 On Tuesday, February 16th, I hear this meeting of the Winooski Liquor Control Board. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Deputy Mayor Hal Colston. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You're welcome. So we have three regular items to go through today, starting with item A, which is a restaurant-only renewals. We have Jin Chinese, Fodeng, and Tiny Thai up for approval. Any questions or concerns about any of those permits? Now, we have members of the public. I doubt they're here for the specific part, but as a reminder, if you wish to speak, you can use the chat or the raise hand feature in Zoom. So do I have a motion to approve the restaurant-only renewals? So move. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries on to B, which is second-class liquor licenses. We've got beverage warehouse, sammies, commodities, maple fields, simons, the jiffy mart, chicks, Walgreens, Champlain Farms, and fast stop. Any questions or concerns about any of these? So I would take a motion to approve the second-class liquor license renewals. So I'll move. Oh, so motion by Mike, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries, thank you. So item C is the first-class liquor license renewals, and so after you wanna make a change here. I would like to make a change. So we recommend approval of the first-class liquor licenses themselves, but for the outside consumption permits and sidewalk permits, we would respectfully request you table those permit requests for this meeting, approve the first-class liquor licenses as presented, and then we will bring you back additional information on both the sidewalk permit requests and the outside consumption requests at a future meeting, likely either March 8th or 15th. I should note that those permits also don't expire to the end of April, so the current permits are in place for a little while longer. Thank you, Jesse. Any questions on that from Council? Mike? Yeah, end of April or June? I thought I saw one that said June on it. My understanding from the city clerk is that the sidewalk permits and outside consumption permits expire at the end of April. Okay. That must have been a liquor license renewal then. Right, okay, okay. All right, so we will not be approving the outside consumption permits or sidewalk permits at this time, but I do want to, I know there may be some folks in the audience who want to speak or maybe they want to return for the future meeting, but I will make space for that now. As a reminder, you can use chat or raise hand. All right, so would someone like to move to approve these first-class liquor licenses? We will not be approving the outside consumption or sidewalk usage permits at this time. Now, right before we do this, let me ask one more question to be, our next meeting is when? March 8th. Okay, the only reason I'm asking this is because spring is upon us just about another month or so. And I know some of these businesses have to do planning. So as long as it's March 8th and not any later, because I know there is some details that some of the restaurants and some equipment they're probably going to want to purchase in order to get ramped up for the spring season, especially if the restrictions on the governor's orders are still in place where people are relying on outdoor consumption licenses or permits. Absolutely, staff can be prepared on that day. Okay, thank you. I'll move to, I'll move that motion. Second, I'm asking for one, I guess I don't usually do that. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries for the first class liquor licenses and we will revisit those outside and sidewalk permits in our March 8th meeting. That is the end of the agenda for the liquor control board. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. So I've got 606. I will call to order our Winooski City Council meeting at this time. So please join us again in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Hal. You're welcome. Agenda review is next. Any concerns about the order of operations here? All right, so the next is public comments. So for members of the public in attendance, if you have, if you wanna speak to any item that is on the agenda, please wait for that agenda item. But if anyone wants to speak to an item not included on today's agenda, now would be the time to do so. Again, you can use the chat or raise hand feature to indicate that you wish to speak. Oh, and I think we had somebody sign up. Is that right, Paul? Yes, Arca Bronze did sign up for public comment, but I'm not seeing Arca in the attendees list. Arca, if you, okay, that's what I thought. Hold on, renamed you whenever you're ready. Oh, great, thanks. Sorry, I didn't see that opportunity. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Great. Hi everyone, it's very weird to sit here and stare at a screen and not see all your faces. But nice to hear your voices. Anyway, so I am wanting to speak tonight about my concerns about the Manso Street pedestrian safety. As you might know, Manso Street is a through street from La Fountain to East Allen and has historically had relatively fast moving traffic for a neighborhood street since it is a straight shot between these two larger streets. It is also a narrow street that is filled with parking down one side and we have no sidewalk. So we have no choice but to walk in the road. In the snow-free months, we sometimes avoid cars by walking on neighbors lawns, which is not ideal, but in the winter months, we are forced to walk in the road as there are high snow banks on either side. Keep in mind, since the days are so short in the winter, we are also walking in the dark, adding another concerning element to the situation. This winter, we have been lucky because Manso Street is currently close to through traffic as a result of the construction that's happening East Allen and Manso intersection. In addition to the city loft apartments and the cast event apartments, which are new construction at this intersection, we are gonna be adding the park terrace apartments soon and that will be an additional 45 residential units and an additional 69 parking spaces. Upon completion of the construction, the current plan is to open the street back up to traffic. This is a very dangerous situation for pedestrians as we have parked cars, a narrow street pedestrians, including kids walking to and from school with no sidewalk. Then we are going to add more traffic than this street has ever seen considerably more traffic. This is an accident waiting to happen and my neighbors and myself are very concerned. I ask that you keep Manso Street closed to through traffic until a sidewalk is completed. When considering where to close this street, we need to not bear the brunt of the traffic going to and from the new construction. Manso Street is not wide enough to accommodate that much traffic. It is a narrow residential street designed to accommodate a small amount of traffic. So that's what I have to say. I'm not quite sure the next steps that I need to take or we can take, but I just wanna be really clear that what I'm asking for is to keep Manso Street closed to through traffic until we have a sidewalk. Thank you and also received your email and somebody else's email that lives on the street. The name escapes me right now. I know staff is evaluate like talking about the plans. I don't think there's an answer this evening, but we'll definitely get back to you and the rest of the residents. Your neighbors have been active, so we do know quite a few folks to reach out to as that decision is being made or that discussion progresses. So I'm sorry to not have an answer right now, but I want you to know that you have been heard and we are thinking about that. Can I say one more thing or do I have to, am I done? Okay, just the last thing is that I think it makes more sense to, it doesn't make sense to reopen the street only to close it again. So like I feel like we should, before the street gets reopened, I'm not sure when it's slated to reopen, but I feel like we need to have an answer prior to that time, so that we're not opening and closing it. I think that's a fair request. So when would the next step, when would I hear from you or when would I expect to hear back? What's reasonable? Go ahead, Jessie. Thank you. Erica, we got your email over the weekend and staff is reviewing that and we'll respond to you in writing this week and we're happy to provide an update to the full council at the next council meeting. Okay, so I'll show up to that then too. Thank you. All right, next up we have James McCormick. James, whenever you're ready. Hey everyone, can you hear me? Sure, welcome, James. Well, hi, I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone. My name is James McCormick and I'm running for city council in Winooski. I know you have quite a busy agenda for this evening, it seems like. So I won't take up too much time and I know lot nine is coming up shortly, not right after, but in a few items from now, is that correct? Yes, yes. Okay, would you mind if I made a quick comment in regards to that, or I can wait to. It would be ideal if you waited for that agenda item. Okay, that is fine. All right, thank you, James. Do we have any other folks who wanted to make public comment this evening? Nobody else signed up, but folks would like to use the raise hand function or message in the chat. All right, seeing no further public comments, we'll move to our consent agenda. We have our council meeting minutes from February 1st and the payroll warrant ending February 12th, payroll warrant as of January 24th to February 6th and subsequent to payout for December, 2020. Any questions or comments on our consent agenda items? All right, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? We'll move. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say hi. Hi. Motion carries. Moving to council reports. So two quick things before I start calling on folks. One is a reminder to take note of what your fellow councillors share as we are trying to do a better job of updating the commissions that we liaise to. So just a friendly reminder there. And then two, I have to acknowledge that tonight is the last formal meeting that Amy will be with us for, you know, we won't, we do have our town meeting day meeting, but that's not really the same effect. So I want to take a moment to acknowledge Councillor Lafayette's contributions over the last two years and just say that it's been great working with you. We've loved having you here and look forward to keeping you in the sphere of activity in the future. That I'm going to call on you first for council updates. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. That was actually one of the things I was going to say as well is that it's, you know, just been an honor serving these last two years, working with you all, you know, my fellow councillors, you, Mayor and staff. I just, I feel like we have such an amazing and talented group of people here in Winooski and it's really just been great to serve with you all. And I'm quite proud of all we've been able to accomplish together, especially during a pandemic. To the Mayor's point, I am not going anywhere. I'm going to remain in Winooski and I'll remain involved and you will likely hear an announcement about my involvement in a different capacity very soon. So stay tuned for that. In terms of my update, I did attend the Safe Healthy Connected People Commission meeting last week. And you might remember that we were bringing back the transportation impact fee exemptions to them for input. And I did pass on those recommendations from the group to the Mayor. Essentially, they were interested in exempting childcare facilities, healthcare facilities and potentially food resources, although the food resources one was needed more debate and needed to just be fleshed out a little bit more. So that was the three things that they were most interested in. And then the only other thing is that that commission is seeking more commissioners right now. We've had some turnover. So if anyone is interested in applying or learning more, you can visit the city of Winooski's website. Thank you. Thanks Amy. Hal. Thank you. The only thing I have to report is that our charter change bill has been formally released from Ledge Council. It's been assigned to government operations H 227. And I'm sure I'll be called on to introduce it since that's my committee. Thanks. Thank you, Hal. You next. Thank you. I don't have much to report. I wanted to embellish or add to my last update around the housing commission work because I realized it wasn't very clear on the recommendations that they had made around the potential priorities for the impact fees. So I just wanted to clarify that. It wasn't our council liaison report, but the things that the commission recommended in priority order were to consider are providing incentives for family rental units. That's three bedrooms or more that are affordable for low income households, which is 80% of the area median income. The second priority was home ownership opportunities with three or more bedrooms that are affordable for low or moderate income households up to 100% of the area median income. And the third was rentals of any size affordable to low income houses. And just for reference for those who are watching, the area median income for a household of four in our region is $89,000 just to give you a sense of scale. So these will be affordable for households of four making that amount or less depending on the type. That was the recommendation of the housing commission was to give you that update. Other than that, I was fortunate to attend and community safety meeting with some of the members of them in the Polly community with the school. I'm sure Mayor Lottell will share more on that. So I will save any other updates for later. Thank you. Thanks, Jim. And just a quick note that staff will be bringing the impact fee discussion back to us and including formally the recommendations for our commissions at a future meeting. Mike. Yes. Once again, I like to think the public works department for keeping the streets and sidewalks safe for all as Winooskians. Nice job out there today. I like to thank Amy for her service. As you know, Jim, myself and Amy were freshman counselors coming in two years ago. And I want to thank her for when I had questions or needed help on stuff. She was always willing to help out. And I think she did a great service for the city and for the residents. So I'm looking forward to what else you have to do in Winooski, Amy. And again, I just wanted to thank you on my behalf, my family, and most of the Winooski residents I know. Thanks, Mike. So I have several updates for this evening. Finance Commission had their monthly meeting and discussed policy on accounting, auditing, and financial reporting. So there were actually some really interesting ideas shared about financial reporting that I think could improve the quarterly reports that we receive and make them more accessible to both us and the public. I'll be having a conversation with our treasurer in the future about those changes potentially, about potential changes. We will be having a conversation. The planning commission also met and saw the historic preservation presentation that we're having this evening. So I will save comments for that item. As Jim noted, the school is conducting several community meetings to discuss school safety surrounding the school resource officer and other safety issues. So police department staff are attending those meetings to listen and hear from the community. Jim and myself are attending as well, also to listen, but many of these folks were part of a series of meetings that we did through the school liaisons over the summer. And so we're using this as an opportunity to follow up on any items that they raised at that time. Those will continue for the next week and a half, I believe, and we will see what the outcomes of that are. Tomorrow we have our joint city and school budget presentations at six p.m. via Zoom or call in by phone. So folks can ask questions about the budgets. That information is on the front page of the website in the news release areas. I also recently touched base with our Chinning County Regional Planning Commissioner Rep Representative Michael O'Brien. So that organization is engaging a consultant to work with them on equity training with one of the outcomes that they intend of the CCRPC being able to share policies and procedures with member municipalities like us. So I wanted to get that on y'all's radar as something that is coming up that we are not engaging in this work alone and could see some benefit from their work. And finally saw an update on the airport's noise compatibility program through the FAA. They are expecting to take bids in June for the first 10 house pilot program, which would inform the rollout to the rest of the homes that are applicable for that work, which would begin in December. So we should see sort of what that is gonna look like, what