City Council - Regular Meeting

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Are you good? Okay. Um, I am going to call to order uh the Burlington City Council meeting at 6:03 p.m. Um, I am Mark Barllo. I am stand sitting in for Ben who is going to be late to the meeting and when he gets here, he'll he'll take my place here. Um so the first item on our agenda is the agenda and I would entertain a motion on our agenda tonight.

A motion to adopt the agenda. Add that the consent agenda item 6.14 old north end cleanup proposal Gene Bergman Laura Sanchez Milligram per council president Travers per counselor newbies. Is there a second? Any discussion on the agenda before we vote? I see inquisitive looks. No, I was just wondering if that was pulled from the consent agenda. Uh, no. I think it was added. Okay. Thank you. Added to um any other discussion. Seeing none, all those in favor of our agenda as amended indicate by saying I I I

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Any opposed? That is unanimous. Um, next item on our agenda is an executive session. Um, to uh get an update on union negotiations and be before I turn uh to councelor Singh for a motion, is there anything that the administration can share on this item? Um well, I can say that um union negotiations or publicly premature general public knowledge of the status of uh labor negotiations places the city at a disadvantage and therefore it is an exception to the open meeting law and uh is a appropriately discussed in an executive session which is what um beed, excuse, yeah, BEED, the electric department. This so this will be an update on um the Burlington Electric Department labor uh negotiations with IBEDW.

Okay. Thank you, Attorney Brown. Um so with that, I will turn to councelor Singh for the first of two motions. move to make a specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the status of the city's labor negotiations will clearly place the city at a substantial disadvantage. Is there a second? Second. We have first and a second. Any discussion on that first motion? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying I. Point of information. Sorry, councelor Barlo. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't recognize councelor uh Mcnite and councelor Newbies are online. I apologize for that. Go ahead, council.

I just there's I don't believe a link for the executive session has been circulated. So, I just want We'll make sure that that gets we'll make sure that that gets done, I guess, downstairs. Thank you for pointing that out. Um, is there So, we have a first and a second. Mhm. Um, is there any other discussion on the first motion? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. I. Any opposed. That's unanimous. And if you would give us the second of the two-part motion. Councelor Singh.

No problem. Based upon that funding, move to enter executive sess session pursuant to 1 VSA 313A1B to discuss the status of bargaining a successor labor relations agreement with the IBW and to include in attendance the city's bargaining team and staff from the human resource department, Department of Finance and Administration, and the city's attorney's office. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Um any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying I. I. I.

Any opposed? That's unanimous. And we are in executive session. Um, we have a work session planned when we come out of executive session, but we'll also be doing public comment at time certain 6:30. So, we'll see how that all goes. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N.

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Ah, ah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. us moving. along here tonight. Um, next on our agenda is public forum. Um, we did have two work sessions uh, warned and we're going to turn to those right after public forum, but public forum was warned for a time certain of 6:30. So, we're we're going to that next. Um, under our rules for public forum, we'll first hear

Go ahead. I just want to recuse myself from public forum.

Okay. Very good. Thank you. Noted. Okay. Under our rules, we uh first hear from Burlington residents here in city hall. Uh we'll then uh turn to Burlington residents online, followed by non- Burlington residents here in city hall, and lastly, non- Burlington residents online. As a reminder, online participants in public forum must sign up at least an hour in advance of the meeting. Whether in person or online, each speaker will be allowed two minutes. When I call your name, if you're here in city hall, please come to the table. Make sure the microphone is on and there should be a green light illuminated on the microphone itself and hold the microphone close to your mouth because it's hard for us to hear otherwise. Um, for those online, I'll let you know once you've been unmuted. Um, and uh, and what I I don't know if we'll have an on an on-screen timer tonight, but we'll keep track. And you're also allowed two minutes. Uh when providing comments, please direct them to me as the chair and not to any other individual. It's important that city hall remain a safe place for those in attendance and for those watching our meetings. The council certainly respects and values diversity diversity of opinion on public issues. We ask, however, that all comments be free from individualized attacks, hate, harassment, obscenities, or other derogatory language about individuals, particularly an individual's protected characteristics. We also ask that public comments avoid conduct that is unreasonably loud, disruptive, or discourteous. If I interrupt a speaker at any point, it will be to give them an opportunity to act in accordance with these rules. If someone continues to violate these rules, I reserve the right to end public comment at that point in time. With that, we will begin with Burlington residents here in city hall. And our first speaker is uh Andrea Vitz. Uh and then he Andrea will be followed by Nick Pampiier.

