City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

All right, noting that we have a quorum, we will go ahead and call this meeting to order. The date is April 13, 2026. Time is 6:02 p.m. Uh the first item on our agenda is an ask that our agenda be adopted. Councelor Sing, may I ask you for a motion

uh to adopt the agenda as follows. Remove from consent agenda item 5.26 ordinance gross receipts councelor Bergman and place on deliberative agenda as per item 6.7 per council president and per council s. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor then please say I. I.

I. Are any opposed? That carries unanimously. The second item on our agenda is a proposed executive session for members of the public here for public forum. Please know that we have public forum set for a time certain of 6:30 p.m. Um, as is our practice, before going to a motion for a proposed executive session, we ask our city attorney's office for a factual basis for uh an executive session. And this evening, I believe we're represented by the city attorney's office by assistant city attorney Rama Christian. Is that correct, Eric? Yes, that's right. Okay. Could you go ahead in in that regard?

Yeah. Tonight, uh you will be considering a development agreement for the CCORD project. Um, and the purpose of the executive session is uh in in relation to negotiation of contracts to um to address any information that that may be relevant to your decision before you're prepared to go forward that uh would not be in the public interest um because this is a negotiation. It would not be within the public interest to discuss publicly because this is a negotiation. Great. Thank you, Attorney Rama Christian. Uh, councelor Singh, could I ask you for the first of two motions on the proposed executive session?

Yes. To find that premature general public knowledge of contract negotiations regarding the south end coordinated redevelopment agreement would clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage because the city risks disclosing confidential information about the city's negotiation position and strategy in public before the contract is finally approved. All right. Sorry. Thank you, councelor S. Second by councelor Bradock. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor then please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. Now, councelor Sen, could I ask you for the second motion based on the findings of substantial disadvantage to enter into executive session to to under the provisions of 1 VSA section 313A1A to include the mayor and her staff, the chief administrative officer and her staff, the CEDO director and her staff, the city attorney and her staff, office of planning director Diller, Jeremy Farcus attorney, Department of Public Works, and Department of Perman permitting inspections. Uh, attorney Jeffrey Glassman, real estate development consultant.

Thank you, councelor Singh. Second by councelor Broadderark. Any discussion on that item? All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. So, the council is now in executive session. Again, for members of the public, we will go downstairs. uh public form is set for a time certain of 6:30 p.m. and so we'll be back as close as possible to that time. Thank you for your patience. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.

All right.

Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

out. Hey Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Ah ah ah.

Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

Hey, hey, hey. Hey, Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

Oh. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Downtown. Yeah. Heat. Fire. Heat.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.

All right, we will call the council back to order. I appreciate everyone's patience. I know that we had scheduled public forum for a time certain of 6:30 p.m. Our executive session uh ran a bit longer than anticipated. And again, thank you everyone for your patience. We will go ahead now and open public forum at 6:42 p.m. Uh as always, we will begin public forum with Burlington residents who are here in person. We will then turn to any Burlington residents who are online. We then repeat that process for any non- Burlington residents. As a reminder, in order to participate in public forum online, you need to have signed up at least one hour in advance of public forum starting. Uh, if you're here in person when I call your name, please come here to the table, make sure the microphone is pulled close, hit the push button, and the green light on the microphone should illuminate. Yes, Councelor Grant.

Uh, I wish to recuse myself from public forum.

Understood. Thank you, Councelor Grant. Um, every speaker will be provided two minutes. Uh, if you're online, we'll let you know once you've been uh once you have the ability to unmute yourself. Folks online will be provided two minutes as well. When you're providing comments, please direct them to me as the chair, not to any other individual. As a rule, we do not tolerate any individualized attacks against any individuals here at the table, particularly those based on any individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that comments please refrain from being obscene, vulgar, or overly loud or disruptive. If I interrupt a speaker at any point in time, it will be to respectfully ask that they proceed in accordance with these rules. If someone continues to violate these rules, I reserve the right to end public forum for that speaker at that time. Uh so with that, the first Burlington resident that we have signed up for public forum is Ernie Palmerlo, who will be followed by David Foss. Arie,

could you I don't know if the I don't know if the mic's on the push button itself. Okay, that sounds like it's working. Yes, it working. Thank you.

Okay, thanks Ernie Palo. Lifelong resident wanted to um just connect on the private public road issue. Um, and I understand DPW's issues. The city's under a great deal of financial constraint, but I think this is opening Pandora's box. And here's why. I want to break this down into two pieces. Legal, there's a legal precedent called implied acceptance. And after decades of having your street fixed and taken care of and blah blah, to one day terminate that is legally not a good precedent. The second part and most important that you may not recall several years ago Chittenin Drive which was is classified as a private street um went to court and then it was appealed to the Supreme Court on exactly this private public issue. The Supreme Court after testimony from Burlington city officials deemed that it was to be treated as public not private and the pro public lost. Um, so those are just two quick pieces. The other one is kind of social. You've got 90 streets and hundreds of citizens that have for decades paid for maintaining the street and then one day they're going to be assessed another 10 or 15%. Uh, people that can hardly afford it and their neighbor doesn't have to do that. I I think there's some inequities here. I understand why it's being steady. Don't get me wrong. I I run a business, too. Um then there's other things like how do you um there's Uranistan Road which is half public half private. 102 pays 104 doesn't. Um your corner you could have corner units that are on a public street and the side is not. How do you differentiate that? Anyway, there's a tons of social issues and I don't know

about you but I've gotten dozens of emails. This is this is a a political wormhole I think. Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be David Foss to be followed by Car Simone. Good evening. My name is David Foss. I live at Decker Towers in Burlington. And first thing I do want to thank the council. I want to thank the mayor's office and other Burlington agencies like CEDO and DPW to help make us a better living situation. Things have quieted down. We still have a number of things that need to be resolved. And there we have an ongoing issue with elevators and we're trying to figure out how to deal with that. I know the rest of the city is dealing with that. I don't blame BHA a whole lot. They've got some implica imp implications to it, but elevator companies are just as wrong as uh anybody else. The other thing I want to bring up is myself along with CVEO, um, Disability Rights of Vermont, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, HIV, and other folks at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington on April 25th. We're hope we're putting together what we call housing justice to civic power, a Vermont action summit. We've got folks from NLHC, National Low-Income Housing Coalition, and other folks from around the city and nationally to help work on issues with

learning, training people, teaching people how to vote, how to understand what it is to rent and get housing in Burlington, in Vermont. There's a lot of things that folks don't understand. and they don't understand the problems and where to turn to if you have issues with your housing agency or you know the councils again are good but we need more help and this is a good place for a lot of people to ask questions and learn especially with bad situations going on. Thank you.

Thank you Dave. Our next speaker will be Cara Simone to be followed by an Rosen Bluth. Hi, my name is Cara Simone and I live at 29 Chittenden Drive. I'm here because my street is classified as unaccepted but public and I'm concerned about what that means in practice for responsibility, risk, and fairness. I've lived in my home for over 24 years. My paid 13K in taxes for my raised ranch at the bottom of the street. My taxes have tripled in the time that I've lived there. So, Chitten um Drive has been consistently treated as part of the public road system. The city plows it, repairs potholes, issues permits for homes on the street, and regulates and charges for curb cuts. There are no signs indicating that it is private and it is regularly used by the public. For instance, during the recent Rotary construction project, the city used Chitten Drive to support that work. Heavy equipment was regularly driven on the road and pavers and other construction materials were staged and stored there. I've sent some of you pictures of that, but I can I have more here if you'd like to see them. So based on that long-standing pattern, I understood this to function as a city street. At the same time, there is no functioning private entity responsible for the road. The neighborhood was developed in the n late 1960s and it's that is long that group is long defunct. So there's no association or governance structure that could realistically take on this responsibility. The formal the proposed path forward to have the road formally accepted requires homeowners to complete a highly technical and expensive process including surveys, engineering certification, legal documentation, title insurance, and multiple layers of city review. In practical terms, this is a developer level process being applied to individual homeowners more than 50 years

after these homes were built. For me, that is not a realistic option. Um, so the risk is not hypothetical. If there were a failure in the roadway or in the water, sewer, or storm infrastructure beneath it, the cost could be substantial, which would likely eat up my small retirement. There are um also real implications for property value. I know I'm running out of time. Please accept the road. Thank you. If you have uh additional comments in writing, please feel free to send them to city council burlington.gov and uh we'll be happy to accept them.

Okay. And photos. Great. Yeah, feel free to email them. Thank you. Uh, our next speaker is Annne Rosenluth, who will be followed by Robert Bristo Johnson.

Hi, my name is Ann Rosenluth. I hate public speaking. Um, I live on North Cove Road. Um, I've been there 11 years. So, um, you guys have been plowing and maintaining our road. One of my neighbors is 84. She's lived there since she was 12 years old. For 72 years, she says, "You've been maintaining the road." and all of a sudden we're being told that that's no longer happening. Um, as Mr. Pomelo said it doesn't make a lot of sense. Um, what we are just asking is what we have been given for at least 70 years. Um, to all all of a sudden withdraw it is not fair. If I have to now if I have to sell my home and I have to disclose that my road is no longer being taken care of and that we are responsible for it, then my property value goes down. So, the assessment is not correct. I am being levied the exact same taxes as everybody else in the city. Um, Mark knows, I've been to the last few meetings. He knows me. He's heard this before. Uh, I just we have a social contract. I have no children. I've never had children. I have no grandchildren. I I don't mind paying school taxes. It's part of my social contract. I want it for the greater good. And all I'm asking is that you guys keep up your side of the social contract. Nowhere in my deed in my bill of sale to say I have to maintain maintain the road. We are not a rich neighborhood and all we are asking is a basic level of life that we can drive our roads to get to our homes that we pay our taxes on. That is all. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be uh Robert Bristo Johnson to be followed by Milo Grant.

Good evening. Um so uh um my family moved to Burlington, Vermont in 2000. I've been here now better than a quarter of a century. I am a 21st century Verter. Um my home, um I'll confess I got cheap, but there's a lot of reasons for that. It's in a flood zone. We all know that. Not that's something I I understood and accepted when I bought it. But there was no um homeowners association. There was no homeowners association fee to pay. There was no home. There just was no organization at all. there uh there was nothing at all to inform me and this is in the year 2000 that um that anybody other than the city uh uh you know I ask who plows it and the city plows it and uh uh um and that was the only information that we had when we bought that property. Um it would be a big change for not just me but for uh you know dozens of others just on my street. There's the uh North Avenue extension uh uh um and then there are other streets in the city that I'm um only now learning about uh um that have the same problem. And um if we've all been paying taxes these years, I I can't understand, you know, neither a legal reason nor a moral reason why some of us, but not all of us, uh you know, speaking of equal protection of the law, would be cut out of the protection the city gives us to plow our roads when the snow is deep and to um grade the road when it needed. We're on a gravel road. Um, Vermont is the state that has the

most gravel roads in proportion. We have more miles of gravel road than we have paved road in the state of Vermont. And gravel roads need maintenance, but there's still an economic reason for them to remain as they are and to not be paved even though that's expensive. I'll leave that alone.

Thank you, Robert. Our next speaker is Milo Grant who will be followed by Lucy Gluck. Thank you. My name is Mila Grant. I live in Ward 2. I serve as city councelor for central district which is wards two and three and which is next to the city of Wooki the most diverse district in our uh not only city but the state of Vermont. Uh this is not only based on race, this is based on economic classes. This is based on the way people identify themselves. Um it is based on the variety of marginalized groups in our area. I first started uh being a part in a public service because I was gravely upset of multiple lawsuits where people from my district were hurt. Uh use of force occurs most frequent in the central district. Um lawsuits as well. And I went from being on the special committee to review policing policies to serving on the police commission where at the time we developed a complaint policy despite push back, advocated for oversight and accountability despite push back. Um advocated for the diversification of BPD despite push back. I then ran for counselor because of the drug crisis and the homeless crisis which was getting out of control and there were no solutions being offered by the council at the time or the mayor at the time and I felt there was a need to have an even bigger voice because we were being dismissed until it move all the activity moved into the downtown core and even then it was to focus on the business community only and I do believe and I do support the business community But I also believe that what's good for

central district is good for the rest of the city. I believe removing attempting to remove me completely from the public safety committee which has been rescended. But to remove me from the chair is unfair. It is political. It is biased and is meant to punish me for speaking out.

Next speaker will be Lucy Gluck to be followed by Joanna Ranken. Hi folks, I live in the old north end. Lucy Glock back to talk about the dangers again of the F-35. Um, so this council has passed a resolution back in August of 2024 that would be asking our congressional delegation to get the Air Force to replace the F-35s with a mission that's suited to this urban environment um population and our Vermont values and to um to look at humanitarian options for the Guard. Um the three counselor committee that was set up that includes Gan Bergman, uh Ben Traverse and Mark Barlo um were supposed to be um trying to reach out which I think they've all tried to do to our congressional de delegation to meet with them. But we need to know where things are at with that. Has um have those meetings been set up? um if they have or if they have not then we really need to be informed about what's going on with this. Um there's also major moral issues with the F-35s including environmental degradation and the noise harms that we all know about for us in Wooki and South Burlington who also passed the same resolution. Um, so what I want to mention is that in the resolution, the original resolution on pages uh seven and eight, if you look back at it, there have been successful efforts in other states. Um, one example being Ohio where they were able to remove fighters from Ohio and replace um with a cyber mission. In Minnesota, they were able to um keep um an air mission, but it was all cargo, not fighters. And there's been a number of other states actually that have had good success with this.

So, we're not the only ones um working on it. I know we have a tricky situation with our delegation, but I'd really like to see some followup with this um tripartisan committee and some um some communication with with citizens about what's going on and and report back to the council and and to us about what's happening because it's a really important issue to us. Thanks. Thank you. Our next speaker is Joanna Ranken to be followed by Jake Schuman here. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Uh I'm Joanna Ranken Prof. I'm a prof ameritus professor of physics at UVM and um I want to say that um there are now additional overarching global issues with our own F-35s as they're deployed to Venezuela and now Iran. F-35s are not fighters as they're often wrongly called. They're bombers and the air for and they're air the air force's principal delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons. They're tailorade to carry the so-called smaller B61 thermonuclear bombs that have sizes comparable to those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nuclear weapons are illegal. Do we then flirt or ignore with their possible use now with a mentally unhinged president as our commanderin-chief? The character of Trump's threats in the last weeks should be all we need to hear to prompt action. Destroy a civilization and in a single night. Could this really happen without nukes? What's our responsibility in putting our Vermont ang neighbors in the position of being ordered to push these buttons? P perhaps Senator Sanders Sanders and Welch have also thought much about our F-35s in recent weeks. I know you all have a lot on your plate right now and with local business to but please keep this crucial issue before you. How would you all feel if our F-35s commit the worst the worst at Trump's bidding and you did not carry through with all possible effort with the resolution that this council passed about two years ago. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next uh Burlington resident here is Jake Schuman who will be followed by Jack Tiano. Hello. I live on North Cove Road. Um, so the issue of unaccepted streets I think is noteworthy because for one, the street may be unaccepted but the city owns it. Um, that much was made clear by the first speaker. Um, I want to say that there are a lot of folks watching this conversation. Um, and you know, at the TUK meeting, a lot of people showed up. Not all of those people are here. Those people are still paying attention. We are all neighbors. We all talk about this a lot. Um, and I think the fact that many folks are not here tonight is a reflection of the fact that those conversations at Duke with DPW have been going well. Our feedback has been wellreceived. um every time a new memo draft is published um I see the feedback that has been provided reflected in those memos and I do appreciate that. Um but what I don't appreciate is how it came to this like way back uh two years ago probably when these conversations started happening um the attitude was totally unacceptable uh from civil servants in my humble opinion. we were treated in a very dismissive and rude manner and the fact that we had to advocate to our city councilors and say, "Hey, roads are something cities provide um is it boggles my mind. So, I just hope that this council can learn from this experience and be attentive to how the city is providing its services to its residents and that it doesn't shame them for expecting them. Um, and I also

just want to reiterate that a lot of people are watching this conversation. Um, I think the city owns the street. I encourage you to accept the streets. Go through an eminent domain process where and when it's necessary. Um, take responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. Um, our last Burlington resident here in city hall is Jack Tano. We have one Burlington resident signed up online who's Sharon Busher who will follow.

Good evening. Um my name is Jack Tiano and I'm speaking here tonight as a member of the Burlington Walk Bike Council which is a long-standing advisory group to the city focused on walking, biking, and multimmodal transportation. And I'm also here to speak specifically on the bicycle ordinance change that is in your consent agenda tonight. Uh we the walk by council support the proposed ordinance changes on ebike definitions and multi-use path sidewalk use and appreciate the collaborative process with DPW staff and the public works commission to get it to this point. Um our broader role is helping the city follow through on implementation of the walk bike plan with a growing focus on turning adopted plans into real on the ground improvements. Uh we as a council are working to strengthen our relationship this year with the city council to be more consistently and for us to be more consistently used as a resident-based subject matter resource on walking, biking, and mobility issues in the city. Um this ordinance is an important early step in addressing the rapid rise of e-mobility such as ebikes, scooters, and other things outside of walking and driving. Um and in an area where cities across the country are still trying to figure out the right approach. Um I know South Burlington recently kind of started working through this this issue and across the country um people are cities are reckon reckoning with with these changes and some are doing a better job than others. Um so the walk by council has already begun developing additional ideas including updates related to pedestrian safety and aligning city ordinances with current best practices. Um, overall we're supportive of the direction of the ordinance in your packet tonight. Um, but feel that there's still more work to be done and we just want to be more intentional about putting ourselves in your view and uh, letting you know that we're here and that we want to work with you on the details of policies on this matter. Thank you.

Thanks, Jack. Uh, we will now turn online where we have one Burlington resident signed up, Sharon Busher. We have two non- Burlington residents signed up to to follow Sharon, Brian Clifford and Karen Seda. I do see individuals with their hand raised online, but again, as a reminder, in order to participate in public forum online, you need to have signed up at least an hour in advance of public forum opening, which is at 6:30 p.m. Um, so Sharon, we will begin with you. I'm going to share my timer here. If we could promote Sharon, please, you should be able to go ahead now, Sharon.

Okay. Thank you very much, President Travers. I want to speak on the build report that's in your packet. Um, I wanted to comment on the fact that I agree with one of the recommendations about next steps. Um, looking at what we can learn from permits that have been approved but have not the project hasn't been constructed. I think that's very helpful. I also wanted to comment on two of the items addressed in the build report. One has to do with the preservation of trees and the other has to do with affordability. More than two years ago, these items were identified by engaged citizens during the neighborhood code. Experts that live in our community were never tapped to gain their expertise. knowledge that would have advanced our our our action on these items were left on the table. We didn't tap into them. The city followed rather followed the corporate world process waiting for recommendations to come from external consultants. I am glad to see that these items are being addressed, but I am disappointed that we didn't act sooner and delayed the advancement of these important items. So, that's what I have to say regarding the build report. Um, President Travers, I would like to speak during the public hearing on affordability and TDM. Would I be allowed to do that at that time? Yes, if there's uh anyone online or here in person who's here for the public hearing on the proposed uh zoning change, um you'll be permitted to speak at that time either using the raised hand function online or anyone can uh

come to the table here to speak when we get to that item. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Sharon. Uh we have two non- Burlington residents and um just before turning to Brian Clifford as our next speaker here, I just want to flag for the council and for the public that uh other than as sitting as the city council this evening, we do have to uh sit as the uh local control commission um which uh council Brick as chair of our license committee once we're done with public forum will be turning to the local control commission. Um, we are also scheduled to meet as the uh board of of tax abatement in case there's anyone here for that item. We had warned that meeting for 7:15. So before proceeding with our regular council meeting tonight, we'll we'll do the board of tax abatement after the uh local control commission. I'll also just note for folks that we also have to sit this evening as the city council with mayor presiding. that was warned for 700 p.m. but it's related to an item where we have speakers from the Department of Public Works and there are deliberative items from DPW as well. So, we will coordinate calling this meeting to order uh with when we get to the DPW deliberative items for the sake of convenience. Uh so, thank you for uh allowing me some time there to lay out the order for the rest of the meeting. Uh Brian, I see a Brian C here. I'm assuming that's Brian Clifford. You should be able to go ahead.

Thank you. Uh, my name is Brian. I'm from Essex. And on Wednesday, Jill Martin Diaz from the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project asked for the city of Burlington to join in calls to empower the Vermont Human Rights Commission to open an investigation into the role of state and local law enforcement at Dorset Street. I also hope the city look I also hope the city leadership can send city lobbyists and use whatever political party connections to help make this HRC investigation happen. I'd also like to call on the city to resume publication of use of force data on the open data portal website. Use of force data hasn't been published since mid 2023 and I believe this is a violation of city policy. I was also I was able to obtain unpublished data through a public records request and use of force incidents have indeed risen in parallel with historic levels of uh police incidents and arrest numbers that we saw last summer. So, I think that people deserve to know more about what's happening around use of force. Uh, and just one last thing, I feel like this is a bad time to remove counselor Grant as chair of the public safety committee. I feel like you all are going to need the counselor's knowledge and experience regarding policing in the coming period. And I just don't see how it's going to be even possible to replace um her knowledge and experience at this time. Um, so thank you.

