 or I can just skip the formalities of it all and just say welcome to the Ward 5 NPA. We really appreciate you all coming out, both returning to more and more in person, which is nice. It's good to see a few more faces in person. I was hoping to make it there, but my house is still a little betwixt in between. But thank you all for coming out. We've got a really great agenda today. I'm going to introduce what we do as an NPA in general, but I'll do that in a minute. The first section of this meeting is going to be public forum, where people who are here can share their thoughts on anything and everything, and why don't we get started with that, and then I can jump into the spiel of what we are in one minute once I get my nice script in front of me. So if anybody has anything they want to talk about at public forum, this would be a great moment for that while I get my script. And if you're participating on Zoom, feel free just to use the raise hand function and we can promote you if anybody wants to share anything. So number one is what public forum? So next to public forum, we're going to go from 0-0 to 22 seconds. So you have to move forward. Really, I just emailed you a minute ago, but if that's not working out, I'm just got it. I'm going to start sharing my screen with you. Thank you, Jeff. Right about this. I wonder if Sam is the blue torso in the room. Could you promote Nancy to the panel? She's on the steering committee now. I just put that in my name, so I just put SC in my name to make that a little bit easier to figure out. That is a very smart idea, Joe. Okay, great. Can people now see the shared screen with our lovely logo? Yes, yes. Excellent. All right. So this is the Ward 5 NPA, the March meeting, and what is the Neighborhood Planning Assembly? These are our guiding principles. We are a safe space. We provide a welcoming forum for all those in Ward 5 and beyond who want to talk about the issues affecting us in our community. We are accessible. We engage with all community members and we seek to minimize barriers to participation. This is why we're so excited to finally get our in-person back a bit. I'm really glad to see people there. We are respectful. We respect all cultural and economic. We look for cultural and economic awareness and we value diverse perspectives. We believe we are vital. We are a fun and creative organization. Importantly, we are nonpartisan. We do not endorse political candidates. We are here for a pre-ranging discussion of all who want to be involved without a partisan viewpoint. You can bring a partisan viewpoint if you want, but we ourselves are not. This is, I believe, this may be a slightly older list of our steering committee. We've had a little bit of turnover as we'll get to in our agenda coming up. There's some open spots on the steering committee, which is this group of us who structure the Ward 5 NPA. Here's some information you can find about us. We have a website. And thank you to CEDO and to CCTV for providing access to tonight and all of our meetings. And yes, we will be using the Zoom webinar format for those of you who are participating remotely. So as I've said before, if you want to participate, just use the raise hand function. And we will then, you can then unmute yourself. You'll be promoted to presenter. You can then unmute and start your video if you want to participate via Zoom in any of our sections, including public forum. This is the old agenda because I wasn't able to update this, but I will share my screen with the new agenda shortly. You jogged my memory. I have an NPA business question. Oh, there we go. I saw a news article recently about some turnover at the city and the REIB racial including inclusion and belonging, equity inclusion and belonging office. Looks like Pitt is the new director of that. So Sam, do we have a new NPA supervisor? Or are we still figuring that out downtown? I believe we are looking at candidates soon. It's open. But yeah, Pitt is the new, she wasn't supposed to be, but she is now the new interim head of REIB right now. So yeah, there will be a new supervisor later on, but not right now. It's just me basically for you guys. That works. You're doing a good job. I just saw that we had her name on the list in this older document at least and yeah, reminded me of it. Thanks. Well, great. So yeah, so this is now public forum. We really would, anyone who wishes to talk can. I can kick things off if we want to. I will just say that I am so grateful today for the beautiful weather that we have on this first really amazingly spring day and it was a great moment of being out in the park with all bunch of kids from the daycare and ward five after school today and just was nice to start to see some smiling faces coming back out in the neighborhood. We're definitely looking to keep getting people back together in this. I'm not going to ever say beyond COVID era, but in the era in which we are in now. So just wanting to share that perspective. And if anybody has any issues they want to bring up, now would be the time. And I see Andy has raised his hand using the raised hand function. So Andy go right ahead. I'm Andy Simon. I am on the steering committee also on ward five and I wanted to point out to people if you hadn't noticed it that we had announced in front porch forum that anyone wearing green to the meeting tonight either virtually or in person would be entered into a drawing at the end of the meeting for a gift card, a $25 gift card. We're going to raffle off two of them. So if you're wearing your green, let it be known, make it obvious, turn on your camera and Nate when he gets here will be noting who's wearing green and you can be on that list, on that very relatively small list. I mean how many other raffles do you do that where there are only 15 people that are, you know, in the pool? Yeah, that's a great. Unfortunately, I don't think anybody on the steering committee qualifies because, you know, that's unseemly. All right, fine. Now, Andy, I'm not wearing green, but I am wearing my James Joyce t-shirt. Does that qualify? Close. Absolutely. Although it disqualifies me as a steering committee. I have something for public forum. Hey folks, my name is Nate. I'm also on the steering committee and it's kind of a public service announcement. I know that it's been a pretty strange economic time for a lot of folks and I just am kind of raising the awareness about two programs that exist, one for renters and one for homeowners. It's just some COVID relief money that exists that has actually relatively high thresholds for people to get qualified for. I work with folks through housing counseling a lot and most people don't think that they would qualify, but we're getting a shutdown notice on our screen. But that won't distract me from the point. The programs are called the VRAP program for renters. It's an emergency rental assistance program and the homeowners assistance program for homeowners. They can be pretty significant economic benefits that folks can get. I think the homeowners assistance program can pay up to $30,000 in mortgage payments or property taxes in arrears or owed from past years. So I know with the assessment that happened, a lot of folks were kind of scrambling with the tax bill. If you or someone you know you don't think will be able to make a payment or just find in any way or it just needs to think about paying different bills at that time. It's a really great program and I would recommend all folks apply and you can find more information at CVOEO about those. Thanks everyone. Thanks Nate. That's super helpful. From what you just said, it sounds like so it's for both rental assistance but it would also be for property owners if they were also facing challenges. Yeah there's two programs. One for renters called the Vermont emergency rental assistance program and one for homeowners called the homeowners assistance program. Slightly different but you know both both residence types are taken care of. Great. Well I will give it one more minute for public forum and then we will transition into our next agenda item but once it hits 715 we will go over to our new topic unless anybody has anything else they would like to raise. This is Andy again. I just have a technical question mostly for people in the room. Is there a way to zoom in some on the people who are speaking in the room or I wondered if we had been doing that before. I wondered if we could still do that. This is Charlie from CCTV so actually that is kind of a problem today because of an equipment situation so I'll probably zoom it in a little bit more but I'm not going to be able to maneuver the camera very much today. Sorry. Okay thank you Charlie. All right. We'll see no other hands raised. I'm just going to do one last double check. Yeah we will oh there's good that's how I can see if there's any interest and there are none. We will move on to our next agenda item which is our steering committee pitch to join the steering committee. We are going to have elections at our next meeting right I believe it's our next meeting we'll be doing that for at least two seats. Other steering committee members I believe two seats will be open on the steering committee and I guess there will be all of us who are steering committee members will also be running for our seats but there's there's some vacancies right now where we are absolutely looking for other people from Ward 5 to come in and help make this make this program tick. We've had some great people on it who have recently transitioned into other public service roles including our new city counselor and school board member who we're very excited to hopefully hear from later tonight but it's a great way to get involved in your neighborhood to get to know people to give back to I've really enjoyed I've been on the steering committee now for two years and so it's been great. It's been so nice to work with everyone on it as a steering committee member and to you know force yourself to come to the meetings and get involved in local issues. It's very low time commitment effort you know you can make of it what you will there's you know you come once a month to the meetings there's a little we also have a steering committee meeting that we do usually the week after the monthly meeting and we have some you know initiatives and engagement efforts that we do