Go ahead, Andrea.

Good evening. I'm Andrea Vitz. I'm the director at Heinberg Community Senior Center in the New North End. Um I also served as a member of the Burlington Aging Council and I just wanted to come tonight. I know that you're going to look at the resolution um reenacting the aging council under the opaces of REIB which I think is great. Um inclusion applies to many different categories of people including older people. Um, I also just wanted to say that I hope that this is a moment where we move forward with some action steps and that this is not um kind of a performative approval of some words. Um, right now the city of Burlington has a population that is about 18% people 65 and older. By 2050 when our big plans are aiming toward it will be more like one in three adults 33%. It's a huge number of older people and we need to really think about that in terms of services, housing design, universal access, um transportation, um nutrition and so forth. Um, I also wanted to note that when this uh plan was approved by the council about a year ago, it was just prior to the closing of core senior center which had been run by the city and um the plan talks about building on um that location and those services and we're working to do that in the new north end. We also really want to see more services

provided in the downtown core where people are. Um, and I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea. Uh, next is Nick Pampiier and Nick will be followed by Ashley Adams.

Thank you to the mayor's climate advisory group. The group's final rep report contains some good recommendations. However, the closed advisory process did not provide for public participation and there are some major omissions. Most glaringly, there is no plan for retiring McNeel in the near term. I submitted proposals to fix two of our flawed climate policies that have resulted from the city looking to Burlington Electric. a major carbon poller for climate policy development. The advisory group refused to consider my proposals. First, I recommended replacing the net zero energy road map with a policy which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sources in all sectors. The net zero road mapap gives McNeel and other nonfossil fuel sources of greenhouse gases a free pass. And worse yet, it calls for pursuit of the district energy project, which would perpetuate McNeel's high greenhouse gas emissions. Second, I recommended eliminating the incentives for so-called renewable high greenhouse gas emmitting heating systems, including the district energy project and wooden pellet stoves, which are created by exempting them from the carbon pollution impact fee. The fee applies only to fossil fuel systems, especially given the hospital's plans to expand. and we need to eliminate this incentive which may steer the hospital and others away from electrification and thermal energy networks. I also recommended we consider requiring

electric heating and appliances in new buildings. I hope the city will consider these proposals going forward and develop a climate governance structure that takes Burlington Electric out of the driver's seat. Thank you. Thank you, Nick. Uh, next we have Ashley Adams, followed by Milo Grant.

Hi there, Ashley Adams. Uh, Burlington resident, business owner, mom. I appreciated the opportunity to serve on the mayor's climate advisory group. Um, it's important to note that the group was asked to put forward proposals that were strictly actionable in the short term. The group did not hear from experts on the environmental, health, or economic impacts of bio energy, for example. Consequently, McNeel, which is responsible for twice as much carbon pollution as Burlington's transportation and thermal sectors combined, was not taken up in any meaningful way. The climate advisory report rightfully highlights the importance of nature-based solutions to fight the climate and ecological crisis. In fact, closing McNeel would be the most impactful nature-based solution that we could adopt. I strongly support continuing the elementary tree planting program, which indirectly absorbs about 24 tons of carbon a year. But I hope you will appreciate the irony of supporting this program while allowing McNeel to chip three or 400,000 tons of carbon absorbing trees annually. burn them at McNeel and pump them out the stack in the form of three or 4 hundred thousand tons of carbon pollution. Allowing this to continue undercuts all other climate work that we're doing or hope to do in this city and it exposes the surrounding environmental justice community to additional totally unnecessary and deeply unjust toxic air pollution. Ecologists and climate scientists will tell you that intact forest ecosystems are our children's insurance policy against an uninhabitable future. When we allow mega polluters like McNeel to operate, we are shredding that insurance policy. Climate and biodiversity collapse is here and it's accelerating. As city councilors and mayor, you are in a

