 Good afternoon. Good morning still everyone. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate you coming here. There is an exciting event. There are really three reasons that we ask you to come. First of all, you know, in a moment we're going to have, we're going to sign this most recent amendment to the agreement the city has between the city and Eric Ferrell's group regarding Cambrian rise. This is an amendment of the development agreement that was approved, I believe unanimously, right? Just a couple, you know, not this most recent meeting with the one before, and the agreement is in the middle of a housing crisis, it is a significant agreement in and of itself. What it does is it raises the previous cap which put a total of a maximum of 950 homes that could be built on the Cambrian rise site and it gets rid of that and now Eric's plans are to build as many as 1,050 is my understanding and that's what the agreement now allows. Also wanted to make sure that the public fully understood the full extent of the progress we're making on housing here right now. This project, the project behind us is already the largest housing development in the city's history. It is, it is our belief, the largest housing development in the state's history. The prior record was in the low 300s. Our city historian Brian Pine advises me the Northgate development farther up the avenue. Eric has already, Eric and his partners have already, and those partners include both non-profit and for-profit partners, already has completed 316 homes and there are another 251 homes that are scheduled to open during the course of 2024 in two different buildings and in a few minutes we're gonna have an opportunity to go walk around or at least near I don't know what you've been able to work out with the subs who are busy there that we got hard hats the plan is to be able to get up into them I hope. I haven't actually done that myself with these latest buildings and I'm excited to see what is there and I know the public is too. You know I think sometimes because this project hasn't been accompanied by some of the controversy that some other projects have the full magnitude and impact of what is happening here gets lost and I think today's an opportunity to just see how much is happening and then finally and I've got Cindy White our parks director here to speak to this some of the other benefits that go beyond housing some of the other public benefits are starting to materialize and take shape now as well the most dramatic example of that is where we're sitting this is a new city-owned facility that as you can see is a historic building that has been wonderfully renovated and updated and is a new resource for the public and for the city and the city's conservation programs and Cindy will will speak to that this agreement we're signing also commits this guy to completing over the next couple of years several important public improvements there one is the connection between north avenue and the old north end here of a public bike path down to the the bike path one of the last time we did sort of a master plan when we did the the big bike path renovation several years ago one of the things that was recognized is that in the old north end in particular there are limited ways for the public to access the path that is being addressed through this project and it is being addressed as part of what the developers are building here and up until now we have had an agreement to do that but we it was impossible to exactly project one the timing would happen with this agreement Eric is committing to getting it done by the end of this year so that's right here they call it peak to the fire the other commitment here is there are some improvements to the avenue transportation improvements that are being committed to get done in 2025 by October of 2025 and why don't I pause there and I don't know if you actually might be better able to speak to exactly the transportation improvements people might be curious on that and you know I actually I did have a couple more things I want to say about handed over to you one is yeah so the so again like if you add all that up the the more than 500 homes that will be completed by the end of this year the more than a thousand homes that are projected to be complete by 2029 these public amenities including this new public building and and the park space it's a pretty remarkable project and it's certainly one of the things I'm most proud about looking back on the last 12 years that we've been able to to get done and and put in motion to get completed over the the coming few years it is only possible I think that this project that is there's really little precedent in the recent history for it to happen it really only happened for for three reasons one I want to thank the very skilled city team big city team that has worked on this in one way or another some of them other people in the room Cindy Brian and Samantha over at CEDO who have helped manage this development agreement process and the negotiations around it before them though we had Cindy's predecessor Jesse Bridges played a very important role in the public process that involved that that got us to the place where this major project could be approved with full support enduring support on the city council that another key ingredient of this was that we were made a partnership with a local developer who has built trust in this community through decades of delivering on what he said here and and and and and not only was it a partnership with you but with other key partners we don't have here today but I think you know it's important to remember a key part of this the Vermont Conservation Land Trust the Champlain Housing Trust and then ultimately the Cathedral Square key nonprofit partners who have built a good chunk of the the development that's already built and who came in and help help communicate to the public why it was so important to do this and then finally that's the other key piece of this this happened because the Burlington public now understands in a way that I don't think we always did really accept as a community that if we want to make good on the promise of housing that housing really should be a human right is a human right that if we want to make good on that promise we want to deliver on that we've got to build a lot more housing and we need to make the public decisions that are necessary to to make that possible and we did it here it's worth holding on to that and thinking about that as we have big public decisions coming down the line with respect to the south end before the end of March it is my hope that we are able to put in we are we are going to put in front of the the council a the first of what will be a number of agreements but the first agreement to build a project