you know more long term but it is not an overwhelming amount of work and it's very rewarding work so that's my pitch if any of the other steering committee members want to chime in with their view on it feel free to but yeah. Billy how do you make how do you make your interest known if you want to be on the steering committee. That is a very good question that sounds like you're setting me up for an easy answer that I don't have in front of me well how do you make it known Andy. I think there are several ways actually you can email the ward five npa google group and or probably any member of the steering committee and let them know that you're interested in being a candidate for the election next month when we have the election or you can just show up at the meeting next month and declare your candidacy even nominate yourselves so I think that those are really the two ways in the past when we've had a lots of people who are interested in a lot more people that interested than seats we actually ask for a little blurbs from people and you know publish those ahead of time but I think unless if we start getting a lot of a lot of interest in the intervening month I think we might do something like that but in the meantime if you think you're interested or if you have questions write to the word five npa google group and ask questions or to declare your interest and we'll be in touch with you. That email address is probably on the agenda or at npa5.org just goes on what about us about us page but it has an underscore in it should I read it and word five npa underscore btb at google group googlegroups.com that's a lot of typing so I recommend cutting and pasting and I also recommend if yeah just emailing any of us directly and we'll share with the group any about the steering committee members all of our contact information is on the npa5.org website and also on you know our city's website for word five npa so there's lots of different ways and feel free to reach out and again it's a very rewarding experience so you can always check the npa5.org website for more pictures of my kids and dogs if you guys can submit some photos next month. It is a great idea Joe. So Andy we are running pretty well ahead of schedule with a not as lively public forum although still very nice points raised by all do you want to get going with your presentation now or do you want to we can also find some other things to do for the next 10 minutes? No absolutely we can we can go thank you. I did want to announce I've been in touch with Tiff Bloomley and Gabrielle Stebbins and they are nailed down on the floor of the house tonight and most likely won't be able to do an update it's you know if by some miracle they show up and we'll do it but we may end earlier than planned just because of that I just want to do announce that. So yes let's start thank you this this is Andy Simon again and I'm here with Ruby Perry we live on Locust Street across from Callahan Park and we want to talk to you about the Pine Street barge canal we're going to do a brief presentation and then we would welcome questions about the barge canal so let me share my screen here so since this is Ward 5 we assume that many if most of you already know the barge canal having walked or skated there over the years but this map just helps you orient to where the barge canal is so we're all talking about the same thing this is a 28 acre site including wetlands, forested land and water west of Pine Street directly north of Burlington Electric you may have seen parts of it you've probably seen parts of it from the bike path or from the driveway at Myers-Babel's it helps to have some historical context to understand the complex story of the barge canal before the mid 19th century this was all wetlands a transitional zone between the growing city of Burlington and Lake Champlain it was a fishing hunting and gathering place for indigenous people and early Euro-American residents of Burlington so this is pre-1950s the big change that happened the first big ecological change was the coming of the railroad the completion of the Rutland and Burlington railroad track in 1849 this map helps you see the whole site but also the railroad coming across the top between the barge canal area and Lake Champlain it pretty much cut off the connection between the barge canal and the lake we're going to come back to this aerial photo in a minute so in the second half of the 19th century it was the lumber industry that dominated Burlington once Vermont's forests were depleted much of the wood that was milled here came in on sailing barges down the lake from Quebec as the industry grew the wetlands were filled in with sawdust and wood chips to keep the mills supplied all winter more storage space was needed to that end lumber Baron Lawrence Barnes had a canal excavated into the filled wetlands with a drawbridge to cross the railroad tracks this is from an 1887 drawing of a map of Burlington but the lumber industry declined in the 1890s so another industry sprang up on the barge canal a manufactured gas plant that ran on Pennsylvania coal shipped in on coal barges and later by the railroad the Burlington Gaslight Company on Pine Street supplied coal gas to households and businesses from 1908 to 1966 so 60 years of manufactured gas production making gas from coal was a dirty business the coal tar saturated wood chips and other waste products were dumped out back in the wetlands and the disused lumber storage areas in the 1970s and 80s with growing environmental consciousness the newly created EPA took control of the barge canal area as a federal superfund site they identified 56 contaminants of concern in the soil and water including various hydrocarbons and heavy metals in 1998 after a long and sometimes contentious process the EPA issued its record of decision on the barge canal it was decided to the coal tar on the bottom of the canal and essentially leaves the land alone with reviews every five years and regular monitoring of soil and groundwater contaminants so back to this map here's the situation now after this time of not being disturbed the trees and plants have grown back some natives like cotton wood and red osier dogwood others considered invasives like buckthorn and frag mites beavers herons ducks geese populate the wetlands the major contaminants in the undisturbed land have according to the EPA largely remain stationary this is the current zoning map of the barge canal area the yellow line delineates the federal superfund boundary the green line shows land that currently in rco conservation zoning some of that is owned by the city some of it is private the two parcels that are marked 453 and 501 pine street are private and currently for sale targeted for redevelopment ruby you're muted ruby can't hear yeah i know i just found it disappeared i'll be okay here's where we started our campaign to conserve and remediate the barge canal on a cold day in mid november 2021 we gathered with friends and neighbors to consider how much the barge canal has done to heal itself and protect the lake with debris from the land late flowers and herbs from our gardens and paintings of mushrooms and birds we created this collective offering of our gratitude on that day in a very real way we committed ourselves to caring for this land there are many many reasons to conserve and care for the barge canal site so we'll take a short drone tour of the area while we discuss them the most obvious benefit to burlington is a healthy functioning wetlands habitat in the middle of the south end home to mammals birds insects plants fungi and microbes the living barge canal protects the lake by providing flood control for the south end and helps the city manage its stormwater runoff it stabilizes the soil which is containing and slowly transforming the toxins left over from industry the living barge canals to questers carbon creates climate resilience and nature based solutions to climate disruption the barge canal also has the potential to remind us of our history indigenous natural and industrial history at this point the city of burlington owns 11 acres in the center of the barge canal land purchased decades ago in preparation for construction of the southern connector highway the rest is privately held the small private parcels along the railroad track are wetlands and are already zoned for conservation this conservation land is where our regeneration work can begin immediately and we will begin the spring to care for the land there is extensive debris from decades of neglect at the barge canal we've already begun planning a green upday cleanup on may 7 so mark your calendars starting in april there'll be a citizen science project to inventory the plants and animals on the public land non-native buckthorn take has taken over large parts of the site along the canal and native polycultures need to be planted and nurtured we are envisioning the site as a forested parkland perhaps a botanical garden of diverse nation native species we imagine the barge canal is a center for education with interpretive pathways to learn about our natural history our did the indigenous presence on the land as well as the obvious industrial history embodied there we imagine it as a research and training ground for scientists a living laboratory for a much needed cold climate bioremediation research a uvm class in plant and soil sciences has already designed their semester's project there and there are multiple professors and scientists that are interested in working there in that land a wildland park could offer safe public access to walk to boardwalks in a possible route through to the bike path ideally we see the land already under conservation expanding to include the private land as the barge canal through all of this we're exploring the idea of rematriation of the land opening its original opening to its original inhabitants for ritual and traditional uses by entering into partnership with our abeniki neighbors we have been active these last few months our main strategy has been to learn as much as we can about the barge canal and get as many people aware and involved as possible i'm going to go through this list so we consulted with indigenous elders and leaders we launched a petition 576 senators and counting we talked with city boards and commissions provided information to city council we had discussions with cedo with the epa with vermont d ec we've had discussions with land trusts we've engaged with private landowners we've worked with uvm students and teachers made contact with vermont environmental groups held pop-up events on pine street talked to ourselves and residents and leaders presented at npa's you can help your voice is essential in conserving and remediating this land and now is the time to get involved to develop your own relationship with the barge canal visit visit the barge canal walk around them that land write your city councilor speak at public input sessions on south end rezoning talk to neighbors and friends show up for pop-up events like this one participate in citizen science projects which will be coming up starting in april sign the petition we send regular updates out to petition planners we have a facebook page and a website we need help with all aspects of the campaign the city of burlington needs to be a partner in this effort to help with the active regeneration of the land including cleaning it up as well as restoring and protecting the natural ecosystem in order for this to happen the city government needs to hear from burlington residents that they care about the barge canal these will be included in the minutes or you can contact us directly by email and we'll send you all the links we see this brownfield transitioning with our care into a greenfield our vision for conserving the barge canal land is a paradigm shift a different way of thinking about development in open land and about our responsibility to clean up after ourselves a different way of thinking about our relationship to our home we'll leave you with a poem by judy dow and a benekie elder and educator the words in judy's poem gypsies and pirates were derogatory terms used by some people in burlington in the past for a benekie and french canadians this is the canal barge by judy dow a little inlet where one goes to seek refuge home to the ancient ones big and small gypsies sell their ash baskets to those going by while pirates dock their barges for a temporary home lumber stored in piles mountains high brought red flames hot and smoky tones of gray throughout the sky a cemetery for three barges wide and long skeletons from a time long ago sit by side side by side with a schooner while bare bones of others sink deep in the mud their silhouettes outlined in the archaeological reports the basin dredged and filled over and over again protected by breakwaters today the canal stands calm sealed shut until 1961 an opening was made for barges to once again entered where they sat abandoned along came the burlington gaslight company the beautiful wetlands filled to their top with coal tar years of abuse left behind a huge superfund site the wetland plants fight to survive hanging in there for another day but they can't do it alone they need our help our feet have led us there and back many times leaving only footprints behind we watched nature struggle along the canal for far too long those that have benefited from this land need to remember now that's poem by judy dow so it's time for questions what kind of what questions can we answer about the pine street barge canal and conserving and remediating it hi winnie bye bye hi what about goodbye hi goodbye questions i press i was going to ask a question andy um good so i know that there are some so there are some plots for sale right now um what what what position so your hope is that that is purchased by the city or or is donated or is there a particular vision you have for those plots that are currently for sale the um it's a it's a longer discussion probably and scott mape's who represents the owner rick davis of those two plots is here tonight but we have been in discussion with scott and rick about potentially finding a way to acquire that land um there is a plan as we understand it there is a plan to develop it at this point and negotiations going on um our hope is that um if that does not happen that we can find a way with the help of land trust and other sources of funds to um to acquire the land and included into the conservation zone and in fact our discussions with rick um over the last few months have indicated that he was fine with the conservation use of the land as long as um he was able to sell it so we'll see what happens in the meantime we're focused on the land that's already in conservation zoning which includes those 11 acres that the city owns and other um parcels along the railroad track on the other side of the water um that are owned by rick davis and by russ scully and there is some indications since those aren't really um usable for any kind of development um and they're in conservation zoning that those will be donated to the conservation land thank you can we touch that other questions we're also glad to answer questions after the meeting um you can contact us at sos burlington at gmail.com um and uh or you can contact me directly um or ruby and uh we're happy to continue the discussion and answer questions as they come up thank you i have one other question oh joe's got a question i'll let him go ahead sorry question might be better i just wanted to thank you for bringing that research you know concerning how it looked when there was lumber there or just at least a drawing of it and uh you know the current way that all the land is laid out i'm sure that you could find that on your own but it's nice to have that laid out in front of us to kind of understand what we're what we're looking at how closely you know the contamination sort of backs up to those properties because i had i have been wondering you know how deep they were from the road and you know given that there is kind of a need for for housing in the general area maybe it doesn't have to be right there but you know that's another place where housing could be built um you know unless it's truly problematic from a from a epa standpoint to have any living space there um that was the few things that i had had kind of wondered about when the survey or sorry the petition was initially being circulated i didn't really understand very well what was what all the considerations around that were for the site so maybe you have a better idea of it no thanks for sharing the indication so far from scott and rick are that the the development that they the developer that they've been talking to is not talking about building housing there there are some problematic parts of housing on on the barge canal while housing on a superfund site or a brownfield um that uh uh initially there are um you know restrictions there are grant restrictions and what they call institutional controls on that land on both of those parcels uh and have been since 1998 um prohibiting residential development and child care centers because of the potential risk for people living there or young children so you know there would have to be a lot of discussion and also some regulatory changes to have housing there but it doesn't seem like that's where it's headed right now other questions thanks thanks for speaking to that you know i just want to say that you know in terms of the history there is so much history connected to this land some of it ancient history some of it much more recent including um the uh the original EPA plan in 1992 which was presented to the city of burlington which was to scoop up all of the contaminated soil on the site and create this 13 acre 25 foot high um toxic waste dump right down by the lake um and you know a containment vessel that was the the original remediation proposal and the uh basically the city of burlington uh the residents of burlington uh elected officials and pretty much everybody rose up and said no that's not going to happen and the EPA for the first time in their history um withdrew a proposed remedy and also for the first time in their history they um uh created a council of local residents scientists business owners and responsible parties people who were responsible for the pollution and worked for five years operating on consensus and came up with the the ultimate remedy that was accepted by the EPA with a pretty extraordinary bit of sort of fairly recent history of burlington and I I want to say also that we skimmed over the the role that the barge canal plays in the burlington stormwater uh abatement and um how important that is it figures pretty heavily into what happens to to water uh when it comes down the hill and crosses over pine street and anything that is built there would have to take that into consideration and and would actually have to duplicate what the barge canal land is doing already on its own it would have to be some you know technological uh you know overriding of the land's natural tendencies and so it just in so many ways makes sense to pay attention to what the land is already doing and to acknowledge that and when we have looked at that land through judy dowseyes as a abenike elder and and actually a resident from long time uh in burlington to read the land with us that is the one remaining functioning wetlands in the south end other questions discussion how are we doing on time we're probably I think yeah well actually I think we're still doing okay on time and so I think our next one is supposed to go at 750 so we've got some additional time um one question I have Andy is you know I'm assuming that the canal you know it's not a naturally occurring phenomenon again was the wetlands before it is would there be any benefit to trying to revert the canal back to more wetlands or is it because of what sort of stuff is in there it's better just to leave leave it lie at this point or you know what efforts could be made additionally once under conservation to like the actual canal part itself like I vaguely recall there being like sunken barges even in the canal itself and those sort of things so just curious about that there there are sunken barges and the way that that was negotiated so that they didn't have to be excavated and disturbed the bottom of the canal was that um it was agreed that there would be an excavation of another canal barge that was in the lake um and restore it the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum did that um as to your question you know we do have some experts on the on the call who probably could answer this better than I but I think that the general feeling about the the the water in the barge canal was a lot of the um the coal tar was in the bottom of the canal and that while it was um capped uh with a sand cap and other several different times over the last 20 years it um it probably is better to let the wetlands sort of reclaim it rather than try to actively uh go in and try to do that and they are I mean if you go back there either in the wintertime or looking at it from the railroad tracks you see that it is uh a very active wetland there's a big beaver lodge a couple of beaver lodges and um you'll see all sorts of of uh animal tracks if you go there in the wintertime and there's a lot of um bird activity back there um so there's there's a lot going on back there already um in terms of an active an active wetland. Andi, I just wanted to direct it to uh Anne had a question uh so I just wanted to pass the floor over to her. Well I'm always uh curious to know how people in the community can have um in order to to get the word out besides finding a position but what we're talking about just now uh raises questions in my mind aren't there certain uh special considerations for how you would even build on that land? I understand because of the contamination of the soil that it's almost like you got to like build on pilings in a way right? I'd like to hear someone talk a little bit more about just the sort of the challenges of developing land that's already contaminated without spreading it farther. There there there have been plans there have been pretty detailed plans in the past to build an office building there was a plan to build a supermarket um in the past um all of them I think uh were based on the idea of just that putting pilings down to bedrock because um the land is largely peat and um and fill and so um both for the you know stability of a building but also for um the possibility of the weight of a building um spreading that uh the um the contaminates in the in the soil excuse me that has been the plan and I imagine that that any building that might get built there would have to follow that plan um in in terms of how people can get in get involved sorry um you know um we're going to be much more active in the next uh little while with uh our website will be up our Facebook page and you know um I think it's important for people to come to uh you know the Samantha and Megan are going to do a presentation and seems like other people from the south end are going to do a presentation on south end rezoning possibilities you know to actively engage in those discussions that uh are given to uh for public input um and in terms of the barge canal you know speaking up for not just for um conserving the private land which is you know a different kind of negotiation but for really um putting city energy and city city resources into conserving the um the public land and the the conserved land that's that's where the city needs to hear from us and also I want to reiterate what Ruby said about green up day we're going to do a big uh green up project at the barge canal on saturday may 7th and um there is tons of debris down there from old houseless encampments and and various other sort of dumpings that have been left there and we're going to get over the decades over the decades of stuff that nothing has been taken care of and that's essential in terms of restoring that land and restoring the ecosystem and beginning to care for the land that has um that this is just an essential part of of the work that needs to happen and I think it's worth mentioning that I you know we talked about all those people that we talked talked with in the city we have not found any support in the city for this idea so I think um I think it's going to take the the public will to uh to put that uh put that bug in their ear that this is something that's important to the to the city that we do recognize the role that the barge canal plays already and how important it is to to not cover it with pavement and with a building or two and with that said over to you Megan and Samantha thank you very much for having us thank you giving us time yeah thank you both so much and thank you all for for the presentation that was very very interesting so yes as we as Andy just previewed we are about to uh we're coming up on 750 yep perfect so it is now time for Samantha Dunn from CEDO to do the presentation on the enterprise innovation rezoning proposal in the south end and I believe that we have Samantha on zoom there you are great how are you doing here and actually Megan um I'm here with Megan Tuttle um who is going to take the lead on the presentation tonight excellent Megan are you there everyone um I'm just working on getting my screen up here and um because even though we've been doing this for so long I still uh somehow have not figured out how to present a power point effectively in zoom I'm going to do this kind of the low tech way so um thanks for having us here my name is Megan Tuttle I'm the planning director for the city of Burlington I'm also award seven resident and I'm really glad to be here with you all tonight Samantha Dunn is here as uh Billie noted she is also with the city she's the assistant director for community work since CEDO um and we also have our brand new planner Charles Dillard here with us he's listening in tonight um and I know it looked like the video for the folks that are in the pine street um building also include some of your south end neighbors and um some of the property owners and and people that run businesses in the south end that we've been talking to about this project as well so John Colllow and Steve Conant looks like are there and can help us answer questions as well um so uh as I think Andy and Ruby kind of teed up for us um we're here to talk to you tonight about some work that the city has been doing on some of the neighboring properties around the barge canal actually um we're going to share some initial information with you to start the conversation about a potential zoning amendment that would create an innovation district within a part of the south end a key question that has been part of the work that we have started um has really been about looking at some of the large surface parking lots and other underutilized sites that are along lakeside avenue and parts of pine street um and looking for opportunities for us to re-envision this part of the south end to help uh enhance the kind of spirit and identity of the south end neighborhood um to help us create new space for jobs for the creative makers that are working in the south end and to even potentially include some new homes some opportunities for new homes and um much like what Andy and Ruby were saying about the barge canal area in particular um we are also looking for opportunities to use this opportunity to re-envision these sites to increase the area's environmental and economic resilience we're talking about this in the context of many kind of interrelated issues and opportunities that are happening in the city and in the south end in particular the work that we're doing right now to consider an enterprise zoning or an innovation district within the south end was part of the 10-point housing action plan that the mayor announced in December of last year there were a wide range of initiatives that were part of that housing action plan to address a number of housing challenges the city's experiencing but this one specifically targeted us with or tasked us with um looking at the opportunity for zoning to enable some new developments within this area and to potentially housing as part of that this is really related as I said to a lot of different issues that we're dealing with as a community um and while we might be talking about a zoning amendment and just a part of the south end it's really related to a lot of the broader work that the city and many others are doing as it relates to the housing challenges that we are experiencing in Burlington in the region and the state um this has an impact not only on our community as a whole but also on you know folks who are living and working in the south end and folks who want to be living and working in the south end uh so we recognize that this conversation is really about how we find an opportunity for some of these sites that currently aren't utilized or aren't utilized very well uh to support that key missing piece of the south end which is to have places for people to to work and live close to each other or more places and is the case in your neighborhood uh we're also talking um and working with a lot of people around the ways that this zoning amendment relates to other complementary tools to help us achieve some of the goals in the south end that the community and the city and others have had for a long time uh things like you know looking for opportunities to expand artist and maker space in the south end uh talking about tools that could be utilized to help promote some of that brownfield protection remediation cleanup that Ruby and Andy were talking about as well as other types of new public infrastructure that we've long hoped to be able to improve and add within that area of the city as well as looking at opportunities for places like the barge canal or other areas of the south end to provide access to open spaces and visual and physical connections to the lake as well so um when we talk about the possibility of a new innovation zoning district um this is the sort of central area that we have started talking about um we're looking roughly at the properties that are located west of pine street between Howard and Sears Lane and as I've said a couple of times now really focusing on the large properties that have large surface parking lots and other kind of otherwise undeveloped areas of this um kind of central part of the south end enterprise district and I think that this is really exciting also to be talking about this because in the plan BTV south end process that many of you I'm sure participated in many years ago um the this idea of an innovation district this hub of jobs and creative activity and all sorts of community activities in the south end was really envisioned as an innovation district really centered around this area of lakeside so looking at the potential of an innovation zoning district gives us the opportunity uh to look at how to help bring a lot of those ideas to life through setting the stage with our zoning ordinance to help facilitate um future developments this area of the city is part of the enterprise light manufacturing zoning district some of you may be familiar with this zoning district but if you're not this map on the right side of the screen the sort of peach or brown colored zoning district that runs all the way from the soda plant to queen city park road is the area that we're talking about the enterprise zone sometimes you might hear us call it the elm if we're if we're using jargon um but this zoning district is kind of the core of the south end's business district um and where you have seen much of the activity related to artists and makers breweries um you know the new hula facility is located in this zoning district all the way down to um you know burton and edland and the gmt facility on industrial parkway so it spans a big part of the south end and includes a lot of different types of activities today this part of the city has also been evolving a lot as i'm sure many of you know um the types of businesses that are calling this district home have been um evolving a lot over the years um andi did a great job of describing some of the history of how this area in our industrial history was um used for a lot of manufacturing purposes and um how many of those buildings continue to be used today for new types of businesses um continuing to to produce and make things um but more often you know food beverage art and other types of uses so this zoning district really allows for that wide range of activity to happen all the way from the north end to the south end and uh one thing that we do know from the conversations that we've been having with the community and with businesses in that area is that the north end and the middle and the south end of this zoning district have evolved to have sort of individual unique identities so even though the zoning district doesn't specifically acknowledge those different types of identities we've seen that happening organically and from time to time the city and our city's planning commission in particular have heard about some of the challenges that we have this large zoning district that treats that whole area the same and have often heard questions about how we could fine-tune the zoning in the ELM district um to help kind of facilitate and preserve and protect certain identities in different parts of that district as well as to help continue to facilitate its evolution so really when we're talking about this sort of central area that you can see here um as a potential innovation district this is one of those opportunities that we have to help us kind of get it right in terms of what are the types of um commercial uses and uh industrial or maker uses we might want to see there as well as you know if housing is to be located there in what way would we be interested in having housing located there I mentioned at the beginning that um are exploring this concept of an innovation zoning district is related to several other efforts that are happening um either on the city's part or others in the same in a similar area at the same time so uh just want to mention a couple of those things right now um you'll hear more about this in the very near term but one of those related efforts is um to look at the feasibility specifically on two properties within the sort of southern corner of this innovation district area um one of the long term goals that the city has had and I'm sure many of you probably remember is uh to have some sort of a transportation or transit facility that would be located within the south end um and potentially as part of development that would include other types of uses so um one of the parcels here that is is outlined on the map is a privately owned parcel and the other is a city owned parcel and uh there will be some work done here in the near term to look at the opportunities for some development to occur in that area on those two properties that would help to facilitate um a potential transit facility and other types of development so be on the lookout for some information about a kickoff meeting and other opportunities to provide some input on draft concepts that that study will explore um I don't need to spend a lot of time talking about brownfield cleanup I think andy and ruby did a really great job talking about the history of the barge canal and the area around the barge canal um and you know there is certainly a lot more information out there that we could get into um but I I did just want to touch on the fact that you know we know that the properties that are neighbors of the barge canal and some of the properties that were that are included in the area that might be part of an innovation district are either brownfield sites or have some sort of a development control on them as andy mentioned institutional controls is what we typically call them uh that causes us to provide a higher level of scrutiny about new development within these areas which is a good thing um these conditions don't mean that these sites can never be developed uh but it does mean that any future use of them actually has to one be aware of the fact that pollutants or other hazards could exist on those sites and that development will have to be careful and intentional about managing or cleaning up or certainly making sure not to further disturb those sites so there are definitely a couple different types of categories of sites that we talk about um you know a brownfield is kind of what we call a site that you know could have some development impact because of contaminants where the super fund refers to a specific designation um an identification by the federal environmental protection agency that looks at some of the most significant contaminated sites so you can just see here and and i think andy and ruby did a good job of showing this as well that we have a couple different layers of um brownfields when we talk about the area the barge canal specifically in the areas around it um but i think it's you know really important to note too that um these sites and the identification of these contaminants uh does not have to preclude these sites from ever being utilized for any other purpose um i think we share a lot in common actually with andy and ruby when they talk about sort of the core 20 acres of the barge canal the city owned land and some of the the parcels to the west close to the railroad and that we do have a lot of opportunity for conservation and renaturalization and even some potential community use for exploring that natural and industrial heritage the other sites that neighbor it um you know have long been discussed as places where uh we would like to see um new opportunities for jobs for homes for other kind of community benefits as well and there are many state or not many there are state and federal programs that provide both funding and other technical resources to support property owners of uh brownfield sites or superfund sites to actually help them clean them up and revitalize them so that they can be put into um some kind of beneficial community use whether that's um being home to new um new jobs or new homes or helping to uh remediate stormwater or help better manage stormwater or a whole variety of other purposes so um i think while the city may not directly be engaged in the work of uh brownfield remediation on the specific sites this is related to the idea of a zoning amendment because some of the zoning for areas around the barge canal um could have an impact on how feasible it is for some of these sites to be reused and for them to actually access some of the technical and financial resources available to help them clean up these properties and then finally um again i i don't need to spend a lot of time here i kind of talked about this already and andy and ruby again did a great job talking about the barge canal um but just another way to visualize the existing um protections that exist on the barge canal itself um the key you know barge canal properties that are in green in the center um as andy and ruby had shared are partially owned by the city some are owned by private landowners um but that collection of properties are all within a zoning district today that promotes conservation um and really limits the type of development that could happen on any of those parcels for anything really other than open space we also um as part of the city's open space protection plan that was prepared in 2000 um we actually mapped a lot of the significant natural resources within the city and in the barge canal vicinity um you know we have very detailed delineation of things like the wetlands that ruby and andy were talking about as well as special areas that are subject to flooding um being in close proximity to the lake and just because of the topography of this area um so we also have zoning tools that help protect those natural resource areas and you can see this kind of gray dotted line that um is around the the properties that are green in the barge canal these are other areas that are um where some of our natural resource zoning tools apply to so these help us to either limit development within those areas or apply special tools to make sure that development is happening in a way that is sensitive to the natural resources that that they are near um but I think you know for us again we're not proposing to change the zoning of the barge canal um I think we share a lot in common with ruby and andy that we would really love to see these properties accessible to the community both for uh some recreational purposes as well as for that learning aspect that ruby and andy talked a lot about um you know we have some kind of longer term tools that we need to work closely in collaboration with our state and federal partners around um one thing in particular is that while the city does own part of that land we don't fully have the ability to utilize it for some of these purposes that we're talking about um at this time because the the property was originally purchased for the Champlain Parkway the Southern Connector um so as that project gets underway you know working in close collaboration with our partners we may be able to more fully realize the city's ownership of that property um and start to implement more of that community vision for what that space could look like um so we'll continue to work with those partners as we kind of move forward from here and also um like ruby and andy we'd love to explore the opportunity for either public ownership or control of and ways to provide access within that barge canal area that is uh zone for conservation today so um with that I will stop talking so that folks can ask questions if they have them or or let Samantha or John or Steve jump in if there's anything I missed but I'll just wrap up by saying um we will be providing more information to all of you about a number of these things in the very near term um we wanted to come and share this sort of beginning conversation with you early on um and in the next you know few weeks we will be having um a city landing page with more information about uh the conversation around a potential zoning amendment and we'll share information about upcoming meetings to be part of that conversation um we'll also you as I mentioned before you you should also hear in the near term more information about the lakeside feasibility study that will be happening at the same time um but ultimately the purpose of the work that we will be doing um over the next few months is to share some recommendations with the city's planning commission um they as I mentioned in the housing action plan have been tasked with helping us evaluate the possibility of the zoning amendment and we want to share recommendations with them about how that can happen and how that should happen um so we look forward to hearing your feedback about that process as we get underway with it and um we'll also make sure to be back here as those recommendations are developed and share them with you um as we move through the process stop sharing my screen and um thank billy if you'd like we could answer any questions yeah great thank you so much megan um this is a great time for questions so if people want to use the raise hand function or if they're in the room just raise their hand there and start chatting away that'd be great i see andy has his hand up so andy you can go right ahead hi megan hi samantha um this is um i i do see lots of possibilities for collaboration on you know with the city on sort of the the conservation vision that we have um we haven't um encountered a whole lot of enthusiasm from for instance the conservation board and other bodies because they're sort of waiting for uh signals from the city government that really um this is something that you know conservation and remediation is something that we want to go forward with and actively pursue for the barge canal i wonder about thinking a different way sometimes about development especially in this era of of climate catastrophe climate emergency i know that the the the conservation board and others have put out this really excellent nature-based solutions to climate change document as an addendum to the open space protection plan and um uh you know thinking about um development revitalization as something that involves also um conserving and expanding conserved lands is is something that we would like to discuss further um because of the many benefits that that for instance conserved land at the barge canal or the open land at the barge canal the wild land at the barge canal in some ways um already gives the city um all the things besides just economic development um or even housing options that you know are offered by the barge canal but I do have a question for you how come um some of other housing options both in the in the south and and um in the center center of burlington are not more fully explored like for instance the old ymca building i keep going by there and thinking a hotel really i mean why are we doing a whole even thinking about a hotel when we have this intense need for housing um you know the the thrust of the um uh you know of the of the short-term rental uh uh ordinances that have been changed uh have been kind of to protect housing in in burlington and it seems like a property like that that the city should be actively pursuing that as as housing rather than um for um you know housing for tourists who are coming in i also think about i always you know spending time more at the barge canal i've been looking at dealer.com and wondering is that ever going to become an active office space again and if not couldn't that become renovated for housing um you know thinking a little more outside of the box for some new housing options seems like it would be useful what do you think yeah i think i think you're right andy about um thinking outside the box about other housing options um you know the the city doesn't act as a housing developer but we help and help facilitate conversations about ways that um sites in the city could be better utilized for housing i think that's a big part of samantha's job actually i'll let her speak to this a little bit more um from my perspective in my role in in burlington um you know it's really about how do we help get the policies right that will help allow those sites to be used for housing um we've put a lot of work in the last few years into trying to make um housing more feasible within the downtown area and so there are a lot of other things that we're doing that we have been doing and that we will be doing as well um to help try to realize the potential for housing in other places where housing has either already existed or has the potential to um as well you know i think the the question you asked about dealer.com is an interesting question that i think some of us have asked as well um this is will be a part of the conversation going forward just what is the role of um existing commercial space within the south end to either continue to be commercial or to potentially be used for different purposes like housing um you may remember that in our conversations about housing in the south end as part of the plan b tv process there was a lot of concern about the loss of commercial space or artist space or other spaces to housing so um we've started from the place of looking at sites that don't have development in a traditional sense maybe on them and what their potential might be but i would imagine that questions like what you asked Andy will be asked by others as we really get into the meat of this discussion. Thanks Megan and i'll just i think answer speak a little bit um to the ymca is um is privately owned property which as Megan said the city is not in the business of housing development um ourselves so it's not um it's not it's not a property that we have control over i will say the cito office as the um i think this is you know public news that uh the private owner of that property is potentially close to being in default on their loan and the city is very engaged in communicating with our you know non-profit and for-profit housing developers to see how we could support uh potentially getting to get housing on that site so we are always um very aware of of these opportunities and doing our best to support them um through conversations the city does have some sources of funding um that we're able to to um invest in into affordable housing units and are coming coming at uh providing housing in lots of different places um in lots of different ways i'm not seeing any other hands up but i just want to make sure i've not missed anyone so Billy i'm just kind of directed towards us oh there we are i see someone with a hand up there hi steve hi uh thanks Megan in your last slide there was a line that referenced something i'm not entirely clear about what it is um it's the lakeside feasibility study what can you remind me what that is and you might be muted yeah yep thank you steve um yeah so this is a project that will just be getting started um that is looking at two sites specifically between um a city-owned site that is on Sears Lane and a privately owned site on lakeside avenue um and specifically looking at the feasibility for some mixed-use development to happen on those sites that could include some sort of a regional transportation facility um this is something that the city has studied in the past um looked at the opportunity for uh essentially the um bus terminal to be located there along before it came to downtown where it is today um but i think you know related to lots of different potential funding sources that are out there right now to help facilitate public infrastructure and uh specifically some transportation related infrastructure um there have been has been some renewed interest in exploring the potential for a facility like that in this area so this study is going to help us look into that in more detail okay thank you yeah there's another question from your room from john just to follow up on that my my understanding is that that the the feasibility study while it's related to the the ongoing um the zoning and that that proposal that's being discussed tonight that it is independent and and it's a study i believe that is being initiated by the Regional Planning Commission in part given the location of the city parcel located you know directly adjacent to the proposed Champlain Parkway and an active rail line that will have Amtrak coming through next year or this later this year yeah those are great additional points john um it is um being led by the Regional Planning Commission and you know several city departments will also be engaged in that um it is definitely an independent project but very much related to the work that we're doing because it's a similar area that we're talking about um and i think you know the when we talk about feasibility for uh development in that area especially any kind of mixed use development that could support a transit um purpose as well what is allowed there in terms of what kind of mix of uses that transit facility could be paired with as a big part of a feasibility study um so obviously the study will look at you know what could happen today if the zoning is as it is and will also make some considerations for what could be feasible if the zoning were to change in some way so separate but very much related yep agreed also i just want to thank both megan and samantha and um andy and and his crew very informative presentations thank you yeah and the note i was just going to make is that everybody in the room is wearing green except you john he's got green pants oh does he okay yeah he's on the lotus andy i'm just looking to see if there are any other hands raised from people who haven't asked anything but i do not see any other hands so back over to you andy you're on mute um uh the um quick question the um when the the memorandum of understanding and housing plan was announced in december um the mayor's office announced a pretty ambitious timeline for um moving on the south end rezoning that hasn't really materialized in that way but i'm wondering what you think the timeline is in terms of uh especially um public input opportunities in the coming months thanks yeah that's a great question andy and i appreciate um that i know you've reached out a number of times just to help uh you know ask questions and share information about ways to be involved in this conversation um you know we have been behind the ball getting started on this based on what was in that mo you um but i would say that you can look forward to opportunities to engage in the conversation about this zoning project within the next you know a few weeks and and next couple of months for sure looking to see if there are any other hands i do have a question um you know one and maybe question slash comment in one term that they used a couple of times megan was underutilized sites you know within this region and you know i i can envision parking lots fitting that definition that makes a lot of sense to me and i do think that you know there's a lot of good that can be done in repurposing some of our parking lots but when you use the term underutilized sites does that include some of the property that andy was talking about some of those um parcels that are not currently developed but are you know green green space or at least undeveloped plots at this point you know because in my mind there's a big difference between repurposing a parking lot to functional purpose versus you know taking a space that's an open green space right now and you know looking to incentivize building there yeah that's a good question um so when we were talking about you know underutilized and undeveloped sites you know we're really talking about both of those things that you just asked about billy um definitely the parking lots are always an easy thing for us to look to in terms of you know just seeing tons of potential um with undeveloped sites i think you know the two parcels in particular that are closest to pine street that are not in the conservation zoning district are ones that have long been part of you know decades decades ago kind of planning work that have always imagined that there could be some sort of new development that could occur there um so those two parcels are also included there um not because we're proposing to change any area that's conservation already um to some other development purpose but just looking at areas that have been part of zoning districts that would allow development to happen but where it hasn't happened previously i'm going to point it back towards the room and then just kind of looking at the time i think maybe this will be the last question on this but i would say and just to add on to what what megan just said i think that when looking at the the proposed innovation zoning district district i believe that it includes some properties for example on on the south side of sears lane and which include single story warehouses so it's underutilized properties could include some properties that that have a structure on them but that that could be redeveloped um for with a change in use i mean the i think it's bear is repeating even though it seems obvious that we're in the midst of a housing crisis and that uh you know we're really trying here in burlington as well as other parts of the state to to provide housing for for just a wide range of folks that currently can't have or don't have housing so it's i think that's really kind of what's driving it and trying to do it in a way that really kind of supports all the values and goals that uh that we all hold dear you know thank you and you know i i would say um nat that if i think because we're not andy we still are not going to have tiff and gabrielle and so i think we can stretch this just a little bit because i think it's a fruitful conversation um you know on that point of housing the one other point i wanted to make was just you know there is an uncomfortable background just to all this and at least in my mind in that we're talking about this desperate need for housing in this area and people the housing crisis meanwhile we the city by you know put blame wherever you wish this year's lane encampment is no longer what it was you know wherever it was before a place of real housing so you know one question slash comment i have is you know how are we going to be developing this in a way for truly inclusive housing you know i i'm always concerned when we're seeing development of this you know i'm somebody who worked in the seaport in boston for a while which had grand visions of equitable development and has since turned into a playground for the rich and famous and uh it's i am concerned that development not done in this in the right way that that can lead to you know some i mean and we're doing this by by having these sort of conversations but you know making sure that the development is done in an inclusive manner that recognizes that we need housing of all types in here and that can't just be market-based absolutely and i think just going back to something that john said i think even something that andy said earlier is about that we're really hoping to accomplish in the exploration of this zoning amendment is how we can use housing as a potential catalyst or tool for more impactful sustainable resilient neighborhood within the south end so we've talked about the parking lots you know certainly not the highest and best use of of of our land anywhere in the city the the building that folks are sitting in today could potentially have housing on top of it could continue to serve the exact same purpose that it serves as a you know a community gathering space city city offices um and could include housing and i think going um to your question billy and something andy said early on about the brownfields sites um while they're not as obvious as a asphalt parking lot is something that you know we know we would like to do something different with i do believe that there's potential if there is um we can work closely with private property owners and smartly with our policy that some small some portion of development on those sites could open up and preserve the rest of the sites um for for conservation um and for public access so it's it's trying to how do we balance all of these things creatively to get the best results and and again i think as megan stated and on one of the first slides a more resilient community again i'll just add to um you know a part of the city's zoning ordinance that applies to new housing development is our inclusionary zoning ordinance as well which does require when new housing is built that some percentage of those units are built meeting afford certain affordability standards but then i think beyond just the policy tools one of the things that we're having some conversations about is you know how do we use some of the collective power of folks that own property or have other resources to bring to the table um that could help go beyond that as well um so you know i don't i don't want to speak for any of like the affordable housing developers that aren't here um but you know talking to them as well about what ways they could potentially help to facilitate inclusive development in this area well thank you so much megan and samantha and um for everyone who's participated uh i want to just do one more check over to see if there are any other hands raised that i've missed i do not see any so i think we will move on to our next agenda item but thank you so much thank you all thanks for the questions and for the time tonight thank you all right and our next agenda item is to uh one i'm very excited for um which is to introduce our new city counselor for this area i'm having some internet connectivity issues on my end are other people having that or it's okay on our end john okay on yours okay well then i'll stop talking to get it over to ben travers our new city counselor elect and before you take the floor i'm going to steal your thunder and just ask anybody that is um that is on zoom that is wearing green and that would like to be entered into uh the aforementioned drawing raise your hand use the raise hand function um and i can take your name down and now i'll give it to ben all right well i know it's eight thirty and i don't want to spend too much time between this and the raffle uh but um thanks billy for turning it over to me i guess this is my last meeting as a member of the work five npa steering committee um i've been on the steering committee for uh five years now um and it's been a real honor and a privilege to work with you all on the steering committee um as well as to meet with the community i think that we've done a lot of good work uh on the npa here over the last five years uh andi working with you in particular i think you and i are the two most senior members on the steering committee now and it's been um a real privilege working with you and the other folks here to take on new efforts like the outdoor movie we did a couple years ago and uh the block parties that uh we got started last year and uh really trying to find new ways and i think and i trust this group is going to sort of take it to new levels i'm excited by the new folks and echo um sort of the call to volunteers that you put out there in the beginning for new steering committee members um i'm also really grateful to work five neighbors for uh electing me to the city council on town meeting day uh i will take chit mason's seat uh on april fourth uh and um really intend on on staying tuned into these npas into coming i think that they're really important uh and i think that as we talk about uh issues um like housing like rezoning uh neighborhood and community input and ensuring that those decisions appropriately reflect community values are very important to me and i think we're going to be very important um to these decisions being in the best interest of the city so i look forward to hopefully continuing to rely on on the npa as well as you know finding other ways to connect with the community and certainly individually uh i do have my my city email address set up already uh so it'll be be travers at burlington vt dot gov um and i'll drop in there is no chat but uh in the minutes uh my my cell phone number will be up on the city website as well uh which is 3572055 and certainly would always love to hear from you all about your concerns and your questions um i will say that uh i think that the city over the coming year has a lot of uh big issues that it's going to have to tackle uh i was excited that on town meeting day uh the infrastructure bond passed i think there's a number of really critical items in there uh for the city's capital infrastructure uh i was concerned uh particularly as the as the former chair of the parks commission there's a good amount of funds in there for continued development and growth of our parks and playgrounds uh i was concerned when that bond although certainly understood the reasons why it failed in december uh i was excited that the pared down version uh passed on town meeting day um i met with dpw uh earlier this week or last week and i know with that capital infrastructure bond in place uh that they have some really ambitious goals for the coming year with respect to our roads and our sidewalks and our bike lanes as well as additional improvements to our water system and storm water system so i was excited to hear about that uh we did however have a failed budget and i think there's a couple reasons why i think you can always wonder whether uh the ballot item could have been communicated better to the public but i think perhaps even more so than that our city is is very concerning for me becoming increasingly unaffordable i think that ward five in particular sort of bore the brunt of the reassessment and folks felt property tax increases already as a result of that quite significantly and there's a lot of questions about what the future of our high school is it was in the afternoon when i was standing out of the polls on town meeting day when a text message an email and phone call went out to the berlington school district community with the price tag potential price tag on a new high school i was sort of wondering why did they send this out on town meeting day of all days but there it was uh of 200 million dollars plus um and the city council and the school board i know that my fellow mpa uh steering committee member i don't think lucha is here um but i'm really looking forward to continuing to work with lucha and collaborating with her to figure out how is vermons biggest city gonna get uh a high school back um and how are we gonna deal with the city's budgetary needs um that failed budget um you know a good amount of uh that money uh would have gone to uh staff for the city um you know the city like a lot of industries is uh struggling to recruit and retain um folks and so uh i know the city is going to have to be figuring out um particularly considering inflation and and cost of living uh what are we going to do from a budgetary standpoint for city staff for city projects uh as well as for the high school um but i think we have a lot of opportunities here and certainly i'm excited to uh to dig into it um i think that this meeting has touched on some of the other uh you know bigger issues that we'll be discussing as well rezoning uh housing um and and not just housing for folks for renters or for homeowners um but also uh for those who are unhoused um i'm excited by a lot of the steps the city plans on taking here uh in the short to long term uh future um we've heard some news as of late about shelter pods that they're thinking about doing as well as putting a lot of additional resources into uh more uh more short term and long term stable housing and so i'm excited to be leaning in on that as well um but could go on uh certainly would be happy to hear from folks about any concerns or thoughts they have or to answer questions i will acknowledge that uh i haven't quite started yet so certainly we'll be digging into it soon enough but happy to answer any uh preliminary questions folks have if we have time but also recognize it's 840 and there's a raffle to get to thanks ben really appreciate that um i think the hands that are raised right now are for the raffle and not to ask a question although if you do want to ask a question and have your hand raised let me know how would i how would you let me know i guess um lower your i can ask a question from the room um ben i know you mentioned that it's definitely the early stages and you're not even in the job yet but um it seems like when folks end up on the council day we'll kind of take on um a particular issue or project that um kind of ends up being something that they end up working a lot on do you have a sense of anything that you know you'd kind of like to take on as a project in your first term that suddenly sounded like a question out of debate but um yeah uh well thanks for that question nate i it's it's clear from the presentation that we just saw that the city believes that the south end can play a special role in addressing the city's housing needs and so certainly as the representative from ward five i feel great deal of responsibility to represent our community and to ensure that folks have uh more than a full and fair opportunity to weigh in with respect to that issue i i trust and know that the meeting that we had tonight should be the first of many to come um i you know the other thing i'll say is that the boards and commissions i've served on are near and dear to my heart i would love to explore ways for the npa to have a larger role you know when i started on the npa our annual budget was 500 bucks it's gone to 2500 uh since uh since we started and and i think the npa has been able to do a ton of great work uh with still a relatively limited budget and i'd like to explore uh how much more the npa can do as well as my time in the parks commission um you know sir the parks uh i have three kids uh near and dear to uh our hearts as well and and would really like to be a champion for our parks uh on the council thanks ben i'm also seeing a hand raised uh that jane enly has a hand raised jane you can unmute yourself yeah um yeah um i want to know um our you know i mean climate change keeps making keeps making keeps making things worse and and um what change are there are there going to have to be further infrastructure changes as as as as the rains increase as the snows increase um it's like i keep i feel like i have to fear every single day every single day like like like what new extreme will the weather will the weather keep bringing bringing up is the budget and is the budget keeping does the budget keep increasing every year with with all with all i guess i guess you know that with all the salt that gets well the salt the snow plowing um did did the failed bud did the failed budget include such such such such such things in there i mean yeah how is the city preparing for climate for for worse climate change do you know yeah um thanks for the question jane i think that there's folks who could really speak at length we could probably do a whole npa on on what the city's looking to do with respect to addressing climate change i will say one of the reasons i'm excited that the capital infrastructure bond past is that does include money for public works including our water system i mean i i've seen to have noticed that we seem to have more and more water main breaks uh every winter uh the roads seem to be in more and more terrible shape at the end of each winter dpw will tell you that this is because of the uh temperature shifts like you noted it's it's cold one day it's 60 degrees the next day and it's freezing the day after that um i know that the infrastructure monies that are there are going to allow for uh quite a bit of paving and improvements to our sidewalks um but the part that i'm most excited about you don't really see it with your eyes but i think we'll see it and that will have fewer water main breaks is there's some really significant improvements that are planned for the water system and uh relining pipes um as well as making some needed improvements to uh the the wastewater plant um and and storm water uh all these city projects the the great streets project for main street that passed includes a lot of storm water improvements to main street you see it on st paul as well um some of the new in the south end uh plans for our parks like callahan park and perkins pier include a lot of uh storm water improvements um so those are just a couple areas that you touched on that i know are are still in the cards and we're supported by that infrastructure bond and so i'm excited about those pieces a lot to do though thank you so much and just doing one more look to see if there's any other hands up and seeing none i think we can transition to our last uh matter of the night which is the raffle draw let me see if i can share my screen let's see if i can get it up all right can you all see my screen in one second all right so this is the list of all the folks that i have uh noticed are wearing green or have told me that they're wearing green if you do not see yourself and you are please raise your hand now and if anybody i i'm while i'm in share screen mode i can't quite make out if anybody there is one other name pat rivers all right okay so i'm just going to randomize this and basically what it'll ultimately do is it'll give a ranking of all the people doesn't have anything to do with your ranking of how green you are it's just the top two will get a gift card and we'll we'll collect some information to figure out a way to do that so on the count of three i'm going to press this randomize button i'm just kidding i didn't count three all right so it looks like the top two folks are christy michael and ruby perry so congratulations to christy and ruby and uh yeah we'll figure out how to get your gift card thanks for coming out tonight happy magic day thank you all yeah thanks yeah thanks steve and i i'll i'm sharing my screen now and bill you want the last word to wrap things up sure thank thank you all for coming out um and yes we'll look forward to seeing you at the next meeting hopefully more and more in person have a great night thanks you too take care thank you