uniquely powerful position to make a difference. I hope you will seize this remarkable opportunity and commit to shutting down McNeel by 2028. Later is simply too late. Thank you. Thank you, Ashley. Uh, next up is Ma Grant, followed by Charlie Messing.

Thank you. My name is Mila Grant, Central District City Counselor, which is wards two and three. Again, I'd like to remind everyone that this is um a very distinct district made up of four neighborhoods. The Old North Inn, uh the downtown area, the waterfront area, and the King Maple uh represent um the most diverse area in the entire state of Vermont next to uh the city of Wooki. Uh, I have had my character, my experience, and my expertise be under pretty much relentless attacks the last of several weeks. So, I just want to be able to correct the record. First is just something that'sformational. Um, what is my experience? Most people know that I served on the police commission and then served on the public safety committee and then chaired the public safety committee. I'd like to say uh the prior to the police commission, I was on the special committee to review policing policies after multiple lawsuits were filed against the city. In this committee, we reviewed training that our officers receive at the academy and continue to receive or should have continued to receive in the department itself. Uh this training came from or was directed by uh staff at the Burlington Police Department, officers, chiefs, lieutenants, etc. I also received training from Nicole, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. I also was on the joint committee, which was the police commission and the city council's public safety committee to put together RFPs for the consultants to review the police department and measure community trust. I was on a joint committee to

review those proposals, selected consultants, and I served on additional comm community uh committees to review the results, especially those recommendations made by CNA for the police department. Thank you.

Thank you, Milo. Uh next is Charlie Messing, followed by Lisa Lax. Hello chair chair. Give my regards to the rest of the council when you see them. Um, chiefly, uh, aside from the bus, I'll get to the bus, but the Council on Aging, I was in the Council on Aging before it passed away. I'm glad that it has come back to life and we will accomplish a great deal in our zombie form. Um, we really do need the number 11 bus ADA. You say anything about older people, say anything about ADA accessible, you're talking about a hospital on top of a hill. And it's hard to it's hard for people to get to to the bus terminal from several blocks away. if you're old and need the hospital badly. Um, it used to be easy to get to that and they are building the second half of the hospital outside town. It is impossible. They have got to realize that they're obligated to make the hospital accessible to the people, not just the people with cars. This is my firm belief.

And uh I belong to car shares. That's all I can do. But we need that bus back definitely. And u the Council on Aging shall rise again. as as I as I said as I over said I tend to overstate things in in a low voice. So thank you. Thank you Charlie. Uh next we have uh Lisa Lax followed by Joey. Excuse if I mispronounced your last name. Maybe Corrin. So good evening. My name is Lisa Lax and I'm a longtime resident of Ward One. I'm here to comment on the final report of the mayor's climate advisory group. There are many good things in this report and I appreciate the advisory group's thoughtful work. However, this report has some serious shortcomings. For one, there is little mention of a plan to close the McNeel plant, the primary stationary source of carbon emissions in Vermont. This should be a much larger subject in the rep report. As climate activist Gita Turnberg has expressed on numerous occasions, our planet, our home is on fire. Our first order of business should be to put out the fire by drastically reducing and eliminating sources of greenhouse gases. As long as the McNeel plant is in operation, our city is contributing to the fire that is burning our home. It is not responsible to focus on climate resiliency at the expense of doing little or nothing to reduce the