comparable in scale to this one on what is currently very underutilized public parking lots we we so we need to kind of replicate this success there we need to replicate this success on this other partnership that we are starting with with Eric and others on the gateway block we need to replicate this partnership with UVM up with the major parcels of underutilized land that they own and where they want to be where they want to build thousands of student beds we this I think it's it's good to reflect on what we've done here at a moment where we have some other big decisions before us and so thank you Eric for for agreeing to to to host everyone today and now I'll let you say a few words if you'd like so we've been at it for 10 years this process started in 2014 we purchased the land from fronkin college originally in 2015 and the mayor has been a partner the mayor in the city has been a partner every step of the way been very supportive and I don't think we could have gotten to where we are today without that support and and through his leadership we've also had the support of various city departments including parks and DPW and we've had to deal with all the departments and they've all been very cooperative I've been working for half a century in Burlington and shouldn't admit that admit that but but it's been it's been a heavy lift but it's been enjoyable and so I'm looking forward to completing Cambrian rise if all goes well we'll complete it in the next four or five years assuming we don't have another COVID event a brief word on North Avenue improvements North Avenue we conceived of the idea we're going to build a traffic light intersection North Avenue and Cambrian way but we thought it was important to widen the street so that we could put on street parking on the west side of North Avenue for two reasons one there there is no parking on North Avenue in this strip and also we thought that it would create more of a neighborhood between Cambrian rise and the homes that are across the street and it also tends to slow traffic down so that this this stretch of North Avenue isn't an arterial road isn't perceived that way doesn't function that way it's more of a of a you're driving through a neighborhood so we're looking forward to completing those improvements next year and building all the housing we can as fast as we can so great that's my speech well done thank you and now Cindy I'm hoping you can share with folks what is this place how is it being used how will it be used in the future what should the public know about great so we so welcome to what we call the redstone cottage the cottage was built in the early 1900s as a home for the doctor who worked at the sanitarium that is no longer on the site the city took control of it in 2016 and with a generous gift at the time from John Hale it allowed us to acquire the land money towards the path that Eric will be building and then also seized money for the restoration of the cottage and not only did we get money from John Hale but we also received money from the conservation legacy fund most recently we were incredibly excited because we got money from the ARPA funds that allowed us to finish the project we also received money from the Rotten Housing Conservation Board our community partners such as Cathedral Square and Champlain Housing Trust and then other private donors that stepped up to assist and hidden under there is a beautiful Catherine monstering print that was made possible by one of our donors so our conservation team as the mayor noted works out of here they have offices on the second floor they have garage space on the lower floor and then there's a building out back here and I really want to touch on some of the highlights though the work that they do because it's just incredible work that they do in the city if any of you are skaters or no skaters you're familiar with Arthur Park and the sea caves and the conservation team has made that possible it's been a bit of a lackluster winter but they made the most of it they shovel all the paths that are down there they leave up at the top in a box some little crampons so it gets a little icy you've got something to put on your shoes to make it easy to get up and down so that's one example of the work conservation team does in addition they oversee we have about 750 garden plots in the city and we are mid-February and there's only five percent of those plots remaining open so they're well used and with some of the bond dollars that we have we'll be able to do some expansions at Tommy Thompson at Callahan and then in addition to we have a new tool trailer just kind of a unique piece we got money from the boat rec grant that's out back if anybody wants to see it and that tool trailer will be made available to all of our community land managers it's filled with two tool trails because in climate change all the precipitation that's happening we have to make our trails more resilient and so that tool trailer again another program that the conservation program oversees and if you have a chance I really encourage folks to check out other very unknown conservation lands we've got the Calvary maple wetlands we have the crescent woods um folks many folks know of arms forest we just received some additional land for there from the Elks so again those are sort of some of our quiet conservation lands that the conservation team oversees and I just want to note that they use a lot of volunteers many community partners to do that incredible work and we hope that the community be ready to come visit here we look to be opening in March this space will have it available for private rentals but we'll also have it available for the community to stop by we've got a computer set up we'll have some reference materials here and hopefully by then our little electric fireplace will be into just to make a very cozy space to hang out so we're really excited about that Eric I know there's a little heartburn from having let go of this space but I think you're very pleased in the long run that we've had this incredible community spot so thank you for for sharing sharing the space next door no this is an awesome facility I wanted to put my offices here but got tucked out of it great um well done Cindy uh the um just to just amplify one of the points you made there that um people who have been kind of covering what's going on in the city this is uh just to to kind of expand upon it the ARPA funds there was a a council commitment of two million dollars of the federal funds that we received from the American Recovery Act that were put into what we call community infrastructure projects and so the Moran project that we talked about last week that has uh $600,000 of those community infrastructure funds this had another $250,000 is that all allocation um in the I don't think we have a date for it quite yet but we also made uh we invested some of those funds in the kiosk project in City Hall Park so that's part of the kind of storyline here too that will be coming in in the coming year and then there is a Roosevelt Park investment as well which planning work is underway and and 405 pine the BCA facility the expansion there also got a significant investment um I think why don't we pause there before we sign these the documents we'll do that in a minute but our before we do that and then go on the tour are there any questions for us yeah so just to clarify some numbers 251 units to open this year or did you say 500 no um 134 will open in June one but there's two buildings and the construction you want to show people on on this kind of this might orient people as well for up there so the orient to this Liberty house of course so this building is under construction 134 apartments be open in June this building being developed by Scott Ireland is 117 units that's scheduled for late summer early fall and that between the two is the 250 units in addition to the 315 or 16 that are the ones that are occupied is Liberty house former orphanage this building here uh Cathedral Square and Shea plan housing trust and then after we open these two buildings we'll have one two three four more buildings to to construct over the next four to five years all right make sure people see where where we are on that right here just so we are in this the smallest building on the stone house so the amendments to the development limit you're signing today are sort of just the raising the cap to about 50 or any other points to the events that I missed out those two point things that I mentioned about putting dates on the on when the the um commitments that the developer has made around the bike path connection that is called out here to be done this calendar year and then the transportation improvements that aren't described that that is also memorialized here is being committed to be done by October the end of October of 2025 those are the main I think those are really the main substantive changes can you explain what you did at the city council meeting about how why um just the other changes that are sort of inherent in that moving away from some of the commercial uses that probably would have had a more impact traffic impact potentially how we ended up yeah yeah well um so when the original development agreement we had a cap of 770 nobody can seem to recall why we had that cap but it was a cap and then a couple of years I think 2020 that cap was it was increased to 950 and at that time we eliminated a substantial amount of commercial space in favor of residential space and the net the net change of that resulted in almost I think it was zero or slightly less impacts on traffic which people are always concerned about um and the same 14 buildings that we originally got approved so today we're not increasing the cap we're eliminating the cap because the underlying zoning district doesn't have a they don't measure development by density they measure it by floor area ratio and other technical requirements so there'll be no cap we're going to end up at around 1050 um and and we're going to further reduce the amount of uh convert non-residential space so that again we think the the net result will be no uh change or impact on on the currently approved level of traffic and no increase in the number of buildings that was my next question why have a cap on how much a developer can build I mean why Eric said it is is um you know I've been here through through all of this I do think there has been sort of a shifting sense of priority and um concerns over the period when we first started talking about this development the idea of having 700 homes here 770 homes was sort of a shocking number and uh the agreement that we got to which is sort of outside of what the zoning allowed put that limitation on it and frankly I think it's it's what you envisioned building at the time too it seemed like it was going to be a sufficient amount um the market has changed the economy has changed the sense of crisis around housing supply has changed and um in the early successes with this project the addition of large buildings here without sky falling has um I think sort of changed public opinion on uh on what would on how to think about this and now you have I don't think it would have been possible six seven years ago when the first agreement was signed to um to to sign a document that didn't put a cap on it and just relied on the zoning now it is possible with the public support for housing interestingly enough the underlying zoning at the time was in the waterfront district allowed a little over 800 units but there was a lot of concern about the history of the property and we we had uh countless numbers of public meetings uh outreach to the public uh in addition to just the the required meetings to for planning and zoning and so I think that the response to that was let's cap it somewhere and we ended up at 770 I'm not sure the magic of that number um but I think as time has gone on and we've built out I think the project has been more well received there's more heightened demand for housing and so I I think the time is right now to to acknowledge that housing is pretty important and we ought to build every unit we can build here this might be a stretch but you think this might incentivize or excite other developers who want to build high density housing to see that the cap has sort of been I don't know that the cap has anything to do with it I think that I think that the unsatiable demand for housing ought to be enough incentive for for developers although we're in a challenging market because rates are higher construction costs are significantly higher and so it's uh you know it's it's difficult to accomplish and I couldn't have accomplished it without partnering with the city in a lot of ways and certainly partnering with uh the local housing nonprofits which I've done for 20 years but it's very I couldn't have done it without without these three these triangle of partners it never would have happened okay I I just add to that I I do think I mean I think your question you're kind of onto an important point which is maybe the sort of technical uh decision on the specific cap for this parcel you know that may not have so much broader significance to other parcels but I think the general um change in the city of Burlington's um position and prioritization of housing has been I think it you know I think as a former housing developer it's one of the most significant things that I brought to the table as the mayor over the last 12 years I knew we had a major housing problem and that we that we needed to find a way to build a lot more housing