Thank you. Our last non- Burlington resident signed up for public forum is Karen Zeda. If we could promote Karen Karen, please go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes.

All right, great. Oh, there's my time. Okay, great. You know, again, I'm not showing any mercy because I told them that they would ru the day that they played with me. And again, her guilt is eating her alive. So, I want to say one more time that um Frog and Toad, which is the childcare company uh with that had the children in Burlington, closed down for physical abuse of children. Now, that mayor did not even acknowledge it at all. But yet, she found time to issue me a no trespass order. A black woman, a cute black woman, a smart black woman, but yet when the children were being physically abused to a point where the state had to come in and close down a child care place, he didn't have any time to apologize to the parents or talk about the loss of business to the city of Burlington. She found a way to get a police officer to come to my Essex home and issue me a no trespass warn. The same police officer that they were quick to issue a muzzle to John Mir, the two-time Harvard educated John Mir. I know he thinks I'm a funky girl, but I know deep down he loves me. And so they they put a muzzle on him, but yet you want to bring an officer. And I always tell people when it comes to masculine women, they only have two goals. To attack the feminine and emasculate the man. That's their only goal. And that's why I'm target number one, public enemy number one. But you know what? But again, I'm cute. So once again, I will be coming with you. No remorse because that guilt is eating you alive. And I told you you would ru the day. Didn't I say that, Charity Clark? And um Steven Miller, whenever you're ready for Bernie's ass, whenever you're ready to get his ass, you call me. You call me. I will be more than ready and more than happy to serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States. And not only that, the reason why they took me a little grant is because they know I'm going to appeal them. And not only that, I'll comfort them no matter what. No matter what venue shopping I have to do, I'm a girl. I'll shop. I'll vent you shop. And I love a jurisdictional power girl, which is what I am. So, you know what? At the end of the day, I'm still going to come for you. That guilt is what's eating her alive. And I told them, you ru the day you play with me. And of course, they want you to go against Israel because the the nation that God loves, of course, they want you to go against that. Don't let it Don't

let them win, babies. We're going to win the war.

Period. We will close public forum at 7:13 p.m. Uh again, a couple reminders. We do have the public hearing later this evening with respect to the proposed uh zoning change on transportation demand management. Um also a reminder that if anyone wants to submit public comments in writing, they may do so to city council at burlington vt.gov. The next item on our agenda would typically be the mayor, general city affairs. I will note that the mayor is away this evening for a professional obligation working and collaborating with uh leaders from other municipalities in Massachusetts and I'm grateful for the mayor participating in that program. Uh so we do not have an update from the mayor this evening. Um we do have a consent agenda though which is item number five. We'll do that and then we'll turn to the local control commission. Is there a motion to adopt our consent agenda as amended?

So moved. Thank you councelor Shector. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, councelor Singh. Um, is there any discussion on that item?

All right, seeing none, and I'm trying to stop sharing my screen here. Sorry. I'll figure that out in a moment. Uh, sorry for folks online that are still seeing my screen. I It went away on Zoom like the stop share button. Um, there it is. Okay. Uh, I will note that online we are joined by councilors Bergman, Mcnite, and Newer. We'll go to a vote then on our consent agenda. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh, as mentioned, we do need to meet this evening as our local control commission. So, I will briefly recess our city council meeting at 7:15 p.m. and call to order the local control commission at that same time. Uh, Commissioner Broadick, could I ask you for a motion on our local control commission agenda? Move to adopt the agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. If there is no discussion on that item, we will go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh, we have a consent agenda. Commissioner Broadick, may I turn to you for a motion on that?

Move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you. Is there a second? Don't all jump at it. Second. All right, Commissioner Singh. Any discussion on that item? All in favor then, please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. Uh we then have four deliberative items and I'll turn to you Commissioner Broadick for a motion on each. The first is item 3.1. Move to approve the 2026 2027 first and third class liquor license applications for Burl's downtown kitchen atet 189 Bank Street with the following conditions contingent upon fire marshall approval and with all standard conditions. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second. Thank you Commissioner Singh. If there is no discussion on that item, we will go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. Are there any opposed? That is unanimous. Item 3.2. Um, I would move to approve the 2026 2027 first and third class liquor license applications for Mama Tide, 78 Pine Street with the following conditions. All city permits need to be closed out contingent upon fire marshall approval in the fall standard conditions. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shakar. There's no discussion on that item. We will go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. Item 3.3, please. Commissioner Broadick. I move to approve the 2026 2027 outside consumption permit application for Mama Tried 78 Pine Street with the following condition. All city permits need to be closed out. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Singh. There's no discussion on this item. We will go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I I any opposed? That is unanimous. And then finally, item 3.4.

I move to approve the 2026 2027 first and third class liquor license applications for things from the Yad Burlington 152 Cherry Street with the following conditions contingent upon fire marshall approval and fall standard conditions. Thank you, Commissioner Broadark. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Shar. Again, if there's no discussion, we will go ahead to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. Seeing no other business before the local control commission. Absent objection, I will adjourn that meeting at 7:18 p.m. and call to order our sitting as the uh board of tax abatement. We only have a consent agenda uh here. Um but I'll ask a counselor for a motion on our agenda. Move to adopt the agenda. Thank you, councelor Singh. Is there a second to that item? Second. Uh, thank you, councelor Carpenter. Um, is there any discussion on the agenda? All in favor then, please say I. I.

I. Thank you. Um, there are six items on our consent agenda and I will ask for a motion to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Um motion to adopt the consent agenda and take actions as indicated. Thank you councelor Singh. Is there a second? Second. Thank you councelor Shaker. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda? Right. Uh with thanks to our tax abatement committee and staff from the city assessor's office. Uh we will go to a vote on the consent agenda. All in favor please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? That is unanimous. Uh seeing no other business before the board of tax abatement, we will adjourn that meeting at 7:20 p.m. and we will resume our regular city council meeting. Uh we did take action on our consent agenda, which means we'll now move to our deliberative agenda. The first item on our deliberative agenda or the first couple items on our deliberative agendas are some uh license applications and councelor Broadick again as chair of our license committee, I'll turn to you for motions on these items. So if you could start with item 6.1, please. I move to approve the 2026 2027 indoor entertainment permit application for Mama Tried 78 Pine Street with the following conditions. All city permits need to be closed out and with all standard conditions.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Uh was that you councelor Lwin? Sorry. No, that was me. Oh, councelor S. Sorry. Uh second by councelor Singh. Um all in favor of that motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Uh, councelor Broadick, could I turn to you for a motion on item 6.2? I move to approve the 2026 2027 indoor entertainment permit application for Upper Pass Beer Company, 1127 North Avenue, Sweet 8 with all standard conditions. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you, Councelor Litwin. Uh, if there's no discussion on this item, we'll go to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I any opposed? That's unanimous. Now item 6.3, please. Councelor Broadderick. I move to approve the 2026 2027 outdoor entertainment permit application for Southoun Arts and Business Association, 400 Pine Street with all standard conditions. Thank you, Councelor Broadark. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councelor Shakar. Is there any discussion on this item? All in favor then, please say I. I.

Any opposed? That carries unanimously. So, we made it through a number of license applications. And now we turn to item 6.4, a presentation on unaccepted private streets in Burlington. And on this item, we are joined by representatives from the Department of Public Works. And uh we'll ask them to come forward here to the table. And whenever you're situated, we'll turn the floor to you. I will note just for the record, we're joined by DPW director Chapen Spencer and city engineer Laura Welock. And Director Spencer, just to confirm here sort of the order of DPW events here. My my um I'm anticipating that we'll do this presentation, then turn to item 6.5, and then turn to the council with mayor presiding, or would it make sense to turn to the council with mayor presiding in between those items? I would say uh excuse me uh that turning to mayor presiding as the second item may be beneficial given uh the folks could transition out uh after that second item.

Okay. Uh understood. So that's how we'll do it. We'll do item 6.4. Then we'll recess and turn to the council with mayor presiding and then we'll do great item 6.5. So thank you.

All right. Well, thank you uh President Travers and the full city council for this first update. uh on unaccepted streets in many many years for the full council. Uh Burlington has approximately 89 streets with unclear ownership. The lack of clarity on ownership comes along with a corresponding lack of clarity on maintenance of these corridors. There's three reasons topline reasons why we need to tackle the issue now. One is that the lack of clarity over maintenance over the many decades has left a number of streets in very poor condition and you heard some residents discussed that uh tonight and that those corridors are in need of urgent attention. Two, deferring the necessary road maintenance on these corridors is only making the repair more expensive. And three, the lack of clarity on the responsibility for maintenance of these streets is adding to the friction between residents, city councilors, and city departments. And so today's presentation really is uh to set the table, provide the council and a public the overview of the issue, lay out the proposed approach for tackling the issue and getting feedback, and three, assuring residents that there will be robust public engagement and that there's a commitment to maintain existing services while we work to resolve this issue together. I'll now turn to city engineer Laura Wheelock to go through the presentation and we're happy to answer your questions.

Thank you. Well, that's really loud tonight. Um, so Chapen covered a lot of what I was also going to cover as well, but we have some graphics to go along with it. Um, he identified some of the fundamental challenges and you heard about some of them tonight. Some of these streets have public signs on them. No parking here to corner. no parking along the street. It's confusing for residents. There is also ambiguity around the maintenance. On the right is the overarching map that we have on our website that shows the various different streets within the city, accepted streets, which are verified town highways, privately owned streets or ones that we believe are privately owned, and then the kind of other category that we call unaccepted streets. So as Chapen mentioned, you know, we have the background. We have about 89 streets where really the fundamental issue is we lack documentation. We lack documentation about a deed giving the city the ownership of the street and the city council accepting it. So it's a two-part process. We have streets where people have tried to give us the street, but the city council has never reciprocated the acceptance. Um and then we have ones that have gone through court processes where these are declared public ways. So these are the ambiguous 89 streets that we are working to provide clarity on as we work through this process. We do have 320 with clear ownership that are listed as town highways in the state record. On these streets we have about 20 that have historically received various different forms of maintenance. This could include plowing, pothole filling, even grading and uh providing dirt to our um unpaved roads. It's important to note that while DPW is your stewards of the street, ultimately the city council is the owners of these public rights of way. You get to make and have to make the final determination whether or not these streets are public,

they're private, what we own, what we're going to maintain. So, as mentioned, the infrastructure on several of these streets, 89 streets, are deteriorating. They're in very poor or poor condition. And what we really need to figure out in a timely way, which is why this is urgent, is who is going to ultimately own these and who is going to maintain them. And it's not really maintaining them. We're past maintenance. We're into what is fixing and repairing. And those are large dollar values. It is a large dollar value for a resident to have to take that on at this point in time. And it's also a large dollar value for us to figure out how to put it in our city budget. So what we are doing now uh we have had these conversations with the TUK um since fall of last year and into this spring. We are before you tonight to say we have a clear plan. We are going to initiate initial condition assessments which we've actually already started. We've collected data on the condition of every street, the features that exist on streets, what their length is, their size, so that we can be prepared to answer the cost question, which is really what this is going to come down to, is how much this is going to cost to be able to address these streets. We are working with our other city divisions and departments because we are not the only stewards of the infrastructure in these areas. BEED has lighting. BEED has electrical. Our water resources division has lots of uh potential assets that are underneath the surface of these streets that are not seen. So, we're working on our plan and here's what that is. So, we are here in front of the city council in April. We have a draft letter that will go out to residents. While residents have heard about some of this through uh publications that we've given the TUK and the media that has picked that up, we've not formally had a conversation directly from DBW to these residents. And that's what this next step is. It's

letting them know where we are, who we are, and what we're doing. In May, we will come back to the TUK um with this initial assessments that we've been collecting. We're also looking at the uh paperwork that we have a available to us and we're going to sort these 89 streets into what we're going to focus on in year one, year two, year three, year four, year five. Um this is not going to be a short process for some of these streets. Some of them it will be exceptionally quick. The University of Vermont's going to reach out and be like, "That's my street. I own that. Here's my document. Have a have a enjoyable rest of the month." There's other ones where we are going to have to do really in-depth record searches of the city's archives and also interviewing property owners because they have a history of their lived experience. They have lived on the street longer than I've worked with DPW and that's valuable information that we want to find those breadcrumbs to find the information that we're looking for. As Chapen mentioned, regardless of how this process plays out, earliest visit back to the city council is likely in a year where we have enough information on our first grouping of streets to say, "Here's what we found. How do you want to act? Would you like to accept these? We'll go through a process to do that. Are you ready to not accept these? Do you just want more information?" From those decisions, the earliest point in time where we may change our plowing or other maintenance practices that are ongoing is 12 months. And that's 12 months from when we notify them. So we come back, we see you in July, we send out the notice in August, it's 12 months from that August. So just a little bit more about the information that is out there for the public. We do have an interactive map. We have information, we have a DPW page set up specifically for private and unaccepted streets. So you can get there through the QR link or the very simple URL. Uh, I do want to note that while we are working on our terminology, the

accepted, private, and unaccepted, accepted streets mean town highways. So, we're also going to work on morphing our terminology to better match how state statute refers to things. So, accepted streets will eventually by this time next year become town highways. Private streets are privately owned and unaccepted streets are this kind of squishy middle that's in between. They are public use streets. They may ultimately and are most likely privately owned just for the fact that they don't have proper dedication and acceptance. So our summary and kind of the the wrap-up message here is, you know, this has been a long-standing issue. This has existed longer than Shapen and I have been here at DPW. You can see various phases throughout DPW's history where different groups of staff and city councils have taken a large bite at this apple. There are monumental moments where large amounts of streets become accepted because they just lacked clarity. There was a good old handshake back in the day, but we need actual documentation now. We will reach out and engage the streets that we are working on. We could find streets that are in year three that we're not going to spend a lot of time continuing to tell them they're they're about to be there, they're about to be there, they're about to be there. That's a lot of anxiety we don't need to cause. But we will be there for the streets that we are working on. We will make sure that people do know that we are working on them and we will be out there asking questions, holding neighborhood meetings, and figuring out where the information is that we're looking for. There will be no sudden changes. This is our commitment as DBW staff. Um, and we're hoping that the city council is going to support us in echoing that. And then ultimately we will be back here a few times over the next few years to give updates. And that is where we have it. This is DPW's generic contact information. When it comes in through the DPW planning email, it gets forwarded directly to DPW engineering staff to be able to collect any information you might have on

unaccepted streets.

Thank you for the opportunity. I will just wrap up by saying that there were some comments tonight about concern about how this issue unfolded. I will say that our goal here has been to address a decadesl long challenge. This is not an easy issue. We did in getting advice from risk management provide a more declaratory process in the first initial communication. I own that. I want to say that moving forward, we have adjusted our approach and we are really here to be partners to figure out what is the best path uh for us all. recognizing city council is the deciding entity for which streets to accept and then we will maintain them. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Spencer and city engineer Willock. Um this is a discussion item, not an action item for the council this evening. I'll open the floor to the council now though for discussion. Is there any council that wishes to get in the queue? Yep. Councelor Barlo and then Grant.

Um thank you for coming tonight. Uh we've talked about this I think three times maybe at the Duke so far. So, I'm glad that we're um talking about it as a full council tonight. Um I just wanted a clarification on one of the data points on this slide deck. They said there 89 streets without public ownership. Um when we had talked about it in the toque, we had broken it into two segments. And we had said there were private streets and unaccepted streets. I think we at least in one of the presentations had counted 32 private and 23 unaccepted. And on the privates, many of those they know they're privates. are part of associations. They had get ma they get maintenance through the associations and and the and the grouping of the 23 streets that we had talked about were streets that didn't have associations that many of the residents thought were um accepted streets I guess would be the term and and those are that's really the the cohort of streets were talked that have that need that the attention here and is that still the case or is the 89 number that was in your slide deck um a new um way to group and categorize.

Nope, that is still the case. The 89 is the sum of all of those different types of streets where essentially the city's land records, DPW's records of the, you know, the snapshot of the land records just don't show that we have deeds that say that, you know, um like Little Eagle Bay has a covenant that says we will own and maintain this, but we don't have that as a record. Um, and so that's the documentation that we're looking to find, secure, record, and make sure is is known so that future staff members as people turn over and come into their jobs or live on streets have that documentation available and it will be found in a title search.

Understood. And thank you for that clarification. But I guess that really it's these it's the streets from that we've heard from residents um at toque meetings and here tonight that the Chittenden drives the North Cove roads that are part of this 23 street or so give or take a few cohort of streets that people are expecting to continue to have public services that that are the priority and I I do believe in TUK we had talked about a process whereby we would prioritize those streets and and and provide clarity on those and um I'm assuming that's even though I know we have to handle all of these over the next few years, those are the ones that we're most um that we're prioritizing to the front of the process still.

That is we're open for input. Yes, we hope to send out an electronic communication to as many of the contacts as we know and say, "Hey, give us give us your covenants. Give us your documents. Let's get you off the list." Um, there is as one of the attachments, it's attachment two, at least how it shows up on civic clerk for me. We do still have the unaccepted, private, and then city-owned, but you know, not well declared list. Um, which tend to be park streets still as part of the packet for tonight. So, that separation is still there. Well, it is my my sincere hope that we'll find a way to accept these streets and and and relieve the anxiety of the folks who live there. Um, I know there's there's concern about uh engineering standards and the amount of risk or maintenance or deferred maintenance that the that the city would take on for some of these streets. But um I I I hope we as a body will find a way to do that and accept those streets cuz I think there I mean the the implication has been that they are city streets whether or not technically they were or weren't. So um I look forward to further discussion of this. I I look forward to the update in May at TUK and continued um consideration of this topic here at the full council. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Barlo. We'll turn to councelor Grant and then Carpenter and Shar.

Thank you. Um I agree with um everything that councelor Barlo just said and there's a real issue of fairness here. We you have people living on these streets. You've come and you said you're an unaccepted street and nobody mentioned it before. So, I have an example of some of the feedback that I've gotten with regards to um those streets in uh the wards that I serve. And in particular, this is the same thing that is being repeated um over and over again, which is that this particular street is not capable of meeting the requirements outlined in city zoning, but it still should become a city right ofway with public services, including but not limited to emergency services, sanitation, recycling, plowing, water, and electric. All of the houses built without a setback predate current residents. That's very important and that is a very major thing. So predate current residence and were allowed to be built as such by the city with no private owner of the access road to hold responsible and there is no affiliation between residents properties or households. That's pretty major. That's pretty major because people are going in buying homes and they're not being told this in any and on this particular street there was a resident who moved there uh bought a a home there within the last two years. No mention no mention that this could be a problem for them. That's deeply problematic for the city and it definitely seems unfair. Um and that

needs to be a major consideration. Also, as a matter of fairness, a point well taken during public forum is if we take away services but don't reduce people's property taxes, that is really unfair. Um, so these are the things you're going to have to look at because the the city allowed the these streets to, you know, be built and continue to be served. So, I understand what you're saying you're trying to do, but um in a difficult spot because we're dealing with a profound issue of of fairness and the fact of lack of notice and that people are on these streets and No one has said anything, so I don't want to beat that dead horse, but it's going to keep coming up over and over again. Thank you. I

I do want to respond to the fact that people are unaware and and that is one of the reasons why we need to take up this issue now. title research sometimes only goes back 40 years and the decisions of these large neighborhoods that dissolved when you know the the primary property owner passed away and then now there's nothing for ownership of the street happened more than 40 years ago in many cases and so it's just not being found and I agree with you residents are not being informed when they purchase properties because research doesn't go back that far and we're just an old city. And so that's one of the reasons why we do need to take this up now so that people will be informed. They will have the information and we will know when someone purchases a street from here forward whether it's a town highway, it's a private street and they'll have a homeowners association or we are still solving that problem, but we want to get to it fast.

I hear you. We are working really hard and have dedicated a lot of time to this so far this year. Yeah, it still doesn't change the fact that is a big issue of fairness and that we can say it it does I mean no one said to to you've got to look back further like there's no direction from the city with regards to that and that is deeply problematic. I appreciate your response but it it it's still deeply problematic. Thank you. Thank you councelor Grant. We'll go to councilors Carpenter Shakar and then Litwin. Carpenter. Yep.

Thanks. Just a a couple different questions. Are any of these streets, is this happening in the last 10 years or are they older than that? Primarily, I think we're talking 1940s, 1950s for the most part. The last round of significant street acceptances occurred in the early 80s, which was a lot of the 1960s, 1970s neighborhood developments. It's a lot of them are really a lot older. Okay. Um, as a sidebar to this, and I don't know that we're going to have that many new streets, but do you have a process to make sure that they are accepted if they're built? We do now. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

I want to make sure that's clear because that would be um not good if we didn't have it going. And uh it's my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, one of the the term unaccepted often means it doesn't meet today's standards. Is that accurate? Unaccepted essentially means that the city does not have a deed dedicating the land of the road and a city council action accepting it. Okay, it doesn't necessarily matter the condition that it's in. It's one of the reasons why it has been stuck over the last couple of times that the city has done this. North Cove Road is a great example. That street has been around for a long time.