emission of greenhouse gases by a city-owned facility utility. Sorry. Second, this report focused on climate justice, but does not mention the fact that lower income and marginalized people who live in the Old North End close to the McNeel plant are most affected by particulate matter and numerous poisonous chemicals that are released by the burning of biomass. According to the Vermont Environmental Disparity Index, residents of the Old North End are more vulnerable to environmental risks related to McNeel emissions. They are more likely to develop health conditions such as COPD, asthma, Parkinson's disease. This is not climate justice. In my mind, if these points are not accounted for, the city's climate policy plan will continue to have major flaws. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Uh, next we have Joey Corigerin and I'll be followed by Mayor Moscowitz. Mayor, city councilors, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the action plan. My name is Joey Corkran, a 21-year resident of Burlington and member of inter Vermont interface actions committee on affordable housing and homelessness. I appreciate the thorough consultation the city has conducted with a variety of entities in getting feedback for this plan. However, in spite of your consultation with Chittenden County Homeless Alliance and individual providers within it, I don't see much me mention of three outstanding needs. The first is how existing encampments will be treated in the next year. I've heard rumors of removing people who have no

homes from the waterfront. After what happened at Sears Lane some years back, I'm concerned that the tent community on the waterfront will be displaced with nowhere to go. I'm especially concerned knowing the state legislature is under pressure from the governor in considering a 70-day annual cap on hotel motel stays for the most vulnerable amongst the unhoused population. This is likely to increase the number of homeless with only tents as possible shelter. I'd like to suggest that included in the action plan, the city have a humanitarian plan before displacing people from their existing encampment communities. I'd like to be involved in discussions of such a plan. Secondly, within the action plan, I'd like to see the city planning now for how to be able to offer extreme cold weather shelter at 10° Fahrenheit versus minus 10. This would require being open more days, which could be a stretch on an already struggling city budget. I'm aware that in Mielar, the city hall basement is staffing their winter shelter with volunteers. Would it be possible to train Burlington residents to work alongside CVOE at the Miller Center and stretch the extreme cold weather shelter for more days? Finally, I'm aware that there's an immediate need for a facility where unhoused people can shower and launder their clothes beyond what C's day station provides.

We call ourselves a sanctuary city. I urge you to use your imagination and faithful hearts to create a sanctuary for all of us. Thank you, John. Thank you. Uh our last uh Burlington speaker here in Contoys is Mayor Moscowitz.

Thank you, Mayor. Here, Emma. Nice uh dress, blue and white, representing Israel. It's beautiful, actually. Um the University of Vermont recently hired a private consultant to determine how the health system can remain financially viable. Their conclusion was stark. The UVM Health Network was cut roughly 300 million over the next three years. My wife is a physician there. She was recently told she now has to see patients every 15 minutes instead of every 20 while also losing scribe support. That means less time with patients, more administrative burden, and ultimately worse care. PE people often talk about Medicare costs, aging populations, and the Green Mountain Care Board. What gets discussed far less is the enormous burden created by policies that tolerate and encourage open drug use and the devastating medical complications that follow. overdoses, infections, neurological injuries, and psychiatric crisis. Over the past several weeks, I've spent time with unhoused, mentally ill, and addicted in this community. Mayor Emma, I'm talking to you. Please look at me.

Comments to me. She's not looking at me and I'm talking. Well, you're addressing this is public forum and and I said at the beginning our rules are for you to direct your comments to me as the chair. Okay. I think there's a first amendment speech violation right now. She's not listening to me while I'm addressing her. I'm asking you to direct your comments to me. If you cannot if you cannot comply with that, well, just end your public forum right now.

I'm happy to agree. Uh over the past several weeks, I've spent time with unhoused, mentally ill, and addicted in this community. Many told me they feel abandoned by leadership that enables these conditions instead of confronting them. Allowing drugs outside the mayor's office in a public bathroom is not compassion. It is abandonment disguised as compassion. And I would also like to let everyone know that till this day, not no one in city hall has told Mikey from Chocolate Thunder that his employee who worked at city hall wearing kafia sent me messages which included, and this is really horrible, why am I trying to talk to city hall personnel about your right to protest genocide when you could be killing brown kids yourself? Isn't that supposed to be your birthright? And go pick up a rifle, among other messages. The people here who have not tried to help should be ashamed of themselves. And mayor, as always, please resign.