I've had the experience of it being a 10-year process to build the project just down the street from here it's you can walk here the Packard Lofts project I started working on it in 2003 and it finally we were finally had all of our approvals and our financing 10 years later because of how subjective or problematic the the zoning was at the time it has been a major priority in mind for a decade to make our zoning much more predictable to make it much more supportive of housing getting built of reducing the possibilities for just sort of one or two people who disagree with the community decision to build more housing to effectively be able to veto a project through um uh holding up projects for long periods of time through the permitting process um and by um being adding to the city team people like like Samantha that could make sure the city was doing its part of the job on these complicated public private projects like this so um I do think as a result of all that there is a much greater interest and appetite for housing to be built in the city of Burlington right now than there was before I think what we have tried to do and the broader shifts that have happened in Vermont and in America mean that that is going to endure and we'll outlive this administration certainly hope that's the case we think we've kind of built it into the way our processes work now um uh and I certainly think that the six the fact that Eric has been able to build more than 500 homes here um other developers will look to is like yeah you know you actually can get something done and you can successfully build housing in this city and I hope people do see that do see that in today's in the successes we're talking about today what's the breakdown on affordable I know one what's you know the 1050 that you're planning what's the total affordable number do you think in the end uh so rough numbers is going to be 600 uh plus or minus rentals 450 home ownership units and between those two there'll be a little over 200 or about probably 20 percent of them will be perpetually affordable both for sale and for rent okay and a big chunk of those are you going to tie it already or are there more to be built as well there's more to be built okay yeah and they're a big chunk in the two that's yeah the two building for right next to here have the senior pride what senior project is one on the avenue and then the family project and that's how many homes between the two of them 146 between between those two buildings and Champlain housing trust is going to build another building of 70 units 40 of which will be perpetually affordable rentals and 30 of which will be perpetually affordable home ownership units and one thing we talked about at the council and at the press conference last week about c places because of the shift on that project where the developers there are building the inclusionary zoning units on their own instead of partnering with cht which was the original plan that has freed up cht capacity and some of the public subsidies that were committed to that project the plan is to try to use them as part of the the additional units to be built here you want to can you say anything more about those i don't um no except that there we signed an agreement with them they're very interested in building here they're going to build probably next year and and every time they do a project it's a multitude of financing you know uh sources look at that you did have something to say about i look at that you did have something to say but you actually just announced that you signed an agreement with them i wasn't i didn't know that i didn't tell you that i knew it was in the work so yeah no no we signed an agreement so they're coming the city is a partner in that as well and that we have already committed this already been a council vote to put um almost a million dollars of our uh housing ARPA funds toward towards that project and wait can you point again to where where's where's the cht the new affordable that's going on it's it's a little hard to see in here but it's this building right here it's behind the one that we're opening in uh june okay so in this picture it's here it's a little bit different is it is that that's plan changer is it no no that's that's that's it yeah so it's that building age oh yeah so this one will open this year and this one will be built naps from cht and this will include the home ownership and it's building c and m that we're gonna go visit uh well we're not gonna get into m because i don't i don't that's not my building but we're gonna go into c yeah okay yeah we can see him yeah you can see him right just one of the question about the roadway for the road project obviously traffic as you know is big concern coming up and down does that include i understand the parking element are you gonna have a turning lane or something to avoid some of that or is it really just i think there's i think there's turning lanes in in both directions um the primary entrance is going to be the southerly entrance um because 80 or 85 percent of the traffic comes and goes to cambrian from the south and only about 15 or 20 percent from the north so there's two entrances it's a loop road it goes down across and then comes back up but i think most of the traffic will come and go at the traffic light intersection great yeah final question how many max people do you think this place can pass when it's complete yeah it'll if we have 1050 units i would guess that the occupancy the population here will be between 15 and 1800 people okay thank you that's a guess okay yes i'll write that down because it you know and i will say i mean it depends on just how many what the make up of exactly what gets built but also how people choose to occupy it whether they exactly it'll be you know it'll certainly average more than one person per unit whether it'll average you know probably one and a half is a good guess that'd be 15 1600 people last question can our drone team come with us and drone and take videos of the property of course okay as long as i'm not here exciting great i don't know if you've had a press conference covered by a drone team before all right um i think i think we should do this Eric let's sign it here all right we got two copies here's a pen what's the date today 15 oh i should have known that right yeah you should have did you screw that up yes i did i did get my wife a card me too wow that's uh that's that's me i don't sign with the mayor now right unless you're uh running a stealth campaign you have a notary here i'm hoping we do we will jeez Eric mr mayor is that really yours it is and perfected 12 series of sizes all right Eric it's fun i appreciate the help congratulations we've done so far for counting on you to deliver a lot more thank you i'm doing my best