight thank you thank you very much uh our next speaker is collin larson to be followed by a gordon dragoon to be followed by mary kehoe my name is collin larson good evening ward seven uh i want you to pass the neighborhood code tonight um i had written some stuff a lot of people said it it kind of falls apart so i'll just address a few points um i think there's a misconception around existing lot coverage in the city of berlington if you bulldoze the entire city tomorrow and built them to our current standards not the neighborhood code standards we would have significantly less housing than we do now particularly in the old north end we would lose a lot of the multifamily housing that is in existence today in some neighborhoods over 55 percent of buildings exceed lot coverage limits that we have on the books right now so i don't think that it's um you know ridiculous for uh you know i i think it's i don't think it's uh accurate to say that the neighborhood code is this huge departure from what we've built historically in berlington uh before 1973 our height limit was like 55 or 75 feet and then we had these two successive rounds of downzoning in 73 and 94 that created all of the single family housing that we have today and reduced our flexibility to account for future growth which is why we're in the situation we're in right now you know i know a lot of people are frustrated with the planning process i get it like there's a lot of stuff happening at the city level it's really hard to follow all the meetings um there are people who go to school who have advanced degrees including our planning department who understand zoning um like that's why so if you're like an individual citizen and you show up to a meeting and you're like i don't really get this it's because it's hard um and i you know that's an error in participatory planning and i don't think we have a solution for that but i really just think you should pass it it's about time um we're in a housing crunch thank you thank you very much our next speaker is gordon dragoon to be followed by mary kehoe and brian frank hey good evening our church street is cd and disorganized now but in the present plan i see no improvements only a desire to secure federal funds money alone does not always make things better i urge fellow berlin tonians to request postponement of the marketplace vote until a more acceptable plan is submitted berlington free press august 16th 1979 one major downtown problem the lack of convenient parking would be greatly aggravated if the tax increase passes several hundred parking places would be destroyed to make way for a pedestrian mall this would definitely discourage many shoppers from shopping downtown october 27th 1979 who wants a church street transformed into a mall even a washington free one not very many people that i know we now have a successful traditional and adequate shopping area positioned on each side of church street this not only provides convenience but at this stage of our survival it is an irreplaceable traffic artery november 28th 1978 there are dozens of articles opposing the church tree marketplace but there is not a reasonable person today that would replace church street with a road just as our voice is calling for postponement then their voice is calling for it now but i'm here to tell you that sending this back to committee will at best leave the housing crisis to fester for six to twelve months and then result in a proposal very much like the one in front of you now at worst we'll wait seven years like we did for the parking minimum change it is my strong belief that the concerns we have heard in opposition to this proposal pale in comparison to the housing crisis this city is facing a housing crisis we are faced with because we have delayed zoning changes for literal generations i urge you to have confidence in our city planning department don't send us back to committee vote yes on the neighborhood code and help us take the small step towards making burlington better thank you thank you very much our next speaker is mary kio to be followed by uh ryan frank to be followed by dan castro gano good evening mary former counselor kio good evening mayor weinberger president paul i come to you as a former member of this body and a member of the ordinance committee and a recently repatriated burlingtonian i come not in support of or against this proposal or the amendments i come in support of process the process is more is as important as anything and there is no downside if you follow more process it's a truly democratic thing to do which is extraordinarily important we're lucky to live in a community that has so many people who are engaged on one side or the other but i still feel like many of the people i've spoken with in my short time back in burlington felt like they didn't have enough process and that is important to people it gives them a sense of things being done correctly even if they don't agree with the result so i urge you to put this back to the commission to consider the proposal and the amendments so that those people who were not included the first time around can be heard again that is what people feel like fairness is thank you thank you very much our next speaker is uh ryan frink to be followed by dan castragano to be followed by tim stevens good evening ryan good evening um so i live in ward seven which is in the new north end uh on my little street okay good court uh it's mostly it's almost entirely single family homes uh about halfway down the street there is a little apartment complex it's one story there's nine units um they are uh i believe entirely section eight units so they are actually affordable um that building was built before our current zoning regulations couldn't be built today uh i i know a lot of those people they're my neighbors they're great neighbors i'm glad they're there uh our street would not be as nice as it is without those people living there um when i zoom out a bit to look at the rest of the new north end and apologies to the counselors who aren't as familiar with it but um the the whole neighborhood there's kind of three big affordable neighborhoods within little sub neighborhoods um there's franklin square the north avenue co-op and north gate and all three of those were built before our current zoning regulations um in order to actually achieve affordability we need to roll back some of these very tight restrictions and we need to do it now um i would really urge you to pass this tonight i think uh it's a mistake to try to wait to get everything done all at once passing this tonight doesn't stop us from passing a better mo u or uh setting aside new green areas for public parks uh it doesn't stop us from making progress on social housing it removes barriers that are currently in place to achieving more social housing uh so i would urge you to pass this tonight and then look towards the next steps of what can we do to strengthen our city on this strong foundation thank you very much thank you very much as well uh we'll go to dan castragano to be followed by tim stevens and matthew broderick i'm merrick broderick good evening hi city council my name is dan castragano i live in ward four um here tonight to urge you to pass neighborhood code um it's not perfect um but i think we should think about the urgency of the housing crisis it's not equitable um our current system is not equitable there i support the r.m everywhere amendment and think that the urgency of the housing crisis uh is the most important and think that we should pass it tonight thanks thank you very much our next speaker is tim stevens to be followed by merrick broderick to be followed by jack tiano good evening good evening um my name is tim stevens i'm a ward six resident um and i'm here to speak in strong support for the neighborhood code and passing it tonight um i've heard a few people say that there's uh no downside to delaying and um i think that's pretty easy to say if you have a bed to go sleep in tonight and a roof over your head but that's not true for everyone here in burlington and i think while that is true we really ought to do as much as we possibly can to improve housing availability here um i'd also like to speak about affordability real quick um so it's well studied that increasing the supply of housing will reduce the cost of housing over time it's the same way that it works for any other good be it coffee cars you know stuff um and uh it's also true that we already have inclusionary zoning in the city of burlington so while it's not specifically within the scope of this amendment by allowing us to build more housing it's feasible that we can we can build more affordable housing um more it's also true that uh cht will be allowed to take advantage of this amendment people who want to build affordable housing people with more earnest intentions can build more housing under this amendment just as well it's not explicitly only open to evil greedy developers so to speak um and lastly i'd also like to point out this this isn't perfect i don't i don't think anyone's trying to argue that this is perfect but we we have to do something the status quo is certainly less perfect than what's on the page um i appreciate a lot of the work that the planning committee has done for this so far i've been following it for about six months now and i've seen plenty of public outreach um thank you thank you very much we'll go to Matthew uh Matthew why do i keep doing that um Merrick Broderick um uh and uh to uh and then to Jack Tiano to be followed by uh Earhart Monkey good evening Merrick hi um so um well first of all i support passing neighborhood code tonight and i thank the mayor and everyone else who worked on it to get in front of us now with the potential to lay the groundwork for truly allowing this city to evolve and grow but uh there's one thing specifically that i want to talk about revolving around and that's the equity concerns with um the zoning which i have many considering major portions of the city were left out of the current form i support making rm the minimum is and i support the compromises that were posted in ben travers's amendment but i see these arguments about how it's it's not equitable which i agree with and then at the same time people argue that we should start carving out neighborhoods that's probably the least equitable thing you could possibly do right now you're going from what we have to even worse than what we have with our current ordinance and as much as i want rm to be everywhere even if that's that's not possible i'm urging you to please do not start carving out neighborhoods it's it's a dangerous precedent any other time we want to do up zoning any other time we want more housing the loudest will be listened to in those suffering in silence will have no one representing them thank you thank you very much merrick uh our next speaker is jack tiano to be followed by airheart monkey evening hearing a lot of budget concerns tonight that would be really helped by more taxpayers my name is jack tiano i live in ward five i've already sent the council my 18 page assessment in support of the neighborhood code so in my last two minutes of your attention i want to take a high level higher level view so i believe that sending the code back to committee would be a mistake for two reasons first is that most of the objections raised are external to the code itself and are rooted in falsehoods there have been claims that stormwater is not specifically considered but that's because we already have a robust stormwater management ordinance that covers every project that needs a building permit chapter 26 article three there are claims that none of the new units under the new code will be affordable but we have an inclusionary zoning ordinance which is triggered on projects creating five or more units which this code will specifically enable a lot more opportunity for especially if you reject the high tower amendment there are also issues raised about parking but again we have a process to secure resident only parking on neighborhood streets the point being that many of the biggest oversights are already mitigated by existing ordinances and mitigated well though i also have a lot of constructive ideas on how to further improve these systems a city buyback program for undeveloped side lots to reclaim public pocket parks and residential neighborhoods neighborhood wide income adjusted street parking permits a ban on impervious pavement on private lots in favor of permeable solutions affordable housing funded by more than just renters in new buildings my friends and i here tonight have a lot of constructive ideas talk to us the second reason is more procedural there's a belief mistake in my opinion that it's possible to spend enough time thinking about something to anticipate every consequence and mitigate them all completely in my experience it is better to make focus changes stay observant and adjust when necessary trying to tie the passage of the middle missing housing reform to restore water parking and affordability policy overhauls will only make for less focused and impractical policies overall i urge you to pass the neighborhood code tonight no matter what amendments pass but preferably with only the paul amendment and without the six-month delay and then next week those of you who remain let's chat about how to continue improving our water parking affordability and green space policies thank you thank you so much our next speaker is air heart monkey to be followed by uh michael monti who may be joining us online at this point i will check oh i don't need to check you are right here don't need to check air heart please go ahead thanks president paul and uh just uh want to take a short moment just to say special thanks to you and to the other departing members to their wine burger as well and um you know these are challenging times and you guys have met a lot of heavy-duty challenges i certainly remember my last night on your side of the table quite well it was a long time ago but i remember it and it's an emotional moment so i just wanted to pause for a second and just acknowledge that thank you all thank you so with all due respect to the folks that have worked on this mayor planning director many of the advocates i just want to urge you like so many others to please refer this back to committee barring barring that i would urge you to pass the amendments that are before you and at least postpone as i think councilor travers has recommended or suggested portion of it for six months so that you can work on making it on making it better as some of you know i recently retired from four years working in affordable housing and municipal uh in municipal um excuse me in municipal on municipal issues and community development and um i want to focus on what i know best which is affordability um that said um i also want to commend you on taking this issue up obviously we have a protracted on deep and long-term affordable housing crisis and uh upzoning for missing middle is one of the things that needs to happen unfortunately i believe that this is a uh bridge too far um because it will do harm to existing neighborhoods it's great that you're gonna upzone in order to allow the existing density patterns to actually conform to the zoning and and certainly go beyond um you need to have duplexes triplexes and quadruplexes by rights um you need to uh adjust the geometric configurations so that more housing is uh is allowed but um contrary to what some folks have said this does not in and of itself create affordable housing unless you have a unit that's five um a building that's five units or more thank you gave you some written materials hope you get a chance to look at those thank you great thank you so much our next speaker is uh michael monti to be followed by andy montrell and then we have one speaker online uh first of all thank you mayor thank you counselors for your service i really do appreciate all the work and uh that you put into supporting our city um 22 years ago the mayor of burlington then peter clevelle talked about a sustainability plan and it was passed by the council in that he talked about three e's economic development social equity and environmental justice i think the neighborhood code actually embraces all three if you look closely that's what it does i would say that this particular neighborhood code does a lot there are reasons to tinker absolutely but i think it's important to plant the tree now if we had planted the tree 22 years ago we would be in a much much better place if we embraced actually the number of units that that mayor clevelle wanted to build at that point we would be in a much better place it's not going to solve homelessness it's not automatically just going to create affordable housing everywhere you have ordinances for that you can still do some more it will create opportunity create variety and it will create community i have a project on st paul street which only could do three units with the neighborhood code i could do 13 it will be for children with disabilities children adult children with disabilities and they will create a community at that location that will have green space that will have community kitchens that will be supportive and a whole range of parents will be very very thankful to be able to move that project forward can't do it unless you pass the neighborhood code we could wait three months six months nine months a year you're going to talk about this for a long time pass it and then make adjustments and changes if you need to thank you thank you very much um and our last speaker burlington resident joining us in con choice is uh andy montrell oh do you have a form okay we'll figure that out uh good evening andy uh good evening i want to just first again as many others have said say thank you um to all of you for your service mayor um president paul and others you've done a tremendous job in the community the city really appreciates it so i've lived in burlington for 30 35 years we've had home i've lived in three different places when i first moved here i lived in an apartment in oak ledge in lechwood near oak lech park i've lived on howard street and i've lived on south union street i will say the housing in burlington works really well for me i've enjoyed it every place i've lived i've enjoyed it tremendously at my family grew up here it was a perfect place for us but i will tell you i've heard on the planning commission when i was a city counselor over the last 30 years or more the housing has not worked for so many people in our community for so many people who want to be in our community and what has struck me during the conversations that we've had during this middle housing this neighborhood code is the difference in the voices and the difference in the generational voices that we've been hearing and more than ever before what i've been hearing from so many of the i'll call it the younger generation the housing doesn't work for them you heard from one of our planning commissioners julia randall who spoke on the screen she loves it here in burlington you've heard from some others jack and some some of the others they love it here in burlington burlington housing doesn't meet their needs so we could try to preserve who we are what burlington has been for the last 50 years 100 years it will work great for me as i said it's perfect for what i need but it's not perfect for what so many other people need and that's a lot of what's what this neighborhood code was trying to do was to make it the city that will work for so many other people for generations to come thank you thank you thanks so much uh so yes our last speaker joining us in con choice is lee morrigan who's a burlington resident then we have one non-burlington resident and someone joining us online lee good evening thank you good evening hi yes my name is lee morrigan my pronouns are they them i'm a resident of ward seven here to speak in support of neighborhood code tonight uh i'm realizing sitting here that burlington is the first city i've lived in that people who grew up here can't afford to live here um and that's a distinction i would like us to not have um you know we're at the convergence of multiple crises right now so environmental affordability our unhoused crisis and our opioid crisis and we need to build we absolutely need to build all the solutions hinge on on building and the type of building we need to get out of this crisis is going to take a cultural shift on how we really look at everything how do we look at yards how do we look at seemingly endless construction noise you know we need a cultural shift and you know in the past four years we have been through so many cultural shifts that we don't talk about you know it started with covid i mean i was thinking you know the other day i was literally sewing masks out of old curtains because you couldn't buy masks and we didn't know how this disease spread we don't even talk about this stuff like life changing trauma that we don't even talk about and i feel like the housing crisis we're in is the same thing we are in a completely traumatic crisis and the transition is going to be traumatic too and you know if i bought a house that had a lake view and i was going to lose that lake view i'd be really disappointed too and i don't think that would make me a bad person and i think we need to have a little grace for people who are going to go through changes and it sucks and you know part of that is going to have to be people are going to have to decide if what they what they move to burlington for or what they bought or rented their property for if they can't continue to have that with the changes we need to get out of this crisis that may mean leaving it may mean adjusting but if we don't have somebody specifically looking at the sociological changes that's a mistake i feel like that needs to be integral thank you thanks so much so we do have one burlington resident who is joining us online and put a timer up for that and and sharon i have found you and enabled your microphone okay thank you so much president paul and as i told you in a text message thank you so much for your years of service and you're really skilled facilitating city council meetings um i just i i'm amazed at how how you navigated such a challenging time but thank you i want to speak about the missing middle and i want to talk about what is still missing and it's been stated but i want to say it anyways what's still missing is inclusion of affordable units that can be incorporated someone spoke about the portland um legislation which incorporated creating affordable units you don't have to do our inclusionary zone and you can you can lower that level that so that's missing what else is missing an incentive to create units for families most of these units probably will be one or two bedrooms we need family housing the state has put out an alert that we really need to in to increase the number of families living in the state we need a commitment to the lake and environment we've already said that there was no what was missing was a validation of the data that was compiled a number of units etc and the maps and no schematics were ever drawn and i want to also say that what else is lost is was adequate time for public input two minutes is hard for a for a public hearing on something as important as this and one thing that's lost to me was one of the pillars of the progressive politics they had a commitment to create affordable housing and make sure that all housing had that component and it is missing here i hope that you will postpone action on this but i think it still can be done in this year i don't want it to take forever hold thank you so much for the time that you've given me thank you thanks so much erin i do see another person who has their hand raised and we can do that during the public hearing and that's ashley adams ashley i i've enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now thank you so much i missed the opportunity to sign on earlier and thank you so much for your service and your incredibly adept handling of city council meetings all these years i really appreciate it um i'll be quick i'm here simply to express my support for neighborhood code i strongly believe that housing is a basic human right and i'm ashamed that our city has really failed so many of our fellow human beings um tonight this council has an opportunity to begin to correct this problem there's simply no viable path that i see to solving homelessness without increasing our housing supply i also support neighborhood code because i recognize it's an important climate legislation um the sprawl that we see throughout chitinna county and beyond is exacerbated by our failure to grow within city limits um denser development in burlington will reduce greenhouse gas pollution from cars as fewer people commute denser housing results in less greenhouse gas pollution from heating and cooling and far more efficient multi-unit buildings and importantly increasing housing in our city avoids ecological impacts to our natural landscapes and areas surrounding the city i do strongly support amendment three to preserve wildlife habitat um and i share concerns that many have expressed about the health of our lake and i hope that those who voiced this concern will stay engaged to ensure that burlington has a prudent long-range plan to manage stormwater runoff in a sustainable way um through green infrastructure and other tools and the need to do much more to restore and protect the health of lake champlain exists whether or not we increase our housing supply um neighborhood code is not radical it's necessary and it's long overdue and i really appreciate um and hope that you will support it thank you mullington resident um and that is uh carlos escal and carlos i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now hi can you can you hear me okay okay hey um this is carlos esquivel i live in war three i'm a renter um 31 years old if that matters at all um i also want to talk in favor of the neighborhood code i really wish you could all pass it today um and we need that density we need to build up i i have heard that some people think that like if having a big yards or like living or like living like if our houses look that they are green they are not really like very green they are on top of nature rather than living in harmony with them we need density that's that through way to get into more environmentally friendly ways um yeah i just really want all of you to vote as like to vote as like you know to take into account the housing crisis that we have right now like any number of units is a good start so please pass the neighborhood code thank you so we have one last speaker who's joining us in con choice uh michael arnold thank you for your patience thank you um so i'm not a burlington resident but i was uh it was uh pushed out due to rising housing costs almost seven years ago despite uh going to uvm throughout that time um and you know i wanted to thank uh everyone involved in this process from uh the planning staff the volunteer commissioners and advocates along with the city councilors who spent so many countless hours working to take this first incremental step to reform what is a broken set of land use policies that have led to over 8500 burlington families to be classified by HUD as burdened or severely burdened by housing costs a full 50 percent of burlington families tonight i'm asking the council to vote in support of the neighborhood code you've heard from many others tonight about the role exclusionary zoning plays in exacerbating almost every crisis we face as a state from our housing shortage and homelessness rate to our climate crisis and Vermont's shameful racial wealth gap tonight i want to highlight one small specific impact which i think illustrates the magnitude of zoning's costs vt digger last week reported that uvm medical center spent 120 million dollars in unexpected expenses last year solely to pay wage premiums for travel nurses in part because helping housing costs have made it impossible for them to fill full-time nursing positions these costs work out to more than a thousand dollars per household and unnecessary health care costs for every family in the region which we all pay through higher insurance premiums delay has serious costs this is just a portion of the cost in a single sector of the economy when you vote tonight on amendments to reduce the amount of housing allowed near uvm medical center ask yourself is excluding new homes for badly needed nurses and doctors within walking distance of uvm medical center worth increasing taxes by a thousand dollars per family for everyone in the county i hope you'll choose to vote in favor of more housing instead thank you thank you very much uh so we've come to the end of the numbers of number of speakers that are in the queue to speak if there is anyone else who remains in con choice or online who wishes to speak now would be that time going once going twice the public hearing is closed with our thanks to everyone who attended and participated in the public hearing the time is 944 we have one last and final we have one final deliberative item and that of course is 7.7 the ordinance for the comprehensive development ordinance za 24-02 the neighborhood code part 1 we have allotted 60 minutes for this item and we're going to set the timer for 60 minutes um i will go to the chair of the ordinance committee um councilor travers for a motion on the underlying ordinance um and then we can get a second and then if you have you had i did you did you want to did you want the floor no i'm here to answer questions okay all right so councilor travers that uh a motion please move to have waived the reading and adopt the ordinance and ask for the floor back upon a second thank you so much councillor travers seconded by um councillor carpenter uh councillor travers the floor is yours thank you president paul uh first i want to take another opportunity to thank mar wineburger uh and the office of city planning director more director tuttle um and uh sarah morgan for their work um thank you to the planning commission as well chair montroll and the other commissioners for your diligence with this matter uh thank you to my fellow ordinance committee members councillor high tower councillors carpenter and shannon uh for their work on this matter since last october we didn't agree on every item which is to be expected uh but through disagreement i think we built a better amendment uh and thanks as well to our next mayor who while acknowledging a need i i agree with to make continuous improvements uh reached out to this council over the weekend to encourage us to take action tonight anyone who has tried to find housing in burlington in recent years knows how impossible it is many in our community remember a time when burlington workers could affordably live near their job that same opportunity is not available today we must act to fix that our meeting tonight is the third time the neighborhood code is being heard before this full city council in the half year plus leading up to this coming to the council the ordinance committee met jointly with the planning commission in nine public meetings since well before that and through today the office of city planning has held multiple public engagement sessions i've said it before i'll say it again i think the standard bearer for really public engagement on many issues including collaborative efforts with community organizations like the aarp and our neighborhood planning assemblies the neighborhood code comes to this council with the unanimous support of our planning commission it is also strongly supported by affordable housing organizations including champlain housing trust and habitat for humanity on the whole i believe the neighborhood code will allow for new neighborhood oriented housing opportunities in smaller multi-unit buildings it will promote greater density along our most major transit corridors it will remove historical barriers to renovation that have frustrated burlington homeowners for decades and it will support small businesses in our communities now while very excited about these initiatives i firmly believe that any changes that come from the neighborhood code will and should be uh incremental the neighborhood code includes many provisions that are designed to preserve the existing character of our neighborhoods for example projects will still be subject to lot coverage and uh setback standards buildings will have maximum footprint and height restrictions and additionally most projects will still have to go before our development review board where we will consider issues in more detail like parking stormwater infrastructure utility capacity among other items i don't use the word developer as a pejorative term most homeowners homeowners in burlington can thank a developer for their home uh flin and scarf avenues are named after mr flin and mr scarf uh who turned farmland into my beloved neighborhood whether 150 10 years ago or today housing opportunities are dependent on housing developers as i've worked on the neighborhood code i've always remained mindful of the privilege and and really luck uh that my wife had uh and i had in purchasing our first home here in burlington in 2014 just 10 years later if we moved here today there's no way that same privilege would be available to us now the neighborhood code is both for today's burlingtonians and burlingtonians to be as we heard from uh business organizations anyone trying to hire in burlington right now knows that people are turning down job opportunities i guarantee you someone turned down a job opportunity in burlington today because of our housing crunch we've heard from many individuals who live outside burlington contributing to our climate crisis through daily commutes when they want to live here an individual i served with years ago on our housing board a review has been living out of their car since last summer because they can't find a place for them and their dogs to live each day we delay on the neighborhood code is another burlington job turned down and another day when an organization like habitat or cots can't build for folks in our community who are in need now in order to ensure a passage of the neighborhood code tonight i will be supporting amendments that address many of the concerns we've heard from neighbors additionally i will be introducing an amendment to delay the effective date of provisions that will allow for secondary buildings on lots and i will speak to that in a moment president paul what i will say now is is that i don't fully agree with all of these amendments including frankly the one that i will be introducing but i offer it as a compromise that hopefully allows this council a path to broadly support the core provisions of our neighborhood code and then once in place i look forward to working through the next council year and with the next administration to make needed improvements thank you thank you so much council travers so and thank you for that overview um there are seven amendments that are proposed by various members of this council and they're with the uh the the underlying the underlying ordinance we will go in the numbered order of these amendments because that was the order in which director tuttle was approached for these amendments we'll first go to amendments one through six and the end and then end with the amendment that councillor travers just referenced um about the effective date proposal um amendments one two and three are proposed by councillor high tower um councillor high tower it appears as though amendments one and two should be able to be moved together and then we can um go to amendment three after so if you can if you could move that and then we'll get a second great i'd like to move the proposed amendments amendment one and amendment two as listed on the studio website and then the information packet great thank you so much councillor high towers there um is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor dory uh councillor high tower the floor is yours if you want to briefly explain what the amendments are and any other comments you wish to add great the two amendments are um to reduce the lot coverage proposed in rm from 60 to 55 percent and to reduce the maximum number of units in rm per building from six to four so allowing from five to four six to four i don't even remember six to four sorry so allowing eight units instead of 12 units sorry we've been talking about this for so long um so why these amendments um i do i know that folks are frustrated with the process and i do think that we messed up i think as an ordinance committee and not saying we do want this to go to ordinance because oftentimes this doesn't get media attention until it comes to the council doesn't get people's attention until it gets media attention and so i personally apologize for that um but that said i think that i think we got the right balance coming out of the commission and the ordinance and that said i say all of the time with the uvm that zoning is for a long time and um i think it's more important to get it right in a way that you don't have to pull it back or don't ever want to pull it back than not and so these are compromise amendments um to to help to hopefully help more folks get on board with this and to make it feel more more human scale um by allowing eight unit or eight buildings per unit and also to address the equity issue we weren't successful in removing rl as a whole in the committee and um in the joint process and this gets rm a little bit closer to rl can i speak more generally or just to the amendments okay um so i think the other thing um that i will say i think i have to talk about affordability because i first ran because i was also frustrated because a previous council had reduced inclusionary or had weakened our inclusionary zoning i care about affordable housing a lot maybe as much or more than anybody else on this council and i do think that there is and i would a hundred percent um would want us to strengthen our inclusionary zoning over and over and over again in so many different ways i don't think that letting people build another unit in their back or two more units in the backyard four more units in their backyard i don't think that that's the right place for inclusionary zoning i think that would mean that a lot of it wouldn't get built um and more than that this still addresses affordability because when we look at the houses that a lot of the folks who spoke today it's like they couldn't afford those houses now if they had to buy them now certainly none of us could afford those houses now um those very large multiple thousand square foot homes aren't affordable to really any of us and so having those houses get a four unit building in the backyard makes that unit that front unit a little bit less desirable even if that unit is not broken down into other pieces and so while i love that burlington has big houses with big backyards and i'm sure it's lovely for the folks who live there saying that we can't pass this until we get it perfect sure feels to a lot of us like saying you don't want people like us to move to burlington or you don't want people who went to university here to stay and find a one thousand square foot apartment that they can live in and so having smaller units and allowing smaller units is affordability in itself it's not everything and we need to do more and i'm glad that um inclusionary zoning is hopefully safe in the next administration if not strengthened and we just need more small units and this allows for those small units that people can afford to rent can afford to buy and the last and the other thing is i ran on infill this was this was what i wanted to see when i ran i was like we need infill we need infill because the second piece of affordability is the taxation rate which the only way to keep the level of city services that we currently have and not make every person pay for that or make it everybody pay a little bit less is to have more people in the city and this is part this isn't the only way to do that we're also doing that with the south end we're doing that downtown but this is an important way to increase the tax base of the city of burlington so that people aren't priced out through that avenue either so i support this wholeheartedly i am i hope that folks will support these amendments as a compromise to get more people on board with with neighborhood code thank you thank you thanks so much um and just just uh my misunderstanding um when we are everyone has will have the opportunity if they wish you to speak to the underlying ordinance but let's get the amendments done and then we will and then we anyone can speak generally so that was my misunderstanding no worries there um is there anyone who wishes to speak to the amendments one and two uh council bergman so i'll be supporting these two amendments uh a lot of the conversation tonight have been um around what is um an rl zone and the upzoning of that um this deals with the rm zone and that is uh my word uh my neighborhoods and it it's interesting that people in uh the area around pomeroy park have expressed concerns about um the the effect of uh the changes i would say that even with this these two amendments that we are still upzoning um the rm and i'm in favor of that but i think that in light of the um the tension the community tension that exists that this would be an appropriate move for for me to support um and as will be clear later i support actually the upzoning of the entire city to rm and we'll vote for that and be a second on that but um this i think is responsive to constituent concerns that i've heard particularly in the pomeroy park area but also um is just consistent with a desire to uh to move us as best as we can forward as a as a community thank you thank you very much uh council bergman we'll go to mayor weinberger thank you president paul and um i i will speak to this amendment and i think this will be my only statement on on any amendments i expect unless something surprising happens here um berlington is one of the country's great small cities and it's been a privilege to serve it um at the same time i think we all know we face many challenges tonight dozens of people are sleeping outside without shelter renters pay some of the highest rents relative to incomes of any renters in the country young couples can't buy homes older couples struggle to find a way to age in this community businesses struggle to find employees despite our commitment to inclusion and supporting immigrants our bipak home ownership rates remain shamefully low and you can keep going with this list of problems that are impacted by tonight's action we heard in the public forum a issue i hadn't linked to our housing challenges before but is absolutely right nurse the problem that we face with securing nurses and there was an article in the new york times today about how one of the few communities in the hudson valley area that allows duplexes and multifamily units uh it has about half the uh the property tax rates of its neighbors so you can add to that berlington's high property taxes basically name a problem in this city and more housing is probably the solution our broken land use policies contributed greatly to our housing challenges as zoning reforms in the 1970s and 1990s made it much harder to build anything but a single family home with a large private lawn across about 70 percent of this city tonight we have a chance to fix this we have been working on the neighborhood code for over two years and uh i am proud of my role in bringing this to you tonight and in launching this process in in december of 2021 as part of the action plan to make good on the promise of housing as human right if this plan is enacted tonight it will be the first time in about 70 years that berlington's residential zoning has made it easier to build not harder in our existing neighborhoods this new code will change the trajectory of housing in this city we heard we've been hearing for weeks we heard some of it tonight we heard some of it in an event that um we convened last week we've heard from longtime affordable housing advocates employers builders and young people trying to make their lives here who are calling for the council to pass this important reform tonight it's important to note that it was not young people but it was the aarp who helped launch us on this path all the way back in 2018 when they brought to the housing summit that we had then the idea of building more missing middle housing one speaker at our event last week said that the neighborhood code would quote unlock the door to our beautiful and vibrant neighborhoods and allow us to welcome hundreds of new workers and young families to this city we've heard from many community members tonight and at the previous public hearings who shared both concern and enthusiasm for this action tonight and with a number of amendments on the table you know we've started them anticipating a long discussion by the council tonight but before we get all the way into all the amendments i want to be very clear to the council to members of the public on all sides of this debate that while i'm not particularly supportive or enthusiastic about any of the amendments being discussed tonight i will enthusiastically sign the neighborhood code in whatever final form it comes to my desk because it's that important our housing challenges are acute and they demand action now we have a chance to create vast opportunity throughout this city let's not miss it i urge you to pass the neighborhood code tonight thank you president paul thank you very much mayor weinberger um let's see if we can't go to a vote on amendments one and two all those in favor of the motion is made by councilor hightower please say i or actually please raise your hand is that a hand raised councilor grant it is not a hand raised councilor grant that means it is 11 and all those opposed please say please say no or please raise your hand okay that motion passes 11 to 1 and these two amendments are now part of the underlying proposed ordinance z a 24-02 we will return to councilor hightower if you could move your third amendment number three great i would like to move amendment number three to the neighborhood code as proposed great thank you councilor hightower is there second to that seconded by councilor dory um councilor hightower if you couldn't just for the benefit of all of all of us that are gathered if you can just give us a brief overview and then we'll go to questions um on the amendment great so both in response to public comment or no in response to public comment um i went to the planning office and asked them to create a map of uh fauna hot spots in the city which confirmed that the public comment essentially laid out the correct area where there are a lot of fauna hot spots so that's an area connecting um the intervail and salmon run to centennial woods and i think although i think the planning office is interested or has a much more comprehensive um map that they're working on with um parks with the parks department um to make sure that layers like this are that there is a layer on top of this that would make sure that wildlife corridors are accounted for um since we're passing this tonight i think it's important to take this hot spot allow for that wildlife corridor um now and make sure that that's protected while we move forward with a more comprehensive effort around supporting wildlife corridors and so this is changing a section of colchester avenue from high residential to um low or from residential corridor to low maintaining it as low residential in order to support that wildlife corridor great thank you so much uh councilor hightower is there anyone who has any questions could i just add to that if that's sure yeah i do i do think that this is important and i think that people talked a lot in the public comments about green space and i think that the green space that i think most people value in burlington is the streetscapes the trees that the parks department is in a great job of planting in the in the streetscapes as well as the public the many public parks we have including the intervail including sam and run and um preserving the economic not the economic the ecological viability of those i think is what we should be working on not not just preserving backyards so i think that this is an important pathway to preserving public green space which is not touched at all in um anything in the neighborhood code thank you thank you very much councilor hightower councilor shannon thank you um i definitely want to support wildlife corridors but i'm also a little bit concerned the idea of wildlife corridors on our major roads is a little bit scary and i wondered if the way this was worded it it talked about wildlife sightings and i wondered if this is a documented wildlife corridor that we're actively protecting in in other ways and i don't know if director tuttle might want to answer that or i i'm happy to talk about this thank you for the question councillor shannon so the and i did also want to just offer a point of information as well that amendment three includes two maps um similar to what councillor hightower said about changing part of the residential corridors back to rl on colchester avenue it does the same thing for a small portion in the center part of north avenue the maps that you have here tonight are based on wildlife sighting data that has been reported in two different platforms um sarah could been sarah could remind me what they're called these are reported through um the conservation teams i naturalist and i believe a previous study that was done i believe in 2014 by the conservation team with parks so um we did have a conversation with the conservation board chair about these areas and the parks conservation team at the parks department both of them were supportive of making this change but the broader discussion that we had was about this being an interim solution while we work to more in a more fine-grain way document wildlife corridors specifically versus just the wildlife sightings that are reported by users um and come up with another way that can help us balance development and wildlife movement um there was a recognition in talking with the conservation board chair that development and wildlife do not need to be in conflict with one another and i think you've heard a lot of comments about you know buildings not being the only impediment to wildlife movement things like fences and roads are important aspects as well but they were supportive of this as a first step pending more work for us to do um our what was the map kind of looked at to identify are these the only areas that kind of met the same criteria or um in conversations with the conservation board director and the parks conservation team we looked at areas that had these hot spots of wildlife sightings and also these two areas were located in between two existing conservation zones so going from um in between corridors the corridor going from an rl zoning designation to a residential corridor designation while staying in between those two existing conservation zones just led us to consider maybe putting a little bit more thought into the solution over the next um the next efforts great thanks councillor shannon um there are any others who wish to speak to this amendment amendment number three seeing none we'll go to a vote uh we have a we have a motion and a second um all those in favor of the motion please please raise your hand of 11 and all those opposed please raise your hand uh that motion passes 11 to 1 um and so amendment number three is now part is now as well part of the underlying proposed ordinance um that brings us to amendment number four um which is proposed by councillor dority so councillor dority if you could move the amendment we'll get a second and then uh the floor is yours uh thanks president paul amendment number four uh the amendment that i've proposed and now move uh would update the the zoning maps to apply the newly we'll just get a second before you go go to that let's get a second um just on the motion to move that would be from councillor hightower um go ahead councillor dorie thanks president paul and is the is the floor mine to comment on this it is um the the amendment that i have proposed amendment number four uh would amend the proposed zoning maps uh to apply the newly defined residential low district um to the area bounded by north willard street mansfield avenue archibald street and pearl street um except for the first 200 feet uh of depth from the in the properties with street frontage on pearl street between north and willard between north willard and north prospect um because those are in the proposed residential corridor district um president paul is everyone on the council and the mayor and his administration recognize um and indeed i think everyone in this room recognizes um we're facing an unprecedented housing crisis here in burlington a one percent vacancy rate is is in the rental market is completely unsustainable and completely unacceptable this dynamic has a negative and perverse impact um on every point um on the socioeconomic spectrum in burlington um from those uh in our community who are experiencing homelessness all the way to businesses and entrepreneurs who are looking to hire young professionals to move and live in burlington and every point in between i own and run a business right here in downtown burlington and we face this dynamic all the time um like councilor travers my family and i couldn't even come close to afford uh to purchasing the house where we live in and i wonder i wonder who could uh it is in no one's interest no one who lives in burlington's interest um to shut the door behind us um that is the way cities wither uh and die um and and indeed it appropriate that we discuss this um on this last last of our city council meetings before a number of big changes and including a big change in mayoral administration because uh the mayor mayor Weinberger has made housing development a cornerstone of his administration um along with multiple generations of city counselors um and he spearheaded some of the most the largest and most dynamic and most exciting housing development projects uh in the city indeed in the whole state um we will be enjoying the benefits of these developments for years to come i believe and i also believe that the neighborhood code is a much needed effort and a much needed component um of uh the city's effort to address its housing crisis um we have to allow for more diversity of development um and increase our housing stock um i recognize the tremendous work of the ordinance committee the planning commission uh megan tuttle and her team um the effort that has gone into this uh has been uh really remarkable um but acknowledging the hard work uh and the effort and uh accepting wholeheartedly uh the needs underlying the neighborhood code uh is not the same as agreeing with the end results uh and indeed i do not um many members of the community have raised what i think are serious concerns about the neighborhood code including the process in which it was developed parking water quality wildlife affordability um all of which i think warrant more consideration um for me i think that the most resonant and most immediate of the issues that is not adequately addressed by the neighborhood code in its current form is the incredible pressure uh that this community faces from undergraduate student housing needs that pressure um as i think many of us if not all of us recognize has long been exacerbated by uvm's failure to build housing commensurate with the increase um and its undergraduate student enrollment we have five thousand undergraduate students now in burlington's rental market that is an incredible percentage of renters given the size of our city um and they command prices that no one no one can afford uh to compete with uh not low income folks not young professionals not families not our elders no one so councilor dordy we're we're at five minutes here um uh let let me wrap up uh some neighborhoods very quickly some neighborhoods bear this burden more than others and that is the reason why i have uh made this amendment and just quickly counselor paul um one of the issues that was raised during public comment was that this would um that my amendment was it was a carve out that would leave the neighborhood in a in a worse zoning position than it is right now that's manifestly false newly defined residential low zoning is still a significant increase in the zoning capability of this neighborhood in ward one great thank you so much um counselor counselor high tower and remember this is to speak to the amendment please great so um i will be supporting this amendment um electionally um i do i do think that this is a carve out which can be problematic for all the reasons that we talked about but ultimately what neighborhood code decided on doing is to try to make sure that every neighborhood could be built upon um not equally but that every neighborhood would have the opportunity to have um infill happen there and i do think that um while i do not like the idea of a carve out and i especially don't like advocating for it or voting for it in my own ward um i do think that this section of the city um we have data that shows that it currently has some of the highest number of students and um um we also have a um university neighbor that um has not been i'm glad that we didn't pass the uvm mo u this council cycle but i do think that that has a lot of potential for pressure in this neighborhood and i think those two things together does mean it deserves special treatment until we figure out a better relationship with uvm and that said i do think that sometimes we um say no to housing in burlington because we i think we make the mistake of stopping any housing because we think it's going to be student housing and i think when i moved to burlington eight years ago um and moved into a bison at own duplex where i lived with three other adults um in my late 20s um and i think most folks would say that that was student housing but student housing in burlington is not just student housing it actually is competed by um young professionals and it is competed with by um young families and so we are all in the same housing pool so i think sometimes when we say that will be student housing um that's not true it'll be housing for students yes and it will also be housing for people like me who move here and are yes competing with students which is a separate issue that we have to fix so i do support this carve out um until we can get a deal with uvm because i don't think we should be stopping development and the rest of the city which we sorely need because we think that um we are solving uvm's housing problem for it thank you thank you thank you so much um so anyone who wishes to speak to amendment number four uh councilor grant thank you um i did not support amendments one and two but since they were passed i feel that it eliminates the need for amendment four because we've essentially made rm and rl what they were closer together um i understand the stresses that uh my neighbors in ward one are under um i go to a fair amount of ward one mpa meetings i also watch them because the concerns of the old north end are very similar to the concerns that ward one has um ward two and three are and i also mentioned ward eight as well are full of areas that are undergone with some new buzzwords studification uh where we we don't have families um we don't have uh young professionals finding their way um through their lives as a matter of fact we have a mass exodus of people in their mid to late 20s and early 30s leaving burlington and we're about to have a big mass as exodus this late spring and summer i know this because i've been talking to these young people and one of them's my own kid who's 29 and he's done um so the the generational um disagreements in how this this code is being looked at is very very interesting to me we have extraordinary pressures on ward five and the old north end and ward eight because these wards are the closest to uvm and uh the uvm medical center which are to the biggest if not the biggest employers in the state of vermont um nexus perhaps the state itself so there is a high demand of housing there there will always be a high demand of housing there and we need to to build there we can't necessarily control capitalism with this code we can't control greedy landlords or investors with this code um we can only hope to address the supply by increasing it um so the more supply you know supplying demand economics 101 etc um i disagree with the notion that uh we're catering to a bunch of rich students i just attended a community coalition meeting last week and it talked about there was a 2017 uh survey amongst uvm students regarding food insecurity and 24 of off campus students reported that uh they were experiencing food insecurity there was a survey done february um of this year they had 1200 and 27 respondents once again these are off campus students and food insecurity is now up to 39 percent um rent is 35 percent utilities are 30 percent those are really high numbers so we can't make this assumption that all these uvm students are you know quote-unquote wealthy or they have a lot of money um in fact a large significant percentage of uvm students qualify and receive financial aid so i think we need to be very careful about these um general terms we do do still have the inclusionary rules for affordable housing we can work on them to make them better we have things in place for about stormwater um so the bottom line with regards to this amendment now that we've done one and two i do not think that we need to approve four because we've made rm closer to rl and we cannot support carve outs because in every neighborhood all these neighborhoods are going to want a carve out they're going to want some type of exception and we're not going to end up moving forward thank you thank you very much councilor grant uh council travers thanks president paul um i will try to be brief here i will be supporting this amendment but as my friend and councilor do already knows this is an easy decision on my part um when we as an ordinance committee sat jointly with the planning commission the office of city planning did come forward with us with a recommendation to move this neighborhood to residential medium and those of us on the joint committee uh asked director tutel and and sarah margan and others in the department for some some data and some reasoning as to why that was the suggestion and if you if you just look at the data it does support our moving this neighborhood to residential medium um 57 percent of the lots in this neighborhood are less than 6500 square feet what that means is that even by moving to lot coverage of 60 percent in residential medium it's it's practically impossible to build a secondary structure on those lots by moving just to residential low it moves lot coverage to 45 percent but uh 68 percent of the lots in this neighborhood are already built out to beyond 45 percent lot coverage and so by keeping it at residential low that means there's 68 percent of the the lots in this neighborhood that won't be able to to grow beyond those boundaries but uh councilor doherty and and councilor hightower you've been incredible advocates uh for your ward one neighbors councilor doherty i know you spent countless hours um meeting with your ward one neighbors and opening your homes to them and while i do think and this uh the neighborhood code will and and should involve incremental change and and trust that would be the same in your neighborhood as across the city i also trust you councilor doherty um that there is a certain reality behind the data and that this neighborhood's location and proximity to campus in particular puts additional pressures on this neighborhood that that may not exist in other neighborhoods across the city i know how important this amendment is to ensure that the neighborhood code receives the support it deserves tonight and so i will be voting in favor of it thank you thank you councilor travers um so we'll go to councilor chang and then councilor shannon yes i will try to be also very short um and from my perspective this is exactly how the equity issue is playing out right here and i think when i look at this map very closely it seems that the councilor who is proposing this amendment actually is a neighbor is a is a resident of that neighborhood and also that neighborhood is really close basically few blocks from the uvm mc i don't think that we can interpret the data um suggesting that it is almost impossible i think sometimes you need to find the perspective of aligning two back-to-back uh lots in order to make something meaningful about this i think this carving out issue is exactly what is going to water down and also bring inequities about this proposal i would not be supporting this amendment from councilor doherty thank you thank you councilor chang we'll go to councilor shannon then councilor king and let's try to go to a vote after that thank you president paul i do not live in this neighborhood but in committee i did identify this neighborhood as a neighborhood um that i was concerned about knowing the pressures that are on the this neighborhood in particular from absentee landlords um and i think that there's been some misperception about what the change from rm to rl really means um there is an impression that changing from rm to rl means that uh there aren't going to be dramatic changes that are allowed in an rl neighborhood but in fact neighborhood code dramatically changes rl it means that in this neighborhood you and and even even more so um i do agree with councilor grant that the difference between rl and rm there's much less difference after the last couple of amendments or the first couple of amendments that we passed but in this neighborhood you're still going to be able to take a single family home and turn it into a fourplex without adding any parking and you're going to be able to if the lot is big enough potentially add a secondary unit with up to four units and the real difference between rl and rm now is that rl allows 45 lock coverage plus 10 percent kind of accessory lock coverage and rm allows now 55 percent lock coverage so the real difference is only a difference in the lock coverage so i don't think that this is making you know a big change i think it's a smaller change than what a lot of people may perceive because we're not talking about going to old rl standards but this new rl standard which is not terribly different than rm and i will support it thank you so much councillor shana we'll go to councillor king and then go to a vote on amendment number four i also will be supporting this tonight i haven't been excited to support any of the amendments frankly but i have seen uh councillor dory do a tremendous amount of more meeting with constituents and i think in votes like tonight that really matters he's listening to his neighbours and while he may live in one of the neighbourhoods that could be affected i don't think that that is super relevant to this conversation i think when you have councillors that have done the work and have met with their constituents then they tend to be um doing what is best for their direct neighbourhoods great thank you so much councillor king uh councillor grant i uh just wanted to mention one more thing i you know ward one and uh eight and two and three would greatly benefit from a fair mo u from uvm but we don't have that and we have no idea when we're going to have that and that plays a major role um i i have a lot of respect for the people in ward one that i have talked to but i've also talked to a lot of young people in ward one who feel that they want to see the units they they're not as worried about parking because they think more about climate change and making do without vehicles or having electric vehicles or having other options or feeling they'll be able to walk to uvm or walk to the medical center or walk to downtown where they would have their job so they're thinking in a really different way and we we really have to um pay attention to that thank you thank you so much councillor grant um let's go to a vote uh we have a we have a motion we have a second um this is on amendment number four um all those in favour of the amendment please raise your hand that is eight all those opposed raise your hand that is four so the amendment passes eight to four and this amendment is now part of the underlying proposed ordinance um i will go to a motion from uh councillor megey thank you president paul given the hour i would move to suspend our rules in order for us to complete our deliberative agenda this evening thank you so much councillor megey as our second to that motion uh thank you councillor bergman um this requires two thirds all those in favour of the motion to extend our rules uh to suspend our rule or yes to suspend our rules um uh and complete our deliberative agenda please say aye all right any opposed please say no okay we are back to um that passes and we are back to um in this case amendment number five which is proposed by councillors grant and bergman uh councillor grant if you could move the amendment and then after we get a second if you can just briefly explain what the amendment is yes i move amendment number five is listed thank you councillor grant seconded by councillor bergman uh councillor grant the the floor is yours thank you so once again we come back to an equity issue um when i looked at the maps it was immediate that we had these sections in the south end and the new north end that were uh being exempt from rm and i found that to be very um problematic once again from an equity standpoint it seemed to be not to be fair uh for the parts of the city that have the burden of already being in a state where in some areas we're already at high uh based on what the the new code would be to have the areas that have the most potential have the lowest level was very disconcerting i and and it leads to once again the carve out con conversation which will continue i think to be a problem i think um i think it was january 8th there was a very interesting presentation about the study that the city had done around um which areas of the city do we collect the most property taxes and it was the central district was where the most property taxes were being collected and it was just very interesting it goes on one hand it was like oh we're doing really well in that area but in another hand i thought about the fact that the central district is the most economically diverse has a lot of working people has a lot of poor people has a lot of um students and we have a has a lot of older people we have a higher burden on property taxes so i was like ah i'm not sure this is that great because we clearly aren't uh maximizing the potential in the other areas that we've labeled as rl so back to equity issues um and that is why i am supporting rm as the floor for the whole city because especially now that we've made rm and rl a little bit closer and i think we have to think about that i think we have to think about equity i think we have to think about fairness and i think we have to think about the burdens that we put on our neighbors thank you thank you so much councillor grant will now go to councillor bergman very briefly i have pushed for the end of rl zoning for for the last uh two years that i've been on the council and so this is consistent with that i am not a fan of the new north end and sections in the south end not being and the hill being um rl even though we have lowered we have decreased the difference between the two and we are doing up zoning i i really do believe that should be the standard that we have that's the standard that i think that we should be striving for i think we can do all of the good work that people want and that they have expressed um if you believe that postponement would work to improve the code then you can you have to believe that we can in the next term make major improvements so to the extent to which there are issues around affordability around um climate and uh and storm water we can be able to take those on we we need to take those on regardless of what we do tonight and so up zoning the entire city seems to be the appropriate and just thing for us to do as well as the necessary thing to do last thing door knocking believe it or not i did door knock even though i ran unopposed um and the number one issue that people talked to me about was housing and even when public safety community safety was raised the thing that came out of people's mouths was homelessness so this is an issue that um we've got to take dramatic action on thank you thank you so much councillor bergman um councillor uh