Um, our next next we're going to turn to uh Burlington speakers online and with the help of Lori Olberg, we're going to enable microphones. Um, we don't have a timer up, but um, I will we'll we'll keep track of your time here and let you know if you run over. Our first uh, Burlington resident online is Robin Lloyd. I signed up. Excuse me. I signed up as a Burlington res. Uh, I don't I do not have number two on it. What number were you? Number two. Maybe I did the wrong color.

No, it was Nick Pampiier. Um, if you're a Burlington resident and you're here on here in KTOS, uh, please come up and we'll just hold those, um, online residents for a moment. Um, we're going to need the we're going to need, um, you to state your name for the record and and and have that for have it for us for our, uh, meeting record, of course. Good.

Yeah. Uh, hi everyone. My name is Andre Clark. I'm a resident of Ward 2 and the founder of Street Cats Burlington, a local mutual aid organization focused on building solidarity with our unhoused neighbors. I'm here to speak about the city's 2026 action plan for housing and community development and what I see as a lack of any real action to reduce homelessness. While I appreciate the city's continued partnership with local social service agencies to provide shelter and other resources to our neighbors, the action plan has no new actionable items. We know that maintaining the status quo and continuing to provide the same number of shelter beds and supportive services is not enough. We have heard from members of the Chitten County Homeless Alliance and our unhouse neighbors that there are not enough shelter beds or places to sleep. And this was before more people were exited from the motel into unsheltered homelessness. We saw the result of our lack of imagination and action this past winter when many of our neighbors slept outside on the coldest night of the year, coldest nights of the year. And our friend Perry Thornneley lost his life due to the lack of cold weather shelter. I'm calling on the city to incorporate a plan for the winter that includes raising the temperature threshold for emergency shelter from -10 to 0 or 10° and to develop a strategy to provide drop-in shelter beds for the winter. I am also calling on the city and the rest of the county to develop a safe encampment policy that provides a space where our neighbors can rest, exist without being stigmatized and shunn, have access to bathrooms and handwashing stations, and access resources from social service providers. I understand that encampments are not a good long-term plan, but they can help provide a bridge as we move towards sustainable housing. I have heard a lot of talk about removing encampments, preventing people from camping in certain areas, and have seen a push to remove people seen as less desirable

from our public spaces. The question I have been asked and that I am now asking you is where should people go? If people can't be in city hall park, the urban reserve, or the waterfront, where are they allowed to be? I know we are capable of working collaborative collaboratively to address these issues, and I hope you consider putting more thought and imagination into this plan. Thank you. Thank you, Andre. Um, and now we'll turn to Burlington residents online. And our first uh Burlington resident online is Robin Lloyd. We've enabled your microphone. Robin, go ahead. Okay. But uh can't you show show my picture? I mean, show me speaking.

I think uh I think we see your picture. It's just very small. Go ahead. Go ahead. I mean a live picture of me. Well, okay. I'm sorry that's not happening.

Um, so but I want to thank you and the and Burlington City Arts for uh granting me use of the lobby of City Hall for my art show. I hope you've all stopped and take notice of some of the paintings. My work is not overtly political. Um although I am and uh though some of the drawings were done in Cuba and were inspired by my trip back there in the 80s when uh Jane Jane Driscoll and Bernie Sanders were going there quite often. So um I just want to add that the art scene in Cuba was very interesting and it may still be. I hope everyone goes there and I hope you enjoy my my show which will be up through the end of the month with a special um um uh event on Sunday the 24th from 3 to 4, I think. Thank you.

Thank you, Robin. Um our next uh Burlington resident online is former counselor Sharon Busher. Go ahead, Sharon. Um, yes. Thank you. Good evening. Um, I want to get clarification. I believe there's a a public hearing on the 2026 draft action plan and I was going to Okay, I was going to make comments then.