Most of the houses there are older than 1940. The city has very clear indication in the documents I can see where we did this in the 50s. We did this 1971 and75 very strongly and then again in the early 80s and it's the fact that it's probably a dirt road that it didn't meet city standards why it was held out. So ultimately we're here for the city council to give us direction. If you want us to move forward accepting x number of city streets, we will do that. We will tell you what it's going to cost. We will tell you what it's going to cost for us to maintain it. We want to get this recorded. We want to get this solved for people.

And I guess my last comment, and maybe it's just me, that this approach of the research really really should be on um what would be so exceptional to that street that we couldn't accept it. You know, I

I'm going in this thinking we need to accept them all. Now maybe there's a particular street with a particular geographic thing and we know need to know about it but I I think we need to accept and we have a going forward process. I I don't want to point fingers at anybody. It looks at times it might have got a little sloppy and I think um if the width of the street or the right away is not meeting our standards today, you know, there's a lot of things that would make it not acceptable today. And I think we're going to have to forgive those. And that's the lens that we look at unless there's just something so terrible that we can't accept it. So I hope we go in it with that that look. Thank you, councelor Carpenter. We have councelor Shaker Litwin and then Mcnite.

Um, thank you, President Traverse, and thank you, Laura and Chapen, for this information. And I am also pleased to see how this has evolved and how we're um, thinking about communication and timeline and all that. So, just a couple quick things. I share pretty much everything concerns that that have all been shared. So, I'm not going to repeat myself, but I think uh I I think we really do have an obligation to our residents to especially those whose streets we've been maintaining to be very sensitive to that reality and uh likely take formal ownership of those streets. Although I appreciate taking it one by one. Um a couple requests and then one question. One is I'd love I don't think this slide deck is up on civic clerk. So, if you is it now?

Um, it was sent to Lori about four minutes before we were brilliant on this item.

Well, it would be great. Thank you. It would be great to have this for when residents reach out. Um, I also ask my other request is that we overcommunicate on this. I see this as a real um DPW and the council need to work together on this. I think we're all hearing from a lot of concerned constituents and from everything like letters are going to drop today. Here's the copy the up like the latest copy of it so that we can let all of our res you know reach out front porch forum be available um every step of the way. Please just kind of keep us even more looped in than you normally would because I think this is a really sensitive and important issue that directly like we're going to hear a lot about it on our end and the more information we have to refer to and to be clearly working in lock step with you all and being a real bridge between our communities we represent and the city would be really helpful. Um and then I saw that you said we have 89 streets about 20 are being regularly maintained. Is there any way you can just illustrate? I'm surprised that it's so few. What can you illustrate? What are the 69 that are being not being maintained by the city? Why is that? Are they in utter disrepair? Do we assume that they're privately owned? And we'll uncover the records like I'm surprised that it's so many. And it's heartening to hear. We really may be talking about uh focusing on 20 to 25 streets.

Yep. So, in the street classification summary, which is one of the attachments to the item tonight, it lists the status of unaccepted that councelor Barlo spoke to, the street name, whether or not we plow it, and that is the indication that we do perform maintenance on it. So, there are um a grouping of those that are listed as unaccepted. There are a few that we list as private, which are um generally streets that are public use, but might have a private owner. Um, and so we're defining maintain as plow. So, what about things like filling potholes or other maintenance or you know the waterways beneath the roads? Is that where things get a little messy? Like are we talking it's more than 20 when we start expanding the definition of city maintained?

That's where it gets a little messy with the pipes under the street. But generally if it says plow it means that we are pothole filling and or grading depending on the appropriateness of the surface. Okay. We just generally tend to not full pave although that has happened in the past too.

Okay. Thank you. And it is important to note that there are a number of streets with water lines or sewer lines that are failing and are at end of life. And not having clarity adds friction and complication to getting the repairs done. So collectively, our work here is an equity effort to upgrade streets. We collectively, thanks to your support, accepted Franklin Square after 40 years of disagreement between PR city councils and uh BHA. We solved that together. Upgraded sidewalks, repaved roads, really upgraded storm water. We can do that in other places, but you deserve to know and have the information before you accept what that cost is going to be.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Shakar. We'll go to councelor Litwin and then Mcnite and then Brick thanks very much. Um, you good with me? Okay. Um, I just want to thank you for starting the process. Uh, as a recovering operations manager, I understand when you get in and you realize that all the files and all the tees are not crossed that it's it's helpful to to do that work that everyone else didn't want to do or didn't get around to doing. Um, but I also share all the concerns that everybody at the table um has already um brought forward and I thought everybody who spoke at public comment to this had at each person had at least one very salient point that I thought was well received uh by me anyway. Um, there are streets on this list that are just bizarre to me that um are unaccepted. Um, the idea that sanitary landfill road is unaccepted. I'm like, well, no, you know, who who lives there? No one lives there. Um, or uh, North Cove is listed as being plowed, but um, Deforest Heights is not listed as being plowed, but I would imagine, is that true that the city's not plowing DeForest Heights? Maybe. Um, so there's a lot of work to be done and I I I see this will be a large undertaking for you. I want to echo um Councelor Barlo's concern and request that we prioritize the streets that are unaccepted um and that we not leave people in long periods of um kind of guessing um and to Councelor Shaker's point overcommunicate if you I'd rather people be annoyed that they hear from you too much. Um, additionally, I thought Mr. Pomelo's comments were really well received

because I started thinking about um, there are a variety of legal precedents um, here that haven't been discussed that I think our city attorney should be consulted on when you sit with the city attorney. Um, and that is a risk that I think whoever was consulting you on risk management didn't necessarily think about. Um and and additionally there is risk that people could come and seek um abatement from taxes and a reassessment uh if suddenly the city is to say well you know that that's down a street because I pulled up Chitten didn't drive just um randomly from somebody's comments um and their assessments are anywhere from you know 600 to 900,000 which I would think are appropriate for that neighborhood. Um, but I wouldn't think that that would be appropriate for an unaccepted street that they would have to maintain. So, um, that could cause serious uh, serious bureaucratic issues and tax issues as far as the tax evatement um, committee is concerned that I'd like to avoid. Um but also I don't think was taken into account at uh in I was not on the council at the time but I don't think was in taken into account during the great um the great reassessment debacle of 2023 I think that was. So um I appreciate the work. I think we have more work to do. I also just want to raise this concern because this isn't the first time I've heard this where people are just feeling like they don't know what's going on and they're not being communicated to in a way that makes them feel respected. And I just think that this is really important that folks have um both a sense of agency and also a sense that they're treated fairly and respectfully just like everyone else in

the city. Um, and I say this respectfully, you know, even I had issues with some of the language in the communications that were submitted. Um, and describing maintenance as a courtesy, for example, when people have been paying their taxes, um, was just not an acceptable way to describe that for me. But, um, and I appreciate you taking the note and, you know, changing that in the letter. I I want to make sure that folks know that they like when they can participate, how they can participate, if they can't come to a meeting, can they get on a Zoom call, can they get on a phone call? Um, are you going to be sending a monthly letter? And I'm going to be paying really close attention to this now that we've made it through town meeting day. Um, and I appreciate it and look forward to the May update. I also will want to know estimated costs particularly of some of the streets to bring it into sort of usable um you know uh usable state. Okay, we're all used to a little pothole um here in Vermont, but um and I live on one of those private roads, but we don't need to be prioritized because we know we're a private road. So, um, so I look forward to getting some answers for those folks and, um, wrapping this up as quickly as possible. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Litwin. Uh, we'll turn now to Councelor Mcnite and then councelor Brick.

Hello. Thank you. Um, apologies in advance if you hear background noise. I'm dealing with some child care um, issues today. Um, so to Japan and Laura, thank you for being here. I I I really echo I appreciate the sort of unanimity we're hearing from all of our council colleagues. Um, you know, just calling for the city to really keep doing its job and accept the streets that we have been maintaining and and to really take a lot of care with communications with residents moving forward. Um, I want to take some time to clarify some of the roles and decision-making that went into this for the public because I think that it's um, it has been pretty confusing for folks. Um, I've gotten a lot of emails from people that are understandably pretty concerned and confused and I I do want to lay out that the reason we're focusing on this issue is is it's not because the city council asked DPW to do this. Um, as far as I understand it, where this is coming from is that DPW has always, um, and correct me if I'm wrong, we've always kind of treated this as a lingering issue, but recently we've re you received directive from the city attorney's office and the mayor's administration and and that combined with your own sort of decision-making practice is why we're taking this up. Um, so I just think it's important to to clarify that point because, you know, you're here asking for input tonight. I I do understand it's useful to figure this out in the long term, but when I think about all the ways that I'd like to prioritize DPW's time on behalf of the residents of Burlington, this is really at the very bottom of the list. and everyone tonight, we've we've all been saying, "Wow, it's it's really going to take a lot of work to to get this right to do all the, you know, detail checking and

verifying that's that's needed to make all of these streets um sort of get those eyes dotted and the tees crossed. And I I just don't think that's the right work for you all to be focusing on. Um, so since you are asking for input on the from the council on how to handle this, that would really be my ask that we deprioritize this. I think this should be an initiative that is sort of a project you do a little bit of as much as you can each year and instead prioritize what is your very limited valuable time and attention on other projects that provide a more tangible and more impactful benefits to residents citywide. So that would be my call for how we handle this moving forward along with all the other requests that my colleagues have made. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Mcnite. Director Spencer.

Yes. Thank Thank you, Councelor Mcnite. I think it's important to acknowledge and this is a an interest from public works. This was not a direction from the mayor. Uh this was uh really stems from the amount of friction and conflict and unresolved issues that we are trying to help you and your constituents solve when a sewer line on an unaccepted street fails. We're all not presenting well. Uh we, you know, with Franklin Square that was 40 years there was litigation involved. We don't want to have to spend our valuable time working through a 40-year issue. Your and our time is valuable and we want to best serve uh the public. We uh understand that this is uh an issue to balance among our other workloads. And yes, we are happy to be responsive to how we use language properly. The language uh thank you uh councelor Litwin for suggesting we modify was language we got from the assistant city attorney in 2014. The assistant city attorney we were working with back then told us to use that language. That said, we can shift and change. We're here to best serve you and the members of the public. Look forward to the ongoing partnership.

Thank you. Thank you. So, I just want to thank Chapen for for clarifying my uh my mistake there. No problem. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Mcnite. We'll turn to councelor Brick and then Sing.

Uh thank you uh and and thank you for bringing this back to us. Um I I do agree with you that I think that this uh for a lot of residents who live on unaccepted streets, this this is obviously a priority for them. I I think it should be a priority for us to at least get this uh figured out because like you said, we don't know when the next Franklin Square is going to happen. It could be at any time because we're not looking and that's why we're looking. Um but um this is kind of building off of what way back with what councelor Barlo said um in regards to um our priorities. I think we've heard from uh residents, not just ones that are living on what we have classified as unaccepted, but also we've heard from residents that are are living on roads that have been classified as private, but have said in their comments that um that they're that there is no governing association that is active. Um and therefore there's no there's no pile of funds sitting around that's going to um be available to um pick up the slack of any lost services or get the road up to its current condition. So as a counselor um I'm very interested for the roads that are listed as private and may become listed as private over time. Um example Chitten Drive. I'd like to know who is the owner of the or steward or whatever the definition is of the ones that we have confirmed to be private. Um, and as you categorize these roads based off of their condition and then come to a recommendation for us to act. um

when we get to that place um if there's a situation where there's a private road and we found documentation saying that it is under the stewardship of a an association that has been defunct for 50 years that's that's de facto an unaccepted street because there's there's just nothing going on there. Um, and it will just turn into the condition that our current unaccepted roads that we're not that we might not be servicing fully already um or won't in the future are going to turn out to be. So that kind of be like kicking the can down the road. Um, so yeah, I I obviously the unaccepted streets need to be prioritized, but I'm interested. You're going to go street by street. So thank you for for pursuing it that way. Yeah, if we if residents say that I don't know why this is listed as private because we have not there's been no association that has met and there's no money to do anything. It's basically an unaccepted street. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Broadick. Councelor Singh, you're the last I have in Q. Um councelor Carpenter, were you hoping to be recognized again? Okay. Um and so we'll go councelor Singh. We'll go councelor Sanchez Parkinson and then I I think I don't see any other counselors in Q so I think maybe councelor Carpenter will try to wrap up with you on this item. Councelor Singh you want to go ahead?

Um thank you very much council president. Thank you for being here. um you know um going I I want to bring it you know I agree with all of my colleagues you know people that have been receiving maintenance and the assumption of them being part of the city's uh streets you know it'd be hard very hard to go to go back on that now um and the open for pending litigation on that would be problematic um what other documents are you guys using to find out on these uh unex accepted streets. Is it just deeds, land records? Are we talking permits? Are we talking old easements? Like I'm just very curious as to in city council minutes. Like

it is mostly all of the above with the exception of permits. Permits apply to every parcel or whether you're on a private street, public street, homeowners association. That's governed differently within the city. But yes, the city's land records, city council resolutions before the resolutions were so formalized. We do go back to the minutes. Um, and then there are piles of maps in different forms both recorded in the land records as well as archives at DBW. I mean, but on the permit end, I mean, I think the old practice was is that the city, if you built a house, the city would connect sewer and water to you, and then the practice changed where you'd be charged to be connected to city sewer and water. None of those records would designate whether it was a private road or anything like that or

I think the fun fact here, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that the city hasn't always owned to the water department. Okay, good answer. I don't entirely there was the aqueduct uh company many many uh years ago but the records have come a long way and we did not have the documentation 50 100 years ago that we have today. Yeah

that said we have found some records like with Franklin Square we did find uh a city engineer who said the road met city standard at the time from 1975. uh as we find new information, we will bring it forward to help you make the best decision uh for the people of Burlington.

Okay. Thank you. And then lastly, I just wanted to it is this has to be a high priority. Um it can't be something we put to the side. You know, the fact that this is a public meeting now. Anybody that goes to sell a property in Burlington is going to have to disclose this um if they're on one of these streets, you know. So, time is of the essence. If somebody is, you know, in a situation, their life changed, they they have a job, but they got to move, they got to sell their house, this has to be disclosed because they know it. Um, so any sort of delay on this uh really can even more impact uh our residents and and the people out there. This is definitely something that could present title problems and um you know, cause closings and and property transfers not to occur. So, I do want to just quickly address that because it's been brought up a few times. Um, we with our notification doesn't cease or change our maintenance practices. These roads are still roads that access the driveways for these parcels. Whether it is a town highway, a private street, or one that's in this in between, it's still a public way until it's proven not to be a public way. And so, that doesn't cut off anybody's access to their properties. As noted, we will continue the maintenance of what we are doing on the streets where we have been maintaining it, which is generally what people expect when they sell their house and someone is purchasing it. Yeah. The town comes through here and plows or the city comes through here and plows. So, this really shouldn't impact it as it been we've been advised because of the change that we've taken in our approach until such time that the city council acts to either say we don't find that we should be owning this. This is private. we've found a deed that says this person is really the underlying land owner of the street and they're choosing to not give it to the city in any way, shape or form

or you dedicate accept and we provide you those documents for our records. Thank you. Um we'll turn now to Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson, we had the privilege of welcoming you to our first meeting as a special meeting last week, but welcome to your first regular meeting representing Ward 3. uh we'll turn to you now and then councelor Carpenter I think we'll we'll try to wrap up with you if that's possible but the floor is yours.

Thank you and thank you so much for this presentation. Um I the only thing I would wanted to add to this conversation that might be helpful to think about as as we um as you think about how to prioritize this work. Um I much of what I'm hearing is you're going to go through this what sounds really exciting to me looking archival information and figuring out um what records we have in place. You also Laura mentioned um in terms of speaking to people and I think that that that is a really important part of this process really uh understanding people's experiences. Uh my only thought and potential concern to is thinking about some of the unaccepted streets that might be um primarily renters um that you might not hear from maybe as much and I just want to make sure that we also think about um how to engage their experiences. uh we might not have renters who have been there for decades, but um their experiences are are just as important. So, I just want to make sure that as you think of the prioritization of these streets that we think about um who the individuals are um because they might not come up as they're selling their they might not be selling homes in that street, but what are the experiences of those living there? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Just to clarify, we are sending the notice um that's the draft and the council information to both property owners and every address that's on a street and we'll continue to do so repeatedly um to the request of good outreach because we do know renters's turnover sometimes frequently. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Um councelor Carpenter, if you can have the last word here and then I think we'll wrap up this item.

I'll try to be good. I just this is more of an editorial comment. And I think it's really important for us to look at the history of planning and growth in cities. And always until recently the presumption is the city would provide the streets and the public infrastructure. That's changed in the last 20 years because the cities don't have the resources. So we've put it over on the developers. I'll disagree with my colleague uh council Litwin. We should be providing streets to Cambrian Rise, but we didn't have the resources. It's a complicated discussion. 50 years ago, I assumed uh Franklin Square was going to be a city street. Didn't bother to question it. In the affordable housing world, we assumed that, too. And obviously, there was a a disconnect. So, I think we are where we are now. But again, I think based on a premise that it's the public's obligation to provide that h how we missed it, why we missed it, we can't go backwards on that. We just got to sort it out today and I think with the assumption that we intend to own it and so how do we fix it?

Thank you, councelor Carpenter. Um, councelor Litwin, you you you had used your five minutes before, but your comments were called out specifically. Is there you're you're seeking the floor. Would you just like to briefly clarify something? Yes, I want to clarify my statement. Okay. Yes. So, just just so folks who are living at Camry and Rise are aware might be watching this. We're private, but we will be accepted. It's part of the development agreement. That's why I was saying we don't need to be prioritized to like certain roads like North North Cove Road for example or Chittenden Drive where homeowners or renters on those streets um are left in a state of ambiguity. We are not. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you councelor Litwin. And with no other counselors in the queue here, we'll thank you for this presentation and we know that this will be an ongoing discussion. Are there any sort of last words on this item from DPW team? We very much appreciate the time. We know it's a difficult conversation. We will be partners and available for conversation and we heard your message about overcommunication tonight. So, thank you.

Great. Uh well, don't go far uh because we will now uh recess the regular city council meeting and call to order the city council with mayor presiding. As mentioned previously, uh the mayor is not here this evening and so I will continue to preside over this meeting although it is the council with mayor presiding. The first item in this meeting is our proposed agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Thank you, Councelor Carpenter. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Councelor Shar. All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Any opposed?

That carries unanimously. So, we have one deliberative item on this agenda. Item 2.1, the Wooki River Bridge Cob intersection. Are we calling it Cobbury? Okay. All right. Cobri uh intersection proposal condemnation process DPW uh and um I will turn the floor back to our DPW representatives. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. I am joined uh city engineer Laura Wheelock and public works engineer Mattie Sunder and a great array of partners uh and staff on uh line as well. Uh this is uh a remarkable collaboration of a number of different uh parties as we get the presentation up uh that you will see in the bottom right uh from our funding partner Federal Highway VR the CCRPC city of Wooki and several departments within the city. There's two projects within this larger project. The Wooki Bridge and the Colchester Barrett Riverside intersection. The bridge interestingly is owned 5050 between Burlington and Wooki. It's ending nearing the end of its service life and the proposed bridge as a dramatic improvement for safety, widening bicycle and pedestrian spaces, modern lighting, barrier separation between the vehicles and the vulnerable users. The intersection uh is a high crash location. Uh it's challenging for people walking and biking and the improvements uh are many including widening the Riverside shared use path uh adding a shared use path on the uh east side of the street and uh narrowing pedestrian crossings. It's important uh to just hit the very high point of financials, which is because of this partnership opportunity with the feds and the state and our fellow uh neighboring community, we're able to achieve a reconstruction of a bridge in an intersection worth approximately $83 million for a local contribution of approximately $4 million. That's our 5% local match for the bridge and some non-participating costs for

both projects. But the purpose of tonight really is to provide an overview and as you're seeing on the screen here, we're going to provide a project status and schedule uh given by the design consultant team uh you'll hear from in a second and then property owner engagement and the timing of starting the condemnation process by city engineer Laura Wheelock. So, right now I'll turn the presentation over to Josh Olen from H&TB. Thank you.