shannon thank you president paul i just want to point out that we are 100 percent up zoning the entire city without a doubt with what we are passing no matter um with or without this amendment and i think that what's been presented is an accurate view of how many people feel about up zoning when we plan to live in a neighborhood we feel burdened by up zoning we feel fearful of what um we may feel some opportunity about what we can do at our own property but we also feel fearful about what our neighbors um may be doing at their property and that includes both homeowners and and renters that that fear of what happens next door um but the other way of looking at this is is the opportunity and uh the idea going into it was that we would create opportunity throughout the city and the opportunity does differ depending on what's currently on the ground um and so there is a even just as it is there is a lot more opportunity for building in much of the rl areas which include both um the most affordable housing we have in the city in the new north end and the least affordable housing we have in the city um on the hill and parts of the south end uh and the waterfront in the new north end as well uh and these zoning changes can also be a windfall for property owners and a bigger windfall for those with more opportunity that are already in the rl um so i i i don't disagree with uh the assessment that was made by my colleagues but just wanted to point out that there's also another way to look at that uh thanks councillor shannon um um uh councillor grant you've already spoken to this so we'll go to councillor uh councillor jordy did you you wanted the floor right thanks prison paul okay um i think that uh i'm very confident that that everyone on the city council um this title and her office and the mayors administration have all thought uh long and hard about equity uh and care about equity i don't think that it is an issue that only a select few people value and care about i don't i disagree that equity uh equates to treating every single neighborhood in the city um regardless of its particular pressures and dynamics um uh and needs and challenges and opportunities um the same i don't think that's what equity requires and in fact i believe that that would result in an inequitable uh zoning situation for example um to get to get back to the our dynamic with the university and the pressure that we face from undergraduate student housing um you know i believe that in the neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to that pressure um by virtue of their proximity to the university um i believe that they will see incredible they already see incredible economic pressure from outside developers who are looking um to purchase homes from single family homeowners uh to purchase homes from landlords um who wish to market um to folks other than undergraduates um and uh that pressure uh will only increase um if we treat every single neighborhood uh in the city um exactly the same when it comes to zoning um i don't think that was ever the purpose of the neighborhood code i remember early on when i first started hearing about the neighborhood code you know one of the goals that was that was articulated and was articulated throughout the entire process was that zoning was going to be changed you know the city was going to be up zoned we all agreed that that was necessary we all agree that that is necessary uh and all of my constituents by the way agree that that's necessary um that i've spoken to um but that the city was going to look carefully in a detailed way at each individual neighborhood and try and tailor the zoning approaches um to best take into account those dynamics so i do not accept that that equity demands um a sort of universal residential medium or any universal um uh zoning uh overlay and i won't so i won't support this amendment thank you thank you councillor adority we'll go to councillor traverson then to councillor grant and then we really must go to a vote yes thanks i appreciate councillors grant and bergman bringing forward this amendment before the joint committee with the planning commission we did have extensive discussions about uh further up zoning multiple neighborhoods and even on a city-wide basis uh to a residential medium district um nonetheless we landed on the proposal that was sent uh to the council and as you've seen and i will just say i i think the discussion made more of a difference when in residential medium we were allowing up to 10 units now that we've taken action to amend the code to allow eight units up to eight units in both residential medium and residential low areas that the largest difference now between the two boils down to maximum lot coverage and on that point i agree with councillor shannon i used the percentage about number of lots over under 6500 square feet for the for councillor adority's neighborhood but looking to some of the other neighborhoods that are flagged as as rl you know well over 90 of the lots in the hill section for example are greater than 6500 square feet in apple tree point in the new north end well more than 90 of the lots are over 6500 square feet in the south cove neighborhood in the south end 100 percent of lots are over 6500 square feet and if you just do the math uh you know in a residential low neighborhood 45 percent of a 20 000 square foot lot gives you 9 000 square feet of developable space 60 percent of a 10 000 square foot lot gives you less so i i think actually the map that we have before us does bring equity in that sense especially now that we've taken action to create the same caps in terms of maximum units in both these neighborhoods thanks i think thank you councillor travers we'll go to councillor grant so i don't have the time to do an equity lesson uh regretfully um i don't know how to make make some of you see the issue i will just say that it is something that i see it's something that greatly disturbs me it's something that i feel we've run into all kinds of subjects that involve equity and as a council we have failed across a number of things you know like police oversight and accountability it is i think a failure of leadership with regards to the outgoing administration i get really concerned when i hear the term windfalls um how certain property owners are going to get windfalls there are no windfalls for the renters okay so when we're looking at these areas in the certain areas that have the highest percentage of renters you know that's an equity issue thank you thank you so much uh we're going to go to a vote now um so this is on amendment number five um all those who are in favor of amendment number five uh please say aye or i'm sorry why don't you raise your hand the raise your hand method seems to work better that would be five in favor all those opposed to amendment number five please raise your hand that would be wait a minute five six no oh i'm sorry i didn't see councillor all right there are seven so that motion fails on a vote of seven on five to seven and that amendment does not make it into moving forward as part of the development ordinance um amendment number six is one that i've actually proposed and as chair of the ordinance committee i would ask um councillor travers if you could just move that amendment then we'll get a second i move amendment number six proposed by you councillor paul thank you uh seconded by uh councillor mickey um councillor travers if you could just briefly explain the amendment it's fairly straightforward sure i'll keep it brief briefly we're doing it briefly it's very brief so we'll be doing it briefly yeah um i will say i i i don't use the word developer as a pejorative term i also don't use the word landlord as a pejorative term that said um i recognize that there there are some landlords and property owners that are frequent fliers in our code enforcement office uh and um at the moment um if you're a property owner and seek a permit to develop your property um that permit can can only be denied if you have uh outstanding zoning violations you haven't received a a certificate of a a a a a a a occupancy for example um we are not permitted as a city to deny a property owner uh a uh building permit if they have uh open minimum housing violations and the proposal you bought forward council councillor paul i know on behalf of many of your constituents that have these concerns um would add language to our development ordinance that would allow the city um the right to deny a property owner uh a a a building permit um if they have outstanding unresolved minimum housing violations and i will be supporting the amendment and thank you for bringing it forward great thank you so much councillor travers and thank you for doing this on my behalf um is there anyone who has any uh comments or questions on this amendment fairly straightforward um we will go to a vote uh all those in favor of the zoning amendment as proposed by councillor travers uh please raise your hand uh any opposed uh please raise your hand we get that amendment passed unanimously by a vote of 12 to 0 so that amendment is now part of the underlying proposed ordinance and brings us to our last amendment which is za 24-02 effective date proposal councillor travers 321-24 so i will go and return i will return to councillor travers if you could move the amendment we'll get a second and then if you could just briefly explain what it is yes uh so now that we have a fully amended comprehensive neighborhood code i would make a motion that would take those amendments of the neighborhood code that allow for a secondary structure within rl and rm zones to be effective on october 1 of 2024 is there a second to that motion seconded by councillor shannon um you pretty much have captured what we're doing here um did you need to expand on that uh i again we'll keep it very brief i think that many of the concerns that we've heard from neighbors revolve around um secondary buildings uh as we've discussed now and and the amended version um the neighborhood code would allow up to eight units uh in two buildings four in a primary building and four in a secondary building uh what this amendment would do is it would delay the effective date of those provisions that permit for secondary buildings until october 1 meaning that a building applicant would not be able to permit for a secondary building until that date um and the idea here is that um you know i i do agree and see some need for some uh some improvements to this language and some additions that i know our planning commission is currently working on so just to offer some examples briefly president paul um yeah if a secondary building like a detached garage is non-conforming due to it being within a rear or side yard setback um should we allow that to be converted into a habitable space should a secondary building um be taller than a primary building if we allow a secondary building uh will we still need our existing rules on accessory dwelling units um what rules should we put into place for certain secondary buildings like i've become familiar with this term of cottage court developments that i know the planning commission is still reviewing um to put some standards around what those secondary structures should look like and i think um perhaps most importantly as we've heard from many members of the public um i know our planning commission is working in collaboration with uh dpw on how else particularly with respect to secondary structures uh we can support and incentivize green stormwater infrastructure uh in in buildings permitted in the neighborhood code and so um this this amendment will allow some additional time for the planning commission as well as our next council and next administration um to make some needed and added improvements thank you great thank you so much councillor travers is there anyone else who wishes to comment uh councillor shannon um thank you president paul i'm only going to comment on this last amendment um and won't be having any further comments on the on when we go to a vote on on the amended version um but so i want to say that um i support neighborhood code and um there's much that i like about it but like my my colleague who i can't even believe this my former colleague mary kehoe uh who i can't even believe is still here tonight um um it was hard enough when you had to uh i i i see the process that we have undergone here as extremely problematic and i have from the beginning in september i did not agree with the structure of having a joint committee of the planning commission and ordinance committee for the purpose of consolidating and fast-tracking the review process i noted that the public needs to be given ample opportunity to engage with the discussions in january i noted that the decision at the beginning of this process was to fast track it which i opposed i said that the concerns about how this would affect neighborhoods near the university are very real as the university has added 1000 students to off-campus housing within the city per year since 20 uh i don't think it's per year but since 2019 um i said that i would support uh warning a public hearing because we didn't have the votes to send it to the ordinance committee but also said that i would support working on it more if the public feedback warrants it and the public feedback tonight in our emails in phone calls in conversations have clearly warranted a referral a referral that is expected with any zoning ordinance it's our standard practice practice and i'd also like to note that when i reviewed my own comments councillor jang agreed with me and it wasn't a dream so thank you councillor jang for that um i i agree with uh with council councillor travers that there is still uh much work that can be done and is being taken up by the by the planning commission and that moving forward my my strong preference would be to refer this to the ordinance committee but again i understand that um we are not likely to have the votes for that tonight and so i have decided not to make that motion um and waste our time and i appreciate this this um compromise that councillor travers has come up with which allows me in the end if this passes to support this and i think it's important work that that we have done to get us to this point um while still uh having the opportunity to review many of the issues that have rightfully been raised tonight including affordability home ownership parking infrastructure uh and and uvm as well as historic buildings and i look forward to doing that work over the course of the next few months and thank you very much to councillor travers for this um creative compromise that uh i think does improve our process um and thank you thank you so much councillor shannon uh councillor uh dhority and then we'll go to councillor hightower and and hopefully a vote thank you president paul i am acutely conscious of the fact that i have spoken more at tonight's city council meeting probably by a factor of five then i think i haven't any city council meeting so far this will be my last comment um i won't i won't comment further when we get to the final vote um my strong preference is also to send this back to the committee um to do more work to address a number of the issues uh that i have raised um as i have heard councillor bergman say though on several occasions um i also can count votes and i recognize that there is not the support uh or even close to it on the city council to take that action um so i'm appreciative of this last amendment i will support it um and i will support the neighborhood code uh reluctantly uh as amended despite my preference to send it back to the committee great thank you so much councillor dhority we'll try to wrap up with councillor hightower great um i think as one of the few councillors who also would have voted to support this going back to committee i'm glad that it's not going back to committee because i would have voted um for it because of the fact that i didn't um that i didn't speak with councillor shannon on um this going to ordinance i am glad that we did it as a joint process i just think that saved so much planning um team time and i do think we should have referred it to ordinance just to um to to get that attention to the public and so i would have voted for it to take accountability for my own mistake but i'm glad um that we don't have the votes for it um so i do i do think that this is again a good compromise i do think there is like some details to iron out especially around the second building um and i'm also i just it is rare that on such a contentious issue that we have um so much agreement across the two parties um that make up the majority of our council and so i do i'm i'm very glad i know that it's been a contentious public forum i know it's been a contentious few months i know that i've had very difficult conversations with a lot of my neighbors and a lot of phone calls um or meetings and folks's houses and npas but i do i'm glad to see so much support for this and i'm glad that we could pass some amendments to make it um hopefully feel better to have more burlingtonians thank you thank you so much councilor hightower so this is the effective date proposal um this is our last amendment and then we will go to the underlying resolution um all those in favor of the last amendment the effective date proposal is brought forward by councilor travers please raise your hand so i think we're looking at one two three four five six seven eight nine and all those oppose please raise your hand councilor did you yes all right so it's actually nine it is actually 10 my apologies i didn't see you um so that would be 10 to 2 um so that amendment passes and it's also now part of the underlying proposed development ordinance um that brings us back to the underlying proposed ordinance um and we'll be voting on that ordinance with the following amendments that have passed which is amendment number one two three four and six and the effective date amendment uh with most of us have had a fairly good amount of time to speak those some of us have not if there's anyone who wishes to speak to the underlying amendment before we go to a vote now would be the time uh council bergman i i actually um want to ask us planning staff a question i count about nine areas of continued work that just were you know raised at the the public hearing and when i look at your memo in terms of the ongoing work around part two and then um the technical amendments it's not clear um what the standard process would be i have a strong belief that we have a lot of work to do on this and that is in our ordinance committee and that that work needs to be done expeditiously so the question for planning is knowing that you've heard lots about affordable housing you've heard questions about the wildlife um language early on the very first one i think um parking is an issue um green space and i've raised solar orientation which i saw actually in a memo at one point infrastructure impacts which also relate to the impact fee study that's happening and hopefully we get revised so give us some guidance in terms of how we're going to be able to take this important step to do the work that people are calling on us to do thank you council bergman um i think as you noted just with the few examples that you shared there are likely to be several different processes that will follow this work we do have some work that's underway um we talked about this quite extensively in the joint committee process we talked about a list of things that were very clearly on the table for part two we called this amendment that is in front of you tonight part one um there is a part two that includes things like uh the cottage courts that counselor traverse referenced um so i think some of these issues will dovetail well into the work that we knew that the planning commission was intending to follow this part of the code with um we also as a joint committee talked about something called the construction zone which were bigger issues that we knew would either require more time or collaboration in order for us in order for us to find the right next steps for so i'm happy to as we move into the next administration and with the new council talk with the chairs of the planning commission and the ordinance committee at that time about the right way to plan to address the next step of this work great um i'm going to support the uh the amendment as amended and believe that with uh with some diligence and some good public process that we can um do a lot in the next uh short term thank you thank you so much counselor bergman um let's uh okay counselor jang yes um and i think it doesn't people are not saying this enough and megan i want to say thank you so much for your work about this and also for your work about many planning issues in the city and it is unfortunate that you planted the seed something really good but it seemed that you'll be moving on soon and i think um you know maybe you'll consider and staying um and i really want to say thank you also because in the new north end most of the time people do not um engage into a lot of city affairs but i think colin larson who've been following this issue for a very long time um ian as well who've been following it as well ryan flink um you know um ellen rock um you know liam griffin you know i think i think it's it's really good i think we continue to engage in the city affairs and really congratulations mr mayor as well because i think this is one of your uh plans about building housing and i'm glad that you have done it right and i'm happy to be supporting this thank you thank you so much councillor jang and with that uh we will go to a roll call vote on the uh on the ordinance itself lori one last time let's call the roll councillor barlow yes councillor bergman yes yes councillor carpenter yes councillor jang yes councillor dority yes councillor grant yes councillor hightower yes councillor king yes councillor mcgee yes councillor shannon yes councillor travers yes city council president paul yes 12 eyes that is 12 so that's uh 12 eyes and uh no one opposed that motion passes unanimously what a wonderful what a wonderful way to end the year um do you want to also thank uh sarah and megan so much for your tireless work on the neighbourhood code this has been a massive undertaking and your work is greatly appreciated also want to thank the members of the ordinance committee uh councillor travers hightower shannon and carpenter as well as the members of the planning commission for their tireless work on this as well um that concludes our deliberative agenda president paul please keep in mind the next meeting i'm sorry go ahead would it be completely out of order for me to say something at the end it would not be completely out of order for after all of this you absolutely have our undivided attention well i i just wanted to actually echo many of the thank yous that you were just sharing um i really appreciate the work of the council um sorry uh the work of the ordinance committee members that spent a lot of time on this code i know that this was a very important issue that you heard a lot about and i appreciate the work that you've done um i also want to thank andy as the planning commission chair for his support and leadership on this and all of the planning commissioners um and also want to give a huge shout out to sarah this is the first zoning amendment that we threw her into and she did an amazing job so a lot of the data and graphics that you saw to support this work were sarah's creation so um you have an excellent team in the planning office and on the planning commission and um i'm happy that they will get to continue working with you uh an excellent an excellent team for sure um megan you will be terribly missed terribly missed um that concludes our deliberative agenda um as i said the next meeting of the city council will be organization day on monday next monday april first we hope that you can join us for that for that celebratory event tends to be the shortest meeting of the year that brings us to the end of our agenda uh councilor councilor mcgee is there a motion to adjourn so moved thank you seconded by councilor king and councillor and councillor jang um and councillor hightower all those in favor of the motion please say aye we are adjourned thank you all it's been a pleasure