Okay, very good. But I Okay, this is these are comments now regarding your agenda tonight, not the action plan. Um on your agenda there is um on the deliberative agenda there's an item for cord uh adoption of anou um and my question is um you know I'm I'm familiar withus and and how this goes but my question is in that there is um in the memo which was very clear um there's an opportunity for them to have to access um some money from the housing trust fund and not around $500,000 I think is what the request is and it's no guarantee but also there is in that umou also um an acknowledgment because of um them providing affordable housing some reduction in the cost of impact fees and also um some uh permitting fees also being reduced. A lot of that is consistent with um some of the processes that go move forward for any development. My question is, you know, city place didn't have that. I don't know if Cambri and Arise had any of those opportunities. And my question is, is this a unique situation or is this a template for steps in the future to make larger developments and have more inclusionary units? Um, if so, then um I'm just wondering um will this hopefully will be offered to all larger developments or is this a unique case? I know you don't answer questions, but it

did make give me pause and and wondered why this was offered to this particular development and not to others. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. And our last Burlington resident online is Pike Porter. Um, go ahead, Pike.

Good evening. Uh thank you for the chance to speak. Um first I'd like to thank the mayor uh for keeping uh climate uh in the forefront of city council's eyes and ears. Um it's been a while since climate has been a topic of discussion. Um so I'm glad to see it is tonight and I'm glad to see that there was some kind of u movement on climate. Um, I'd like to reiterate, however, uh, the comments that other people have made. Um, while I do think this is a good step forward, it's it's clearly a baby step. Um, and I would like to just give one example. Uh, well, maybe two. Um, some of you may or may not know that there was and still is a, uh, a climate action plan that was, um, that the city produced in 2014. uh that also had some action steps and departments had a list of things to do and those that climate action plan and uh those steps that task force uh all that's all but forgotten these days uh instead replaced with a a scaledown net zero energy roadmap that doesn't even really reduce carbon uh just fossil fuel use um so I hope that this uh this baby step is is an actual step not performative and moves us forward Um, and my example, I was at a an NPA meeting, war three NPA meeting, and I asked um uh DPW, who was talking about sidewalks there, um, how they were going to help or had they considered uh trying to reduce the carbon footprint of the concrete in the sidewalks because, uh, concrete can be fairly carbon intensive. And, um, they said no, we hadn't considered it, but they would be uh, welcome to ideas. Um, and I point this out as an example of where the city

um could be but is not just thinking about ways to reduce carbon in all of its decisions. Often this is also a cheaper, safer, healthier way of going about business. A couple years ago, uh, I think zoning hired a um a plane rather than use drones to um create to to work on their reassessment. And I don't again I don't think they even thought about the carbon impact. Please wrap up. I end there. Thank you.

Thank you. Um and next we're going to turn to non Burlington residents here in KTO. And we just have one speaker Linder Linder Hisman. I probably mispronounced your name again. I know I did it once before. Good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak here. My name is Lane of Houseman and I will make three points. First, when deciding what energy sources to use to supply the city and its citizens with heat and power, the city councilors need to have access to all the facts first. I have sent each one of you a two-page document outlining the facts about the use of biomass as a source of power. And I have copies of that document with me here. Second, Burlington has chosen to meet its greenhouse gas emission goals by reducing the use of fossil fuels and replacing them by renewable energy. That was a mistake. Renewable does not imply that the source will actually be renewed and it does not imply that it will perform its main function, the reduction of greenhouse gases. Burning wood, for example, will not. Third, the largest emitter of CO2 in Burlington is the McNeel power plant. In the last six years, the yearly emissions in the transportation and thermal sectors combined were around 180,000 tons of CO2 and the total reduction in that period was about 9,000 tons.

Yearly emissions by McNeel in that same period were well over 300,000 tons of CO2 and the year-to-year variations could be over 40,000 tons of CO2. These are the facts. No rational decision about the future of McNeel can be made while continuing to ignore or even hide these facts. Thank you. Thank you. Um and with that I will we have no more speakers. Um so I will end public forum um and move back to our our agenda. But we also have two other smaller meetings that are warned. We have a local control commission warned for seven and a city council with mayor presiding warned for 705. So before I turn back to uh our city council agenda, I'm going to turn first for these two small meetings. Um the first is the local control commission. So I'll briefly recess city council um and call to order the local control commission at 708. And the first item on our agenda is the agenda. So, could I have a motion on that, please?

I move to adopt the agenda. Thank you, Commissioner Broadick. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Singh. Um, the only item on this agenda is the consent agenda and I'll turn back to uh Councelor Broadick for a motion on that or Commissioner Broadick. Uh, I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councelor Singh. Commissioner Singh. Uh when um any discussion on that? Seeing none, all those in favor indicate by saying I. I.

Uh any opposed? That's unanimous. Um and I don't think I voted on our agenda either. Did I? Did I vote on the agenda? I didn't. Um I probably should go back and do that even though it's out of order. So um we passed our consent agenda, but just for the record, I think we should vote on the agenda as well. So all those in favor of the agenda indicate by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Okay, that's unanimous as well. Thank you. And I apologize for that. Um, and so with no further business and absent objection, I'll adjourn the local control commission at 7:09 and turn to our next uh mini meeting which is the city council city council with mayor presiding. Um, and I'll turn to Emma Mulvi Stanick for that. Thank you, acting president Barlo. I will call to order the city council of mayor presiding on Monday, May 11th, 2026 at 7:10 p.m. Our first item is the agenda. Is there a motion on the agenda? So moved. Moved by councelor Litwin. Oh, councelor Sting. Sorry about that. Yep. Second.

Seconded by councelor Barlo. Thank you. Any discussion on the agenda before we vote? Seeing none, all in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries unanimously. On to item number 2.1, the Cherry Street cone request reconnecting Bank and Cherry Street regarding DPW. Come on up. Hello team.

I assume you two will take it away. Okay, great. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Um, Chan's not here right now. Um, so it's just Corey Mims, senior public works engineer with city of Burlington here. Israel Maynard with Stantech Consulting. I'm the design engineer on the project.

And we have Laura Wheelock, city engineer, uh, online. I'm trying to share a PDF real quick with you all. Send request to share. So yeah, we're here tonight uh to talk about this is the Cherry Street conmation process. Um I apologize. Chaping was supposed to be our opener, so I will have to step in and do my best. Uh with regards to this, let's see open. I sorry technical difficulties this a little bit. Uh okay we got so uh the cherry seed combination process. So similar to other projects where we are going to do construction and there is necessity of being able to perform work outside of the public's right of way. Uh typically there are easements that have to be obtained in order to complete said work. uh for the Cherry Street project. Uh predominantly our right ofway runs on the outer edge of the sidewalk on both the northern and southern sides of Cherry Street. And so as part of that, we are needing to come forward to working with the property owners to get uh easements on the portions of the parcels that would be impacted for the reconstruction of the sidewalk and driveway aprons underneath the Cherry Street redesign. And additionally, there are a few other outstanding items that are being addressed with this as well,

which would consist of an existing uh storm structure on one parcel that is the city's property, but currently is not uh available via an easement or access for that particular structure. So, uh that is what we're uh needing this for and we're moving forward uh with coming here tonight.

Yeah. So, I'm going to step in and and take us through kind of what we've been doing over the past uh six months to a year, what we're doing currently, and then what we need to do to get to our to our deadline in September. Um so, most recently in in November 2025ish, we submitted the the rightaway plans, and those were based on our on our overall street design. Those right-of-way plans um identified easements that we would need um to complete this project. January 2026. Um after VRAN's review of those rightaway plans and VRN's approval, um we we had meetings with the property owners to discuss the potential easements. Um concurrently with that, we were developing the the final plans. We submitted a draft of those final plans, 85% final plans in April 2026. Um so that brings us pretty much to what we're doing right now. So we're currently working through rightaway acquisition. Um, city staff has provided comments on those final draft 85% plans. So, we're incorporating those comments. Next slide. So, our upcoming milestones, so end of this month, we're submitting those those final plans to Vrans and they they'll get to review those for approximately a month. Um once we get all those comments incorporated, we'll make sure we get through all the permit submissions that we'll need and that will set us up nicely for a contract plan submission in uh August, which is the 100% that's ready to bid. Um, that's very important that we hit that date because we have a September deadline for our construction authorization from FHWA, which is a key milestone for the congressionally directed spending um grant that that the city has to complete this work.

So, as I said, you know, we're here tonight specifically for Cherry Street. uh specifically at this point it has separate uh with our funding CDS we have those deadlines and in order to ensure that we are maintaining uh and meeting all of our obligations part of that is securing the right of way in a timely manner. Um as it stands currently we have 10 parcels along this area that are requiring easements for construction activities. Um at this point we have reached agreements with five of the properties. Um, two of the also remaining properties are with the state of Vermont, which we assume we will work through in advance of uh the necessity hearing. Um, that's the hope. And then there are three other remaining parcels in the area that we are still working with um to try to come to a resolution in advance of the necessity hearing. But at the same time, we are following the process to start and get a set date for the hearing here from your you regards to just continuing that process to ensure that we are able to maintain um all aspects of this uh funding obligations. So with that, you know, again, this is just an aerial of the you know, street segments uh that we had just indicated. So again, the request really tonight uh here with this city council mayor presiding is to uh work to set the date for the necessity and compensation hearings. Um during previous communication, uh we had just had a few dates in order to meet our timeline. Uh we had proposed a few dates and we were looking to see if uh if the June 22nd date is preferable. Um but we would look to get that date set by you all here tonight. I would say this is just again a general uh cut sheet of what the Cherry Street

redevelopment is going to be looking like on this final slide. Um I would just engineer wheel lock if there anything else additional to be added. No, I do think that we should show them the motion with the proposed date filled in though.

Yes. And the final is again the motion that is in the memo uh had the dates blank as we are waiting on a time to be determined. Um as such this is the motion language with the added in June 22nd proposed date for the necessity and compensation uh meetings as well as an additional item which would be to set the site visit at the same uh on the same date in advance an hour before the meeting. So this is the um suggested motion language that we are looking for action um and we take any questions.

Thank you. Corey did a fine job. Chaping last had a last minute thing come up. So uh with that actually I have one question which I'll just ask as the chair just to clarify. Were we intending to align this with a city council meeting for the hearing date for of June 22nd? And I'm only asking because the city council currently has posted June 15th and the 29th of June. I believe this would be a special uh hearing or special date. Correct.

Yeah. So, this would be a special meeting. Um we need a minimum of 30 days from the date that the city council chooses to set the time of the hearing to provide proper notification to property owners. The earliest that we could do that and ensure that they've received their mail is June 22nd. Um, in discussions with Council President Traverse, he preferred the special meeting versus trying to fit it in with an existing city council meeting on the 29th. But, uh, again, this is proposed language. If it would like to be discussed further, it can be.

Thank you, Laura. I wasn't aware of that and I was just trying to do a solid for this crew who has a lot of meetings. We have a lot of meetings in June. So, thank you for that clarification. Uh, councelor Travers is not here yet. He has a work uh, conflict. So, that just fills a little bit of a gap. Thank you. With that, I will really open up for questions, councelor Bergman.

So, just in looking at my schedule, it appears that I've got a conflict which would let me be at least um, uh, remote for the uh, the council meeting, but I'm not clear that I can make the site visit. So if you could just comment on the uh requirement to be physically present at the site visit and whether that would negate if I cannot be there then what does what impact would that have on the um my presence at the uh the council meeting and I'm sure that that would go for anybody else who had a conflict.

Yep. Thank you. This it is mandatory that we set a site visit time and date. It is not mandatory that it is attended. So you are welcome to be remote. Um we will include photographs of the different properties and give our best indication of the locations in which we are requesting. Um but as Corey had mentioned, this is a pretty minor request of these different properties just so that we can reconstruct our sidewalk. Thank you, Council Bergman. