 Okay, we are about four after our joint rate has leveled off so with that we can start the meeting. Welcome, my name is Alan Belniak I'm a consultant just helping facilitate the digital portion of the meeting tonight. If all goes well you will not see or hear very much of me. But Mac if you could event to the next slide please I just want to go over some administrative items for the meeting. So, we do have the chat down bottom enabled. We're going to ask that you actually try to refrain from using it for the majority of this first portion of the meeting. The project team here has some great slides to go through to talk about all the wonderful work we've done up until today. And then at a certain point during the meeting we're going to split off into some breakout rooms that's really where we want to get some great feedback from you all. And we think the chat is going to work really well there so if you have to use it if you're having a technical issue then go ahead and do that. But what we want to avoid is kind of like that rolling chatter on the screen because it tends to be a bit distracting for those presenting so by all means it's on we're going to use it really intently in the breakouts but in the main session if you could just kind of keep it to a minimum. That would be really good. We are recording the meeting for archival purposes we just want to make sure everyone knows that. So instead of a moment ago we're going to the teams going to go through a nice good presentation. We're going to move into breakouts just nothing that you all really need to do. We're going to talk a little bit and then we're going to reconvene at the end so if you have any questions please use that chat down below. If you want to raise your hand. It's under the reactions button you click reactions and then the raise hand is there, but we can use that more once we get into those into those breakouts. So with that, I think we've moved to the next slide and I can hand it over to Laura to kick off the meeting in earnest. Yes, hi everybody. Thank you for those who attended in person. Thank you to those who are online. I'm in the Buescher conference room over on the side of the screen also sharing my video so appearing in two places at once. I'm in the BVW and one of the project managers, along with my colleague Olivia Derrice who's also online, and our director Jake and Spencer coming from the department. We're here to show you what we've been working on as it relates to the Great Streets Main Street effort. We started this process back in February or kind of re kicked off this process back in February to restart the project. We've visited a lot of city meetings we've helped focus groups we've taken a lot of feedback, which we'll show you throughout this presentation. And really we just want to show you what we've been working on and then be able to get your feedback on that in the direction where this is going so we can move and I can talk a little bit about our design team that's here tonight. As well as kind of how the city is organized as it relates behind this effort. So, with us tonight we have our design team representatives from PHB Grayscale and agency landscape and planning. They are really the, the meat behind being able to bring this whole concept together and collect all of the outreach and feedback that we've been doing from the city's perspective there are several city departments that are working behind the scenes to help support this project, as well as even a few that are not meet. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Evan with VHB to be to go through what we can work on. Thanks Laura. I'm Evan Dietrich with the engineering firm VHB, and I'm the overall project manager for the consultant team, supported by a great group of people here with us tonight. You can see some of them there. And what we're going to talk about tonight we're going to give an overview of the project today. And we're going to talk about the engagement we've had with members of the public and a number of focus groups. And then we're going to talk about some of the features of Main Street that we're trying to incorporate into into the design, based on what we've heard from the public so far. We're going to present the design concepts that were pulled we pulled together to date. And Steve Woods is going to give you a rather in depth presentation on that. And then we're going to go into breakout rooms, where everyone will get to participate, and you'll all end up in a room and then we're going to switch rooms halfway through. And we're all going to be able to talk about the project, and you can give us your thoughts on what we presented here tonight. So project overview, start with that. So this of course is the Great Streets project that's been going on for a number of years. The initial concepts were developed back in 2015 and 2016. And this is all for the entire downtown area these concepts were developed. And since the standards were developed, and these concepts were developed back then, the city has gone ahead and built a couple of these projects already. They include City Hall Park, which was a very big deal in the downtown area a couple years ago, as well as the first two blocks of St. Paul Street. So at this point now we're on to the next project, which is the Great Streets Main Street project and that's what we're talking about tonight. So this project covers the section of Main Street that runs between Battery Street which is there on the left side or to the west, and it goes all the way up to South Union Street. So it's six full blocks and seven intersections. So we're looking at rebuilding this section to make it much more user friendly for a greater variety of groups than it is today. So the schedule. This group, the consultant group got started on Main Street back in the fall of 2022 by doing some of the preliminary investigations such as field survey and geotechnical investigations looking at the existing utilities and things like that. So we did have our first neighborhood meeting in early February of this year. And we really got into a high octane engagement process after that first public meeting where we've been reaching out to a number of entities and focus groups that Stephen Gray is going to talk to you about in just a minute. Along with that we've been developing concepts based on the feedback that we've gotten from the public and the different city agencies. So we've been developing these concepts since February, and now we're going to be presenting those tonight. Looking ahead, we're going to be going to City Council in early May to present these same concepts to them. So they're all up to speed with what we're doing. And then hopefully later in May we get their blessing to move forward into the real design phase. And that design phase will consist of a couple of different submissions of preliminary plans, final plans and then contract plans over the next 15 months or so. So that we complete the contract plans and get the project ready to go to bid for construction. So that will take a year of 2023. And then construction itself, it's a big project so that'll take a few years we expect construction to last from the end of 23 into 2025. And it could go even longer depending on what other initiatives the city has going on at that time, such as the possible addition of the ravine sewer in the city there. So that's kind of the timeline that we're on for the remainder of the Main Street project. And then we'll move on to Stephen Gray. He's going to talk about our community engagement. Thanks Evan. Yes, I'm Stephen Gray with Grayscale Collaborative. And I just want to kind of give folks a sense of the conversations that we've been having so far and who we've been talking to. This slide right here just kind of gives you some metrics. We've had, as Evan mentioned, one major community meeting since the restart of this project back in February. And we had 60 participants at that kickoff meeting. And since then we've developed online surveys. We have updated the website. We've gotten quite a lot of activity in people visiting the website. And we've also had a number of city meetings, 30 city meetings, and five listening sessions, which were with focus groups, identity based focus groups. And I'll talk a little bit more about that on the subsequent slides. Next slide. So, you know, not only have we been reaching out to residents and to the public, but we've also done that by taking this to neighborhood planning assemblies and PAs to city council. City council has had time to actually brief this in progress before they brief it again in a couple of weeks. And several committees totaling 30 meetings. So you can see here the kind of list of the dates and the meetings that we've already had. I think that one of the things that really came out of the earlier process back in 2016-17-18 was feedback that the city was doing a good job reaching out to people. People wanted to see even more iteration, even more contact. And so we've really made that effort in this early stage to make sure that we're having those touch points before the design advances beyond the point where people feel like they have a say in how things are going. After this conversation tonight, we will be meeting with the business group again on May 6th. So if that's you, please put that on your calendar if it's not already there. And then we'll also share these plans with city council again on May 9th. Next slide. So, you know, Evan mentioned, I mentioned that first sort of restart community meeting back in February. And this is kind of a bit of a report card. We really asked two basic questions really to understand how people see Main Street today. So today Main Street is what? And we got a number of responses. We have a couple of them here on the slide that you can see. And then tomorrow I want Main Street to become. And so it was really getting a sense of what people think about the functioning and the service on Main Street today and what people envision in the future. And when we looked at the kinds of things people were really focused on and really interested in improving, it significantly leaned towards pedestrian access and safety. You can see 41% followed by improved bicycle access and safety and then very closely followed by issues of vehicular access and parking. And of course, you know, stormwater carrying capacities and then other ideas were also a part of this. But I think this really represents, you know, the thrust of the schemes that have been developed and will be shared tonight is really a focus on the pedestrian realm primarily. And then balancing different mobilities. So bicycle and making sure that we're accommodating the necessary parking for businesses. Next slide. One of the things that we also noticed in that first restart meeting was that we got a wide range of attendees, but we didn't get many youth. We didn't get many seniors on the sort of older end of the spectrum. And we didn't get any people of color. And so knowing that Burlington does have young people, it does have seniors and it does have people of color. We made a concerted effort to really reach out to those groups specifically and have listening sessions and targeted conversations to make sure that those voices were brought into the conversation. We also had a number of extra meetings with businesses because, you know, if the businesses don't function, then that doesn't work for them and it doesn't work for anyone in the community who happens to be coming to Main Street. And so we had five focus groups. We had two focus groups with BIPOC immigrant and refugees, two different sets of focus groups. And then we had one, which we were calling mobility support, which were seniors and people with differing abilities. And then we spoke with some high school students. We actually joined a high school class and the teachers helped to facilitate that and there were about 25, 11th graders and 12th graders that joined us. And then we've spoken with the business group a couple of times. Next slide kind of gives some highlights. So we really want you to go to the website, which I think is being posted into the chat continuously through this presentation. On the website, take a closer look at those report cards and really get a sense of the flavor, but just to give you a high level sense of the feedback. You know, a lot of folks are really interested in making Main Street into what people say it really should be, which is a sort of cultural and civic resource, a center for the city, both for long time residents, but also for new comers. And that the way that it's designed from signage to the amenities and places to sit places to shop, the level of comfort that's provided really should represent a diverse and rich cultural history and identity of all of the residents from the business side, really an emphasis on making sure that this effort is coordinated with other city priorities that we are thinking beyond the boundaries of this part of Main Street and how it extends and connects to other parts of the city. And also thinking about long term maintenance that this is a capital investment but if it is not maintained over time and we heard this from earlier sessions from years ago reviewing some of the reports from those those times that people are really focused on making sure that this doesn't get built and then forgotten about but maintenance was was was clearly critical. And where those kind of interest intersected the most between businesses and residents was, you know, the need for a clear parking and wayfinding strategy. And this obviously is important to businesses but if someone's visiting Main Street and they don't know where to park they don't know where to where they can, you know, safely get from where they're parked to where they're going. Then, you know, we have some some trouble getting businesses activated and getting people to where they need to be that directly ties to accessibility and safety for pedestrians, and really thinking about the fact that there is a slope there is a change and there's a need for some places of respite for people along that that path, and that Main Street really needs to be a lively and welcoming space with places for arts and programming for all ages. Next slide. So, you know, we've we've really integrated a lot of the feedback from the earlier phases of work from the, you know, 2016 1718, as well as from this current phase, and you'll see when you begin to look at some of the ideas that will be shown later in this presentation, we've actually tagged those things with direct feedback from those conversations so you can see how the feedback that we're getting is feeding directly into our thinking and the design ideas that we're bringing to the table today. So I'm going to pass it back to Evan now to kind of give us a closer look at Main Street. Okay, thanks Stephen. So what you're looking at here is a cross section of the street so you can imagine you're looking down the street and take a big cut across it and, and this is what you would see both above ground and below ground. So this is our proposed design as it stands today. You can see in the middle we have drive lanes and parking lanes. And that has been switched from diagonal like it is today to parallel parking. That allows us to narrow the roadway and provide more space behind the curb lines for more types of uses. And you can see what some of those uses are there behind the curb line so as you work to the left side or the right side. We have a buffer between the street and the bikeway so we have a bikeway that goes in each direction on each side of the street. There's an amenity or planting belt between the bikeway and the sidewalk so we call it a clear walkway here. So then we have the sidewalks and then the frontage zones which is right in front of all the different buildings. And sometimes you'll see things like tables out there for restaurants or maybe some sort of kiosk for a store that sort of thing that's kind of the frontage zone. This ends up with a result in a much wider area for the bikeways and sidewalks and frontage zones as compared to what's out there today. You can also see that we have a lot of stuff going on underground. And this is one of the things that we're looking at with this project is the underground utilities. There's Vermont gas there's going to an electric department, water and sewer, and as long as we're going to be rebuilding this road and making it a great street. We want to make sure that we don't forget about something like utilities and leave them out of the equation. So, as we're considering what to do with the street above grade, we're also considering what we're going to do below grade as well. So within the available space between the buildings, there are some encumbrances, as you can see on the photos on the right there. So why we ideally have that section I mentioned in the previous slide, there are some areas where we're going to be a bit pinched. You can see some of the steps and railings and, and walls and things that stick out in front of the buildings, which will mean that in some areas we have to pinch down some of these zones and make some sacrifices to avoid these features that already exist out there. So what do we actually gain if we narrow the street well this table kind of shows what the tradeoffs are. So today the roadway pavement with three is 50 to 70 feet wide. So if you imagine the face to face of the buildings is just about 100 feet 50 to 70 feet of that is for cars and parking today it's very wide under the proposed concept that drops to about 40 feet. We get rid of the diagonal parking and put in parallel parking that means there is a change in the parking we go from about 157 spaces down to 90. So what do we gain though so bike lanes there are none today, we're going to have a separated lane in each direction. The sidewalk with on each side, sometimes they're very narrow along Main Street is narrow as five feet and overly wide in some areas and we're going to provide a much more consistent 13 to 18 feet of sidewalk with. So basically zero stormwater treatment on Main Street today, all the water runs into catch basins and then directly down to the lake or to the sewage treatment plant. We're going to change that, and we're going to treat stormwater at its source. So along Main Street, as it was done with St. Paul Street we're going to be adding stormwater treatment facilities. So to this change also allows us to add green space on each side. There isn't much there today, especially in some blocks, but we're going to get at least six to 15 feet on each one of the blocks. And then today there's some places for public art spaces and plazas. It's rather limited though. So with the narrowing of the street it provides good opportunity to expand on those. So I did mention loss of parking which certainly will be a concern, especially to business owners. So what we're going to be doing is we're looking at ways that we can improve the parking scenario downtown, rather than just providing more parking. We hope to leverage technology by having people use parking apps which basically if you want to park downtown today you can use an app to do so. But these apps can track where there are open spaces and notify people of where the open spaces are so you don't have to drive all around the city looking for them. And there's variable peak hour pricing that can be implemented in real time feedback on available parking locations. And we can do that through wayfinding signs and electronic boards and things like that. We also can create incentives. Take the money from parking and reinvest that into non motorized travel modes such as bus passes that's possibility. Incentivize loading to occur in off peak hours for the businesses have employee parking programs and things like that. We also can build out other infrastructure like providing bike parking stations, improve transit accommodations, both of which are part of this project, and improve wayfinding signing to off Main Street parking areas. And then we can vary the parking restrictions to reflect the adjacent land use or seasonal demand, and we're going to be providing flex spaces for parklets and street areas where the restaurants can expand out in the summer and then turn it back in the parking in the winter. People are less willing to walk further distances in the summer they can walk farther, so they don't mind if they have to do that to some extent, so restaurants can set up eateries in front of the restaurant, so people don't mind to do the walking. So we're looking at ways we can mitigate those, those impacts. So kind of the, the kit of parts that we have for this, the things that we're trying to work into the Main Street streetscape. We're going to have more comfortable spaces there isn't a lot of comfort out there today, improve the natural systems I mentioned the stormwater management, certainly improve safety and accessibility of the various buildings, and any, any of the places people want to go on Main Street, and then also have a more active space where people really joined the Main Street and want to stay there and spend time and really enjoy their time there. All these things will be talked about in the next segment, which Steve Woods is going to talk a lot about the conceptual plans, and then we want to get your thoughts in the breakout rooms as well. So Steve, go ahead. Good evening and thank you again for allowing us time to collaborate with you guys this is a really exciting project for us. Back when we were doing our first input meeting we began to share some plans and images that expressed sort of initial analysis thoughts about Main Street, and so we did some really quick high level analysis looking at Main Street, and looking to understand some of the existing ground floor uses are happening along Main Street in their different zones. So this plan shows the area of work along Main Street from Battery Street up to Union. And then it begins to show some dots that are representing some existing storefront or Jason uses along Main Street, a different types and characters civic use office use retail restaurant and the rest. It also shows existing parking lots that are happening around the area, getting adjacent to Main Street as well. So, in looking at this plan, we began to also look at sort of the key zones that happen along Main Street. So, in moving to the next slide we begin to see the breakdown of Main Street through all the different blocks. This is just a high level analysis again that begins to think about the space as it relates to the type of buildings that didn't see the buildings along the street. The slope of the street which is is is high at certain areas and but also offers to provide some really great views down to the lake as you as you're coming from east to west. So there seems to be a hillside or gateway space that's up to the east, a market core where the vibrant and sort of central life of Main Street occurs, and then a waterfront just by proximity and in those sort of general tones zones and areas. And thinking about looking at the plan in this in the site in that way. There are two options that we're going to think about and share with you as we move down through the streets. One is an artful gateways approach and one option in a second, recalling the Lake City mountain approach. The artful gateways approach looks to organize the street and dignified and continuous streetscape of six blocks with emphasis at the intersections and special care and emphasis place within the sort of heart and core of Main Street that block between Church Street and St. Paul. In a very simple plan, we begin to look at the street and you begin to recognize in this sort of squint test, if you will, a clean organization of planting shade trees that are happening along Main Street from east to west. We're looking to try to find opportunities to create a nice clean rhythmic and shaded core that runs all the way down the street. As Evan mentioned, some of the identifying characteristics of the street include bikeways that happen on both sides of street in a separated and safe bike away travel space off of the street. Notice the parking that's occurring and increased sort of pedestrian space that happens between the bikeway and the frontage zones along the building bases. There is a little enlargement plans of each one and again when we get to the breakout rooms, we'll have a lot of time to dig into these a little bit more. The first one up to the right is right after Union Street going west. There was the word encumbrances that was brought up earlier. This space has a lot of encumbrances, especially to the south side of the street. So in that area we are looking to combine the pedestrian travel way and the bikeway into a shared space along that block. It's only within that block where we have those encumbrances and then after that point we're able to have a cleaner separation between those areas. So we're looking at some sections a little bit more and actually looking at in section, we begin to see the that that departs in those spaces that were mentioned before that make up a really great main street, being placed within this design. So we are continuously going back to be active listeners and applying what we hear from the different groups and communities through the focus groups and the blue thought bubbles or message bubbles begin to speak to some of the things that are being applied here. More space for casual use and activity that's right there from immigrant focus groups. A small scale and on demand bus service that applies to mobility. More lighting in parklets. So in this space we see the opportunity to potentially have flex space that uses parking spaces and seasonal times and or during times to expand the amount of outdoor dining and gathering that some facilities may have adjacent to the street. We also understand that the option to include art is a very desired aspect. In this case we're showing this nice playful art gesture it's happening above the street to say there might be an opportunity to have art act as gateway in certain areas, particularly at the heart of this area right where the section is cut right between city hall park and the frontage towards the friend to the right. We also see the opportunity within this block to explore the option the idea of having a curbless street section in this area, somewhere to what's happening along church street. So this is showing that in this case where we might have the ability for pedestrian to to flow and move across the street in a more generous and safe manner, where there's a high density and lots of activity. I will also say that you'll see in the plans that each of the intersections right now we're looking at, we're looking at them being in this current study just signalize intersections. So there's a continued study that's going to move forward to see if the opportunity to have a a roundabout section happen within this area as well. We're still looking into the facilities and the details that would allow or just allow that. But at this point within the study, we're continuing to look at these sections being signalize signalize intersections. So we can talk about that the further we've gone to the breakout breakout groups and also be able to work with our very knowledgeable support and and and work on this project with VHB who will be able to address any type of details associated with that. So this section up towards the east in this article gateways option begins to show the separation between the bike and pedestrian, a green space again offering street trees and shade as we've heard from neighborhood meeting groups. We're going to have branding and placemaking as a part of the infrastructure within the new lighting that happens there, a signage and banners and wayfinding in multilingual environments to be able to be expressive and also provide clear direction and opportunities for for movement and sharing in all different cases. And then the encumbrances that are happening along south side of the street in the in the sort of red hatched area. And in this case we are showing a shared path of the bikes and the pedestrians use in this uphill section of the street. So the title of the this option being our gateways looks to find opportunities for grand gestures of art, art that are cool sculptures sculptures and that are interactive inviting for kids as we've heard from youth and focus groups. I also wanted to make sure as I mentioned before to translate all the street science into primary languages spoken in the Brewington so that not only English but all the other languages that are that are common in the area so that there is a welcoming sense for all of the community that's there. So finding opportunities for gateway to happen at art to act as gateway at the ends of the of the overall study area from uni street down to battery street but also each individual intersection and again celebrating the center part of the space between Church Street in St. Paul that organized and rhythmic planting as a part of this strategy is also expressed in this graphic. So I think that there's opportunity to offer native and well thought out locations for street trees. Also opportunities to have color display of planting at the intersections again sort of punctuate the intersection as gateway. That same type of color could occur at appropriate moments within the heart or heart portion of the block again between Church Street insane and battered in St. Paul Street. So water and the management of water is very important. We've heard from many different groups not only the neighborhood, not only through the neighborhood meetings but they're all different groups that rain gardens and so for management to reduce flooding and to also manage runoff in a sustainable manner is very important. And we'll continue to look and use those in the appropriate locations along Main Street being knowledgeable that there are challenges and working with these type of structures in slope conditions and there's also challenges in making sure that these planted areas are maintained and moved away from direct interchanges and cross sections to provide good clarity and good movement for the vehicles and pedestrians who may be crossing there. And finally in this plan this is sort of a zoom in plan that begins to look at the area centering on Church Street but also begins to show sort of hatched color zones for different types of spaces and uses along along the street opportunities for use. There's the adjacent business spill out spaces the frontage zones are mentioned before where we might have tables and chairs and seating and signage. There's specialty in many zones where we've gained open space. This could be a location where art could occur where activation through different events could occur. Special signage. In some cases these many zones are where our transit stops and bus stops would occur as well. The furnishing zone is the band that usually is placed in line with the street tree planting. This would be additional space for green space and also in this case organized locations for seating and gathering set within this furnishing zone clear movement. There is a flex space again that was mentioned in an earlier cross section where some parking spaces, when available only desirable could be stretched out and used seasonally for additional seating, or special event spaces. The second option called Lake City Mountain. We're looking at the street in three distinct zones and looking to see how the landscape character and the amenity character of the space begins to express something that is truly growing to truly of the space, the character of the street and the green mountains. The major structure of the street doesn't change that much. We're turning and bending the street anyway, but we begin to see opportunities to offer a different expression of planting, a different expression of materiality when we get into the details as we move further along this design process. In some cases, the slight adjustment or movement of the bike lane to offer sort of undulating spaces for planting or for gathering along the street. You can see such relations as you look into the enlargement plans. Again, starting at the north or the east, I'm sorry, at the east, near Union Street. Again, we have that same type of encumbrance happening to the south side, but we're also be able to potentially move the, move the bikeway into a curved movement to allow for gathering and planting and happens between the bikeway. Same thing is happening as you move into the center section, the undulation of the bikeway allowing for a more organic, if you will, expression of planting and gathering and that same type of language continues as you go towards the west. Again, always in our minds is what we've heard from the community groups. It's just to sit and hang out with the affordable food options as we've heard from the immigrant and BIPOC groups. Pop-up shops for food stands, arts and farm markets. Again, we see the opportunity for flex space that occurs within this section of the block. The opportunity to place art in and amongst the furnishing zone, that's sort of where these little pink thoughtful bands are being expressed in this cross section art occurring in all different places being sprinkled, if you will, up and down Main Street. The same type of gestures expressed here in the city section between City Hall Park and the Flynn in the cross section, just west of Church Street. The option for having again a curbless section of street that is more dedicated to pedestrian and more dedicated to the civic quality and the, and the active quality that's happening within the street. Spaces to share our culture through street food and other wares is one of the things we've heard. And again, multi-lingual and multicultural signage, we've heard that a lot. So the opportunities for art to occur, special events to occur, banners to occur with thoughtful infrastructure to support those notions. And we see there's a notion of signage for parking and wayfinding. As we again dive deeper into design works, we want to make sure that we have adequate and legible wayfinding systems to provide direction for visitors and people who live here like for opportunities for parking and opportunities for reaching out to adjacent uses. And the eastern most cross section. There might be an opportunity to begin to really express native species of planting that speak to the Green Mountains that happen within a space of thing that may be durable. It's definitely durable and works within a streetscape environment but is reminiscent or of the character of the space of the Green Mountains that are happening within this zone. We have talks with better aesthetics and connections that we heard from the business focus groups. But the same type of separation is happening here between those walkways, the bikeways, except where we have encumbrances that are looking to have us combine these systems and in the uphill movement along the south side of the street. As a other option, different from the artful gateways in the Lake City mountain strategy we're looking to, again, sprinkle artwork throughout the area along Main Street, and then to also have that artwork be something that is potentially co created with the community, and with professionals to come ground and offer opportunities for thoughtful and community based art to occur along Main Street artwork that gives people a voice is, is what the central picture says, an opportunity that has to have artwork that represents the identity of Burlington and his residence is something we really want to try to optimize in this option. So this fixed artwork that is temporary and exciting and playful would be be focused on within this direction. Again, I'm mentioning that kind of squint test if you will of the planting. We have the opportunity to be a little bit more diverse, a little bit more organic and loose and interesting with the planting in this, in this opportunity by those little small moves and little nudges that we do within the ground plane. So looking to find those native species as native hardy species that are of the character of the space that they speak to the Green Mountain that may speak to something that's a little bit more urban and civic within the central space and they may speak more to the water's edge or waterfront as we get down towards the western side of the site. The collection and expression of storm water to has the opportunity to be dynamic and be interesting within the streetscape. Taking the standard rain garden section and being able to use the organic forms that are allowed within the hardscape space to speak to the nature of the location is something we see an opportunity for the urban species and other types being able to help filter off rent run off before getting to the lake is as part of that sort of first flush action that we're looking to see happen. So if you have the opportunities or the desires to have more accessibility and more open space for for use and movement that those storm water features may become more channeled or and reveal themselves in sort of artful ways within the the civic central city portion of the site. And then moving back to more naturalized system as you get down towards past Champlain Street battery street in the waterfront portion of the site. Lastly, looking at the zones again. So all the same zones are occurring within both options that adjacent spill out spaces next to storefronts and buildings, especially the many zones that tend to find themselves a little bit closer to the sections furnishing zones again flowing with those areas within the planted areas between the bikeway and the pedestrian walkway and the flexible space where opportunity allows itself to be able to occupy some of that hard safe hardscape space of the street and seasonal ways for special events and spill out. So the two options that we have been looking at and so I think right now we're going to send it back to Steven who's going to help us guide us to the breakout rooms and and help us talk about these different options and in these four different ways. Thanks Steve. So now is our chance to hear what you have to say and hopefully you all will share your thoughts and your views on both of these different schemes. What we're going to do in a couple of seconds you're going to see a pop up window appear on your zoom screen. It's going to let you join a breakout room. You can either click OK and click join the room or if you don't click anything it'll eventually send you to the room. If for some reason it doesn't work there's someone on our team that's going to be in this main room that'll help you up Alan right there that'll help guide you to where you need to go. Just a couple of you know things we want to make sure that everyone is mindful of when you join the breakout rooms that you're please be respectful of the conversation. There is bound to be disagreement there's bound to be someone who says something that you really think is great. Please be respectful of what people have to say disagreement is OK but all ideas are welcome. We're going to try to stay focused on one of these concepts at a time. So the breakout sessions will be about 40 minutes long. We're going to spend 20 minutes talking about Artful Gateways and 20 minutes talking about Lake City Mountain. And we really want to get your feedback on both of them because neither of these are proposals. They're really sort of concepts to get your creative juices flowing so that we can get some good feedback and determine what seems to be the best way forward. Please share the mic. We know that sometimes in public settings you know you can get really excited when you get the mic and forget that others might have something to say as well. That certainly has happened to me. So no blame no pointing but just make sure that you're mindful that other people have things to share as well. And if you're comfortable you know having your camera on is sometimes helpful to connect more in this virtual space. And if you're not that is perfectly fine as well. So please don't feel pressure to but please do feel invited to turn on your cameras. So again we're going to spend 20 minutes in each. You are going to be in the same breakout room for all 40 minutes. So as soon as you get to your breakout room you can just kind of relax and settle into that group of people that you're with. The facilitators are going to move rooms so that you make sure that you have enough time to sort of address each of the different concepts. And then we'll we'll all return back to this space in 40 minutes and the facilitators will do a quick report out on some high level themes from the conversation. Did I miss anything Alan. Are we all set. You did not miss anything you did a fantastic job as usual, which is great. Let me just confirm a few more settings to be ready to go. Okay, we should be good to go. I'm going to push you all to the breakout rooms in just a moment. I will then jump into each breakout room to make sure things are going well facilitators please please please remember to record. I'll drop a message in around the 18 minute mark to say we've got about two minutes left and then again at 30 seconds to say we're going to switch. If the rooms happen to finish sooner facilitators please let me know. And like, then we'll switch again, and we'll come back so again if you have any questions please use to chat down below to chat me on the act with any tech questions but otherwise, we should be ready to go and if all works out well, you're going to be whisked away. Okay, so for I was facilitating for the mountain city lake scheme. And so I'm just going to give kind of the highlights from the conversation from the first group that we talked to and then I'll give the highlights from the second group so you can kind of hear the differences. So in terms of comfort, the first group was really focused on and had an interest in having movable and interactive furniture to allow for different kinds of congregation something that's dynamic and changing and flexible to the uses and users. In terms of nature. The first group is intrigued by the naturalistic forms of the mountain city lake scheme but really felt that main street was one of the few urban places in Vermont and really should have a more traditional urban character. In terms of safety and access the first group identified the space between Church Street and St. Paul Street as being much less safe in recent years than it has been in the past. And it really needs something to address that lack of safety that's happening outside of these bars, something that can really attract dogs kids kind of you know positive activities family friendly activities, and that that's a real key opportunity site. In terms of activation the first group really felt that the transformation of City Hall Park has been completely positive in terms of the uses and activities. You know there was a side note that the lights that flash at night are pretty neat and they folks really like those. And so more things like what was done in City Hall Park to make Main Street overall more family friendly. The second group we talked to about the Mountain City Lake scheme in terms of comfort. They said that you know the functionality of trees is really going to be important and they need to be placed intentionally to provide more shade and particularly varieties that have larger canopies that fan out during summer months. In terms of nature again this this group, I think had a difference of opinion than the first group we talked to and they said that this design is bold and Burlington really needs to decide if it wants to be normal or more adventurous. The naturalistic forms of the bike lanes in the streetscape give each block more identity the diversity and irregularity of the natural components are much better than the regular scheme in that group's opinion. But the concept perhaps isn't obvious enough people don't necessarily think of mountains literally and so maybe that doesn't matter. But that at the end of the day that group felt that the organic qualities of the design that you know trees not being perfectly aligned were really what was going to be resonating about this place and that it's cool and they like it. In terms of safety and access. I think there was a comment that the less linear bike path might actually slow bike movement which could be that be advantageous to safety. There were concerns about the bike lanes being adjacent to sidewalks, but that that also might slow the bike even more so there's a potential for behavioral changes there. And the buffer between cars and bikes just to make sure that it is significant enough that the physical barrier will give us a separation and a safety to bicyclists. And in terms of activation the second group said that the lowest block at battery and main is a dead zone and needs activation. And the space between St. Paul Street and Pine Street on the north side of Maine, just as a bike store and offices and really could be better activated. So now I'm going to pass it off to Steve Woods who can give some feedback from his groups. Thanks Stephen. I was going to start with the artful gateways discussion that we had. We didn't really stick directly on script. As it were to stick solely on comfort system natural system and safety and access and activation. But there are a lot of different touch points that that hit on all of those different national topics, starting with comfort. There was some discussion about how to make Main Street more comfortable. And one aspect of comfort relates to transit opportunities and being able to have the ability for people to get downtown, and in different ways rather than just by car and how that inherently would make responsive to comfort. So that's the questions related to our topics are related to natural systems. Trying to decide actually how many trees are actually going to be planted on Main Street and how does that, how does that affect the shade qualities how much shade is actually being added to the streets there. Does this begin to impact net zero goals or emission goals in the addition of the street trees. We want to make sure always that we're ensuring the proper appropriate soil capacities so that those trees are thriving. There was a comment about the trees that are doing really well on say Paul Street, because of the good works and good planting that's happening that's happening there. A lot of the comments in this discussion fell on safety and access. There was a comment about the bikes and the bike ways making sure that there is clear separation and safe separation between for the bikes between pedestrians and vehicular traffic. Lots of, there was a comment that what happens really well in the Netherlands, and is that there's a really good inherent infrastructure there that has clear separation between the bikes pedestrians for that type of movement. There was a suggestion that might we look to employ a scramble intersections and traffic timing for the intersections so that pedestrian movement can happen in all four directions and to stop traffic and to have that type of movement happen there. There were opportunities for raise intersections for continued continuous pedestrian movement without going down and catching a curb cut visibility intersections making sure that there is appropriate visibility for safety and crossing and making sure that we're able to address all those, all those aspects. So that pertains to activation. There was some questions of clarity of like who would who would be in charge of installing the art and maintain the art, how is that process occur so we have some aside bar conversation about that process. I think there'd be an opportunity to have art be very publicly accessible. One example was from a large chalk chalk wall in Charlottesville where it was put up at intersection and all the public was allowed to come and then write comment about a specific topic that happens there. So we had a couple gateways, touched on a bunch of topics but a lot of different conversation really came down to talk about safety. The second option the lake city mountain that we talked about had a lot of overlap, pulling the same comments about safety and making sure that the, that option provided for that. And speaking about comfort. There was a couple of comments that sort of pulled down to the western end of the site and talking about how that space feels comfortable now, might that space feel comfortable because of the amount of trees that are there now the mature trees that are providing shade and value in that space. There's also is also one of the only non unsignalized intersections at Champlain Street, but with the bump outs there with the shade and the trees and the activation of the adjacent businesses. It feels very comfortable down there. And then talking about the natural systems. Again, talking about the opportunity to have organic planting happening there. Is that really what Burlington is is it what Main Street is so we had a nice little quick conversation about that. The same thing came up on our, on our discussion to about the meandering bike paths. Offer inherent traffic calming as it pertains to bikes as in movement and slowing down the bike, especially in the downhill movement space. Safety and access. There was a comments about bike movements being preferred on college street because of the size of the street in the parking it being a bit more comfortable a bit more slower. And with college street itself actually acting as a destination now because of different types of businesses are there. And this type of work on Main Street, provide it to become more of a destination and the improvements that could happen here with that be a great thing for for Burlington or this Main Street want to say just as a thoroughfare, a place to move through versus place to go. Another option we talked about on that one were related to some preferences on for for the lake city mountain, not fully committing to the design as the preferred option but there are different aspects of it that might seem nice. The idea of art being included in different ways the idea of hardscape. So specifically one image that was shown in the planting scheme on that option seemed to seem to have a tie back, and then I guess one of the final comments was a memory or use of Main Street is the school groups from the school down to the Flynn in a large group for annual events and how wonderful it is to see the space be activated by the community in such a large group and wouldn't it be great to have a have a better streetscape a larger streetscape to allow for that movement and that kind of conversation and that activation of Main Street. The way it is now. So, those are the comments we had. Yeah, thanks Steve. Now we'll move to Evan and Evan's group, and then Evan will close us out for the night. Okay, boy you guys covered a lot of ground with your groups, and we heard some of the same comments certainly in the groups that I was involved with. So I'll, I'll talk about some things that additional items that we haven't talked about yet. So one of the first comments we heard about was, why aren't you considering roundabouts at these intersections. And that is something that we are looking into that is part of the design development. And we're going to be taking a closer look at the benefits and drawbacks of the roundabouts and whether we should use those versus signalized intersections. There, there's good and bad with both options, and we'll continue to look in those as into those options as we get further into the design. We heard a comment about the tree plantings and the more formalized look was not something that this person mentioned that he would like to see he would like to see something not so rigid. There was a more variety, and maybe not quite so straight. So a less formal planting screen scheme is what they would like. There was a concern about the art installations, and might they turn out to be commercial art installations with either sponsorship or some other way of identifying who paid for that sort of thing and that person thought that it should be a more open process and not as commercialized to the extent that is possible. Bikeways, we should build them for success and don't put in bikeways simply to put in bikeways and say hey we put in bikeways. We want to, if we do it, we want to do them in a way that they're successful. We heard concerns about tree roots popping up them being too narrow, or possibly being introduced between restaurant patrons out near the street and the restaurants doors, where the servers have to go back and forth and the restaurant folks going to have to cross across the bikeways and that could be a real problem. We're just generally concerned with the bikeways in the whole corridor, how will perhaps old people react to the bike lanes and will they be aware that there are bicyclists moving through possibly at a high rate of speed. And, and that could be a real concern how are they going to be operating safely in this space that's to be shared by many different users. So that was a concern that was expressed. We heard about lighting, we heard about lighting. We want pedestrian scale lighting, not just the high mounted lighting lights out there today. That seems to be mostly to light the street so it's vehicular lighting. And the goal with this project is to include pedestrian scale lighting in the streets gave elements, and, and the team is working with Wellington Electric as part of the project team on this one. So should we be designing for security, you know it's a it's a new world today when you think about, or you see the images on on the TV of people going down the street and they're on the sidewalk with their cars, meaning to do harm. And should we be designing to protect the pedestrians in this kind of very downtown popular space. We heard about things like the use of hydraulic bollards that can be raised or lowered to allow trucks through the street at different times in Europe, or something quite quite a bit more simpler, such as putting bollards along a space which isn't curbed in to keep motor vehicles from entering the pedestrian realm. It still allows allows a free flow of pedestrians but it protects the pedestrians from motor vehicles so should we be doing that in these parts so that the street that we're proposing to have everything at grade. And then, I think, finally, we want to try not to waste space out here we want to be context sensitive in what we're doing so if there are areas where we're going with our typical section which is a free fairly wide sidewalk, but there isn't really a need for a wide sidewalk there. Is there a better way to use that space than to simply put inside walk, because that's what we're doing throughout the entire main street. So we want to be sensitive to the areas that we're designing for it and certainly look at those block by block if not property by property. I think we had a lot of good comments in all of the groups sounds like there was a lot of useful input, and we really do appreciate everyone's participation in the meeting tonight. It was a great discussion, and we're very excited about moving the plan forward. As we think about our next steps for the project. We do have some more interactions coming up. If you who participate tonight, think of additional things that you'd like to tell the project team. You can go to the great streets, btv.com website and take our online survey. There's a survey on there where you can give us additional information and you can find out additional information. You can ask that you do that before May 14 because we really have to start to make some decisions about what we're going to include or not include for the project by that time. So feel free to continue to participate. Also, we have another business meeting that's coming up in early May. And we're going to be going to city council and we're going to be presenting the plan to them, and then hopefully get their approval later in May once they've had a chance to think about the plan to approval to move forward with the project and move it into the design phase. As we are in design, we're not going to stop taking ideas and thoughts from the community, we do intend to continue with focus groups that Steven had talked about earlier in the presentation. We're going to continue to meet with the focus groups, and there will likely be at least another public meeting or two. And then we go through the design phase where we'll be sharing more detailed plans and looking for additional input from the public. So that'll happen over the next year or so. And of course, the city team will be meeting with many of the different city internal commissions and groups that review all things in the public realm. And then we'll be continuing to get input from any of the different city parties that are involved in the project. So we're going to continue our outreach. And we're going to be hoping to move forward here into the preliminary plans and then all the way through up into construction. In addition, we are expecting construction to start late 2023. So we have a while to continue to improve the plan. And we certainly do hope that we end with a great street by the time we're ready to go to construction. And with that, I think I'll ask Laura or anyone from the city if there are any closing thoughts before we wrap this all up tonight. I think that you guys have covered it. I greatly appreciate and we all greatly appreciate the time that you took tonight. We liked having these smaller groups because we felt previously during our outreach. So we got a lot more back participants by being able to have smaller groups. So thank you all for your time. And I hope you have a great night. Thanks everyone. Thank you.