Thank you and good evening. Uh, as as Chief was mentioning, I'm just going to walk us through where we are in the overall schedule. I know we've been in front of council before and we've showed a much larger schedule going back to 2018. Uh, tonight I really wanted to focus in here on on really where we are today. And you can see that right there kind of uh middle of the screen a little bit to the left with the yellow box. Really we just wrapped up the solicitation of interest with all of our design build teams. So that interest was out for a couple months. We received proposals, reviewed those proposals, and actually have recently just shortlisted a couple teams. While that's been happening, we've been very active working through our redway negotiations, utility coordination, and working on the next step of the contracting mechanism, the request for proposals or RFP. That has all been very active as we've been working through this, getting ready to actually advertise that and obligate funds. All that's anticipated to wrap up around July of this year. And you can see a little bit above that yellow box, we're trying to get ahead of this deadline that we have of September 30th when we need to make sure we obligate the funding and take advantage of that raise grant funding that we've talked about over the past couple years. Once we get past that milestone of advertising the RFP, the design build teams will work on their proposals to construct this project. We'll have a short period after that to get the successful bidder contracted and from there that team will work through finalizing their design and construction. Uh, one important thing to point out here in order to make sure we we meet that raise grant obligation date. We really do need to have all the rightway necessary to complete the project secured in order to actually obligate the funding with FHWA. And we'll we'll say that a few times throughout the next couple slides. Uh, Laura, go ahead. wanted to to bring these back up. These

were shared with council uh perhaps over the winter of 2425 as we were seeking approval of the base technical concept. These haven't been changed since that time and really I'm providing them to show how integrated the bridge and the intersection really are together. As Chapen mentioned, we do have two separate projects here from a funding standpoint, but the way they've been advanced has been as one overall project to take advantage of construction phasing, utility relocation, geometrics, improve sidewalks, improve safety. These two projects really are moving forward as one at this point. So, if we don't have rights for one of the two projects, it's really going to create a significant amount of rework to the point where it could compromise funding for one or the other. Go ahead, Laura. And again, just just a side view here showing the various concepts that the existing conditions on top base technical concept in the middle and just an alternative layout. Uh and really again, as we talk about rightway needs here, um well, going forward, as we talk about rightway needs, there will be some temporary needs to access the river. Uh and that'll be some of the the focal points on the bridge side of the project anyway at a future time. Go ahead, Laura. So I mentioned we we shared those renderings back in the winter of 24-25 but we have been active on the project ever since. Uh probably the biggest physical change although not shown in those renderings is the underbridgeidge path within Burlington will not be incorporated. It was something we were looking to do kind of as a little betterment a little bit of something something extra on the Burlington side. um through discussions with the property owner that would be affected and since this isn't really a necessity, we have since pulled that back out of the project and it won't actually be incorporated. We've also been looking to finalize our last piece of the public input. Uh that'll be happening on April 29th as we start to get final input on the park spaces, the greenery kind of around the perimeter of the project. Uh this will

be the last piece of of generalized public input before we advertise the RFP. Uh, but we're still going to be very actively engaged in the community with business engagement and welcoming comment. In the meantime, as I mentioned, the letter of interest has already been out. We have already advertised that we have already received uh letters of interest from two teams and we have already shortlisted those. So, this slide is actually a little bit out of date at this point. Those teams were just shortlisted this past week. We've also been very very actively coordinating with utilities. Uh there's a there's a numerous utilities above and below grade out there that all need to be relocated to support construction. They all need to be thought through in terms of which one goes first. How does trenching impact the other? What do they need for space? What do they need for size of conduits? There's a lot a lot of coordination that needs to happen to get them all moved and all in sync to make this project successful. Uh, and then finally, there's also been ongoing coordination to improve the off-site detour associated with this project, where there's been coordination with Laura and Maddie on things like the main street signal modifications that'll be necessary or even across the river in Wooki, uh, working with the folks there on some of the improvements over at exit 15. So, lots of things happening and I know I'm kind of putting a lot of words on paper to to try to show it. So this next slide uh actually shows a kind of a simplified bar chart if you will. I'm trying to get these all to 100% so we can actually advertise the RFP. So just right there on top the document itself, the RFP, it's about 50% complete and it's very very much uh moving that needle upward day by day here as we look to finish that up by July with all of its various reviews and comment periods. Public input, as I mentioned, is wrapping up here in a few short weeks with an open house. Right ofway is about 75% secured at this point, and I believe there was even another uh another property owner who was successfully

negotiated this morning. Even uh utility coordination is about 90% complete as we're putting those finishing touches on exactly what size conduit and how many and how much advanced notification each company needs. And environmental coordination is about 85% complete. All the various uh agencies have been spoken with at least once. We're just trying to go back to them to make sure we have all of our commitments understood. So things are all together very much nearing 100%. Go ahead, Laura. So why why are we why are we sharing all this now? What's the importance? Um and really it comes down to the fact that FHWA won't be able to obligate construction funding for this project until VR is issued a rideway clearance. For Vrans to be able to do that, all the necessary rights, all the temporary easements, permanent easements, acquisitions, whatever might be necessary to construct this project need to be successfully secured either through negotiation or condemnation by the city since these are these two projects are city infrastructure. Once that's in place, VR needs to have that all recorded and compensation must be issued either to the property owner or through escrow. That all needs to happen before FHA FHWA can actually obligate the funding for this project to move forward. So, it's a lot of steps. And as a reminder, the raise grant for this project, it needs to be appropriated by September 30th of 2026. And realistically, because of some of the steps behind the scenes that need to happen, I understand that's even closer to the middle of the month. So, we're about five months away from having have that funding need to be appropriated. Go ahead. So I mentioned the five months from now, the roughly middle of September. So just kind of putting that in in perspective here with some steps. Uh we anticipate the necessity hearings that we're requesting are going to take roughly one to two months with the council decision

hopefully sometime in early to mid June. Once that happens, payments can then be processed, which takes roughly one month, which puts us into late July. That times out pretty well here with the RFP being complete and ready to go in July. Once we get past those payments being processed, we can start working through issuing a rightaway clearance certificate, which would be a couple weeks later, sometime in early August, which then allows us to actually go forward and ask for FHWA to obligate the funds sometime in mid August, which gives us a, you know, two, three, maybe four weeks of buffer between uh that time and the potential to actually uh perhaps miss that raise grant date, which is really what's at stake here is the funding. So that Laura, I think it's back to you.

Yes. So what we're here tonight to ask you about is essentially the request to move forward to necessity and compensation. But before we get to that exact wording, we want to make sure to remind everybody or or inform you of our process to date. So property owner meetings actually started about a year ago. VR meeting with different property owners and stakeholders as we had identified different property rights that would be necessary. Offers were sent to different property owners a little over six months ago. So August September of 2025. So there's been time VR has been there communicating with different property owners, negotiating, updating offers, trying to work things out. As of today, um, of the 15 properties where we need different rights for either the bridge or the intersection, we're down to seven parcels. So, this has been a very active process. It's actually been hard for Maddie to keep up with uh keeping the right number inside of our draft memo because people are coming to terms. We are successfully coming to good compromises and good understandings. This is a parallel process and it's not normally the process that VR or municipal project would take. We are being forced into this as it relates to the raise grant funding and we've asked for extensions on time and are not being granted that. So, we're taking this process in parallel. While we ask you to start and set the compensation and necessity hearing dates, property owners are still able to negotiate. They're still able to talk to Vrans. They're still able to settle this in an amicable way. They're able to do this all the way up until the point until if we get there that you act on the compensation part of the hearing. So, what we're here tonight is to ask you to set a date. We've proposed May 21st. In our discussions with the TUK, they asked that we look to have this as a special city council meeting because there's a lot that goes into this. We are required by our statutes and our charter to do a site visit to be able to

show the properties that are still unsettled at the time of the hearing. The site visit will occur on the same day as the hearing. There are technically four hearings. So, we need to handle the project each project separately. And then there's two hearings for each project. So there are four hearings that we are looking to set. The first is called necessity. You will determine whether or not the takings or the easements that we are asking for are necessary to construct the project. The second is compensation where determination of damages whether the land we are taking takes away from that parcel in such a way that they are being fairly compensated for that. So, why we are setting the date so far out? Part of our state statutes and also our city charter requires a minimum of a 30-day notification. And that's not just 30 days from when we postmarket. That's 30 days so that they have actually physically received the information and actually send us back kind of a comprehensive we understand what we're getting. There are a few other notification processes that occur within there at 12 and 15 days. And so this is something that will be well notified to the property owners as well as the general public. This is meant to be able to explain a little bit more about what will happen during the requested hearings. There is four pages or so at the very end of your packet. Uh this is more of an informal updated understanding about what we go through with necessity and compensation. Hopefully it answers some early questions that you may have on this. It's important to note that the city council with mayor presiding will act as a quasi judicial body. Um and with that comes kind of certain provisions and um understanding as when you act on it. So first we will need to have a site visit. This again can be a different time of day from the hearing, but I do suggest

and it's recommended that it is the same day so that the information that you're seeing is relevant. And as we presented today, some of this information changes by the day. This morning, we walked into an email saying, "Hey, we settled another parcel." Um, that's helpful to know as we go to perform the site visits and and sit through the hearings. The hearings will discuss and be an opportunity for staff and for our design team and Vtrans team to share any information on the parcels, share what we've worked through. The Vtrans rightaway negotiators who are the ones who are actively negotiating these parcels will be here to answer questions and provide information. It is an opportunity for you all to ask questions of us on each of the four specific tasks and types of hearings. And then it is also an opportunity for the property owners to provide testimony. Ultimately um we are able to open up all the different types of hearings at the same time. Generally you will act on necessity before you act on compensation compensation. So you will find that it is necessary to take whatever is being asked for from a property owner and then you will settle on compensation. The decision for necessity could occur the same day that you open the hearing. You could say yes, we find this is necessary. It could happen because you're acting as a quasi judicial body. It could happen not at a city council meeting or you could continue the hearing to one of your next regular meetings and act as a public body. All of those are acceptable opportunities um for the compensation hearing which is my guess is that you will continue that meeting to a date and time that you set at the first hearing. So that is my introduction in spiel um and trying to explain what is a very complicated process and further complicated by the number of the two different separate projects that we have going on here. Uh we did receive one question earlier

that was asking whether or not again the site visit can be separated from the hearing dates and yes it can but again I would recommend that they are on the same day and I would also recommend that the hearing be in the evening hours just to ensure that the property owners are able to attend to testify.

Great. Uh thank you very much for the detailed presentation. Uh a complicated motion is also listed on civic clerk here which in sum in substance as you as you indicated um would permit the warning of both the necessity and compensation hearings for the bridge project and the intersection project on May 21st with times to be determined later. Councelor Barlo, as chair of the TUK, could I ask you for a motion to take the actions indicated on civic clerk? Uh yes, I would move to take the actions uh indicated on civic clerk on page five of the 31page memo. Okay.

Thank you, councelor Barlo. Is there a second to that motion? Thank you, councelor Brderick. Councelor Barlo, sorry. Sorry to put you on the spot, but do you want the floor on this item? I do not. Okay. Councelor Litwin, thanks. I just have two uh questions. one is um you talked about um making sure that the property owners are there. Are there any properties that are impacted that have renters? There are a reasonable number of the properties um specific to the intersection that have renters within them.

And so what's your plan to work with that property owner to make sure that renters have the ability to be there as well? renters don't necessarily have a say on the property because it is an owner item. Um, we have engaged the public through the outreach that Josh had mentioned, inviting renters who sometimes are long-term renters of these parcels to participate in our process to help us shape the intersection and the bridge project. So, one of the things that I saw on page one of the PowerPoint was a graphic that I didn't recognize, and it showed an island that is not on the photograph that you're showing here that would make it impossible for somebody to take a left turn off of Mill Street. Um, so which rendering is the correct one?

The first rendering is actually from the Manuski side of the bridge. Okay. So that's not And so the left turn issue that I was very clear about when I cast my vote is not off the table. Correct. Okay. And so is it am I correct to understand that one of the properties that's held up is Chase Mill and is it over the design of this left turn issue?

Uh Maddie and I are not specifically involved in the negotiations. It's really the VR rightaway team is the chase mill has a lot of items to consider as it relates to the project to the temporary works. There is some permanent taking depending on which bridge alignment occurs. The bridge naturally is going to be wider which means it's going to encroach on a part of the parcel with either option that is taken. There are concerns that have been expressed. I don't want to specifically speak to any of the negotiations until we are actually within the hearing.

Okay. So, one of the things here says um Chase Mill Catamount Holdings working through design and cost estimates for work within parcel. So, is that what you're is that related to the the design of the bridge um in terms of how close it gets to the to the building or their property or is it related to the left turn issue? It is part of the negotiations that they have asked of the rightaway officers and I'm going to avoid speaking to it at this time.

Okay. So, I guess I'll flag um I don't need the rest of my time, but I guess I'll flag for the rest of the council that um I I really see this as a real This is one of the few times I've ever ventured out of my ward to knock on doors and engage with um residents because I saw what a huge impact it was going to have for people who live on Mill Street in Ward One. I think that is if I'm correct. Yes. So, um, you know, and most of those people were renters, and most of them had no idea what was going to happen. Um, c when I spoke to Redstone, they had no idea that this was back on the table at the time. Now, you've advanced conversations and, um, I just cannot imagine. We're talking about unaccepted streets and what a great segue that conversation was for me about equity and fairness. as councelor um Grant talked about, you know, the idea of having the only way to get out of your neighborhood is to leave Burlington and then go through the Wooki Rotary and then come back into Burlington makes absolutely no sense. And anybody who's ever been on the side of Chase Mill knows that that thin alleyway is dangerous and not going to be able to be adapted for any sort of legal use other than um what's currently used by the tenants of Chase Mill. And as a former business tenant of Chase Mill, I can tell you that that alleyway is not only dangerous, it's going to be used as a cutthrough because nobody's going to want to do what you're suggesting or what the plan is suggesting and what VTrans is is potentially requiring. So I think that if Chase Mill is hooked up is held up holding out on this issue, I understand why. And so it'll a site visit will be really important for us to

see um how that impacts things. So thank you. Thank you councelor Litwin. And and I will note just on behalf of city engineer wheelog that it is appropriate for her to not go into the details regarding ongoing negotiations and appreciate your your navigating that issue with us here. Uh councelor Shakar I see your hand raised.

Um thank you. Yeah, I do feel the need to weigh in here as one of the two folks at this table who represent Ward One. I do think this is a really um important and monumental project. Um and my ask is that I mean what once again if we can have the slides on civic clerk I think this is another need to overcommunicate with residents and if you all can keep myself and I assume I speak for councelor Newbieser as well like particularly informed in what's happening I would be glad to support canvasing leading up to the April 29th open house and uh as well as the May 21st event. I really want residents, uh, renters and and owners alike to know what's going on, to have opportunity for input, um, who really know this intersection probably the best of any of us. Um, and so, yeah, I just want to speak to uh, the importance of I think uh, making sure that there's a really robust public engagement process, especially since I heard this event on the 29th is the final opportunity for that input. And I know since I've been elected to council, I think this is maybe the first time this has come in. So, it's been a while since we've sought public input. I think there's probably a lot of new folks living in that area. Um, and so I I think we really have an obligation to have a robust outreach strategy going into the 29th. Um, I'm happy to support with front porch forum posts and canvasing as I can. Um, but I want to make sure that we don't squander that opportunity. Um, and that I think going into May 21st, we should be thinking about that engagement process as well. And also, the sooner we can just as a working parent, the sooner we know the time on the 21st, that's very helpful. Um, especially if it's going to be this three-part uh day.

So, to first speak to being informed, we will absolutely include you in our public outreach for the meeting on the 30th. Um, that is already out there. We we have an amazing team that's reaching out to both communities in a way that generally has reached people really really well. But we do know that there's always ways to improve that. So absolutely we will we will snag you and bring you in on that. I do want to um remind everybody as I am staying silent on the negotiations. We addressed it in the toque, but it feels important to say here, we will include you when we send these notifications out to these residents, but it is important because you are going to be asked to act on their fate that you don't walk handinhand with them with the negotiations. You can encourage them to help find counsel or representation or someone to give them advice, but it's important that you don't provide that yourself. Um, as it relates to the time, we have not put that in the notice. The notice actually does go out as a citation. It seems a little harsh. That is what we have written in our city charter. So, um that may also be one of those like someone's gonna be like, "Oh my god, Ally, why did I get a citation from DPW?" That is just the way and shape and form that this is written. Um it's it's not any of our choices. And if the charter change committee wants to change that, I will walk with you on it. So the time of the site visit is one that was requested by one of your fellow counselors. They're able to do that earlier in the morning versus in the evening. Um we have the opportunity we can either provide transportation through um a bus or a van or you're able to get there yourself. We are not required to open the meeting first as we have done in the past and then travel to the site. So it provides a little bit more flexibility. So I would leave that

for your option and discussion. Great. We will work through that. Um we do need to send these out tomorrow. Yes. So we have a motion pending. Council Shaker, are you all set? I am all set. Thanks. Okay. Uh is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? Yes. Councelor Grant. Just a quick question. I travel that route because I commute. Um, just to clarify, are you talking to the businesses all along Riverside A?

I don't have the detailed list in front of me. We generally tried to pick like a half a mile radius at minimum. Um, as we move this project forward, as what Josh had said, we're issuing um, while his outreach looks like it's coming to a conclusion, there's still outreach that's going to occur as it relates to moving this into construction, which looks very different and is is definitely at 0%. So the businesses along Riverside, our employers that are up the hill in other areas of Ward One, even in the downtown, the origin destination of the people traveling across this bridge is enormous. And we are looking regionally and cooperating with the CCRPC to help get regional communication out as well.

Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Grant. Does any other counselor wish to be recognized on this item? Okay. And then just a point of clarification on my own end, city engineer Willock, in terms of the notice that needs to go out tomorrow, does that need a time on it to residents as to when the site visit will occur and when the hearing will occur? Yes, it does.

Okay. Um, let's do a little sausage making on the fly here. If counselors are okay with that, I I have heard from colleagues that um they are available in the morning um but potentially not available in person in the afternoon. Um and so one proposal would be to have the site visit uh in the morning hours um and then schedule the hearing in the evening during a regular council time. Um is there any counselor that would object to that uh makeup here? Please clarify the date that we're talking about.

May 21st. Thursday, May 21st. Yep. Councelor Grant. Um, what time in the morning? Yeah, I think we would need to figure that out. And can I actually ask you the question? I mean, is it not to pull staff in multiple directions, but is it possible to schedule two site visits where counselors would have an option to either come um because it sounds like we don't need to open the hearing and perhaps may not need a quorum. Is it possible to provide folks options of a morning time or an afternoon time to work around uh work schedules on the fly? Find the right email.

Okay. Um, we were generally advised against it and certainly advised against an individual one-on-one site tour. Okay. It's it's not recommended to have people visiting at different times because then it not everybody's not operating off the same record. They're not they're not hearing and responding to the same questions. Uh, it it would be ideal to have one one site visit.

Okay. Uh, thank you, Attorney Rama Krishnan. I think what I will commit to counselors is this evening uh just reconnecting with you all with respect to some proposed times if it's possible for DPW to perhaps propose uh a morning time. Councelor Grant, is there a time in the morning that would be preferable on your own end? I know that everyone's has work schedules. Uh for me, as early as possible, I have to be on my way to work by 9:30. Yeah. So, so I think an early morning time on the 21st would be best if we could work to accommodate the site visit then and then uh an evening hearing uh around the time that we regularly schedule our evening meetings.

I think 9:00 a.m. would work fine. Staff is easily able to be there. Our consultant staffs would already be staying overnight even for a midday meeting. So, yeah, I think maybe even earlier like 8. We could talk about it, but I think maybe even an 8:30 start time would be great. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, thank you for And then an evening time of six o'clock or would you like something else? Sure. I think six o'clock works. Okay. I will send you an email.

Okay. Uh, and and what I'll say to counselors is is this evening, so I think we will plan on scheduling the site visit for 8:30 in the morning. We will plan on the um necessity and compensation hearings beginning at 6 PM that that night. If if any counselor has concerns around that, if you could email me individually before this meeting is over such that I can get that feedback to DPW and we can go from there. So, thank you for accommodating that discussion. Uh we have Did you want to be heard, Director Spencer? We just still have a motion on the table. Yes, as you probably know, we were about to get to that.

I know we have to do that. Uh so if there's no further discussion, I think we'll go to a vote then. And this uh allows for the warning of the hearing on May 21st. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. So thank you. Um thank you very much.

With no other business before the city council with mayor presiding, we will adjourn that meeting at 8:44 p.m. and resume our regular city council meeting with our last DPW related item. I think as we uh prepare for that item and welcome division director Perry and Rob Golding, it appears to the table, um I will say that a number of us on the council with a fairly uh brutal winter have reached out to us with with questions around winter maintenance operations and the previously reported uh salt shortage. and very much appreciate uh DPW representatives being here this evening to uh provide a presentation and a recap on uh this this past hopefully past uh winter's um operations here. So again, division director Perry uh Rob Golding, appreciate you being here and we'll turn the floor to you when you're ready.

Yeah, thank you for having us. Um, you'll add the the presentation in your packet. So, we'll go through that. I'm division director Lee Perry and Rob Golding, a public information manager. Um, move on to the next slide. So, 2025 win 26 winter in a nutshell. Um, combined extreme cold, regional salt shortage, and our crews did maintain safety while reducing costs. We had 33 early call-ins to plow snow. 10 early starts at around 2 am to remove snow, which involves removing snow in the downtown area around parking meters and stalls, basically from Maple Street to Pearl, South Wook to Battery. Um once those were finished, we would generally filter out and do the real narrow streets mostly in the old north end. Uh we had three overnight parking bands and use around 2,000 tons of salt. And as you can see in some of the news clippings, uh the severity of the cold and the salt shortage we had um listed as well as a snow and frigid conditions, regional salt shortage, and balancing uh ecological health. and we'll touch on our snow and ice control plan, the budget, uh challenges we had in the winter, and our modified approach, salt shortage, and communications. So, on our snow and ice control plan, the full plan can be found at the link provided on the city website, and that covers anything from how we plow, uh how we calibrate our equipment, procure our salt, call staff in, and so forth. uh truck and tractor routes are preassigned, meaning they have the same staff in them throughout the season. So, they're they're very knowledgeable of

their routes as well as the priorities within those routes. Uh for storms, crews are u on call, placed on call prior to the storm and are effectively on standby to mobilize and head out into their route once the call comes in. And this also includes uh fleet maintenance technicians. We have teams of two that come in to support the plow operations in case there's any breakdowns during the storm or any routine maintenance such as blade changes need to be done while we're plowing. Uh we have 11 plow trucks which include one small one ton what we call deadend trucks. They plow the extensive dead end list that we have and then we have one spare being one of the larger plow trucks with a plow in the wing. Uh time to complete the roots is around 5 to seven hours. Uh that depending depends if we're going out for just a routine salt operation or our plowing and salting. We have 11 sidewalk tractors that include two spares. Time to complete the route, six to seven hours, greater than eight if we're salting, and then greater than 16 if we're snowb blowing. As we get into the winter and depending on the severity, we just have no room to put the snow when we plow with a regular traditional plow. So we have to switch to blowers. Uh our priority zones are the downtown, the old north end and schools as well as main thoroughares in and out of the city so we can move traffic in and out. Uh it takes a full team effort with all the departments listed especially when we have uh multi-shift storms and in large snow events. We'll tap other resources in other departments to help staff the vehicles for uh multi-day operations. And uh in in our ask me contract, there's winter rules which guides staff uh and and ask them to be available to be on call from November 1st to April 15th. So we're we're sure that we have enough staff to respond to any snow events

and the FY26 street maintenance budget. So, the budget for street, sidewalk, bike lane, plowing is embedded in the general fund budgets around $2.9 million in expenses, including benefits. Uh, we generate $1.7 million in revenue. Um, mostly through sidewalk construction, pothole filling, paving, and water resources work. There's an additional $300,000 that's provided through uh grant revenues, which has a um $1.2 $2 million in unbillable work. And the majority of that as is estimated cost through street plowing and salulting at 494,000 of the 95 mile road of roads and 529,000 for sidewalk plowing salting of 130 mi of sidewalk. And these numbers do not include some of the indirect costs that are involved with process. uh salt supply that was a a big issue regionally uh this winter. The road salt budget has not changed in nearly a decade and stands at 285,000 and this is council approved in the overall budget process. Uh prices have continued to climb 13% this year alone from 88 to 9950 and during the shortage we had to reach out regionally. You know, I I called other vendors in the region as well as Canada to see if we were able to get any salt. And we did procure some through a local hauler from New Hampshire and paid a premium at $120 a ton to have that delivered to our our facility. Um DPW, the administration and council established a $250,000 reserve fund in around 2017 for unforeseen spikes in the salt, labor, and fuel costs. and we have not had to tap into that as of yet. Um, and due to the the

more sophisticated salt application equipment that we have in our trucks and tractors, we've reduced annual usage from 4,000 tons to around 3,000 tons, which is good for lake health and the budget. And we ordered enough. Contrary to what people have said, we we we order salt after every storm. And it's just the suppliers did not have it. They emptied their main salt shed real early in the winter season which made it difficult for them to supply salt throughout the region to us. Um, and our onsite site storage is limited down at 645 Pine Street. We have bunkers where we can hold anywhere from 500 to 550 tons of salt at a time. So, as we use salt immediately after storm, we put in an order whether it's for 100 ton, 150 ton, and it's it's based on the vendor on when we get the salt. Uh, cold winter. The lake froze completely this year, so you know, it had to be pretty cold. Um, it was a fridge of winter. The snow totals were in line, but with the cold conditions, it just presented other challenges. And per cx, you know, everybody saw it was It was the coldest winter in 17 years between December and February. And salt is much less effective from 20 15 to 20 degrees below 15 degrees it is just not functional. And I I I just want to say that it's not only air temperature but it's pavement temperature. So when you have extended periods of temperatures below 20 10 single digits and you get frost in the ground, it takes a long time for that pavement to warm up. And that's what actually activates the salt. So, we do use deicing chemicals, magnesium chloride, that we pre-wet our salt with, which helps to activate it quicker, helps activate it at lower temperatures. But when the pavement is

that cold, it's it's really not very effective. Um, in the January 25th, 26th storms, it snowed for a long time and it snowed a lot and the salt wasn't effective. And the reason it's not effective is when you have large storms like that that just pile up snow, say one, two inches an hour, we aren't putting salt down. We won't put salt down. We'll monitor the storm. We'll watch radar. We'll find out when it's done because if we put salt down and we keep plan, we're just scraping the salt off and it's it's not efficient and it's wasteful. Um, and while lake health is priority and we're mindful of the salt, you know, temps did drive the posttorm road conditions. And we did do a modified approach. You know, during the longer storms that were multi-shift, we put fewer trucks on that that in between shift, say from 3 to midnight. There's not as much traffic on the road after 9 10:00. You don't need all the trucks out. We've kept the main thoroughares open, priority areas. Sidewalk crews are coming in later. you know, they were able to come in at 4 a.m., still hit all the priority areas, then filter out into the neighborhoods that have less pedestrian traffic on them. Um, and then continuing salt modifications with the equipment and as I mentioned, the uh calibration and the magnesium chloride are our deicing chemical and it had an effect as you can see on the budget and uh it's it's really working well. And I'll pass this off to Rob for the communications. Yeah. Very quickly, uh, between Lee's team,

sorry, could you make sure the mic is on? It's been a long time since I was in front of you. Good.

Thanks. Um, I'll be quick, but between Lee's team and the other divisions at public works and across the city, we have dozens of members of our team responding to these snow events um around the clock, often on holidays, very regularly. So, we thank them for that. At the same time, we know that um what we do and the weather in general is going to have effect on your constituents, our residents, our visitors, and our businesses. So, we try to get the word out in a variety of ways. Uh I broke it out into a few specific buckets and how we communicate during the winter between snow bands, general road conditions, and storm cleanup, and then the inquiries that inevitably are going to come during a long winter. So, I've listed out the way we typically do that. Um, and certainly we can speak more to that, but I'd rather leave time for questions for uh for Lee Chapen or myself.

Great. Thank you very much for the presentation. Are there any counselors with comments or questions on this item? Go councelor Shector then Carpenter Singh. Go ahead councelor Shakar.

Um, thank you President Traverse and thank you Lee and Rob for this presentation. Just a couple quick questions. One is um when well I get okay sorry I have like a bunch of questions going through my head at the same time. One is um do you have data on road traffic safety incidents or crashes this winter? Did we see an increase? Did it compare to regional increases because plummeting temperatures made all the roads worse? Like do we have a sense of sort of how we performed this year from a safety standpoint? I I'm not aware that we have current data pulled and there's often a lag time between the data that is collected through police reports and other methods and the report to to our technical services team. Certainly something we can look at.

Um and when we talk about limited on storage here in Burlington, I totally get that that we had a regional shortage and we need to order more on demand based on our storage. Did we talk to any surrounding municipalities who might have more storage about partnering or is that something we should consider for the future?

Um, we we did not talk to them about partnering partnering. We definitely did reach out to area municipalities who were in the same situation as we were. I did speak to like the town of Colchester is planning on building a salt shed. I know the town of Milton is planning on building a salt shed, but it's just based off of their need or expected additional needs for the winter. Um, I'm not sure the scope and size of the property they have. We're we're pretty limited here in Burlington where we could put a salt shed, but the convenience of where uh Barrett, who is the distributor for Cargill, is located in Shelurn, plus their their storage on Home Avenue, um makes it pretty close by in in proximity to where we can receive loads quick. It's just they ran out of salt because they weren't getting the salt from Cargill delivered to them. Yeah, I do think if we anticipate more winters like this or ongoing shortages um that we it's worth exploring potential opportunities to go in on storage facilities with some partner

well cities and towns. I think what also I've I've thought of is um you know we've discussed is you know having a backup vendor for a limited say 15 2,000 ton of salt to get a price. So on if if it does happen then we have a a fall back. Yeah. And then that modified service schedule was that happening due to budget constraints or staffing constraints separate separate from the salt shortage and any other concerns that we like what what did how did that modified staffing schedule play into sort of the full picture?

I think a little bit of everything. You know, obviously you all know with recycling, we were helping to back fill those positions and it pulled from our plowing staff and everything. Plus, you know, budget-wise, you know, trying just trying to be fiscally responsible and um you know, we were able to cut back in those few areas and and it didn't impact services. Um so I I think it went well. So, you don't think it had like a significant impact on people's experience, residents experiences this winter? I don't think so because it's it's we don't we haven't changed our plowing practice. We just changed those couple hours that we didn't come in. You know, all the core areas are still getting plowed.

Okay. Their neighborhood might be getting plowed a little later as far as the sidewalks, but we always with road plowing, we always take care of the roads. the main thorough affairs first once traffic is moving and it's past that rush hour and then we we start dipping into the neighborhoods and and clearing those out. Great. Thank you. And and also I should have started with a thank you for uh all that I know goes into this and um I love our sidewalk plows. I never tire of them having lived in other cities where we don't have those. So thank you. We get a lot of people that want to drive those. I I kind of want to drive one. Thank you. You're welcome.

Councelor Carpenter. Thanks. And and I want to thank you and Lee in particular who responded to go. I just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to like plow the whole city and you know you hear these um comments, well I'm always the last one. Um and I'm just like does it take two hours and do you rotate who is the last one? No, because each truck has their own plow route. So, in the new north end and in the old north end and the south end.

So, they all have their own responsibility. And and plowing is it's all right-hand turns. So, you're basically starting at one end of your route and just keep making right-hand turns all the way through your route. And it it takes, you know, in a good storm it's going to take you eight to nine hours to plow. And then if it's snowing hard, you start at your route. By the time you get to the end of your route, you could have another six inches of snow. And those people are waking up. You've been by at 2 in the morning, and they think, "Oh, I haven't been plowed yet." And they don't know that you've already been by. Well, unless they're out shoveling their driveway. Okay. I just And this sort of Are the roots always this the same in terms of They don't change. Okay.

They haven't changed. I've been here 19 years and all the route root maps are the same. Sidewalk maps same similar. They haven't changed. Okay. But does that create a situation where the same street is always pile piled last? Does that it can I mean if you're taking right you can't skip to the other end and right left hand turns because it just doesn't work the way the plow and the wing always push the snow to the right. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you councelor Carpenter. Councelor Sing.

Um thank you again. Um I know whole heart it's uh the pressures uh with people power at public works. So, I appreciate you taking the time to do this and and everything else you guys do in the city. Um, can you speak to a little bit about the modified second shift of plowing? You know, I would, you know, and I speak to that because I think generally people's perception this year was, you know, at the major commute times, which I think would be, you know, 4:30 or 4:00 to 6:00, you know, they were experiencing where a lot of pl, you know, roads seemed that they weren't plowed. So could you just speak to this modified schedule a little bit and what section shift was chosen?

Yeah, and like I said, depending on the severity of the storm,

you know, it a lot of it, you know, depends on when the storm's going to end, too. If it's started, you know, the night before and it's going to end at five or six o'lock and we know it's going to stop, then we can run around and clean everything up pretty good. Um, we generally have two trucks in the south end, two trucks in the center of town, two trucks in the new north end. When I say modified, compared to having three, three, and three. So, we're we're basically taking one truck out of each section of the city. And the two trucks a lot of the times we call it tandeming. So those main thoroughfairs that I'm talking about to get people in and out of the city, we'll take two trucks and tandem the road one direction, hit the other one, and just weave our way back and forth just keeping all the mains open. So depending on the severity of the storm and how hard it is snowing, there might be some conditions where it's it's never going to be bare pavement um conditions when we're plowing. And and is the timing of the storms do you think played into you know um the you know what people perceived like at commute times that you know the streets weren't properly um cleared in

well I think I think a lot of that was with the temperatures as well. I mean you know the state had a lot more salt than the local municipalities had because I saw a lot of comments you know Route 7's beautiful. Well, that's the state that does it, not the municipalities, you know. So, once you hit that that South Burlington line, you know, at the end of the interstate, yeah, our roads are probably not bare pavement. Um, same with coming from, you know, Wilston Road or or what have you. I think that had a lot to do with it as far as perception. As far as salt and and now I'm really curious, how much salt on hand do we have? Like say we have two days of severe storms, you know, we we only have so much that we're able to access.

Well, we have we usually have 500 to 550 tons. So, you know, in an average storm, we may use 100 ton or a little less. And that's trucks and sidewalk tractors. parks department as well uses that salt supply to to salt all their parking lots and then the traffic department takes salt to do their garages and and whatnot. So I in theory we would have enough for like a fiveday storm like salt on hand roughly.

Yeah. Yeah. You know and if it's an ice storm it's that's it's a totally different animal. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Because it's you're just you're putting salt down and you can just about watch it run down if it's on a hill, it's going to run down the road with the rain even though it's freezing. Y and normally I believe, sorry to interrupt, normally I believe supply is more consistent. This year, if I'm not mistaken, that such that if we were drawing down the supply, we would normally be able to replenish

a little quicker and more efficiently than we were able to this year given the kind of national shortage that uh the suppliers didn't prepare for. And that would be about like when you modification of the calibration of deicing. Is that where that came into play because you were worried about your supply of salt? Well, we always do and and using the the magnesium chloride allows you to use less salt because it it acts as a clumping agent as well. So, if you took just pure, you know, salt, not mixed with any chemicals, and you drive down the road, you can literally watch it just bounce around by pre-wetting. It just clumps and sticks to the road and then you add the traffic and the moisture

creates a brine which coats the road and that's actually what what does all the melting. Yeah. And you know, I think what people were speaking to, I think this winter was, you know, and I I could speak to this is, you know, I'd go to a private parking lot, you know, just over the line in South Burlington and it seemed like it was perfectly fine or, you know, going to, you know, where I live, I, you know, I pretty much drive into South Burlington to access a lot of the south end of Burlington. And you would see the the comparison of roads. I think this is where the question of people wondering about our plowing practices versus well that's a part of a lot. Yeah. Well well the other I would say the roads on the way.

So that your time council you could wrap up. Yeah. So just that comment. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you councelor Sang. Councelor Litwin.

Thanks. Um it's always tough to talk about this so late in the evening, but I want to thank um the folks plowing particularly who um were also pulled in to be doing recycling. And one of the big reasons I felt compelled to support um the transition temporary transition of our recycling program was because I was really concerned for their safety going plowing all night and then turning around and doing recycling in the morning. It was I was concerned about their safety and I was concerned about the safety of everyone else on the on the roads. Um we all know what it's like to be tired when driving and we shouldn't be. So, thank you for for that work. Um, I think we can do uh we can take this winter as sort of a a lesson of maybe reaching out. What I hear my fellow counselors saying is maybe reaching out to all the municipalities in the county to talk about did you have a an overage, did you have a shortage? It's my understanding that some towns had too much salt. So maybe having a better understanding uh just creating a plan for a future winner that um we could have a relationship and an agreement in place to buy their excess salt if they have it um or to share salt um if if able. Um the other piece I guess I would say um in terms of presentations like these it is helpful for me when I see those first slides you know of 33 early call-ins 10 early starts that sort of thing. Um I I love to see what that looks like the prior year or even like a a three-year window. So in the future maybe uh because then we can say well that probably costs us more money. Um, and additionally, having

an idea of what an early call-in costs us, um, is helpful because we do look at so many, um, budget line items, uh, particularly this time of year, all the numbers start to blur together. And, um, additionally, you know, one of the things that I noticed that was a little concerning to me was that you noted that prices continued to climb. Um, and uh, it was about a 13% just even this past year-over-year. So, $88 a ton to $99 a ton. And that the salt budget hasn't changed in nearly a decade. But it was pointed out that the council approves the salt line in the overall budget. And I just want to be clear, the council approves every line in the budget. And it's the director's responsibility to not only plan for those clims, but also tell us what's needed or tell the mayor what's needed because the mayor then presents the budget to us. So, we can't know, at least I won't speak for other colleagues, but I'll speak for myself, I can't know that the salt line budget hasn't changed in 10 years, and I certainly can't know what it should be instead of 285. So, Director Spencer, I hope you're taking notes. Um, I really expect a change in that line item to reflect the actual need. Um, and in addition, if the need wasn't met, then I see here that we established a $250,000 reserve fund in 2017 for unforeseen spikes in salt, labor, and fuel. And we haven't had to tap this yet. Now, I'm new to the council. This is only my start of my second term. I didn't I wasn't aware of this. Um, and I'm just sort of curious. And this is my last only question. Why did we not want to tap this this year given the state of some of the streets?

Well, we it wasn't that we couldn't buy salt, we just couldn't get salt. We had the money to pay for salt, we just couldn't get it. They they weren't shipping it up into our region.

Okay, I see. So, had we had uh so then going back to maybe an opportunity for um contingency planning with some of our towns and I I know councelor Carpenter often talks about the importance of regional government and how it would be nice if we had some regional resources. Maybe this is one of the ways we can have some um regional uh support. Who knows? maybe Chittening County Planning, whatever they're called, CCPRC, can can get in on the fun game of who's got the salt. So, thank you. I appreciate all the work you do. Um, and we'll talk more about it in the budget meetings about what the salt needs are.

I would add that the, you know, the governor did issue an executive order. This was more of a regional, if not national, uh, issue. I I wasn't aware I don't know that we were aware that other towns had a major surplus of salt. It was really an anomalous winter in terms of being able to access any salt supply from our normal suppliers, distributors and others. I know Lee and his team have reached out across the region including into New Hampshire. I think they called Canadian suppliers or distributors to try to get access to salt. So I think it was more about the anomalous nature of the supply this year, not that there was a lack of foresight. um given the governor's executive order that was meant to kind of reduce the uh if I recall it was reduce the regulations on truck uh trucking salt around the state like the hours they could operate it reduced some of those burdens to try to alleviate the pressures for a municipality. So this really was a statewide challenge to the best that uh you know we're educated on that. So, but certainly if there's ways to reach out more to other municipalities and find partnerships, that's never a bad idea.

Thank you, Councelor Litwin. Yep. Um, we'll go to Councelor Broadick and then I think we'll try to wrap this item.

Uh, thank you. Um, kind of building off of that, I I am wondering if you all are have any information from um in the aftermath of this um anything that has come down from the state on on what they um plan to do um in terms of responding to situations like this in the future and how and if you have heard things how that would affect Burlington. I I have not heard anything on that level. Um so the state does bid out salt salt contracts yearly and um I think there was two different suppliers that supplied the state. Unfortunately, we didn't qualify in any of those. So we had to go on our own to get our own salt contract which was through Cargill. So, I think that's some of the reason why the state had enough salt. But to Rob's point with the regulations to help other municipalities that weren't involved in that bidding process, they they relaxed the laws to allow the trucking to move it in. It just, you know, everybody I spoke with is just Cargill was not shipping salt up here. If you had Cargill as your vendor, they were not trucking it up past like I don't even New York or something. They were just holding rail cars there and that that's where they stopped. They were just dispersing it from there. And then later in the winter, we started to get some more loads from cargo mixed in through our distributor Barrett. Um, but I I think it's I don't anticipate I should say I hope this doesn't happen again next year. I'm hoping that you know Cargo Gill, they just didn't mine enough salt for the season based on previous winners.

Uh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Council Broadick. I do not see any other counselors in the queue on this item. Um, and so I think we will wrap this discussion item. appreciate DPW for the marathon session this evening. Uh and um we'll look forward to staying in touch on this and related issues. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thank you.

Um okay, so uh as a reminder, our rules require that we complete our deliberative agenda by 10:30 p.m. It is 9:15 p.m. right now. If we stick to the uh times that are allocated on our agenda to the remaining deliberative items, then we should be able to complete our agenda um before 10:30. So, just know that we may try to stick closer to um some of the times that are listed on the agenda this evening. Uh our next deliberative item is item 6.6 six um which is the capital plan report from the clerk treasurer's office and on this item Ashley will you be introducing the item or Katherine are you introducing it

I will give a quick introduction okay great so whenever you're prepared we'll turn the floor to you

thank you um I just want to introduce uh Ashley Parker our capital programs director and she is is a familiar face. Maybe less familiar is Sarah Birmingham, who is our grants associate and philanthropy advisor and also uh jack of all trades and has been helping Ashley um with the report that we're about to show you. Um and so with that, I want to make sure we have plenty of time um for an engaging conversation. So I will turn it over to you guys. Thank you, Katherine. Um, and thank you all for having us tonight. Um, it has been a little bit, but we have a really exciting update, I think, for you today. Um, Sarah has been really instrumental in getting u this off the ground. It's a really good connective communication tool that pairs really well with a planning map that we released for Tom Meeting Day last year. So, um, Sarah, I'm going to let you kick us off here. Um yeah, so the report was born out of some requests that Ashley was getting when she was going out to bond or the city was going out to bond and uh residents were asking asking for more information about certain projects. Um so she asked if I could write a few uh one-pages uh just detailing some of the bigger projects that people were asking about. Um, and that just kind of snowballed into several one-pagers, um, to the point where we had many and enough to make a full report. Um, and we started to pull in data with the help of Nancy Stson. Um, and we also worked with uh Warren Rich who is the GIS specialist on the map uh which Ashley's been working with him for a while on that. But that one shows uh where the projects are across

the city um and as they progress they will show you know at what level uh they have progressed um as long as well as the capital need uh for each fiscal year. So yeah, it contains a very wide variety of the projects uh across asset types and we tried to focus on you know things like the total cost uh the benefit to the community um and yeah things like that

and so it's a really exciting tool so I really encourage you u to please check it out and share um with your constituents. Um Sarah has helped also print out some postcards that we would like to distribute at some um city um city buildings um and give you to give to you all to help share with with other folks. Has a QR code helps you get linked right up to both the map and and the report so people can learn more about what we're doing. The other tool that we wanted to share tonight um is um one of the things that I have been wanting to do for a long time since taking this position a few years ago was to try to come up with a system for evaluating and prioritizing our capital needs. Um this year we have a matrix that we have started to implement um and apply across um projects that are both ongoing but also requiring additional um resources to sometimes get off the ground or to continue. Um you know this is going to be a system that provides a weighted numerical value so that we then end up with um a ranking of projects across asset types. Um, it'll help us better plan for our all of our needs over time. It also will be an opportunity to create transparency and equity with our stakeholders. I want to just show you the table. This is um the evaluation criteria and the point values assigned for each one. And there are various questions in an online form that project teams, departments um fill out which then responses get weighted um with a numeric value um that I collect um in a spreadsheet to then pop out a total value um so that we can put everything together. Um just want to note at the bottom there you'll see our fleet assets are actually

going to continue to be scored and prioritized. they use a very specific um software that is only for fleet assets and so that will be their metric um for prioritizing um then their needs um in the in the materials tonight we shared with you the first um priorization ranking um in your packet this is a very small picture of it here but um you'll see I think it's like a three-page document you'll see all the projects and all the rankings things. This is the first round of this. Um I fully expect some of these um projects, most of them actually, to likely go through a re-evaluation process again as projects advance, reach new milestones uh or we learn more about um the needs of different projects. Um this will I think really give us an opportunity to help you know all departments evaluate their work plans um so we can ensure consistency with this prioritation um for funding. I've already been using this to also help. You'll see this in I think a couple of weeks um when I give the general fund capital budget presentation, but the allocations um for FY27 I'm proposing are based off of this priorization framework and all FY27 requests have received an aotment. You'll see that in the coming months. And it pairs really well with um the needs as we talked about during town meeting day being connected to deferred maintenance and urgent um asset need. I think that's really it. Um but please, you know, I'm we're open for feedback here. This priorization matrix especially is so new and it will likely change and evolve as the city's needs change and evolve. And so I want to be very upfront with that as well. Um this will be an ongoing dialogue for sure.

So great. Thank you very much for the presentation. We'll now open the floor to any comments or questions from counselors. Councelor Shakar, sorry. Could you Are you good? I Yes. I feel like I've jumped in a lot tonight. So if anyone else wants to speak up, they can go first. But Well, we have a 13 minutes schedule, so I think we're going to try to Great. Keep to the clock. Yeah. Hop right in. Okay.

Um, thank you. This is a great I think framework for acknowledging we have a lot more need than we have the resources to meet. Um I'm curious and I just kind of want to name that I think uh well I'm curious sort of who assigned numerical values within the prioritization criteria. Is that city staff? Is that is there like a group working on that? How does that work?

That's a really good question. Um we had worked um internally with the capital committee, the administration. Um I also looked at uh BTR actually has an interesting ranking system for capital projects. Um so I tried to pull together from resources too that are already in process and in motion rather than trying to recreate a wheel. Um so that's that's that's how it's been initiated.

Yeah, I appreciate that. And I also just want to name that I you know I I could I think it's a much longer conversation that I'd welcome the opportunity to have of like even within each of these criteria how do we define it? So the the first one community impact like even that alone could have many criteria within it of what we're talking about and a few things stood out to me in looking at the list. Um because you know community impact it's right it's just a little vague and also critically important like what does that mean? But um when I was looking at the project ranking list, I noticed that like it stood out to me that there were some smaller neighborhood parks ranked very high, but community assets like Fletcher Free were pretty low, yet that reaches everybody in the community with no barrier to use. And so like how you define community impact feels um like worthy of its own conversation in and of itself. Um, so I just kind of want you can respond to that and then

Yeah. No, it's a good question. So I what I didn't share is the series of questions that goes along with each of these criteria. So the community impact has at least three different questions that connects to it. So it looks at um public safety, it looks at um health, well public health and safety. Oh my goodness. and um oh business and like business um impacts. So we're looking at um ensuring you know how we're taking care of our our economic needs. Um I'm forgetting this third one. There are three of them, but I can share this with you all so you can see the questions. One of the things that came up with the Fletcher project is where it's at in its process. So the Fletcher free renovation project is at the very early stages of design. It's at con it's still at conceptual. They're designing it but it's very early. And so what I'm trying to make sure that we're doing is that we're actually incorporating. So like you know say we'll just talk about accessibility. So say somebody wants to check the box. We we're going to do accessibility but the plans don't have that defined yet. So, I'm trying to encourage teams to understand that uh that not only are we going to say, "Yep, we're going to do accessibility even though we don't have plans," that we're going to have plans that have accessibility already in them and that we're doing them. So, they're designing these plans. I'm envisioning they're going to re-evaluate the project um maybe with even within three months here to then give it a higher ranking. Um, I just want to make sure that we're funding projects and getting things done that are we're doing what we're say we're going to do instead of coming up with plans that are not doing what we said we were going to do.

No, I appreciate that. Um, I will say since I I I guess I was the one who brought Fletcher Free out into the open that my understanding and having served on pack this year is that, you know, they've raised half of, you know, almost $20 million towards the project and that theou we have in place is that as soon as I think it's 85% of the funds are in hand, the construction begins. So, I don't actually think that one is very is actually quite as early stage conceptual, my understanding of it. Um, so I think that would be maybe a conversation we could have offline because I think um, there's been so much support raised for that project that I think it's important for the city to prioritize making some investment in it, right? So that we can help kind of see it through and show that we're invested as well. It's been a lot of private philanthropy. Um, but that's a separate thing I'd love to follow up. And I think it would be very interesting to see the criteria um, just more broadly. I think this is a really interesting exercise and a really important starting point and I can only imagine the work that's gone into it. Um but I yeah I'll stop there because I'm at time but thank you.

Thank you councelor Shaker. Councelor Litwin.

Thank you. Um Council Shakar kind of like uh teed me up nicely for my only questions really. Um, I think a lot about systems like these, um, which are great and they're great systems for, uh, equally applying a metric to sort of all sorts of projects, but um, then we get into the question of equity, right? And one of the questions I have is like who's filling out this form and what implicit biases does that individual t come um take with them to the table when they're saying say let's say answering the question on connect uh excuse me on um community impact right like does that person and so we're not seeing the questions tonight and I assumed there were questions which is fine so I guess the question I have for you is How are you engaging the REI office? Um, and for the public out there, this is another example, and I'm just going to keep saying this for like, thank you for voting to charter it because when we don't have offices like these in place, we don't have a resource to send directors and departments to who are doing this type of evaluation. So, uh, a if you could tell me a little bit about like what work you've done with REI, uh, or plan to do with REIB. um to sort of take this project into a great space um with an equity lensed approach, but also the um to what degree you've been able to engage the um accessibility uh advisory committee, which I see Katherine smiling, so she's she's been uh championing that for a while. So, thanks

Ashley, if it's okay with you, I'm just gonna start and then I'll hand it over to you. Um something that both uh counselors have just raised is sort of the issue around broad engagement on this and something that I think Ashley might take for granted but hasn't been highlighted that I just wanted to bring to the four is that the capital committee I think is one of the city's best examples of a truly um cross sectoral I think we have representatives from every department that even touches capital. And so recognizing that there are implicit biases when the sort of like host department like Mary filled out um the uh application, so to speak, um for getting the Fletcher free renovation onto the list, but then the entire capital committee reviews it. I mean, first Ashley does to make sure nothing's been missed, but then we have a full debate. We the capital committee meets, I think, twice a month. And um we fully debate these things as they come on. So, it's really getting a robust look and then I'll let um Ashley answer more specifically for the accessibility and REI pieces. But I did ask slashvallintel Ashley to join the accessibility committee maybe two years ago. So she is very engaged in that.

I think my name's actually in the resolution or for the committee. Um yeah. So no, it's a really good question about RAIB and it is the equity um question is definitely one that I wanted to have in the initial round of uh criteria questions. Um, I think Kelly was just coming on board around the time that we were really, this work started back in September, October of last year. So, we were been working on this for more than six months. Um, and I have met with Kelly and I've reviewed all this with her and I intend to continue working with the REI team to I feel like the RIB team should be guiding us in that work and defining for us how we should be evaluating what is the data we need, what is the information that departments should look for. So I do fully intend to add more questions to this init initial like list of questions and criteria. Um, and the accessibility piece, I serve on the accessibility committee. Um, and I have brought this to their attention so they are aware of it and I hope to engage again with them more. The accessibility piece actually is called out as one of the community impact questions specifically. And so, um, and that's where again, you know, I will share these questions so you guys can see what the departments and teams fill out, what they're asked to answer. Each of the questions also has like a example of what an answer would mean like a definition so people know what we're looking for. Um it has been challenging. There are biases in in terms of answering questions or you know everybody is they're advocates for their projects and that's that's how it should be. But it does make it challenging when you're trying to really figure out what um what are the priorities of the city today and what are the things that absolutely need to be funded today. Okay. And so that's been kind of the trick of putting this all together to figure out what works the best. So anyway, those were really those are

really good questions.

Thank you. Thank you, councelor Litwin. I do not have any other counselors wishing to be recognized on this item. Uh so with that, gratitude and thanks for the presentation and we'll look forward to many ongoing discussions about a number of the projects that are mentioned and thank you for the postcards. All right. Uh, that brings us now to item 6.7. This is an item that was on our consent agenda. It's a proposed ordinance on gross receipts sponsored by councelor Bergman. As the recommended action on this is referral to committee. Uh we don't have time specific time set aside for this item, but we'll ask uh to the extent possible that counselors keep their comments limited on it given the uh preliminary language on it. Um councelor Bergman, you you are the main sponsor on the item, so I'd be happy to give you the opportunity to introduce it and then I'll likely turn to councelor Singh who asked that it be put onto the deliberative agenda. But councelor Bergman, do you want to introduce the item? Yeah, first of all, I just want to apologize for not being over being there in person, but I got a health issue right around 3:00 that is continuing to raise uh havoc with me. So with that said, um I'd like to move to wave uh the reading the actual reading and approve the f as the first reading of the proposed gross receipts ordinance and to refer it to the ordinance committee to report back to the full council prior to the June 1st, 2026 uh city council meeting. and depending on the um the comments on it, I would like the floor back if necessary, but hope that I don't have to.

Okay. Uh thank you, Councelor Bergman, and we wish you very well with your health there. Sorry you couldn't be here this evening. Is there a second to councelor Bergman's motion to refer this to committee?

Second by councelor Carpenter. Um councelor Singh, you had asked that this be placed on the deliberative agenda. I'm happy to to give you the floor. Uh thank you, Council President Travers. Uh and also Jean, I hope you feel better uh also. Sorry you're not here uh to be with us. Um you know, I I commented on this last year and I'm going to say it again. You know, the two and a half uh gross receipts tax was was set to sunset two years ago. And each year we're we're trying to balance the budget on a a revenue source that keeps going down based on um you know the outstanding economic vitality of downtown and its continued challenges. You know, I want to be 100% honest. I I reached out to several restaurant tours um business owners um that I know from my time here being in the city and each one of them declined to come um because they feel that a lot of times they are not treated well when they come to city council. you know, some cited even signing a petition is sometimes makes them a target of u of undue duress, you know, based on a taxation policy. Um, and I just want to echo what they said, you know, affordability. We talk about affordability all the time here. Um, but yet we keep trying to raise revenue sources. Um, and we're doing it on the backs of of what's happening down in our downtown district. You know, I've said it before that I I understand that we've talked about this previously where it's, you know, a dollar on a $100 bill at a restaurant. You know, that that's certainly the demand side of the equation. I would suggest that we understand the supply side of the equation um that these retailers, restaurant tours and other business owners are facing and the pressures they

feel uh as prices rise, as margins gets thinner and as uh actually business activity has gone down. um and we can see it in the um adjacent um communities seeing restaurants that were very popular here pop up in those communities and I think that speaks to uh a ongoing trend certainly in the United States but also speaks to us not addressing um certain issues within downtown. So thank you. Thank you councelor Singh. Uh councelor Bergman I see your hand raised so we'll go back to you.

Yes. So let me let me just get it back. First of all, it's 50 cents, not a dollar on $100. Important. Katherine, I would like to hear from you um what we raise and sort of how stable this this is. Thank you. Um yes, sorry. Talk for one more minute, Gan, while I pull this up, please. Councelor Bergman, if you don't mind.

I I'll I'll talk for just briefly. I don't want to argue this out on the floor for first reading. So, I hope that we will refer it where the Democrats have two of the three um counselors on the on the committee. But this is to my mind an essential um revenue source that if we do not continue it is going to punch a huge hole in the budget and I find it to be irresponsible to um to do that. we will have the conversation. This uh item also um has other technical fixes and um that are very important. So referring it uh tonight uh will be um I think very very important. Um, and I look forward to the uh the debate about uh the impact of a discretionary half 50 cents on a $100 bill that um is somehow negative to uh to owners. Uh but I'd like not to have that uh that fight tonight. Thank you. And Katherine,

yes, I'm ready. Thank you. Excellent. Here, did I I filibustered long enough? You sure did.

Thank you. Um, for this year, we have budgeted uh the gross receipts at $6.8 million and we are projecting to meet or slightly exceed that budget. And for next year, we are budgeting at $7 million. And uh aside from the pandemic years, um we have found gross receipts to be a relatively stable um source of income. Um and I have all of um the receipts on that, so to speak. Um pun was not intended, but I do have those receipts. Um so I'm happy to go through what this has looked like over the years. um both with the 2% and the 2.5%. Um but it has been a significant source of revenue for the city.

Thank you. Um nothing further for me at this point. Hopefully nothing further for me on this at all except to vote. Thank you, Councelor Bergman and CIO Shad. Uh councelor Barlo, did you want to briefly get in here?

I do. Um I will be supporting the referral to ordinance where we can have this discussion and deliberate it more fully. Um I think that's appropriate. Um but but I will say that I also share some of the concerns that I know uh councelor Singh has and at the most recent uh plan BTV 2050 pack meeting the economic trends that were shared with us verify what we already know and that business activity is down in Burlington. So, we need to be thinking about ways to uh revitalize and reinvigorate business in Burlington. Um, and I worry that uh continuing um some of the taxation and fee uh regimen that we have is not necessarily the way to do that. I do recognize that we um we've become dependent on this um temporary source of revenue. So, we we need to navigate that as well. So, I agree with councelor Bergman. This might not be the place to do it tonight, but um we will have a robust discussion, I'm sure, in the ordinance committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Barlo. I see three other counselors in the queue. I'm going to ask if councilors could please keep their comments to no more than two minutes um because we do need to try to complete our deliberative agenda. So I see councelor Litwin and then councelor Grant and then councelor Shakar. I I won't hold it hard to two minutes but if we could just please try that would be great. Councelor Litwin challenge accepted. Um I just want to say I will also uh support looking at this because I too love receipts. Um, so I'm looking forward to getting into um sort of what our gross receipts have looked like and and making an informed decision based on data. Um, but I do just want to point out that um I have not supported sunsetting this from the very beginning. Uh, have never wavered in that. Um, and so I'm not sure what the comment about from councelor Bergman around Democrats, but this has been a nonpartisan issue, uh, because I am a Democrat and I have supported the the, uh, keeping it. So, I hope we'll avoid any further partisan politics. Thank you.

Okay. Uh, thank you, Councelor Litwin. Litwin, councelor Grant, and then Shakar.

Thank you. So, um, a few things. So when we think about downtown, we have to really start to think of the central district as a whole. That's been a huge issue for this council. What's good for the central district is good for all the businesses that are located in the central district. Um as well as the residents. We must not forget about the residents because this just isn't about a burden on the backs of businesses. It's about a burden on the backs of residents as well. we have to spread that burden. Um, so I do believe this should be made permanent because we are going to continue to have to look at other ways to address the budget gap. And this is a um it's a consumption tax. And so when we think about our tourism, I think that as we work to um bring people back downtown, we have to be unified in how we do that. I did a series of videos last year that were really wellreceived where I one evening on a Friday night sat in City Hall Park for I think it was from like 8:30 to uh 12:30 a.m. And I was talking to a variety of people who were walking through the park and asking them why were they in downtown Burlington at that time on a Friday night. And without going and plus not having the time, I would just say there were just some really beautiful responses um from people who lived in the city, who had traveled to the city, how they felt about the city. And I had a fellow counselor denigrate those videos and denigrate my effort to spread joy in the central

district. And we need to spread joy. We need to continue to talk about what Burlington is about and we need not to tell people to bring firearms when they're shopping downtown. That doesn't help us. So, we have to be more mindful of these things and how we work together. And I am uh thinking about an initiative that um was brought up by uh business uh group last year about uh but then nobody took it on. So, I'd like to take it on, but it's about we are Burlington. I am Burlington. And we have to figure out how we're going to promote our city because we can't expect Canadians to come back in the numbers that they have been visiting anytime soon. So, more to talk on that, but let's be really honest about what we're doing here and and how we make certain statements that are meant to be political or to get political points. That's the reality of a situation. Thank you,

uh, Council Shakar, and then I think we'll try to go to a vote. Um, thank you. I'll be very fast. Um, CEO Shod, sorry to put you on the spot, but is it correct? I know I if I'm remembering correctly that last year when we were also discussing whether or not to extend this 0.5 additional percentage point that would be about a million dollars in our bottom line.

Yes, that is about correct. And when you say that gross receipts have been relatively stable, is that that the dollars have remained the same even as we raised the rate? Um that as we have that it as we have budgeted it, it has been a stable source of revenue. It has grown as we have raised it. We have seen um as we look at two things. how much money we receive as the city as a source of revenue and also um what that data is telling us about net sales and we are seeing um that there has been a drop since COVID um but that data isn't showing us um a large drop. I would have to look at it to see exactly what that is. Um but I would say uh it appears that the perception about the drop in business seems greater than what the numbers bear out.

Okay. Thank you. That's really helpful. And I guess the the only thing I'll say is um when I think about this tax, I think it absolutely makes sense in a lot of ways. I think, you know, I I'm curious if businesses have absorbed it, seeing as it's always been branded as temporary, and I think they we all deserve clarity on whether or not this is here to stay. Um, I don't know if some businesses have held back on kind of passing it all along, reprinting menus and things like that or not. Um, but I also want to be aware that when I've seen regional economic data, we do have a slower economy at the moment. I see Cara coming over. That's amazing. um you know that I think relative to some of the surrounding towns we are stagnating a bit and so what I also am thinking about and now I don't know if this 0.5% makes makes or breaks much but you know if the cost of a sandwich next door is um $8 and here it's $10 because we have a much higher tax rate like is that also keeping people from coming and at what like where's that tipping point? Are we thinking about this? I'm not saying that's happening. These are questions. I'm I'm sort of just wrestling with myself to to really understand um doing right by absolutely everybody who who lives here and calls Burlington home. Um and making sure that we're like really thoughtfully tackling this issue as part of our broader affordability crisis. But Cara, please by all means.

Sorry. And it might not make sense for me to jump in right now and I'm happy to go to ordinance committee to discuss this further. The reason I jumped up to the microphone was you said something about reprinting menus and I wanted to be clear this is a this is an at the register tax. People are not changing their pricing for this. This is you you book a hotel room, you book it at at 250 for the night and somehow when you check out it's 265.

Got it. Um, so these are fees that are collected from the consumer and and I will note that councelor Grant notes that these are our residents who will be paying this. So that that I understand. But this is um you look at the menu, it says $10 for the burger and then when the check comes there's the tax at the bottom. Got it?

So th this doesn't impact actual pricing on the menu. This is a and there is a lot of studies done including by the Federal Reserve and I'll be happy to discuss this um in ordinance committee that states that there is very little impact on consumer behavior. Um it's called a tax salience. Um there's very little impact on consumer behavior when it's charged at the register. um when it is included in the price tag. However, that's usually when when consumer behavior is altered. Thank you. But I'm happy to discuss it further in order.

That's great. No, thank you. This is great info and I I don't mean to move to deliberation. I was I was mostly wanting to flag this sort of like bottom line revenue change. Should we not extend this? Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, councelor Shakar. Were there any other counselors that wanted to speak on this item? Okay. Uh, councelor Newbieser, I think we'll we'll go to you. We've been holding counselors to two minutes here. I think we'll try to wrap up with you and then then go to a vote.

Um, yeah, just really quickly because I know this is an ongoing discussion and um, some of this discussion will happen and ordinance committee obviously moving forward um, but because we've been talking about this for as long as I've been on council, I think the $8 sandwich is actually a great uh, example, right? It's actually not the difference between, you know, and for the public's benefit, $8 and a $10 sandwich. It's the difference between $8 sandwich, you pay 16 cents in gross receipts, or an $8 sandwich and you pay 20 cents in gross receipts. Um, so that's the sort of impact we're talking about. Um, and I and I do want us to keep that in perspective and um for the public to keep that in perspective. like it's it's four cents um on that eight dollar sandwich.

Okay, Council Broad, I think we were try I mean we'll go to you. I I I'm mindful of the fact that we have 38 minutes before 10:30. So, okay, go ahead. I just wanted to add on to councelor Newbieser's point that and now comparing us to other towns, it's you're getting maybe you're getting the $8 plus 16 cent sandwich in a different town. and then or the the $8 plus 20 cents and you're here in Burlington, which I think we can all agree is a great is a great place to to be for more reasons uh than a sandwich, though we have great sandwiches. Uh thank you.

I think we can agree on the sandwiches. So, thank you, Councelor Broadick. Um all right, the vote is on referral to the ordinance committee with some counselors online. I'll ask that the clerk please call the role on this item. Councelor Barlo. Yes. Councelor Bergman. Yes. Councelor Brick. Yes. Councelor Carpenter. Yes. Councelor Grant. Yes. Councelor Litwin. Yes. Councelor Mcnite.

Yes. Councelor Newbieser. Yes. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Yes. Councelor Shakar. Yes. Councelor Singh. No. City Council President Travers. No. 10 eyes, two nays.

10 yeses and two nos. The motion carries. And this will be off to the ordinance committee for them to report back before June 1st, 2026. Thank you. Um, our next item is item 6.8. I'm actually going to ask uh, Director Alry and and Director Dillard, though. Um, item 6.9 is a public hearing regarding a proposed zoning amendment and and given the hour 9:54 p.m. and my knowledge that we do have members of the public who would like to participate in that hearing. Um, absent objection, I would like to turn to the public hearing now so that does not happen any closer to midnight than we already are and for this to try to happen in some sort of figurative daylight. Um, and so if there if there's no objection, I'd like to go ahead and turn to item 6.9, which is the public hearing regarding zoning amendment 2603, the transportation demand management exemptions for affordable housing. Uh we're opening that public hearing at 9:55 p.m. And we'll first open the opportunity to anyone here in person in city hall who would like to participate in that public hearing. And then if there's anyone online that wishes to participate in that public hearing, we'll ask that you please use the raise hand function on Zoom. Uh I see we are joined by member of the public here in city hall. And so if you could please introduce yourself and we'll turn it to you. Uh, sorry. Microphone

button. There you go. Um, I've certainly been here after midnight, so I appreciate uh wanting to go quickly and I'll try to go quickly. I had 20 minute presentation, but I'll give you three minutes if I can. Michael Monty. I'm the C director of Champlne Housing Trust, CEO of Champlne Housing Trust. And just briefly here to support the sort of the amendment that is before you on transportation demand management. Um you in 2022 and 2023 and again in 2025 you looked to essentially saying that affordable housing projects did not have to pay uh sort of the costs of transportation uh demand management. That's different than us doing work to ensure that our residents have resources and opportunities uh and to give them support to do other things. Uh but basically the cost is fairly significant. our costs in insurance, taxes, maintenance costs, uh, and frankly the services that we're providing residents, which nobody pays for, um, has exceeded and dramatically increased, certainly even since 2022 when you first did this. And so adding additional cost, which is actually fairly illdefined at this point in the transportation demand and management system, uh, adding additional costs is a struggle. In the last two or three years, our receivable rent receivables have tripled. Okay. Uh our residents now need more services than ever. If it gets to a uh what we want to be able to do is support our residents uh in any way possible and adding additional cost is not really what we need to do. Um many many of my colleagues who uh throughout uh the state and certainly in the country who develop and support nonprofit housing are struggling with sort of the cost of development, the cost of ma of management, the cost of keeping uh things together and and if we

have an extra penny or dollar um we are doing everything we can and providing support to residents to do what they need to do. Um, you know, I think we'll support the outreach and education. We'll um and let me just say that most of the rental residents that we have um don't have cars. And let me just also say they aspire to have a car. That's an aspiration. It's an interesting little twist here. But many of the folks who live in our housing look for the day when they can take their family in a car someplace. We are already having a fairly decent demand management. uh in terms of the folks people the folks who are living in our housing who are in fact low-inccome and moderate income and it's it's already self-imposed by the conditions of the income and the resources that they already have. uh getting them to a place where they can be successful and have own a car someday is actually something that we want to have happen which is different than giving them the choices and opportunities for bikes and for knowing what can happen with public transit and to know that there are alternatives while they do it. Uh but we we we want to lean into transportation demand management but certainly adding the cost of that system uh is not what we want to be able to do. We can't really afford it. And I'm speaking on behalf of um uh my colleagues, Cathedral Square, Ever North, uh Cott who couldn't be here this evening asked me to come and sort of just speak briefly. Again, I had more pages than that. I did this briefly, so I know you're at it. You're um um you're running late. And let me just say thank you for letting me go forward. I appreciate that a lot.

No problem. I saw you in the back there, Michael, so why I appreciate it. Get you in here. Um, are there any other folks here at city hall who would like to be heard in this public hearing before turning online? All right. I do see two individuals with their hands raised online. If we could please promote Sharon Busher first and then we'll turn to Evan Gold. Um, Sharon, you you should be able to go ahead and unmute yourself.

Okay. Thank you so much, President Travers. Um I am also uh speaking in support of the proposed amendment. Um and I I just wanted to say that you know Michael Monty spoke about the the resources that he has available and how all of the most of them go obviously to create and sustain affordable housing for people and I appreciate that. And then another person, Cindy Reid, who I know, spoke to me at length about how TDM and those and using housing resources to support TDM like car share or free bus passes just wasn't in the cards. They don't have those resources. Um and and I got a good education. Um, and I also really value I have been work trying to make affordable housing be more a part of our housing solution for years and years and years. So I certainly value that and I don't want to compromise it. Um, and I understand there's the educational component that goes along with affordable housing and there's also the other aspect of the um uh knowing the inventory of of who's who needs what. I guess I can't really um speak to that aspect of it, but um they can't do car share. They can't do free bus passes. So my question is for those of you around the table that came forward with the TDM proposal, um what do we do? Who is responsible to meet the needs of those people that Michael spoke so well about who can't

afford a car if they what is how do they get transport themselves from their place where they live to where they need to go? Now, I was also educated by counselor Carpenter who told me that a lot of the members that live in affordable housing have access to free bus passes. I don't know if that's everybody. I don't know that criteria but I still think it begs the question of looking at you know affordable units being exempt but then also if we are serious about transportation demand management and actually meeting people's needs then who does who is responsible for that burden so I support the amendment I understand it but I still think we leave people without transportation access and I think that's a problem. So, thank you.

Thank you, Sharon. Um, the last individual I see with their hand raised online is Evan Gould. If we could please promote Evan. Evan, you should be able to unmute yourself. Yep. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes.

Cool. Um, yeah. I also wanted to speak in support of this amendment. I uh kind of spoke at the planning commission as well. Uh I think if you look at the statistics, the rate of car ownership like Michael Monty said in kind of the income brackets that are served by their units is much lower. Um, and so they don't have as large of an impact on the traffic system or transportation system as you'd expect. And so I think if we're trying to encourage affordable housing, having those exemptions in place makes sense. Um, and it seems like this was kind of an oversight. Uh I will say the one kind of thing that I said during the planning commission and um other meetings is I think this could probably be broader um because the reality is even for like I units etc when they're in a building um they would still have to comply with TDM and then effectively what we're doing is attacks on top of attacks um which ends up getting passed on to every other unit. And so I think it's worth taking a deeper dive in kind of the the TDM management strategies and how they interact with affordable housing. But at the end of the day, I think um it was unfortunate. I was on the uh I was at the DRB hearing when we had to deny um the exemption to this for the units of Cambrian Rise. Um we were kind of hamstrung with how the ordinance is written. So I think in the short term this addresses that issue. There's a lot of projects coming online there. Um, so I am supportive of this uh ordinance. Um, even though I don't feel like it necessarily goes kind of far enough, but that's my two cents. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone anyone else here in person or online who wishes to participate in this public hearing? If online, please use the raise hand function. If you're in person, please come forward to the table. I'll ask once more if there's anyone else who wishes to participate in this hearing. All right, seeing no one, we will close the hearing then at 10:05 p.m. and um appreciate the the cooperation of the council and staff with the remaining deliberative items. I I think you were going to have to be here anyway. So, I appreciate your uh accommodating the movement of the agenda here. So, we'll now double back to item 6.8 or do you want to let's just let's wrap up this one. Let's wrap up this one. Okay. So, abs absent objection, right? Um, we will turn to item 6.10, which is the ordinance that we just did the public hearing on, the the TDM exemptions for uh affordable housing. And uh, Director Dillard, appreciate your being here uh, along with staff from your department to present on this.

Thank you. Thank you, Council President Traverse. Um, and thank you for letting us continue this item. Um, you all have not met, at least at this table, our senior planner, Stella Jordan. Um, I think all of you have met her elsewhere, but um, Stella's been managing this effort. Uh, she's gonna get to go home after this. She doesn't have to stick around for the next item. So, I appreciate that. Um, yep. I'm just going to introduce this one. This one had a atypical path to you all. It originated in the council ordinance committee. The planning commission did receive it. I think Stella can talk about about that process a little bit. Um, but without further ado, we'll just jump into this and just be brief and and I'm happy to sort of answer or respond to any of the comments, questions that you heard um from public forum.

All right. I'm just going to provide a little bit of background on this amendment and I will try to be quick um so that we can get to our final business tonight. Um but yeah, as Charles mentioned, this was a little bit of an unusual process. Um this amendment actually originated with the city council ordinance committee um who in February held a discussion with affordable housing developers um to hear some of the concerns that some members of the public raised tonight and um at that meeting requested that office of city planning staff draft this amendment uh to address some of those concerns. And so, um, just to recap the discussions to date, uh, after that, the city council ordinance committee reviewed our draft of this amendment and recommended referral to both the planning commission for review and to the city council. That happened concurrently. And then the planning commission discussed this amendment on March 10th. And just to recap quickly, um, some of the, uh, things that commissioners expressed during that discussion, ultimately pretty broad support for this amendment as a correction, um, to clarify the original intent of our TDM ordinance, but raised some concerns about the unusual amendment process and also expressed, as some members of the public did tonight, a desire for deeper discussion on the impacts of affordable housing TDM exemptions. um to be thought about more in the future. Um so the purpose of this amendment really is to address some of these challenges that have been raised by developers of affordable housing specifically at Cambrian Rise um who've cited financial and administrative barriers that they're facing to compliance with our existing TDM ordinance. And specifically this is

around clarifying the definition of affordable projects in relation to TDM requirements to ensure that um those those barriers are addressed. Um and so here is the current language about affordable projects in our ordinance. Um we exempt affordable projects from t most TDM strategies. So really what applies here for affordable projects is education and outreach and a TDM agreement. However, this current definition does not clearly express um whether planned unit developments whether affordable buildings and planned unit developments would uh fall under this definition. So um in addition to that, we actually found that um the the barriers in question raised by affordable developers at Cambrian Rise um actually also stemmed from a waiver of maximum parking limitations that was applied to the entirety of the Cambrian Rise PUB including those affordable buildings. So, in addition to changing just the definition in that table of what constitutes an affordable project, um we also needed to go in and look at the waiver of max parking limitations. So, this amendment addresses those two things. The the section regarding waiverss of maximum parking limitations again to really clarify that affordable project shall only comply with the initial intent of this ordinance, the education and outreach requirement and the TDM agreement. and then clarify the language in the affordable projects definition of our TDM ordinance um to expand that to cover specifically affordable buildings within planned unit developments. Um so here's that language. Um and here is that additional

definition. And so including buildings again within a PUB um in that broader definition of affordable projects. Um I also just want to point out and uh reiterate um in also in response to some of the comments that have already been raised today. Um there are a couple of other planned uh amendments in progress and one of those is a more comprehensive TDM ordinance update um as well as the inclusionary zoning policy updates that the office of city planning is working on. Both of these are opportunities to really dig into this topic in more depth. Um, and specifically with our our broader TDM ordinance rewrite, really looking at reassessing and rebalancing our requirements, instituting a pointsbased system, incorporating recommendations from the transportation options study. Um, and also continuing to really dig into uh this question of TDM requirements for affordable housing development in particular. Um, and I'll just state a couple of quick examples. So, other cities that we've been looking at specifically credit affordable projects in their calculation of TDM requirements really to acknowledge um the trip reduction benefit that these developments offer. Um, and also many cities tailor their TDM strategy options to better meet the needs of affordable housing residents, which also then provides more choice and flexibility to developers. So, those are all things that we're going to be continuing to talk about. Um, again, this ordinance is really sort of a a quick fix in the interim.

All right. Thank you very much for the presentation and for being here late in the evening. Um, are there any counselors with comments or questions on this item? Uh, council president, could we could we could I make a motion to wave the the second reading and adopt the ordinance and get us uh on track here? You may. I can. Thank you. I'd like to do that. I I make that motion to wave the the second reading and adopt the ordinance and have the floor back for a very um brief uh second. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Thank you, Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Thank you.

Oh, you reporting. Oh, can we call it a second? Okay, we'll call it a second. Um, councelor Bergman, happy to give you the floor back.

Thank you. And I I I hate to say that I'm going to actually rely on Sarah and uh and Mark to do some heavy lifting given this this issue that I've got. But I just want to say I was the um the initial sponsor and the uh the pusher of the um TDM ordinance uh that we haven't adopted um based on what the parking minimum elimination that we did uh those many years ago and um it was always the intent to do what we are now correcting and in response to the public um forum comments or the public hearing comments. I think that the the last uh conversation from the planning office tells us that we are going to be getting into those issues, but this is something that's um that's necessary to deal with right now. And um I really hope that we can just adopt this unanimously. Uh the ordinance committee is going to be working very hard on inclusionary zoning and we've already talked about um uh the schedule for that. So, um this issue will um be on our agenda both committee and then the councils um over over the next year, but it will not happen um as quickly as this is needed. So, I hope we can support it. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Council Bergman. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? Councelor Shakar,

I'll just pop in very quickly. I'm happy to support this tonight. I think it's really important and um uh Michael to you and all of our affordable housing providers and developers in this community. Uh so much deep deep gratitude for your work. Um, and the one thing I want to name is just very aligned with um, what former counselor Busher was sharing, which is that, you know, when I was initially reading this and and thinking about this, it wasn't lost on me that I think some of the folks served by in these affordable housing developments are some of the folks who benefit most from access to public transportation. um and that um while I understand the financial burden of requiring affordable housing providers to um deliver on all the parts of the TDM ordinance as it's laid out. Um I really appreciate Michael the way I'm sure you and your team do a lot of connecting folks every day to access to how to use the bus line and access free bus passes that they're eligible for and all that. And so I I had some of those questions as I was reading this. Um and also just acknowledging that with PUDS and C like Cambrian Rise, we are adding a really high volume of people um in certain parts of our city where TDM I think potentially does start to play a role um and is an important part of the conversation. But um I really appreciate the way some of these concerns were addressed um through the public comment and and the comments made on the floor. Um, and so yeah, and mostly just uh gratitude. And the other thing I'll name is I it was just a little interesting to me the way uh this kind of kind of went through planning, kind of went through ordinance. And so thank you, Director Dillard, for responding to my question, just trying to understand the process here. Um, I feel like the cleaner we can keep things the better. But happy to support this tonight. Thanks.

Thank you, councelor Shakar. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item? Yep. Councelor Carpenter,

this uh Alli reminded me of it. When we plan for affordable housing, one of the very first things we look at is it on a bus route and we would not be dumping a gabillion dollars into these most of these projects if there's a bus route available. Now, some of the rural towns don't have it. So, I just want to call that out because that is definitely a planning criteria for affordable housing. Thank you, councelor Carpenter. Any other counselor that wants to be recognized here? We'll go to a vote then. Well, little time beep here in city hall. Uh all in favor of the motion made by councilman, please say I.

I. I. Any opposed? That carries unanimously. So, thank you very much. All right. We will now turn back to item 6.8. We have two deliberative items left. Item 6.8 and item 6.11. Um, we are likely to go a little bit beyond 10:30. And so we we will need a rule suspension in all likelihood to complete our deliberative agenda. Do we want to take care of that now? All right. Is there a motion to suspend our rules to complete our deliberative agenda? I will make that. I will second that. Who made the original motion? Councelor. Uh, I think I did.

Sorry. Councelor Sang, second by Councelor Litwin. Is there any discussion on that motion? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? All right. That is unanimous. So, our rules will be suspended to complete our deliberative agenda. So, we will finish with item 6.11. Um, all right. with thanks to folks for their patience and sticking around for uh this important item. Um so I'm appreciating that we're still getting to it. This is item 6.8, the build resolution report on housing barriers and associated recommendations, the office of city planning. Um SEO director Rawi, Director Dillard, Sarah Morgan, uh thank you for being here. Um who is taking the floor on this item?

Um we are going to tag team this. I will kick us off and then Sarah and I are going to go back and forth here and Cara is primarily here to answer questions. Um provide any more detail as needed. Um this always happens with Sarah's computer. Um so the resolution from January 12th made the requests that are here on the screen and it's just a time I'm not going to read over them. So we've structured this presentation to cover the administrative procedure and procedural and regulatory barriers, address coordination that is happening internal to the city, but also with our colleagues outside of the city. And finally to um lay out um the specific recommendations that we are making uh to address existing and persistent barriers to housing specifically those that are in the way of um the neighborhood code and infill housing in Burlington's neighborhoods. Um, so looking at the administrative barriers, I think there's long been um an interest in reforming uh the organization of the city to facilitate uh housing development. Uh the mayor's mod reorganization of city planning and moving it into CEDO is one of those um one of the strategies to address those barriers. I think um just in the few months that city planning has been moved into CEDO, we have seen our team working much more closely with CEDO's housing program, I think we've been meeting with uh a number of you over the last few weeks and we'll hopefully meet with the rest of you in the next week or so to talk about inclusionary zoning and I think that's one great example and we are specifically addressing the neighborhood code there. Um, the one-stop shop has been an effort since the 2019 reorganization that created the department of permanent inspections and the office of city planning. That is an ongoing effort to improve development

review processes and make them more friendly to applicants. Um, and as part of the Modgov process, the mayor has instructed me and other department heads to continue to work together to uh improve the one-stop shop uh process. Um these next two address um the relationship between city planning and DPI. Though we were split in 2019, we continue to work very closely. This first item is really about how we um understand how each of us is experiencing the sort of housing crisis in Burlington from our perspective creating policy and the department of permanent inspections is administering the ordinance and we meet regularly to understand trends that DPI is seeing in applications any barriers to housing and zoning and so that we can um identify necessary zoning amendments or work with project applicants to figure out a way to make projects move forward. And that relates to the next item which is advisory services which we routinely and regularly and without charge the public provide. We are constantly getting calls from small-scale developers, large-scale developers and we advise them on how the neighborhood code and other ordinances can um unlock uh housing potential on their properties. So all of these are ongoing aside from the office of city planning reorg having been completed. The next one is about procedural barriers. Um, permit permitting reform and just the process is is a persistent barrier and I don't want to sort of minimize that there the this issue there can be improvements to the development review process and there need to be those improvements. However, we continue to monitor permit data and I think one of the trends that we do see is that um as stated in the memo that you know we've seen just about 40 or under 40 applications for neighborhood code projects in the couple years that it's

been in place. And um while most of those the median sort of processing time is about 30 something days, we are finding that only a couple projects are moving through construction. We we can't really say what the reason for that is. Is it construction costs? Is it difficulty in finding contractors? We don't know. We we are doing a lot of work through the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative that Sarah's going to outline in just a moment to understand what those barriers are to developers and applicants. Um but that is um something we are noticing. 802 homes and pre-approved plans are other procedures that we are working on today. Um 802 homes is the state's pre-approved plans u model and we are also looking at our own internal uh pre-approved accessory dwelling units um proposals that we can talk a bit about more later. And finally, CHIP. Um so you heard about CHIP earlier in the executive session. um DFA, CEDO, and city planning staff have been working on a city policy framework that addresses um CHIP so that we can more quickly review applications that are coming in for CHIP and the neighborhood code is one of the criteria that we are exploring. Um projects that are using the neighborhood code, especially plan unit developments that need a bit of infrastructure work are going to score pretty highly in this framework. Um regulatory barriers. So there are persistent regulatory barriers that we know neighborhood code u parts one and two and 2b have removed a lot of the barriers to zoning. However, uh the most persistent ones that we see continue to be discretionary review and some other uh issues related to um dimensional standards and the lack of flexibility in the ordinance. And so we want to continue to monitor those and address those as needed. Act 181 um notably removes uh act 250 barriers to housing.

And while we want to balance uh the stress that uh tier 1A designation could place on city staff um in administering existing act 250 permits. We do um have as a goal applying for as much of the city as possible for tier 1A status. Um building and fire safety code is the final one. Um this is a an effort that we're going to take um with a lot of diligence and working with the fire marshall and uh inspection staff at DPI uh to really understand how we can balance um safety in our buildings with uh removing unnecessary barriers to housing. So Sarah's going to get into some of the coordination efforts that we've been engaged in.

Great. Thank you. Oh, this one's this one is louder. Um, so touching on the coordination, this was a good opportunity for us to take a little bit of an inventory of all of our different partners in all of our different housing work that we have going on. I'll briefly touch on the Bloomberg Harvard city leader leadership initiative. This is a cross departmental uh collaborative effort that is facilitated by the team at the CPI BCLI path to public innovation process. Uh, it's about a one-year process. We have departments. We have several representatives from several different departments having the opportunity to work together to identify a portfolio of housing uh housing solutions that are aimed at addressing our housing barriers. Some of these are listed in the uh in the memo and they range from anywhere from improving the quality of our existing housing, workforce development and also opportunities to develop more housing. So this is one where we have several other internal departments and uh involved in this process and we've also been able to uh base all of these portfolio recommendations on several months long of stakeholder engagement and interviews. Charles had just mentioned the 802 homes and pre-approved ADU plans. We've gotten to work with the state specifically ACCD and also other um municipal municipalities in the area who are working on the 802 homes package. So, we're excited to continue to work with the state on proactively identifying a pathway for Burlington's approval of the 802 homes package. Act 181, as Charles had mentioned, we have the goal of identifying land eligible for the tier 1A status. And with that, our team as well as the team at DPI are participating in a working group with nearby municipalities listed in this right column on how to kind of identify and share best practices on how to make tier 1A implementable in our communities, especially with um the potential workload on staff that that might increase.

A few other opportunities for coordination that we have. Uh we have the Chittening County Infill Housing Campaign with CCRPC, the Chittening County Regional Planning Commission. This is an education outreach campaign that we're doing along with South Burlington, Essex Junction, and Wooki focused on uh educating residents and providing opportunities for support for small-scale intel housing. I'm excited to share that we are kicking off our first panel of this series on Saturday, May 16th at 9:00 am Next Door at BCA Gallery. It's a uh peer-to-peer opportunity to learn from residents of both Burlington and other surrounding towns uh about how they made ADUs in their backyard work. Happy to circulate more information about that on our website and on the city's event calendar. Um we are also working continuing our strong partnership with ARP Vermont. Um, I'm sure many of you recall during the initial neighborhood code adoption process, AP Vermont was a huge sponsor of Infill Housing in Burlington. And we've gotten to continue that with technical assistance received by AP Vermont in the kind of taking form in a rental market analysis as well as infill housing test uh test fits on lots in Burlington that uh were specifically enabled by the neighborhood code part 2B. Lastly, building fire and safety code. This has been a great opportunity for us to really consider um partnership with the fire marshall water resources and DPI on potential reforms to Burlington and life safety or sorry Burlington's building and life safety code and kind of the um the nexus of cost and feasibility for construction.

Thanks Eric. So these next couple slides are going to outline um our own recommended next steps and in the resolution um you all requested u areas where CDNR and the full council could participate. So we've tried to identify those but I would say that um if there's interest in any of these we'd be happy to come to CDNR or any other committee and sort of talk about how we can get you all involved. Um building code reform is a topic that has been national. There are many states and cities that are embarking on building code reform for many reasons. You might have heard of single stair reform. We have mentioned that up here before in the last couple years. Um sprinklering is another issue. Um Burlington has quite rigorous sprinklering standards for accessory dwelling units and for missing middle housing types. And while building and life safety are top of mind for everybody, um it's been recognized by many municipalities and states across the country that sprinklers do add significant cost to housing despite other advances in building and life safety and the construction industry. And so, um, there has been a lot of legislation around the country to either limit, um, the requirements for sprinklers, uh, to not require sprinklers sprinklers at all or to just provide more flexibility. And those are the kinds of things that we want to do. Um we know this is a sensitive topic and we will be engaging with the fire marshall uh locally and fire officials of the state to understand how we can again balance safety issues with the need for more housing. And we feel this is especially important for a lot of the neighborhood code type projects that we are going to see smaller buildings three four units. I don't think we're going to be proposing removing sprinkler requirements for larger multif family

buildings. Um, but we do think it's worth taking a look at some of these smaller buildings. Uh, plan BTV 2050 is another effort to address the community's housing uh, perspectives and visions. Um, many of you know, there's a few of you on the advisory committee for that plan itself. We're going to be starting um from a perspective of how we can create 7,000 new housing units in the city over the next 25 years. And part of that is really understanding um the form, shape, location of all of that housing. Um and the neighborhood code needs to play a bigger role than it has. I think we've been very conservative in our projections over the last couple years. for example, with um water resources in DPW as they've created sort of sizing of infrastructure estimates for bonds and things like that. We've we've said 10 units here, 10 units there, about 30 neighborhood code units a year. We need to accelerate that. We need to increase the pace and increase the numbers totally. Um, and so we will be engaging with the community to really understand how we can unlock the neighborhood code and and uh create that evolution in our neighborhoods.

Um, can I jump in and just a plug for the kickoff of plan BTV Plan BTV 2050? Uh, starting it's kicking we're kicking off at one Main Street, the uh train station down the street on April 30th. We're going to have an openhouse style event from what is it? 3:30 to 8:00 p.m. We'll be there. And I just wanted to plug that while we're up here.

Thank you, Sarah. Um, and I do just want to note that counselor Shakar and um, Bergman and Newbies are I think that's everybody. Um, there's one more maybe. And Mark Barlo, sorry Mark, um, are on our advisor, it is late, are on our on advisory committee. And so I would um ask you to look to those colleagues for more information on plan BTB 2050. We're also happy to come and present on that at any time. Pre-approved building plans. Again, Sarah mentioned 802 homes, but essentially what this is is a state initiative to create pre-approved plans that um would be approved by those municipalities. We are working with ACCD. Um we are one of a few communities in the state that has delegated authority over our building code and fire uh life building life and safety code. Um so we will need to approve these municipally and a lot of the rest of the state once they are approved by the state uh building code they will be eligible for use in those communities. And so we're going to go ahead and do that work. We've already reached out, started a working group at the city to advance this and we're working with ACCD staff really to be a model for the rest of those communities in the state with that delegated authority. Um, not to get too personal here, but um, in my previous position uh, in the city of Raleigh, I did create that city's pre-approved accessory dwelling unit program. Um, I know how these programs work. It's something we can do if there's interest. Um I think there could be um great benefits not just for people looking to build housing but for the design and construction communities and uh businesses in this city. I know that it can be really beneficial for them. Um mentioned building uh where are we going? We are going to city-owned land and a priority parcel audit. So this is one of the big initiatives coming out of the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative and also the mayor's housing strategy. The priority parcel initiative

in particular is going to identify parcels in the residential districts um in which the neighborhood code rules could really be uh utilized to create more housing. So, we're going to be looking at properties that we know are likely to be sold or might um lend themselves particularly well to plan unit developments in the neighborhood code rules. Um and so over the next sort of half six months or so, we're going to be identifying those parcels and starting to do community outreach uh with owners and others. Um continuing to look at other city- owned land as well. The city does own some land where the neighborhood code could be um implemented. Um so more on that later. Upcoming CDO amendments. Um, we have been meeting with a number of you on inclusionary zoning and one of the topics we've been addressing throughout is the housing trust fund and how we can uh expand and diversify the way the city uses the trust fund including uh but not limited to infill housing um in missing middle formats. And finally, just continuing the collaborative work um this takes um everybody involved. And so we're going to keep working on the city leadership initiative through the Bloomberg Harvard program. Um the CCRPC Enfield housing campaign will continue through this year and um do just want to credit ARP. They have been a great partner of ours. Um and I think Sarah and Kelly started poor have developed um a really great working relationship and we're really happy to know that ARP is going to be a trusted partner in our housing solution in the years forward. And with that, um, Act 181, I mentioned that we, it is our goal to pursue tier 1A status for as much of the city as possible. Um, recent legislation has provided some assurances about the stress that that uh, delegation, the

tier 1A status may place on city staff. But again, uh, we believe that we can make this work and we know that removing act 250 barriers to housing is a top priority. And finally, just permit data analysis. One of the other initiatives coming out of the BH9 um cohort is creating a new um web sort of interface for folks looking to build housing. How can we improve that experience uh virtually and make that translate to actually getting projects built? Um we'll Nancy Stson is a big part of this team as well. So she's really helping us monitor housing trends uh locally and nationally. And so I think that concludes our presentation and we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Great. Thank you very much for the presentation. We'll open the floor to counselors for any questions or feedback from them. Who would like to be recognized on this item? Councelor Barlo and then Singh.

Uh thank you for the presentation and um very comprehensive. Um, one of the things that I think that I'd like to see in this process is we're talking about like um surveying and and doing outreach to applicants, but just I think if we could engage the developer community and the trade community more broadly, even maybe people that wouldn't um necessarily get permits. We hear these anecdotes about people saying, "I'm not going to work in Burlington. I'm not going to develop in Burlington." and understanding those the barriers and frictions that um those folks are experiencing and what we might do to sort of sort of grease the grease the wheels of development more with a community more broadly that might be apprehensive about developing in Burlington.

Yeah, I appreciate that question. Through the BH9 program, we've done some pretty extensive interviews which includes affordable housing developers, market rate housing developers, bank lenders as well to understand what they are and are not willing to finance um to really get ourselves a fuller picture of the of the landscape. So, just so you know, that's been on our radar as well. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Barlo. Councelor Singh, uh I just something you talked about, Charles, was uh dimensional barriers that you've seen with um neighborhood code. Could you kind of speak to what what those are that that you've had?

I'll speak a little bit to that and Charles jump in. But uh in the adoption of the neighborhood code, we moved more towards uh dimensional standards, massing standards as opposed to previous density standards. One of the new tools that we used to regulate this massing is building footprint for example. So we have a um a is we have maximum building footprint standards for um I think all of our residential zoning districts at this point. Um and that number does limit a little bit of flexibility. So, for example, if you're about like 20 square feet over a uh in a building footprint, we are looking at opportunities such as alternative compliance feasibility. Uh we have that in our article 14 co 14 code that allows for about like 20% flexibility if you meet certain criteria and if it's required for if you need that kind of wiggle room in a way. So, one example would be uh the uh rigidity of the building footprint and other numerical standards. So that'll provide flexibility and and that's what we're looking at is to kind of move further away. Not move necessarily further away, but finding some offset that.

Yeah, that's right. And just being objective. I mean, variances are really difficult to get in the state of Vermont. Um I've worked elsewhere where variances are given out very easily. Um and for good reason. That's not the case in Vermont. But that what that means is there is very little flexibility. The way we can address this is having objective standards in our ordinance much like in the downtown form code where there is that objective sort of flexibility. That's something we want to explore. Um there are some others that address um issues of sustainability. Um certain building materials and construction types might have thicker walls which might make setbacks a little more ownorous. For example, um, New Frameworks is a great Vermont country company that is building straw wall panels. Those happen to be quite thick. Um, they are they perform very well. Uh, from an energy perspective, they're very sustainable, but they are very thick. And so to make a project work uh with those wall panels, we might want to look at sort of relaxing some of the setback standards to take that into account. Those sorts of things. Also just want to take into account existing buildings where there might be existing buildings that are you know in the setback. Can we can we just create more clarity for the public around what happens in those instances that might not necessarily be against the rules today but we just want to make it clear to people what's allowed and what's not.

Thank you. Before I ask another, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work on this and I appreciate that the life safety sprinklering uh item is out there because I know a lot of people bring that up. Um there's also talk about historical standards. You know, I hear from people, we have a garage, we want to make two units, but it's considered historical and it's now ballooned the project um from from that. So just can we talk about that a or is that something on the radar? Is that something you're considering? I'm happy to touch on that. We our office has been engaged in a historic preservation planning effort that did follow the initial neighborhood code adoption. Um really trying to look at balancing the growth and preservation piece. Um given that the comprehensive plan is also kicking off, we've uh we are wrapping that effort in with the uh preservation or we're wrapping the preservation effort in with the comprehensive plan in an effort to just identify opportunities for overlap and engagement. So that is short answer that is something that we are looking at as part of the preservation plan and seeking recommendations from our team and our consultants on that uh on that topic specifically. And I just want to add that one of the persistent ordinance barriers that I see is discretionary review. The design review process applies still to many neighborhood code projects. Um a triplex, a forplex has to go to design review. Any neighborhood code project with more more than one building has to go to design review. And I think what you see nationally is those cities that are advancing missing middle and actually seeing units built have removed discretionary review. Um I think we need to be careful but um acknowledge the challenges that that throws up to housing creation. It creates additional time and cost for all

applicants, a lot of confusion, and at the end of the day, it is discretionary, and there's no certainty that your project will be approved. And so I think that we need to balance, especially with historic resources, um our need to preserve what has made Burlington's neighborhoods great for so long, but also acknowledge that our housing crisis is so deep that um design review might not be um a top priority for us at this time. Thank you. Do I have any more time or am I I think we're I'm out of time. Yeah. So my suggestion would be to follow up. Sorry. All right. I'll send some questions through. Okay. Do you have a last word? I mean, I I don't want you to

I I'll say thank you. This is uh well done and you know, I hope we can make more progress on these type of things. So, thank you. Great. Thank you, councelor Sang. And if counselors do have any follow-up questions, can you let us know where they should direct them? Um you can direct any follow-up questions to director Alnos Rawi or myself. Um, and Sarah is our resident infil housing leader at the city right now. Um, and so you can email Sarah as well. Great. Uh, are there any other counselors that wish to be recognized on this item? Yep. Go to councelor Shakar and then Carpenter.

Hi, thank you. I will keep it quick. Um, I'm so grateful for all the work that's underway. this I can tell how much this is a priority for you all and the hard work you're putting into this. So, thank you. Um I just wanted to name a couple things which is that I have also I'm so glad counselor Singh you mentioned the historical thing as someone who lives in a historical home and has had to um not take on some projects because the cost is so insane to do what I'm told is needed for something that feels um not totally necessary. So I think that's a really important flag. I mean, it's quite cost prohibitive, I think, for a lot of people to consider uh anything really to their home when it's in the historical district. So, I'm glad you named that. Um I will say in addition to all the stakeholders you named um Director Al-Niswari that have been engaged through this um Bloomberg Harvard project, I do think talking to contractors is really important. I have talked to a lot of like electricians um carpenters who are like, "We do not work in Burlington. It's just way too hard. It's and we can get business anywhere and we just choose to not do it in Burlington.

Yes. Um I agree and we have we we can do more. There is actually a highlevel staffer in the city whose husband is a contractor and um had a very rough experience with the city. Yes. So we got a lot of personal feedback on that.

No, I I'm so glad that we have that direct line of feedback because I think it's a really common refrain. And so the note I just want to end on is that as we're making these changes and moving really important work forward and working hard to eliminate barriers, I do think we need to accompany it with some sort of marketing and messaging campaign. I just think it's not going to it will take hold so much faster if we make it really clear what we're doing to streamline the process of building in Burlington. Um, so I don't know what that looks like necessarily, but I think that should be part of how we're moving forward.

I agree. CEDTO has a history. Uh, we've created multiple how-to guides. BWD did a, you know, how to open a business, how to vend in markets, etc. I think we need some version of that in the housing world. Um, especially for small contractors who I think will be the ones engaged in a lot of the infill projects that are going to happen. Um so yeah absolutely agree. Thank you. Thank you councelor Shaker. Councelor Carpenter

actually councelor Shaker asked my same question. So I think really important to get to trades people. We want more units up but we should also acknowledge we have a lot of overhouse people. So how do you create a a unit in your own house? And so just that's another how-to guide. Thank you, Councelor Carpenter.

One just thing I do want to note that Burlington is not alone in trying to solve these challenges. That's I think one opportunity for collaborating collaboration that we're really benefiting from with this uh CCRPC infill housing campaign. I believe some of the materials that are being put together uh with this working group are um kind of some quick how-to guides in that central location, but also a a quick zoning help guide of top things you should know before walking into your zoning office that you can quickly read as you're as you're walking in and some different materials like that. that and I just want to note that the uh just boys my um agreement related to kind of the branding and the marketing of of a lot of this and it's top of our mind in our office.

Thank you. Thank you councelor Carpenter. Is there any other counselor that wishes to be recognized on this item?

All right. Well, thank you very much for the presentation. I know there's a number of these items that the council could have uh some say in one way or another and so we'll look forward to continuing the discussion in that regard. Great. Thank you. Uh that now brings us to our last deliberative item. It's item 6.11. It's a memo from our CDNR committee uh titled as a memo on paint care. Um, Councelor Litwin as chair of the committee. I appreciate that um, you earlier in the meeting circulated some suggested motion language to refer this item back to the CDNR committee, but I know that you were hoping to um, briefly introduce the item here at at the council level and then uh, will flag for counselors that in their email there is some proposed motion language that you circulated.

Yeah. Would you like me to make the motion now? I think it may make sense for you to introduce the item first and and and provide some context and and then before you're done make a motion.

That sounds great. Um so thanks for giving us time on the agenda. Um, we instead of doing this during normal sort of um committee reports, uh, I thought it was more appropriate to bring it back to the full council to just let let you know where we were at um, and also sort of seek your um, approval that we continue the work without um, doing work that we shouldn't be doing. So, um, we know that graffiti has been an issue. Um, and some people don't like the use of the word graffiti, so we can use public defacement. Um, and I leave it open, um, for for that conversation. But, um, we know that this has been a concern that's been raised across the city from also from folks really in every corner of the city. Um, and we are for the past several months, um, we've been kind of getting to know some folks with Paint Care, um, which is the nonprofit entity for the American Codings Association, which is essentially the, um, the paint industry. And so in many states, Vermont is one of them. Um, when you go and buy a a gallon of paint at the store, you pay kind of an environmental fee to um process uh the paint when you're done with it because most people don't finish a gallon of paint. Um, and one of the great things is that we've already we've had a program in Vermont for 12 years and now Burlington is really going to be able to start tapping into Sorry, my microphone goes in and out a little bit. um to start tapping into the fact that folks can drop off paint at something like 2,800 locations. It gets reprocessed with partners at CSWD

and then folks who need paint for public um art projects or um graffiti or public defacement remediation um could now apply for paint support which hopefully gets at this long kind of standing issue that we have which is we want to support public art. We want to address graffiti abatement, but it's also really expensive. And we recognize, I think all of us at the table recognize that the city's in um a tough spot and has to make difficult decisions um with what to fund, you know, every year. And um we often have requests for counselor initiative funds and often that's driven uh for this type of thing. And the costs are often driven up by the need for supplies. So, um, we're really happy to have met the folks, um, from Pink Care, um, Agnes Barcelo and Brett Rogers, who Rogers flew in from DC for our meeting, which we really appreciated. Um, and anybody can see this memo and click and view uh the slide deck presentation that they that they gave us um, and also more on Pink Care on their website. So, um, we voted unanimously to sort of, uh, ask the city to, um, kind of engage in a a partnership with K Pink Care, but more importantly to sort of, um, allow the CDNR to work on um creating a graffiti abatement committee, name to be to be determined, I guess, um, so that there can be a place where community members can be involved. Um and also that all the requests um for support can kind of get funneled through because I don't think any committee any city committee certainly not CDNR could handle um taking on just the sheer need

there. Um and I think you know DPW does what they can to respond to the many cclick fixes on the issue. So um and we've also seen the community be really excited about getting involved in graffiti abatement. At least I have. um with opportunities for new art. Um and tonight on our consent agenda, you'll see uh councelor Shaker, thank you for shephering forward this amazing art project with Eagle Bay High School students where their math teacher is going to take them out and teach math through and geometry through art. Um and so we're going to be able to support that as well. And we may be able to even um in the future support more things with paint. So, um what I am essentially asking, uh is for you to let this uh let the CDNR, whoever is on the CDNR, um to kind of flush out a re a resolution to bring back to you all. So, this is the most transparent really we can be. Um, so my motion language with 10 seconds left on the clock shot clock here would be to uh refer back to the CDNR committee to draft a resolution establishing a graffiti abatement committee and recommending sustainable funding sources for the committee's work.

Thank you, Councelor Litwin. Um, is there a second to that motion? Second. Second by councelor Singh. Um, I will note for context as the council considers this that the CDNR will be a four member committee composed of councelor Litwin, councelor Shaker, councelor Newbieser, and councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Um, is there any counselor that wants to be recognized on the referral motion? Right, we will Yep. Council Shakar, is that okay? Were you going to say something? No, I didn't see anyone, so I was about to go to a vote. Okay. But of course it's okay for you to be recognized. So yeah.

Um I just had a question about the motion language which is that um the the idea of finding funding sources to sustain the work is that sort of like we'll explore that as a committee if such things exist and what that might look like. Um so I take your inquiry. Um, and I would say yes, we would discuss that as a committee and again, we would come back to our council colleagues with both a resolution and a recommendation. Awesome. And yeah, I'll just second I've been really impressed with getting to know the folks at Pink Care. Um, Brett, is there a CEO or president I think who came? No, he communications director

communications director who's based in DC came up for it and then Agnes is is Vermont based and um they already have a partnership with CSWD and this will just formalize our ability to streamline how local artists and folks bringing forward art projects to beautify the city can get paint donations. So, it's a great partnership and a no-brainer in my mind. There's very little risk to the city. It's just streamlining connections to resources. So, that's all. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Shakar. Any other council want to be recognized on this. All right, we'll go to a vote then. All in favor of the referral motion made by councelor Litwin, please say I. I. Any opposed?

That carries unanimously. So, thank you, Councelor Litwin, and to the CDNR committee, and we look forward to your future work. Uh, our rules were suspended to the end of completing just our deliberative agenda. And so given that, uh, it is my obligation to now adjourn us at 10:57 p.m. Absent objection. Thank you very much. down. Hey Heat. Heat.