it will look like for Winooski residents and property owners to apply by the end of this year. It was also contacted by a gentleman from the Department of Defense to start a discussion about possible technical and financial assistance beyond the scope of the noise compatibility program. It's very vague early conversation, have no idea if and what we could get out of that, but that is a conversation that's happening. Staff help put together some possible options to talk to them about. So we will see what comes of that. I will continue to share updates. And finally, there is an airport commission meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m. The agenda includes an update on the noise compatibility grant. I was gonna say a sound insulation, but I don't think they shared an update on that yet. That is something that I have asked about. As well as the agreement that we signed along with Burlington and South Burlington. So if any of you wish to attend that tomorrow, please let me know privately. If no one is available, I will make time to attend myself. That is it for my city or sorry, council reports. I will turn now for city updates to Jesse. Great, thank you. So to start as I have for almost the last year, I'm gonna talk about our COVID response. So in the last week we have had, we are officially at that number where we have less than six new cases in the city. So we don't per health department guidelines report on the exact number, but that's great news, especially given the last couple of months and just thanks again to our residents who are helping to make this difference. Daily COVID testing continues at the OCC. So again, those hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., 9 to 3, all other days, including Saturday and Sunday. You can sign up on the VDH website, but you can also just walk in for that testing. And as a reminder, all materials are translated for those events and we have interpreters on site. As you've probably heard, vaccination appointments for those 70 and up started today. So if you are a member of that segment of our community and would like to get vaccinated, please sign up. You are not allowed to walk up to those sites. You must register in advance. Local clinics in Winooski take place on Tuesdays at the Armory as they did today. So to sign up, go to healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine or you can call the phone number at 855-722-7878. And if you are having trouble signing up and would like assistance from community services, you can also call the senior center or the library and they would be happy to assist you with signups. We continue to work with the Department of Health and the school and our community partners on vaccination opportunities for our limited English proficiency and BIPOC populations and are excited to see that those vaccine options are being presented to them. And then of course, the things that we can all do are not to spend time with folks outside of our immediate households, wear masks when in the presence of others, socially distance and wash our hands. Onto other updates, town meeting day is just two weeks from today, actually. So reminder that ballots are in. You can request an absentee ballot or vote early by calling or coming to City Hall. City Hall is open Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can also request a ballot be sent to you via the website. All of this information is available at wanouskibt.gov slash town meeting, including everything that's on the ballots. So as we have talked about as council and staff before, we sent out postcards to every address in Wanooski. Those have been sitting in the post office since early last week. Paul did Yeoman's work today to get them into mailboxes and don't have a commitment on that yet, but hope it is towards the end of this week. So I think the efficacy of those is gonna be limited. So help getting the word out about requesting absentee ballots or voting on town meeting day or voting early would be great. As the mayor said, we are doing the city and school budget presentation tomorrow at 6 p.m. And of course the night before town meeting on March 1st at 6 p.m. And I think Amy just said she got her postcard today. Fantastic. Few other quick announcements. As the mayor mentioned, the finance commission has started doing a complete financial policy review. Angela has outlined for them, the finance director, an agenda or table of contents for those policies to review over the next year. We intend to bring those to the council in several batches starting in June. So just a heads up to you that those will be coming to you once they've been reviewed by the finance commission. I would ask that you help the fire department and the city as a whole keep fire hydrants clear of snow and ice. If you're out there looking to do some additional shoveling, please shovel around those fire hydrants. Again, there is a winter parking ban on for tonight. So if you are parked on the street, please be sure you are off the street by 11 p.m. tonight. We received our last installment today of our last quarterly installment of our local options tax. The rooms, meals and alcohol tax continue to remain low. However, the sales tax did go up 13% from the prior quarter. That is also the quarter in which the holidays are take place. So that is not necessarily surprising. Oh, this chat is very distracting. We are anticipating exceeding our revenue projections this year for what is in the budget, which is great. And then finally, I want to end on a similar note where the mayor started and by behalf of staff really thank Councillor Lafayette for her last two years of service. Your continued commitment to not only the city but downtown when you see is extraordinary. And we are especially thankful of your wisdom to always bring up and elevate how we communicate to all and make sure that that is done in an accessible way. So thank you for your service. We look forward to having you back in many other different ways in the future. Thanks, Christy. Thanks, Jessie. So we'll move to our regular items now. And first on we have up for discussion or potential approval is the request to cosine the Act 250 permit amendment for the construction of a hotel on lot nine. So Jessie or Eric will be introducing this. Sure, Eric's going to kick it off but while he's doing that, Paul, I think I know who's here for that agenda item. I believe Adam Dubroff is here. The CEA Vermont name Chris Snyder and Dave Marshall. I believe those are the folks who are here, but oh and rest bar. If there are others on the list who are here for that agenda item raise your hand. So Eric, I will turn it over to you for a quick introduction. Thank you very much. Yeah, so as you recall, this item is on the agenda for possible, it's for discussion and possible approval of the city being a co-applicant on the Act 250 permit amendment for the redevelopment of lot nine in downtown Winooski. Like all projects in downtown Winooski, there is an existing Act 250 permit, a state permit that dictates and kind of covers all of the development in downtown. And when projects are proposed, that permit needs to be amended. So as such the city as a co-applicant to the original application needs to sign on to be a co-applicant on subsequent amendments. So the purpose of council's role in this is to review the designs of the project and provide any comments or updates for consistency with the master plan and the other documents that dictate the development in downtown. The city's acknowledgement and the city's authorization of co-application does not approve the project, it just means that it is consistent with the designs, sorry, consistent with the master plan. In this case, there are some specific items that the applicant is requesting for city property, some use of the right-of-way, some use of some existing parking spaces. If the city were to sign on as co-applicant tonight, there would be formal agreements drawn up for those areas that would need to be executed as well. So the co-application status tonight would not automatically authorize that to go forward. So if in the course of those discussions with the applicant, if the designs would need to change, that would come back to council for review and additional approvals as well. At the last meeting on February 1st, this item was discussed, staff provided some comments as well as the applicant provided an overview of the project. Following that meeting, there were some additional discussion points and comments from council to follow-up on. An updated memo has been included with the agenda that outlines the applicant's comments back to council with staff commentary as well and some additional follow-up. So just to reiterate, this is only for the state permitting process, there would still be the local review, the local zoning review and building permit review if this were to go forward. So with that, I believe that covers everything. Thanks, Eric. Also just as we have done with all similar councilor review design processes in the downtown, we did extend an invitation to the development review board to be here today. And I see Eric at least one of them here. Matt, Paul, could you move Matt over? And if there's other members of the development review board who would like to comment, feel free to chime in. And Adam, if there are other people on your team who we are not identifying on the attendees list, please let us know and we will happily move them over. There are a lot of people here tonight, which is great. So I think mayor, that is what we wanted to present tonight. We have a memo from Eric and from chief audio as well as follow-up information from Mr. Dubroff. So perhaps you would like to go to him next. Thank you. Yeah, so thank you for this follow-up. Thanks Adam and Dave and your team for responses since our last meeting and the staff for providing some additional guidance as well. You know what our last meeting we asked for a little more detail on the design for the use of items in the right of way, parking operations information. I think in what I've seen in our packet this evening, some of that was addressed but there's still some outstanding items here. You know, to what staff was outlining, we could move forward with approving our city manager to sign on with some caveats in, you know, having to get a parking agreement in place, some compensation and maintenance agreement for the use of the public space areas, et cetera. But I do think a new piece of the puzzle this evening is the memo by our fire chief outlining some changes that he sees would be necessary to adequately support emergency vehicle access. And I wonder if you all have any response to that, if that would, how you think that would impact the designs that you are working on. For the record, Dave Marshall from Civil Engineering Associates, we have reviewed the memorandum from Chief Audit and found that the needs of emergency services are challenged based on the location of this pickle lot at the bottom of the circulator. That being the background, you can certainly understand why the last thing you want to do is to fight fire or to provide ambulance services from one of those travel lines. So we are looking at the requests or the recommendations of Chief Audit to provide a pull-off of the main street on the west side of the site for the tower truck. And at the same time, do recognize that any type of emergency services by large equipment along the north side of the Champlain Mill will require some form of physical modifications of the existing turn intersection configuration there. So that is a real issue. And then lastly, probably the thing that is one of the more challenging ones with regard to the ambulance setup is the designated area that Chief Audit has identified as being red within the memorandum happens to fall in the same area as the proposed hotel drop-off spaces. And the question ultimately is, is how can we coexist with regard to those particular uses but at the same time ensure that that particular space is always open for that particular emergency use. And that's not an easy one, not without clearing out more spaces in that particular area. So that's one that we'd like to continue to work with Chief Audit and his staff in regards to how to address those emergency response requirements and recognizing that this particular lot has always been this way. It was designated by the city as part of its downtown development plan. And we're just looking for some innovative ideas on how to basically address the emergency response requirements for this particular parcel, the way it was laid out by the city originally and how we are looking to try to facilitate the development on that lot. Thank you, Dave. I think also, Sharks, where is that? I think at our last meeting, there was reference to meeting an updated traffic impact study. Am I remembering this correctly? Eric or Jesse, was that something that was requested? No, I don't think it was last time. It definitely is in the staff report this time, which is an open item for the Act 250 review process. Previous applications after the master plan had expired, did not require any supplemental traffic work. And that is, we believe an exposure to the applicant to go through the Act 250 process, perhaps without anything supplemental. The actual traffic general, or I should say the capacity of the downtown streets was identified as being far in excess of what the current levels are and what the supplemental traffic that would be associated with this project would add to that. So we're quite comfortable with regard to, again, the original infrastructure would have been designed for as far as capacity and the ability to tell that story to the district. So that being the background, we hadn't planned on doing any supplemental part of traffic analyses in regards to that particular issue. So just to follow onto that, Mayor, as Dave mentioned, the master plan that was originally done for downtown did include some information on traffic and other items such as utilities. That master plan has since expired, it expired in 2012. However, it has been utilized for subsequent Act 250 applications. In the most recent case, however, the district commission did not accept the information and did request additional studies to be done to update that traffic information. With that said, they may, I can't speak for them on how they would react in this case. However, for the local permitting process, we would most likely require there to be a traffic study to be done before we would locally permit the project. Okay, that's helpful. But just again, that is not, the local permits are not before you tonight, just the activity. We talked about parking agreement last time and I think just to recap on that, the hope is to access city spaces, spaces in the city garage. So that is something that would be worked out in the future. Anything new to add there? No, that's our intention. I did see the, in the reply that you all shared, you included that you would take on maintenance of the right of way space related to the patio and signage, but I think that is something that's still outstanding as far as the parking spaces that you're wanting to access. So we would have to work out what compensation would be for the city for the exclusive use of those spaces, but also who's going to maintain those and what that looks like. And I think that sounds like something also that can be worked out with city staff in the future as you are discussing the parking agreement potentially or trying to address this issue about like where an ambulance can stage for this property. I thought I saw a hand raised a moment ago. Jim? Thank you, mayor. I just have one, I don't know if this is a good time to just ask additional questions about the parking piece because there's one for me in reviewing this and I do wanna thank everyone for providing more time for those of us who were freshman counselors and had a lot to review with this development agreement and everything that came along with it and the Act 250 application. And I apologize that this was covered in our prior meeting, but with the need to access these spaces and the community having developed several vibrant goings ons around the farmer's market and waking windows, how, I guess if there is a parking agreement, I'd like to see to address how that use can still be accommodated on Whenuski Falls way where that street is actually closed with these valley spaces. So how is that circulation gonna be accomplished? I just don't recall speaking about that at the last meeting. I wanna see that addressed in developing any sort of agreement in those spaces. Thanks, Jim. There is not currently a parking agreement requested or recommended. So we have not addressed that yet, but we certainly will put it on our list. I think just another thing to flag is this question in here about what operations look like specifically when it comes to, you know, what's the primary time of potential arrivals and drop off in use of those spaces and the primary time for deliveries and how to make that compatible with pedestrian use of that public area. Something that staff has flagged for us here in these recommendations. I don't know if you're able to speak to that or what you sort of think that might look like in the future. Yes, again, Dave Marshall here. We can kind of walk down through the, so the staff report to- Sure. To provide a little bit more information for you to give you a better understanding of the operations of the hotel. As far as the frequency of deliveries, they will be daily, primarily Monday through Friday. So during the business week will be the primary period in which you will see that particular type of activity at the hotel. The proposed location for refuse and recycling, including frequency and removal, that's going to be something that is handled internal to the building and then it'll be brought out through the street or it'll actually be picked up internally. The design of the building has been set up in a way that there's a back of the house component, which is on the lower level, on the Champlain Mill level, we'll call it. And that is the opportunity to create those larger trucks that otherwise could chew up some of the space on the city street itself. We are in an urban environment and you go into many big cities, large cities, and you have occasionally these people at that complex, but again, we're looking to try to minimize those as much as possible. And one option would be to have those, particular types of pickups occur on the Champlain Mill level, just to keep them out of the upper street, we'll call it in regards to that. Right now, those particular types of deliveries are anticipated to be two or three times a week. Pickups, that type of truck that would be moving through that particular alleyway, we'll call it in front of the mill. So it's not an extensive use, it's one that occasionally will occur, perhaps three times a week, but nonetheless, it's one that we feel it's important to retain the ability to utilize that particular portion of the building to again, create separation as much as possible between both the pedestrians on the street, as well as the guests and that particular type of experience. So there will be, with regard to what is happening at the front door of the hotel will be daily, you'll have both guests, you'll have FedEx trucks, providing their particular deliveries, you'll have Uber, excuse me, the Lyft people providing equivalent of taxi service and drop offs at the hotel. So all of those things will occur on the upper Wynuski Falls way level of the building. And other things that will occur would be occasionally we have contractors that need to be doing maintenance, probably on a monthly basis, where you'll have those particular vendors coming up with the property and doing that. And again, we wanna set that up in a way where we're not creating visual or physical conflicts up on the Wynuski Falls way. And we'd like to be able to utilize area down low for exactly that part. And things that are beneficial with Chief Audie's concepts of staging areas on that same lower level is that with an increased pavement surface that again, we can be mutually using that rather than just creating spaces that don't get used very often, but nonetheless have them available on an as needed basis to minimize new one for these services, but at the same time provide access to the building for those particular needs. So I'll go on, see what else can we provide you? Typical guest arrival times, typically between four and eight PM and typical room occupancies run between 16, 80%. The length of stay is about a day and a half for this particular type of hotel. And those are the highlights in regards to the general operations of the hotel. Thanks, Dave. I think that's helpful to hear and with maybe a lower volume of those sort of large truck pickups or deliveries. But I think we would still have interest in the future talking about the actual times of day where those are allowed to avoid interference with other uses. I do wonder, I know, I know parking was a big part of the conversation last time. So I do wonder if there are any other questions from council around that, Mike? Yes, I have a couple of questions. I just got when you just told stated that check-in time is gonna be between four and eight PM. Is that gonna be the standard that the hotel group is gonna put in place? Or is this gonna be the standard that the hotel, that the people that will lease the building from you folks, such as a name-brained hotel? Because I'm kind of worried about the congestion that will cause during rush hour traffic. I'm also concerned about getting behind a project that doesn't even have a parking plan in place yet. With three colleges in close proximity of Winooski, just for an example, graduation parents come in here. So if your hotel's full of capacity, you have people checking in with what you're talking about having three or five spaces that you're trying to lease from the city to check in. I have a huge concern about this. And I think the only way that I'm gonna get behind this project is if there's some stipulations, if we do co-assign, or if the council does approve this and the manager does co-assign on this, that we need to put some stipulations in place that we get specific details on your vision. Like, and I believe the city staffers have been asking for this several times now and we still haven't seen any specific detail on the questions that the zoning manager has been asking for. I would, this is Adam and I appreciate your concerns and we're looking to provide a solution that's typical for the hotels that are in Burlington. And we would have our spots and then right across the street and when Newskie falls away, someone could correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are five spots for 15 minutes that are also available for public use. So I think we'd have about eight spots and that the drop off between four and eight, that's just typical in the industry. That's when people check in. So I just want to be a great choice for people to enjoy Winooski and we don't want to create traffic jams. Adam or Dave, do you happen to have the presentation last time with like an imagery like the sort of mockup of what the building would look like? I think that's in the package that was staff provided as far as the elevations of the building. So if you check with your agenda, you should be able to bring that up on screen if you wanted to do that. Do you want me to show the renderings, Christine? Yeah, just cause we have so many new folks on the line, I thought it might be nice to just show the visual briefly. Paul, can you let me share? Good to go. Thank you. Can you all see that? Yeah, it's in your preview view though. Can you like minimize the stuff on the left? Oh, how to do that? Well, that's probably good enough. I can see it, it just can be bigger. Dave, if you have this available a better way, feel free to. Not sure if I can make it any better in a short period of time. So I think at this point, this will at least give us an understanding of the eyes and character of the building. Again, the intent is to break up the mass through using different materials, different colors, with regard to the facade that faces the river. You can see that there's actually two stories of one which we call the lower level. And again, the second story has come up from the park area adjacent to the river walk is actually the Winooski Falls way level. And what we've done is tried to create a communication between the building and the street as part of the downtown concepts. Important things that staff has identified is that the project does meet the design guidelines for the Winooski Downtown Development Project. So we feel good very well as far as again the presentation of the building and its relationship of its character and mass to the Champlain Mill work, the original design team for the city worked with the Division of Historic Preservation to make sure that anything cited in this particular part of the city was not going to overwhelm the historic Champlain Mill structure. So those were all useful tools and ultimately creating this particular footprint and out of all that things that are still open for discussion is again, the area between the hotel itself and the river walk as far as how to activate that area. Those are things that originally created the project in which there was an expanded footprint that had included, but currently at this point in order to keep the project as simple as possible, the building footprint has been contracted into the original lot area. So requests for significant expansions in the lot area, it's not part of this particular application pending. So what we thought we were doing was actually trying to get something that was more modest in character and approach and impacts in this particular area and out of all that, felt that we came up with something that both was attractive for the hotel industry, but also attractive from downtown. Jesse, would you like to scroll down to the second image from the other angle? Thank you. So this is the architectural rendering of the concepts with regard to that portion of the building that faces out to the circulator includes the patio area that's between the building and the circulator itself. That'll be another discussion point under one of the first items in the staff review. The other components that extend out into the public rights away is the monument sign that's right above the red car in this particular image as well as a couple of the connective walkways that bring the building or the sidewalks into each other in this particular area. Thanks, Dave. Other members of the public or folks from our DRB who joined, who have any questions or want to share any comments? I do see Matt at your hand. Yeah, hi, Vice Chair and the DRB. I knew, obviously I've seen the renderings before. With what we're looking at right now and what I heard described as pick up and drop off area. Are we talking the area that is currently parking spaces in front of the, I wish you could see where I was pointing, off to the left. Is that the designated pick up and drop off area over in there? Yes. Okay. And one other question, and when you mentioned Uber and Lyft, many hotels and urban settings offer shuttle services, which are oversized vans or buses. Is that something that's in the plans for this project, for airport shuttles or anything like that? And how does that play into where you're gonna be keeping the vehicle and things like that? At this point, I'm not familiar with that being a component of the proposal at this point in time. Those are services that other hotels do provide. At this point, I'm not familiar with that as being a specific component of this particular application. Things that the applicant is proposing to do is provide valet service, which basically will enable people dropping off their cars to then allow those people who know exactly where to park to manage those particular vehicles in a way that allows the gas not to have to worry about. I know when I go down to Boston with my family that I have the choice of dropping them off and going and trying to find a parking space or I can spend the money and let the valet do their job. And based on the fact that I grew up in Vermont, not Boston, I do the valet. So that's my confession. And that's at least a service that we're trying to provide with the understanding that the parking demands in downtown change based on time of day. And that's the type of thing where local knowledge is very important to understand where those particular parking spaces are typically available. Okay. Do you have any thought as to, because it's a fairly small area if we're talking about that one section of the existing parking lot for pickup and drop off, for overflow, if you have all of a sudden 15, 20 people that are all arriving at 430, which is approaching rush hour traffic time here in Gwinnowski, what do you tell the people that are waiting to drop off their vehicles and get the bags out of the car and check into your hotel? Where do you tell them to go and hang out so they're not tying up traffic within the circle? The hotel utilizes an app that will be part of the advertised stay that allows for those particular type of communications and guidances on how to handle the arrival and the management of their particular vehicles during those critical times. I'm going to apologize. I don't know a lot more of the detail of that and Adam had to leave early tonight because of a prior commitment. So we apologize for that particular lack of information, full detail, but it is amazing again, just what capabilities are available digitally in regards to management of a guest stay. So that is again, one of the tools that we're happy to provide more detail on in regards to how this can be managed in a way that will pass the spring feast test. Okay, great. And I know I can't speak for the rest of the board, but having looked at the project and again, having limited knowledge about what's going on, those were my biggest concerns is just to verify and ensure that traffic going around the circle would not be affected. That's one that just cannot be. Traffic circle doesn't work with any type of components getting gummed up. So that's one of the last things we want to promote or create. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Those were my questions, I thank you. Thank you, Matt. And that is a really good question that we're going to want to hear more about. Caitlin, I see your hand raised. Yeah, I just have one question. And I'm curious about four other typical similar hotels. The distance from the drop-off area to the actual doors of the hotel. Just the general distance between those, if it's something that, because that does seem quite far. I'm thinking of, you know, if my grandmother was to go and stay in a hotel, that'd be quite a distance for her to get out of the car and access the hotel. And I'm just wondering how that compares to other hotels. I don't think I'm going to be able to tell you that directly. At this point in time, what this particular land use that had been on the books for a long time as being desirable for the city is one that is limited in regards to available parking. And at this point in time, what we're looking to do with this particular application is utilize the parking spaces that are closest to the drop-off. Previous versions of this actually had more of those drop-offs closer to the hotel, but it required that the applicant execute the agreement with the city to actually expand the footprint of the lot and the building in a much more aggressive way. And we're no longer looking to do that. So rather than becoming a significant feature in this particular area, what we're trying to do is work with the existing infrastructure to enable this particular project to work in a successful way. And that goes back to, again, the commitment of the valets that are critical to basically moving people in and out of this area very quickly. So the quicker that you can get people in and out, the quicker those spaces are also available. So those are all components of the operations plan for the hotel so that we can create a situation that's successful. Non gets out that things aren't working the way they should. Why would you wanna go there? So in social media, those are the last things you need as a business. So we're the applicant and who is a owner and operator of a number of hotels is looking to basically implement those tools for a successful result. Thanks, Caitlin, Mike. Thank you. Again, this is all hindering those street of five spaces is all hindering on an agreement with the city and the developer. Now, if the both parties can't come up with a solution, then I have a hard time believing that the developer will retain those street of five spots. And again, I think the concern of the residents myself, if there is a function happening downtown Winoonski and there is no parking anywhere and you guys have 50 guests, 25 guests, doesn't matter. You don't have a parking plan in place and it's very difficult. And these are concerns, the legitimate concerns of the public, the city council and the city hall. And we haven't seen anything on any other alternative parking plans and we've been asking for this. I'm going back to my original question. I mean, we've asked several, this city hall has asked several times for specific details on some of this. And this is all hindering on if you, if the city and you become, come to an agreement on three to five parking spots, that's not going to accommodate 10 to 12 people checking in at the same time. Okay, well, let's not jump to, you know, the extreme situation. There are a lot of extreme situations in everything we do and we can't plan for every single one of them. We all have to adapt in regards to that particular situation of time. The important thing to also understand is that putting aside the three to five spaces is that with regard to parking for this particular land use, the development agreement basically asked both sides to work diligently on coming up with appropriate solutions. And that means that the city won't be selling parking spaces out from under the applicant. Right now, as far as nighttime use in the garage, there's lots of parking spaces available. And that's where the majority of the demand for this particular land use is, is at nighttime when people arrive in the city and stay overnight. That's what the hotel's all about, especially when we're talking about shorter stays, when it's only one and a half days, you don't get the daytime demand that otherwise an extended stay hotel would. Basically you come in, you hunker down, you're there for five days and your car is somewhere in for five days. So this particular type of use is one that does lend out very well for making, you know, those particular spaces that are available in the garage at nighttime. The agreement specifically says that that agreement doesn't have to come into play until a building permit is being requested. And you see it sounds very backwards with regard to that. But at the same time, the applicant has done a lot of homework understanding. We were a particular parking scenario, you know, starting with the 2017 parking study that was done that provided a lot of detail with regard to how parking spaces are utilized when the city. And on top of that, you know, what the availability is, whether it be during the day or whether it be specifically at night where the majority of this demand for this particular land use and hotel is. So again, the last thing somebody wants to put here is an unsuccessful hotel. So a lot of these things have been looked at and have been come to, you know, they've come to a point of understanding that it can be successful. So, you know, the next question will be is that is integral to the creation ultimately of the final parking agreement. But at this point in time, the city's quite clear or is quite accurate in the fact that we don't have to enter into one later. It seems backwards, but that's the way the agreement was set up. And those risks are definitely with the applicant to basically ultimately come to agreement with the city on prudent and reasonable accommodations, not only for parking, but for payment for those parking spaces. So we're not trying to skirt the issue. At this point in time, we feel quite comfortable that the ability is there to host this particular facility. And that being the background, we can, you know, if, you know, we would like to be able to work with staff, not take the city council's time to cash through every one of these details, but this is a great opportunity to be able to sit down with staff and identify exactly how these things will work. And so I think that's the best way to introduce and to hopefully be able to follow through with that particular idea. Mayor Manning, jump in. Sure. So I think capitalizing on days last point, there, you know, there's parking, there's two different parking things we're talking about here. There's the park, the overall parking demand for the hotel, though, that likely will be accommodated in the municipal parking structure. We're certainly not selling out spaces underneath anybody else. And then there's the on street request for public parking. And to me, those are two very different things. And the ladder does impact potentially the design that's before you tonight. So as Dave suggests, you know, these are issues that we hope to always negotiate. We staff hope to always negotiate out with the developer before something comes to you. And again, I would, I would suggest that that's the best use of our governance process that the council provides direction to staff on what you would like us to negotiate and then let us go do that work and bring you back a set of recommendations rather than walking through, you know, happy to hear your ideas and things we need to take into consideration, but I'm not sure we're going to solve that as a group of 40 people tonight. Thanks, Jesse. Jim. Thank you. So in that vein, another thing that has been concerning me is what the impact of overflow parking on the other pay spots will be, will mean for other businesses that are trying to accommodate use in this area. So making sure, especially at the dinner hour that parking is available for other uses along here. And it's not being utilized primarily for hotel visitors. So I hope in negotiations around this topic that that's something that can be discussed how parking management will occur within the on-street spaces. Well, I think that's a good point too. You know, in this memo from staff, I think it hints at compensation for the three, three to five spaces. There's some minimum number in there based on, you know, what they generate in revenue for us already. That that would certainly be a floor considering that there is an impact on the rest of the business community and, you know, impacts to our downtown. So I see that taken into consideration in whatever compensation recommendation staff would come forward with. And we appreciate that thought. The other thing to keep in mind is that lot nine was always part of the downtown project and that it was intended to share the infrastructure with everybody else. So that is again why the applicant is proposing to utilize the valet service. You don't see that at too many other places in the greater Burlington area, primarily to find a way to minimize impacts as much as possible on the existing businesses. But at the same time as the hotel was here first, we would be complaining about somebody else trying to put a business in. So we just want a fair share with regard to the fact that this is part of the downtown development plan and that the infrastructure based on the configuration, the turning circle and everything creates lot nine as a challenge. No doubt about it. And if it was easy, it would probably would have been one of the first ones to help. But nonetheless, it wasn't. It was recognized as that in the development agreement as far as some specific requests and obligations that the city entered into to facilitate the development of this particular lot. So all we're looking for is just that same level of cooperation as we move forward. And it's gonna be painful for everybody as far as that's concerned. But at the same time, we're looking to create this particular anchor in the corner, which is a place that people will come down and enjoy the downtown. And this is what's really exciting. I've been involved in the project since 1999. So it's one that, you know, we're all looking for the final pieces of the possible fall into place. The infrastructure is there. The parking just because of the physical location is farther away than normal. But nonetheless, those are all things that can be mitigated through management. And that's primarily where the applicant is coming from with regard to this proposed use here. Thanks, Dave. I see a hand raised, one of our attendees, Sarah Van Rijkhorstel. I think I said it right. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, I just wanted to... So if you're gonna go down the road of using valet parking for this property, I would just wanna make sure that the city put in perpetuity that if the property changes hands in the future, that that kind of valet for another hotel, that that kind of valet parking would continue on. That's a fair point, Sarah. Because yeah, some change of use here, not enough parking on site or nearby to support. Yeah, just a thought. Thank you. Other folks with comments or questions? I think what staff have outlined here for next steps about council authorizing our city manager to sign on with the caveat of the compensation agreement, clarity on the minimum, how the minimum parking requirements will be met, the agreements on the right-of-way use and emergency services. I'm hearing from this conversation, like that is a good approach. We want clarity on those issues. We would like you to work that out with staff. I think the one thing that is at question for me is if we feel like there is a need to see a traffic study. As Eric pointed out earlier, the previous plan being expired, there is some concern here about what this is gonna look like in rush hour. A lot of people going through this area and then adding in a bunch of drop-offs in valet activity. So I think part of that is also where's the valet taking these vehicles and what does that look like in impacts to traffic flow? I feel like a little more clarity would be good to have on that topic. Are my fellow counselors feeling like this is an approach that could work? Last chance for public comment, just because we have so many attendees. Again, chat or raise hand to do so. All right, seeing no further comment, does someone wanna move to authorize our city manager to sign on to this permit with the caveat that these other items outlined in the memo are addressed, that staff address these items with the developer development group. It's all moved. Motion by Mike, second by Amy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. I think that was everyone, anyone opposed? All right, motion carries. Thank you very much for engaging in this deep discussion. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Adam. Good evening. I'm gonna call a five minute recess before we get into our next item as it could also be lengthy. So we will reconvene at 7.23. Yes, I'm just blowing my nose right now. Is Amy back? Well, we're waiting. Amy, I meant to say that you've joined us. Are you, you're going to share your screen? That was my hope. Okay. Oh, can you have Amy share? Thank you. Amy, you're all set. Sorry. Thank you. 7.23, so let's let us reconvene our council meeting and we are on item B, which is also on for discussion or approval, Champlain Housing Trust project updates. Heather, will you introduce this item and our guests? I will, thank you. So tonight we're providing you with an update on the work we've been doing with Champlain Housing Trust on an envisioned permanently affordable multiple unit family housing opportunity on the site of the O'Brien Community Center. And just to give a little bit of background, we had entered into a pre-development agreement with CHT back in October of 2018. And we have been quietly working on this in the background. You've been receiving some updates as this was one of the city council strategic priorities for this year. So you're getting little snippets of this monthly, but we thought it was about time to bring in a fuller representation of what we've been doing. So you could hear directly from Champlain Housing Trust, from Demetroids and Rob Luke's who we've been working with extensively and have been really leading the charge on the CHT side and get a better sense of what it is that they have conceptually designed on the site, get some visuals of that. And then our ask for tonight is that you approve staff to negotiate agreements with CHT moving forward and I've listed for you what those agreements are as well as approve us to cosine on subdivision of the parcel and related permit application documents. So I'm going to turn it over for the majority of the time to Amy who is going to share her screen and give you a better sense of what they've been working on there. So Amy, please take it away. We're really excited to give you this update and I also just want to introduce while we're in full screen Chris Snyder who we've been working with, with his team Snyder Construction on the design and they will be the contractor for the building as well and they're ready to go. So I'm going to try to share screen here. Are you seeing this screen? Okay, great, excellent. So we are here to update you about the project that we are now calling butternut station condominiums and this is a sense of sort of where we're headed in terms of design. I have to say the project has made great progress at this point and we are really sort of ready to go full speed ahead as long as you guys are ready to come with us. So I wanted to start with, oh no. Oh, there we go, sorry, let me back up. With an overview of what the shared equity program is the way that the Champlain Housing Trust provides perpetually affordable home ownership is called our shared equity program. We serve folks up to 100% of median income and we provide a very hefty subsidy to folks to help them purchase a home. The subsidy is usually 20 to 50% of the total purchase price and that subsidy acts as a down payment. One of the greatest barriers for folks buying a home is the ability to save a down payment but the subsidy we provide meets that requirement and acts as their down payment. In return, the person that we work with to buy a home and we provide that subsidy to agrees that they're gonna limit the future sales price when they decide to sell. And when they decide to sell, they contact CHT, we work with them to set the price and we find the next buyer who's also income eligible. And in this way, our portfolio of shared equity homes has grown across the Northwestern Vermont. We have over 625 homes in our portfolio but they serve multiple families, sale after sale. So that's what we're looking to do here in Manuski. We have found that our, because of the backstop of the Champlain Housing Trust we maintain contact with our owners and we have a much lower foreclosure rate amongst our homeowners even though they're low income because they've got that support behind them. In Manuski, we have 39 shared equity properties and since 2014 though, there have only been two sales in that small portfolio of homes because people love living in Manuski, they love their homes and we're really excited to bring new opportunities into Manuski. We're especially excited because Manuski is such a diverse community. Our board is very committed to expanding our outreach and opportunities for the BIPOC community. And that's especially relevant here. We are gonna be partnering with AALV to the outreach to the new American communities, especially in Manuski to do outreach but also to review our home ownership programs and our home ownership education to really with an eye towards making sure that they're sort of culturally appropriate for people who have come from other areas, other places, other countries where the real estate may be dealt with differently and home ownership has different criteria and different structures. But they're gonna work with us on really making our programs more accessible to new American communities. So this is the site that we're talking about on Mount Bay Avenue with O'Brien Community Center. Here is our footprint for our building. We left here, this area here, the site for potentially we hope, the future of Manuski City Hall. And we've worked with your planning staff and architect to make sure that that's an adequate size. This is sort of the rendering where we are now on what the building would look like. We're wanting to get a lot of height, making it really an urban style building. We have three different types of homes in this building. They all have three bedrooms. The middle section, these are, if you see these doors, those are entrances into what we're calling the row homes. Those have three bedrooms, two floors, and then up on the top is a roof deck, which we think will be a really great feature for folks. Each of these wings on the ground floor, they have flat style homes for accessibility, again, three bedrooms. And then up above are what we're calling the town homes. Again, two stories, three bedrooms. So we have eight of the row homes, we have four of the flats, and we have eight of the town homes. Here's what we're looking at in terms of values and then the net price to the buyers. You can see we believe that each of those homes will have a different value. Some will be more desirable. The row homes will probably have a higher value. We're expecting that'll be about 360. And you can see that the investment we're bringing in is nearly 50% on that case. And the others, it's more than 50%. And that will really give folks that ability to move into home ownership. These are the estimated monthly costs you can see here. Equivalent really, this includes mortgage, taxes, insurance, and the condo association fee. And you can see that these are very affordable and comparable to rentals in the area, if not more affordable than rentals. These are the incomes that are needed to qualify to purchase for a mortgage for those homes and the percent of median income for household of four who would be able to afford this. Again, we serve folks up to 100% of median income. On average, our buyers are about 70% of median income. This is the timeline where we are now. So we were successful in assembling some of the financing that we'll need here, some of the subsidy sources. We've received an approval for funding from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. And very exciting for us, we're working with a new funding source. It's new for us in home ownership and for the state of Vermont in home ownership. It's the new market tax credit program. It's very complicated and we were concerned we weren't gonna be able to access that quickly, but we were sort of in a wait, wait, wait and then go really fast kind of a phase. We're in the go really fast phase. We have received, we're working with the housing partnership network to access this fairly complicated source of subsidy for home ownership, the new market tax credit. And so our timeline has become compressed because we need to access that funding and it is somewhat time sensitive. So what we're looking for today is your review, but we do have a subdivision permit that we'd need to and we'd like to submit by Friday. So we're hoping that you'll approve our, the city signing on to that subdivision permit. In May, we will declare the condominium and close on the transfer of the property. We expect to have permits if we go, if we move through the Winnowsky permit process smoothly, we could have permits as early as June 15th and then we'll close on the new market tax credit financing, start construction in July if this goes as planned. And it's about a 12 month construction period. Here are the list of agreements that we would be looking to negotiate with your staff. The first one is we do need a signature on the subdivision permit. We would continue negotiation on development agreement that lays out our roles, especially in relation to the community center. We would need the property transfer documents, warranty deeds and the transfer tax returns and so forth. That would be worked out mostly I think with your attorney. There are some easements because there will be shared access to the site broadly along where the site is accessed currently. Those would basically stay where they are. So we would need easement agreements to allow us access. And then we will be looking for some shared use parking. Each of the homes will have a parking spot, one parking spot under the building and we'd be looking to the city and the O'Brien centers to see if we could work out a shared use parking agreement. That is our presentation. Thank you, Amy. I'm excited to see this update. I, you know, Heather mentioned we've been getting small updates along the way, which has always made me feel like maybe is this moving forward? And this, you know, this project meets so many needs for our community. Can you remind me how many units are in this? 2020 model. That's awesome. So, open it up to council for questions. Mike. Hello, thanks for coming tonight. I have two questions. And this is going to be a recurrent theme tonight. Parking. Trying to figure out if the O'Brien center changes functions or if they have a function down there. And we're trying to make an agreement to share parking with the O'Brien center, which is only, what's your 30, counting the handicap spots, I think I counted around 36 parking spots. Is the city and the developer, how's the overflow parking going to play in this plan? Because if you have three bedroom units, there could be potentially three drivers in each unit. Potentially, this is worst case scenario. This is how I think sometimes. So, 60 bedrooms could have 60 drivers. Where are all the cars going to go? Without making a fuss with the O'Brien center. So, I'll start, Rob, but it looks like you have some things maybe to say. So, everyone will have one parking spot in the building. We will look to do some sort of shared use agreement. But the other, we don't expect to have multiple cars because of the location. We're really going to be marketing this as convenient downtown living. It's on the bus line, it's walkable to downtown. So, we're really going to be making it clear to folks who buy. You have one spot in the building. You have, hopefully, if we can work this out with folks, you have another spot available on the site after hours. So, Rob, did you have something else to add? The one thing I would say is we did a similar project to this, similar isn't the right word, similar size project two years ago and I did a parking study. So, of the last eight projects that we did that were 20 to 30 condos, we averaged 0.75, take it back, 0.75 parking spots for every bedroom, if they were. So, I think at this point, we're going to assume that assuming 60 spots is too much. Wow. Right, but I think we're probably going to need, looking to negotiate 15 to 20 spots. And some of those, I think in the summer months can find parking on the street. I think a lot of the other ones where we'd really like to have the negotiations is from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. You know, expecting most people when the O'Brien Center has its need for our folks to be moving their cars and going to work. So, I don't, I think there's definitely a need but not for 60 spots. Well, that was worst case scenario. You never know. I mean, we're having a huge issue of parking in our city whether it's on East Allen Street, it's just everywhere in our city right now. And I want to make sure that developers have a plan. So, our residents aren't emailing us or coming to these meetings angry because we haven't thought this out because the other portion of this is we have a future city hall building going next door now. So, it's even more parking taken away from the use of the parking lot. And I mean, I think it's a great plan. I like it's clean. I think it's great for Winooski. But I'm just worried about the parking. Again, it's just been a recurrent theme in Winooski. So, you know, and I think the taxpayers and residents of Winooski will get behind this as well. Second question I had is the property tax portion of this. I saw you rolled it all up in one, but is this property, if every, if you sell every single unit, which how many units are in there now? Twenty. Twenty. So, if they're all property owners, is each property owner going to be paying the fair share of property taxes on the cost of the property or is it going to be subsidized? Or are they, is it going to be subsidized? Do you want that? Do you want me to talk? So all shared equity homes throughout the entire state have a discount on the property taxes because the owners cannot sell it for the full property value. The legislature said, so it's a 30 to 40% discount at the discretion of the city. So all municipalities in my mind, except for Burlington have said 30% discount. And so, but we are assuming in those numbers assumed about $4,500 a year in taxes. So if I can jump in on that, Mike, just to, I think, maybe anticipating where your mind is going. So the BCA recently took up a couple of similar cases and cascades where we have similar properties. This, in this case, we will, you know, we are, you know, development partners in this development with Amy and Rob, and we'll be code developing it and it will go on the assessed or the grand list at that reduced assessed value. I do want to remind all that this is a parcel of now that collects zero property taxes. So we are going from collecting no municipal or education property taxes to an increased value for this underdeveloped site now. Does that make sense, Mike? It does. I just, you know, you constantly hear it from the other residents and I just trying to get my mind around it. Cause I think it is a great project that just, I hope the residents see it that way too. I also want to address the future city hall item. So that is something that has been like in the ether and under discussion for many years, but it is not something that we have. It is not something that we have been thinking about. It is not something that we have made any concrete moves towards or have any planning for. So appreciate that it has been thought of, but not, not something that we should be too concerned about at the stage. Amy, I see your hand. Thank you. I think in general, I'm very supportive of this plan. I think that we need more affordable housing for sure. And you know, I think that we need more affordable housing for sure. I think that we need more affordable housing for sure. You know, and every time I go by there, there's dozens of spots. So I think it's a really great use. Thinking about Mike's question in terms of, you know, if there are three. Three bedrooms for each of these dwellings. In your experience, is it mostly families that are moving into those units? And if that's the case, then are we thinking that there, you know, we're thinking about it versus like, you know, renters moving in with friends and that kind of scenario. We average one person per bedroom. So though, as Amy mentioned, where we've been getting a lot of demand is for new American families, which has a general role of larger household sizes. But when I did that research and going back, looking at all the three bedroom homes, there was something like 50 condos, three bedroom condos, whereas during this parking survey, one or two had three more than two cars. So I wouldn't anticipate, as you said, one to two cars is going to be the general role. Great. Thank you. And could you also just talk to us about what the application process is for applying for one of these units? Sure. It's about a six or seven page application where we, we look for income and assets along with backup information. But otherwise it's a first come, first serve for these. But we're just verifying that their income is below the, the median for the county and that their assets are $60,000 or below. Rob and Amy, would you mind you had mentioned that there was some possibility that you were going to do workshops with people about the application process in advance. And I think that would be of interest to city council as well. Do you want to talk to me? No, Rob, I think that makes sense for you to talk about. Yeah. There's the application, but there's also the requirement to go through. Absolutely. So anyone who wants to, to buy one of these homes, there's four steps that they need to do. One is the application. We need to make sure they're eligible. One is a one hour shared equity meeting where we go into Amy, you know, talk briefly about the sharing of the equity and the property restrictions around it. We go into a lot more detail. We want to make sure anyone who buys these homes really understands those requirements. In addition, anyone who buys one of our homes has to take one of our home buyer education workshops. This is an eight hour workshop for first time home buyers. And then the fourth step is to meet one-on-one with one of our housing counselors. Where we go into your specific situation. What you might be able to afford. We'll pull a credit report. Make sure you've got good credit and help you improve it. So that's the third requirement. Everyone needs to take that class. And that's, as I said, it's general for everybody. And then the fourth step is you meet one-on-one with one of our housing counselors. Where we go into your specific situation. And then the fourth step is to meet one-on-one with one of our homes. So we've got good credit and help you improve it otherwise. Different mortgage options that you might be able to take advantage. So that's what everyone needs to do. Recognizing that some, there's some barriers for new Americans. With where English might be an obstacle. What we're planning on doing. We talked, Amy mentioned our meeting with a LV. But reaching out to them, asking them to invite different people. So that's what we're going to do. And we're going to do that. And we're going to have to be able to meet those. Popular languages that folks outside of English would speak and need interpretation and translation. And doing offering those workshops, one hour meetings and. Informational meetings in those six different languages. So a long stretch of. Those workshops translated. So that's what we're going to do. And we're going to do that. We're going to have a full opportunity. To be able to purchase these if they wish. Thanks for that. I see how his hands been raised, but. Was it, was there a question specific to what was just shared? Yeah, I have a question. Our, our community struggles with noise mitigation because of the F 35. So any special considerations in terms of the design and construction. So we're going to do that. We're going to do that. We're going to do that. We're going to do that. We're going to do that. We're going to do that. Not only the noise, but insulation as well. So they're going to be incredibly well insulated. Both from a energy efficiency as well as noise. Triple pain windows. But we, we took. Some of those design standards in mind when, when designing these buildings. Thank you. That's great. Jim. Thank you. I think that's a critical as it's been mentioned before. This is the type of project that I hope we'll see more of in Winnowski. In particular, this intersection of affordable home ownership and the family size housing has been. Called out again and again. And so seeing this project coming in. Strongly supporting that particular segment is. I think critical and I think we're, I'm glad the city is in a position to be. Able to even consider this little unsupported. And my question is perhaps a little bit more mundane, but I'm thinking about the backside of the building. I think the renderings on the front side show a really nice activated urban space with these entry ways coming onto the street. And I think it's going to really improve that spot. I'm curious. What design or what kind of considerations you're making for the backside where that will be the view of the community center. And how those two spaces will be designed if there's any. Any consideration around landscaping and trees or kind of the way that those public and private spaces are delineated. We, so. We do have some green space around the back. We are considering different walls to block the parking that we were just talking about in the back. What you are going to see is the two wings of the walls and setback, but the same. Sighting that you saw before. I don't know if that's a good idea. But they will have the, the entrance to the parking. As you come around the building and through the back. But what we, we, so we've got a little bit of a buffer between our building, but we wanted to also at the same time. Maintain as much parking on the site as possible. And so there isn't a large transition strip between the two. So that's a good idea. And just to follow up on the, I'm assuming the facade like windows and materials will all look similar on both sides. Or is it going to be like a big blank wall or. Absolutely not. Especially because. We've got. The same amount of windows throughout. Exactly. No blank walls. It's, it's not, this is the type of building that doesn't have like a backside. But it's not the same. It's not the same. It's not the same. It's not the same. Every side is sort of a front public side. There's the side on the street. And then there's the side that faces the community center, which is also like a front. So there will be. It will all be very uniform in terms of. The quality of the materials for certain. And not only that, but the windows out the back. You're going to have some very nice, especially as you get higher, some nice views out the back. I would like to add just Amy, maybe the, if you look at the site plan, one of the things that's interesting about this building, it is U shaped. It is, it's not a big one square box because of the, you know, U shape in the green space that's outlined in required under the form based code. Requirements it will, there will be insets and extensions of the building. So I think it will, as Amy said, have four different views. You know, we're concerned about how that really works. So you can see here that the building, the darker gray is sort of the building itself. It's sort of horseshoe shaped. Here's the entrance into the underneath. That's, that's back here where the row homes are. So I think that's a good thing. I have a design item too, but Mike has had his hand raised. Thank you, mayor. Yes, I'm glad to hear that you guys are taking the noise and consideration because mouths Bay is a busy street. Plus we all know that there's a train that goes by there. So that is something that I is a must in my opinion, not just for the, the jet noise, but the train. I think we have to consider that. I think that's a good thing. I just want to get back to the other one. I think that there will be going that mouths Bay is a very busy street. Um, I, the question I have. Is what's planned B, and I know the housing market in Winooski is crazy. And once a house goes for sale, it's, it's, it sells. What's planned B. If you cannot sell all 20 units, are you going to be renting them out or leasing them out? And what's that going to look like? not allow us to rent them out. Okay. But we've got a very healthy holding and financing budget so much so that we can sell one home per month. So taking close to two years to sell them all and still be fine. So if the market is really, really bad then I have no plan C, but plan B is just to take the time that we need to sell them. Now is this going to be a phase project or are you going to when the building comes online that's when people move in? All 20 are going to be ready. Perfect. Thank you. So I had a design question and please others jump in if you don't agree with me and this is just personal opinion. Looking at the imagery of the front I really like the I guess like the shape of this building. I feel like it fits in. There's a lot of two, three-story buildings that are sort of in that structure with the, I don't know what you call it, but like the overhang on top. And I think there's a lot of visual interest here. I just personally don't like the amount of difference between the black and red and I feel like this is some commentary I have heard about some of the other buildings going up in Luneoski. So just wanted to throw it out there. We haven't really chosen colors. This is really just a representation. So but that point noted and we will certainly take that into consideration when we get there. But I definitely like the overall like the shape and how that fits in with the surrounding community. I think Christian's design team did a great job on that. Yeah. Let's open this up for public comment. A reminder to use the chat or raise your hand feature if you wish to make a comment. Ask a question about this project. All right. Do council have any more questions or comments? Mike? One more. This is for Mr. Snyder. The product that we'll be using be using on this project. Are we talking low maintenance material? I didn't see any description on material. Are you using the cement board siding, vinyl siding? Is it all going to be low maintenance or is this going to be something that in 10 years there's going to have to be a complete facelift again? Yeah. Absolutely. It will be low maintenance product that's going to be installed on here. And you know, I think we've gone back and forth about what product is going to be best in this scenario. And I'm not sure that we've finalized that yet. But I think you know, I can say personally that vinyl siding, you know, last a lot longer than what people used to think. And it holds up very well. There are some challenges associated with some of the concrete, but I do know that we have form-based code. So we have to follow the rules and regulations that are within the form-based code. And I would like to make a comment just coming back to the parking. There is a parking requirements for this district and under form-based code and we'll certainly be following. Because we have one parking spot per unit, we solve a lot of the challenges associated with parking. And it's really just the extra piece that we have to address within the shared parking agreement. I'll also just comment that maintenance, ongoing maintenance and those expenses were very sensitive to that issue. So much so that we didn't design a typical apartment style building with an elevator because we didn't want these homeowners and their association to have to manage an elevator and the ongoing expense of that. So every decision we make will absolutely be to a key to keeping this affordable long term. Absolutely. So CHT is going to have an interest in these homes as long as they're standing, 100, 200 years from now. When someone 200 years from now wants to sell, if everything goes well, we're going to be buying it back. So it's in our interest to make sure the association runs well and that the materials last as long as they should. Jim, I see your hands raised. Yeah, this is my last one. It's about trees for the design. I noticed that the, and this may actually be as much to Eric and my lack of knowledge of how form-based codes plays out on Mallets Bay. But the existing plans bring the building line up to the sidewalk. It doesn't leave room for street trees. Is that envisioned as part of a future potential redevelopment of Mallets Bay's whole streetscape in public right of way? Or is there any, is that baking in this treeless front? I know there's already landscaping depicted in the designs, but is this, is there going to be any room for trees either on the street or as part of this property now or in the future? And that's specifically on the front section, seeing that you have them on the sides in the back. Yeah, so there is a requirement for street trees and street lighting in the, in the form-based code as part of the gateway zoning. We did in one of our earlier conversations talk about the potential to expand the green belt to accommodate some plantings. I would probably defer to John Rauscher on any specific plans, future plans for Mallets Bay or what it might actually look like to accommodate a wider tree belt to get those plantings in there. What we, with other applicants, is also look at a fee and lieu option to be able to incorporate plantings in other areas of the city or maintain existing plantings that we have. So there is a requirement though for trees to be incorporated with the streetscape. Yeah, and just to jump in while Eric was saying, one of the details we're working on with the design team is the construction. If they're removing the curb, there is some leeway on Mallets Bay that we might be able to do a bit of a road diet and capture some, some green belt. Plus that sidewalk is fairly wide existing. I think it's like seven foot. So not that we want to reduce sidewalk width, but we have a little bit of play there. So yeah, if, if, if it works out, we're trying to at least build in a bit of a green belt. And then similar with how we looked at East Allen, move ahead with a scoping study at some point to look at the whole corridor. And, you know, when we get to the point of reconstructing Mallets Bay, what do we envision for that corridor? Very similar to the other gateways. So that reminds me there was a comment submitted via email from a resident of Maple Street with concerns about increased traffic and the impacts in the neighborhood. Just wanted to state that here publicly, but also share that, you know, our staff are engaged in a traffic, traffic calming policy work right now. So, you know, have some confidence that we'll have some ways to address those concerns by the time that folks are actually using this facility. There is a question in the chat about occupancy, which I think is really a city issue. And I honestly don't know what our occupancy rules are. I wonder if staff could speak to that. So let me read this question for those who may not be on a screen. That's easy to read the chat. So the question, good question. What is the maximum occupancy allowed in each unit? I'm thinking about larger families and Winooski that need and the need for larger than three bedroom homes. Curious if there are guidelines around the number of people allowed per bedroom. So I would be curious if CHT has a regulation about that. I don't know that the city has a regulation about that, but looking at Heather, Chief Audie on that, I don't, I'm seeing shaking heads that we don't have a regulation on that. CHT does not either. Not for home ownership. We have some guidelines on rental housing, but not on home ownership. Thank you. Anything else here? I'm feeling a positive trend and that maybe somebody wants to move to approve the signing of the completion of the five agreements that are requested. So moved. Second. Motion by House. Second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Champlain House. Thank you. We're really excited. All right. Moving on to item C, historic preservation presentation, which Heather will introduce as well. Yeah. So tonight is the night of updating you on things that you may or may not have thought were still continuing to move forward. Here's the second one. As you'll recall, we had really an ongoing community conversation expressing interest in ensuring that we were preserving our community's history while we were continuing to move forward with the community vision for dense urban development, infill development along our gateways. And since the pandemic, we haven't heard a whole lot about that, but quietly in the background, we have acquired a municipal planning to have a professional, a professional consultant come in and do a historic resource inventory for our community. And Britta Ton from VHB has been working on that throughout this year. We had initially intended to start out with having a community conversation about priorities and then moving into the historic resource inventory, but due to COVID-19, we reversed that order and went ahead with the historic resource inventory so Britta can bring the results to the community and have that conversation here. So what we're really asking for is we're just having Britta present the results thus far, but seeking some feedback from City Council on several questions, but are we trying to prioritize creating historic districts? Are we trying to prioritize writing a preservation ordinance that speaks to specific high-level individual properties? Are we interested in more than one historic district? And the data that Britta has pulled together will allow you to start to have that conversation. So I'm going to turn it over to Britta to walk through her results thus far, and I am asking her to cover a lot in 10, 15 minutes. So bear with it. Thanks so much, Heather. Can I share my screen? Is that all right? Please do. Does she have permission? Paul, is she set? We're all set, Britta. Excellent. Okay. So can you all see that? Yes. No? Okay, great. Well, thanks so much for having me this evening, and I'm really excited to talk about this project. Many of you know I'm a resident of Winooski myself, and I have studied buildings in Winooski for a while, but this is a way to really take stock of what we have along the gateways. So this is really exciting. It's long overdue the last time that anyone really in earnest looked at what historic buildings we have, and Winooski was in 1979. So this is long overdue just to take stock of what we have. So I'm going to skip this slide right here because Heather went through a lot of what is on this slide. So I want to talk a little bit about what this project entails and explain my methodology here. So when you do a survey for historic preservation, it's really a two-step process, a windshield survey, which I'll explain what that is, and then a more intensive level survey. Once I completed these surveys, I was left with a ton of data on buildings, and so I did some analysis of the data and was able to create some maps, which are really helpful sort of visual representations of my findings. There's a community engagement portion to this project, which I think is really great to be able to make sure there is buy-in and understanding of really what this all means, and the last piece will be a recommendation for preservation by law. This photo here is kind of interesting. It shows the old city hall in the background right before it's demolished. It was an 1850 church converted into city hall, and you can see the construction of the new building. This is in 1973. So first I'm going to discuss what we call a windshield survey in the field of historic preservation. Basically it's a reconnaissance level survey. It's when you look at every single building and structure in a targeted zone, and in this case it was the three gateway districts. So what I found is that there were 228 total properties within the three gateways, and looking at dates of construction of these properties, 30% were constructed after 1950, so it really gives you a sense of how old Manuski is when you think that 70% of the buildings in these gateways are over 70 years old. So I went through each property and I sort of took stock of its date of construction and really looked at what we call its integrity. Does it still have, if it was built before 1950, does it still have some representation of its historic appearance at all or historic character? And about 20% of the buildings were so significantly altered that I decided these do not really warrant any further study. 7% of the buildings in the gateways are currently listed in the Vermont State Register of Historic Places, and I should say that the real purpose of this windshield survey takes stock of what we have and then figure out which properties warrant a deeper investigation into their history and their architecture and their potential significance. So this is how I mapped it out. So the properties that are in green are ones that were determined to not need any further study. Those in orange are ones that needed further study and that would be because they are over 70 years old or because they have still some historic integrity left. So that leads me to the next step in the process, the intensive level survey. About half of the properties in the gateways were surveyed intensively, 111. Half of them were on Main Street and Malis Bay Avenue and East and West Allen streets comprise the other half. And looking at these buildings more deeply, I determined that about 92% of them have some historic or architectural significance. And I'll explain what that means, significance and how I arrived at, how you decide whether or not a building has some significance. And this is just so you know what I did and what the product is of the intensive survey. This is a survey form put out by the State Division for Historic Preservation. And this is the standard way that properties are documented in a more intensive level. And you can see the type of information on here. The statement of significance is where I'm able to develop some history about the building and really try to connect it to larger themes of Winooski's history to really understand its historic context and its importance within Winooski. And this survey form right here addresses this 1903 building on Malis Bay Avenue, the Chevrier block. And so I finished this intensive level survey and I'm left with a ton of data. As you can see, there's a lot of information recorded. And this is where it gets kind of interesting. So you know, when you think about analyzing data about historic buildings and all this information I recorded, I did a few things. So one was to evaluate the existing state register listed properties. And like I said, about 7% of the properties in the gateways are on the state register. Document construction dates, predominant architectural styles, just to understand a little bit more about the history and architecture of Winooski in the gateways, assess historic and or architectural significance. And then this last one is to look where might there be a potential local historic district. And this is just kind of, you know, really preliminary thoughts about how could you write a preservation bylaw. Historic districts, local historic districts are a pretty common tool for creating preservation ordinance of some sort. Two interesting discoveries here about the state register. This building on the upper left is no longer standing. Sadly, it's still listed on the state register of historic places which probably be removed. But this is the gas station that's at the corner of Main Street and Platte Street. And then, you know, we have an example of a building that has been really significantly altered from its historic appearance at 251 Main Street, probably a candidate for delisting from the state register. That's not really part of this project, but it was a useful tool to kind of take stock of, you know, what is the status of these state register listed properties. Looking at dates of construction for various buildings, 12% of buildings were built before 1860. Most of those are on Main Street, more southern portion of Main Street. Between an example in the upper right here, 1860 to 1890, we have 40% of the buildings constructed. And that is a reflection of the incredible growth Winooski saw in the second half of the 19th century due to the success of the mills, which really kicked off during the Civil War as the mills were cranking out uniforms for the Union army. And 1900s to 1930, we see about 28% of the buildings. Bottom right here is an example of a colonial revival building constructed during that time at 132 Main Street. And 1930 and 1950, you know, really Winooski's growth and development drops off due to the depression and then the decline in prosperity of the mills. And an example on the upper left here at the corner of Dion Street and Main Street, excuse me, East Island Street. And so what I did was I went through and I assessed the level of significance for each building and I, you know, used a formula really to be able to accomplish this. So you look at the historic and architectural importance of a building and it doesn't have to be a really big fancy building to have some historic or architectural significance. It could just mean that this is a really great example of, say, a vernacular mill worker's cottage. And then you look at its integrity, you know, does it still have some of its historic materials intact? Does it still have its overall design and form, its historic design and form intact? And that's where you arrive at its relative significance. So 19% of buildings identified as highly significant. An example here on the right of a building that is historically really intact, that's got a lot of its original materials visible here. And, you know, architectural importance with this tower, corner tower here is pretty unique to Manuski. 32% of buildings, moderately significant. And oops, I'm actually just going to go back here, 45% of buildings, marginally significant. And I'll explain what that is. So we looked at the spilling on the upper right here on Main Street. I would say this is highly significant. This building still has a lot of integrity. It even has a barn that's still standing, which is pretty rare to see a barn in Manuski, although many of these many buildings throughout town used to have barns. Moderately significant. On the left here, an example of a mill worker tenement on Malletts Bay Avenue. You know, you can still see kind of its form as a tenement house, but it's undergone some alterations, such as rebuilt porches. And then at the lower right, a marginally significant building, probably a mill worker's cottage as well, you know, architecturally not necessarily very impressive, but, you know, still significant in that it really speaks to the history of Manuski and the type of population that lived here to work in the mills. Levels of significance here mapped out the dark green, highly significant buildings, light green significant, yellow marginally significant. And we start to see a couple clusters here around Malletts Bay Avenue and Union Street and Maple Street, Main Street here, kind of bounded by let's say Stephen Street at the top and the railroad tracks at the bottom. And, you know, this is where we talk a little bit about historic districts. There are three existing historic districts in Manuski. The Manuski Falls Mill Historic District, which is the, you know, shown in this picture right here, Canal Street and the large mills, Wollin Mill, Champlain Mill, Leclerc Avenue Historic District, which is off of North Street, it's worker housing. And those two are in the National Register of Historic Places. And then we have the Francis Leclerc Worker Housing, which is on West Allen Street, which is a collection of cottages built for mill workers. So how do you determine what a potential historic district could be? So you see a contiguous cluster of significant buildings that relate to each other. Development pattern of the neighborhoods really clearly expressed. And there are some natural boundaries that could delineate it, whether it be an intersection, the river in this case. So, and I should know that buildings that are marginally significant could have some more significance as contributing components to a historic district because they helped tell the pattern of development and the history of the development of a neighborhood. So one potential historic district we have here is along Main Street. This is Maple Street down here, Stevens and LaFountain up at the top. We just see a large collection of highly significant buildings and significant buildings. It really tells the development pattern of Winooski. Well, we have this early to mid 19th century neighborhood as Winooski expands, Main Street development expands to the North and infill development also as some of these larger lots are subdivided for additional buildings. And Mallets Bay Avenue, this little cluster surrounding Maple Street down here and Union Street. And here we see, you know, a good example of a mixed use commercial historic commercial and residential neighborhood that is relatively intact. So now we're on to the more fun part. Thanks for bearing with me. Community engagement. So this is when I would welcome some feedback. I have a few questions or prompts here and, you know, really could be anything just thoughts on historic preservation. Hopefully you understand a little bit about what this is all about this project. And, you know, when you think about development, historic preservation, what comes to mind. I'm going to show these questions right here. And I just want to bring your attention to number two here. Do you have thoughts on how to balance preservation with development? So I should say that historic preservation and make this very clear is not anti development by any means. I am very pro development in Winooski. I think it's, you know, for many reasons it's, it's great. And, you know, how can we balance because we have lost a lot of pretty significant historic resources or some are threatened more recently. How might you balance, you know, the need to preserve some of the, you know, historic built environment of Winooski and still allow for development. A historic preservation bylaw does not necessarily have to mean that you tell a person what they can and can't do with their building their historic building like you're, you know, not allowed to replace your windows or, you know, you're not allowed to put on vinyl siding. I mean, there are historic preservation ordinances that are that specific Burlington, for example. So, you know, just think broadly about what this might be. And, you know, if you meet a, a little, you know, icebreaker to think about this, the first one, do you have a favorite historic building or neighborhood in Winooski. So yeah, I'm just going to open it up now. Any comments or feedback you might have or questions? Thank you, Brita. I would like to give the Council some of the feedback that the Planning Commission shared last week. You mentioned Burlington's historic preservation and described not wanting to be that stringent and being concerned about an ordinance that would be cost prohibitive to a homeowner and so only, you know, somebody that might be rather well to do could afford to maintain one of these historic homes if the requirements were too heavy. And then there was further discussion around the phrase adaptive reuse has come up a lot in the Planning Commission and, you know, not to say that a historic building needs to be maintained in a perfect state forever, but finding some middle ground of being able to keep parts of it or references from it as development occurs. So, you know, I think what was discussed is I don't know how to describe this. Actually, do we still have Sarah on the line? Sarah, do you want to speak to this? Yes. Paul, please bring her over. Am I here? Yes. Hi. You got me? Yes. Welcome back. Let's see. Let's get put on the spot here. I do think Winooski is a different situation than Burlington, as the Mayor just said, and I think we should think about if we eradicate all of the old buildings, if we allow these corridors development to take them all down, you're really getting rid of a lot of references to our history and to people who've lived here in the past, to people older generations who these places are important to and their touchstones. And I've also thought a lot about this is sort of a cheap shot in a way, but if you read real estate listings, a lot of real estate agents list, you know, that these properties up for sale currently, whether they're new properties or old properties, are within, you know, easy distance to the historic downtown Winooski. And I think it's really important that we keep some of this historic flavor in our city. And it's tempting to tear these buildings down and to put a lot of high rises in a lot bigger buildings. And I get it, it is a balance. So we haven't, and we're going to work with Britta and other people in the city to try to come up with some proposals, I think I'm correct in that statement, and with Heather. So it's not like the city council or the group of people who are online now who I can't see, have to make concrete decisions about these things right now, there'll be more stuff proposed. But I think it's important and it, it's a smaller voice in all of this development. And Winooski has a lot of other issues that seem, that are more important in some ways. But I think it's really important to have some attention paid to this. So thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Yeah. And so there's, I mean, there's just generally been agreement among the planning commission members about wanting to have some sort of, some sort of approach to keep some of our, you know, historic, some of this history here, but to be flexible and not be, you know, we have to save every, you know, we still, we still want to work with development. Amy. Thank you. Britta, I know that one of the community discussions in the past that has come up is, you know, what is, what is sort of the reason or a motivating factor for us to keep a building that is historic, but is very rundown and is not well maintained. And I'm just wondering if you could speak to that a little bit more. And if you have any examples of how other cities are handling situations like that. I just, I think that this has come up a lot lately. And people are sort of questioning, you know, well, why would we want to save something if it's not being maintained and essentially isn't an eyesore for the community? That's a really good question. And a lot of historic preservation, you know, zoning, it doesn't necessarily address the upkeep or maintenance of a building. And it doesn't, you know, really say that a building needs to be maintained in a certain way. As far as seeing a building that might not look as attractive. I think one thing that can happen is, is just, you know, if a building that might have had some historic or architectural significance is proposed for demolition, you can request, you know, alternatives or more information. They're, you know, about the building first to really kind of assess its significance. It might not be in the best state at the moment, but that doesn't mean it's not doesn't have some significance. I should say there are incentives to preserving historic buildings when there is some sort of commercial or multi family housing proposed, and it can incentivize actually restoring a building and still making a development project work. So it's following certain historic preservation standards, but there's a lot of flexibility in what you could do with a property. If you do want to pursue the idea that, you know, let's look a little bit at what can be done with these buildings before we just say they should be demolished because they don't look as good right now, but I definitely see your point. It is a hard sell to say, you know, this building that's really run down needs to be preserved. And I totally understand that. Thank you. Yes, Brenda, thanks for the work you've done. This, this is bringing back to my childhood, seeing some buildings that I don't, you don't notice them every day, but when you look on the paper, like, oh, that's right. Some of the buildings that I didn't see that were listed were the churches. Like, for example, my favorite historic building in the city of St. Francis Church in the Rectory, they're beautiful. And there's a phrase that a lot of people use that you need to know where you come from to know where you're going. And I hear that a lot through the older residents of Winooski. And I think that's something that should be incorporated into this project a little bit. But, you know, Winooski is a city of immigrants. It always has been since day one, whether it's the, the, the new wave of new Americans we're having now, or from back when all the people started moving to Winooski. It's just been a city of immigrants. So we need to remember these buildings and for what they stand for. And I like the fact that we're trying to figure a way to repurpose some of these buildings. And I think somewhere along the lines that we need to start really seriously thinking about this or incorporating the footprint of an historic building into a new building. So it's preserved in that way. When people come back home to visit, whether it's 20, 30, 40 years, whatever, have you, they remember these buildings. And it's, it's crucial because Winooski is historic because of the mills to have this balance now. And I'm excited about this project. I just chatted with Heather. I want a copy of this when, when we're done so I can have it in my library because it's just amazing the work you've done. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, there is a lot of great, you know, now so much documentation about Winooski that definitely I agree should be made available to the public. Just history of 111 buildings is really valuable for the Winooski's historic record. But thank you. And I'm shocked that it hasn't been done since 1979. So I think we're with all the new development that we're seeing now, I think this is the right time for this because I think it's very important. I mean, we had a huge debate on the Manson Street project and it raised a lot of eyebrows. And this is what happened because of that. So, you know, I got to think Mr. Gamash and his fellow residents for getting kind of this process started, so to speak, because it is very important. So two, two things that you said, Mike, that I want to piggyback on. So one is this idea of keeping the footprint of the building in the new development. So like to illustrate that we have a potential hotel development off of East Allen Street. There's that old home up there with the lions on the porch and it has like a fancy entry, right? Like could that, I mean, whatever, this is not what will happen because we don't have an ordinance and the developer owns that property. But like could they be made to or incentivize to retain that facade? Like that kind of sort of reusing the buildings or like keeping a reference there. And oh, where was I going? Something else you said, Mike, it gave me an idea. Balance, immigrants. Well, we, you know, the footprints, I mean, I think you're on to something that how, what kind of entryway to the hotel would that be on that those two lions walking through there? Yes. And so the other piece that I think that we need to consider so thinking about the mansion building, right? Like if we had wanted them to retain some footprint of that building, there would also have to be some leeway in our zoning because that property doesn't conform to the zoning regulations for that parcel. So I think that is part of the discussion as well in how we approach this maybe for if there's properties in the gateway that we want to incentivize preservation, saying like you're exempt from this part of the regulations that say, you know, this needs to be put up to the sidewalk, etc. I agree. And I think you could find a good story to follow that. As a repurpose of a building that has that same footprint, you add a story to the building, you make it personal. So people feel what people went through back in the 20s, or it could there's a lot of potential for this if we have some incentive to developers to repurpose some of these buildings, because some of them are in really sad shape, you know, they're over 100 years old, some of them. And, you know, I think it's important. Like I said, you need to know where you come from to know where you're going. That sticks in my head a lot when we talk about Winooski. Yeah, so that's the thought process I've been having, whether that's applied to like specific high, what's the phrasing used, high significant properties or in a district. I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other about that myself right now. I do see that Sarah has her hand raised again. Let's bring her back in. Yeah, thanks. I absolutely agree. I think it's less about putting a gold ribbon on a building and saying we need to keep it just the way it is. And I think Winooski is going to be a great city to have some forward thinking about historic preservation. And I know well, Britt and I have talked about this in the past, you know, she has family from Europe and you go there and they have really inventive ways of taking elements of the buildings and then building a completely new building behind it. It's really, it's possible. Even Bennington actually in the southern part of the state has just completely demolished the back of one of the main corners of the building and left the facade. And it's beautiful and it's all modern buildings and units inside. So I think it'd be fun to think if we could start to think, have some forward thinking about historic preservation, which is a problem all over the state really. And I think Mike is right on about footprints or just elements and so that's just adding to that conversation. Thanks Sarah. Mike has his hand butt. You and I have been dominating the conversation. So I do want to pause and see if other folks have thoughts to share. Jim? Yes, thank you. And thanks Britt. I'll echo everyone else's comments. I really appreciate the work you've done. And I personally love walking around and looking at old buildings and now I get to know more about them. So when I walk around with my partner, I can add that into our conversation, which will be fun. And so I love that aspect personally. I do want to kind of think about all the other priorities, especially with the conversation we just had around affordable ownership opportunities. And we also have recently been having this conversation around housing quality for rental stock. I am thinking about, do we want districts? Do we want to have blanket preservation for any highly significant property? I would tend towards districts that could bring together some creative financing or incentives. I'm interested in the one you mentioned around commercial multi-family properties to use historic preservation as a way to create higher quality and dignified living for people who are renting in those buildings. I think if we could figure that piece out and use historic districts as a way to honor that history, but also make it affordable for people here without having to sacrifice quality, I would, I know that's probably a hard lift and everyone would probably want that, but that to me seems like a real value for historic district uses, because then there's a coherence to those buildings that also are meeting a current city goal. So I would be interested in flexibility and zoning that accomplishes those goals around quality, around family-sized housing, and around rental support. And as far as other pieces, I think that I agree with the need to maintain connection in our community, but I do just want to name that this is a Eurocentric white perspective on what is historic in Winooski. We're talking about a certain period in time and culture, and that's not to say that there isn't value, but I think we also, as we think about broader community engagement and what does it mean for our community to have connection to these buildings that were presupposing some cultural preference there. And I know I'm not telling you probably anything that you don't have to think about on a regular basis, but it's just something I think we should have in our consciousness as we think about engaging the community and understanding what the community wants from historic preservation, that we are also building in that kind of sensitivity to that fact that not everyone has cultural connections that currently make up what we think of as Winooski. Thanks, Jim. Back to you, Mike. Yes, Jim, I agree with you on that. And I think having a sense of some of our history that some of the new residents can find out about our city will be helpful. And then moving on forward for say a reboot of some of the historic buildings, I think it's important to find a connection between the two for future, you know, for another 50 years. So when people look back, they see us trying to make that effort. I think that's a great idea that you just came up with. And there are, there are developers out there that specialize in this kind of thing too. So if Winooski can lead the way and find a practical and sensible solution on incentivizing this, there are those talented developers that this is that's what they do. So we could be onto something here, not just, you know, having a rebirth of our city, but also having kind of a rebirth of our historical buildings as well. Thanks. I see Sarah's hand is raised again. I think you're still, you're just still in the meeting, Sarah. You can go off mute. Sarah? No, I'm off. Oh, okay. I saw your hand raised. Sorry. Any, any other questions or comments from council? Did I just see help? Yeah, I guess I want to challenge us and how do we go beyond buildings in terms of historic value? And, you know, when you think about it, this space that we know is Winooski was occupied by the Abenekies 10,000 years ago. So where's that story? I think that has value as well. Thanks, Hal. Are there any other members of the public who wish to make comment? Reminder to use the chat or raise hand feature? Jim? I was just thinking about next steps and what would be, it's a tough time to have these larger community conversations. What are you going to need from city staff and city council and our commissions to have successful community engagement? What kind of support do you need? That's a good question. I'll be working with Heather to identify some additional stakeholders to start to continue on these conversations to hear first from people who are actually have a vested interest or, you know, that something like that, like a historic preservation ordinance would really affect the work that they're doing in Winooski. But I do think having a broader discussion and trying to engage as much of the community as possible in this would be ideal. So, you know, Heather and I, we should chat more about about that and exactly how to do that. This is just like the very initial phase of our public engagement. So presenting just the background of the work that I've done to commissions and council just to kind of let you all know what's happening and then bringing it to the wider community. If I can add, Jim, she has been to the planning commission is coming to the council today, housing commission next week. We've identified a list of key stakeholders and one of our goals was really in having these initial meetings with the commissions, people who are more interested in continuing to have a deeper level conversation and contribute to the way that we frame this moving forward with the ordinance can move on into the next phase kind of working as key stakeholders. So anyone here tonight who's interested in continuing this conversation can feel free to reach out to me directly and I would be happy to facilitate setting up some of those focus groups. Thank you Paul. Mike? Yes, I'm not sure of the timeframe here, but we have opportunity come in this summer and I'm going to mention that we have a brand new pool that's going to be opening with that. I'm sure we're going to see a significant amount of residents checking out. So we might have some opportunity to reach out with, I don't really know what you're looking for for input, but we might be able to put a survey together and because I have a feeling the pool's been a long-awaited feature of the city that people have been waiting to go to and we have some opportunity where we can probably have an outreach of a lot of people. Thank you Mike. Unfortunately, we have a deadline before that. It's it's driven by the grants, but I appreciate that. Can I mention one last thing quickly in this address? This speaks a bit to what Hal and Jim were were discussing. One of the benefits of creating some sort of historic preservation ordinance is that would make the city eligible to become what's called a certified local government which is a program administered by the Division for Historic Preservation and one of the benefits of being a CLG is that it opens up all this grant funding every year to fund history projects and to do educational programs and it would be a really, I mean I can just imagine what cool programs we could put together in Winooski to really get the community engaged and to document the entire history of Winooski and you know outreach, educational programs, further studies could all be funded by these CLG grants. So you know this having a historic preservation ordinance would be the first step towards that process of being able to do even more documentation about Winooski's broader history. Thanks Britta. I was going to share one one last comment and that is just daring engagement. I think we should reach out directly to some of the property owners of some of the higher, I keep forgetting the phrase but significant, highly significant buildings. Anything else for this agenda item before we move on? All right, thanks again, Britta and thank you all so much everyone for participating. Great feedback. Awesome. Moving on to item D, we have our Thrive Rates Resolution with Ray Coffee and as a reminder these rates are what we budgeted on so not new information. There we go. There we go. Nice. How's everyone doing? So hopefully fairly straightforward as folks probably remember per ordinance we're required to come back annually to set rates for Thrive each year and so that is what we are here to do as Christine mentioned these rates are what were included in the budget process that we all went through. Also want to mention here that we did include a memo detailing some plans around fundraising in response to some feedback that we got from council. We did look at a tiered pricing system Kate and I fairly closely and I think given a few challenges that were mentioned here we opted to kind of lean more towards an opt-in sort of donation approach and tried to spell out some tiers there based on actual costs. So happy to answer any questions that folks have. Thanks Ray and creative approach. Appreciate you and Kate working on that. I will say I saw in there a loose suggestion about a quarterly ask or a prompt at the time of payment each payment. I would caution against too frequently making that ask could be yeah for participants. Yeah one one trick of our system is that you can set it up as a prompt that will come up every time a person goes into pay and if depending on the family some families go in and pay weekly some of them will pay monthly some will pay up front so we'll have to kind of massage that a little bit but I think we can definitely figure out a way not to be overbearing but I think also give people routine opportunities to contribute if they're interested. Awesome and glad that the system supports it. Any questions from council? Jim? I just want to pile on that I'm glad to see this option coming forward for families. I think it's I think it's a way to kind of keep building on the support for the program so thanks for figuring this out. I know it was kind of a last minute ask I'm glad to see it here. Thanks. Amy? I just want to say that I think the examples that you gave of specifically how the money will be used are really helpful and kind of in the nonprofit fundraising world that I come from those are really effective so I just want to give you and your team kudos for thinking about that kind of strategy. Thanks for that. Any question from members of the public? All right do I have a motion to approve the Thrive rates resolution? Second. Motion by Mike sorry motion by Jim second by Mike all those in favor please say aye. All right. Motion carries item E community services fee resolution. All right so in addition to setting fees for Thrive obviously we have to set fees for our other programs as well so the list here are programs that we have either updated pricing on or not previously set prices for through resolution or through the ordinance so happy to answer any questions and I think Jenny is here too in case there's any specifics but I think for the most part should be pretty straightforward. Thanks Ray. Questions? I got one. Is the pool separate from this Ray? So we did the pool fees I'm not going to remember exactly one but that was done through resolution a while back so yeah those fees are all set and it's all set okay ready to go yeah I just saw this program and I'm like there's a pool missing on this yeah yeah no this isn't everything there there are definitely a lot of programs that we've previously set pricing for through resolution so thank you yeah no problem. Any questions from members of the public? All right do I have a motion to approve the community services fee resolution? I'll move. Check it. Motion by Amy second by Mike all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries uh next up for approval Vermont Arts Council animating infrastructure grant to application. Excellent so I'm gonna first and foremost give Molly Schneider our VISTA some kudos here she was kind of the driving force in getting us to this point but back in December we put in a letter of intent to Vermont Arts Council for support for a mural project on the wall behind the library so it's the wall that sort of faces northward out towards Hickok Street and kind of overlooks one of our community garden sites there there were about 40 applicants to through the letter of intent process and they invited 12 to submit full applications with the anticipation of funding four to six of those projects so we were one of the 12 that were invited so we are here seeking permission to apply for the funding to support that mural project in partnership with the Juniper Creative Arts group who included some materials here that they have done in Vermont elsewhere but certainly some work further afield as well. Thanks Ray. Questions from council? Questions from the public? Just want to call out I'm pretty sure a mural on O'Brien Center was in the parks and open space plan so way to already be chipping away at those. We're working on it. Yeah do I have a motion to approve the Vermont Arts Council animating infrastructure grant application? So moved. Second. Motion by House second by Jim all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries thank you Ray. All right and and to your team for their work on these various efforts. Moving on to item G this is a notice of lease default for North End Studios which Jesse will introduce. Thank you. So as I shared with you in executive session our last meeting on February 4th through the city's attorney we issued a notice of lease defaults to North End Studios. It was my determination at that time that it was imperative to respond quickly to significant reports of offensive and sexually harassing conduct. This notice was issued to North End Studios but per our city charter you have the authority to change ownership options and lease options on city owned property so today I'm coming to you asking you to approve this notice of default as drafted and sent. Thank you Jesse. Do council have questions about this? As Jesse mentioned we did discuss this action previously. Are there questions from members of the public? Questions or comments? Last call for council or public raise hand or chat if you wish to speak. I got a quick question. Has there been any backlash on the sending this to the company? Has there been any response? There has been response that one of the owners of this organization is here on the here in this meeting with us tonight. There has been a response I believe we can anticipate a communication from their attorney in the next couple of days but we have not officially received that communication yet just that it is forthcoming. Okay thank you. All right hearing no further comment would someone like to move to approve the notice of lease default? So moved. Second. Motion by Hal. Second by Jim. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Moving to item H for discussion are policy priorities and strategies recovery plan reports. Yes Jesse. So this is our sixth installment as in previous installments new text new updates are in red. I think you've heard about a number of these things tonight or last meeting so happy to answer any questions but I will not walk you through it. Questions from council? Any public comments on this one? Jim. This is purely just a curiosity. When do you anticipate the equity director hiring decision to be close? To be close. To be when is the equity director to be anticipated to start at this point based on where you are in the interview process? Oh sure. So we have budgeted for the equity director to start April 1st. We have I think we're finishing I know we are finishing first round interviews this week we've done about two thirds of them two thirds of the first round interviews second round interviews will then be hopefully by the end of the month with an offer in early March for somebody to start in early April. We have excellent candidates for this position. It's really exciting. Mike. Any news on the traffic calming study? Traffic calming study was submitted as a UPWP project to CCRPC at one of your last meetings so that is awaiting the CCRPC funding that was a lot of acronyms. That's the work project process that the Regional Planning Commission funds for next year's work so we are awaiting notice that they have funded that work. Anything else on this topic? All right no votes needed it's on for discussion that concludes our regular items so we do have an executive session on here about our city manager's annual review because this is a personnel matter we will handle it in executive session so I would take a motion to find that per VSA section 313A3 that we should have this in executive session. Second. Motion by Jim second by Mike all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. All right and then I will also need a motion to move us into executive session with our city manager Jesse Baker. Did you guys send the code for this executive session? I sent it on Friday afternoon and I can resend my I can resend it quickly but give me a minute if somebody else has it up on their screen my VPN just went down. I can share you want to just address Megan question. Oh yeah we're not we're only returning from executive session to adjourn we don't have any further business after this. I got it I found it. Okay thank you. Okay so motion to move into executive session and take our city manager Jesse Baker along with us. Second. I don't know who's at second. Motion by Mike second by Jim. Sure. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. All right motion carries we will move over to the other line and then we will come back here just to adjourn. All right thank you. Thank you.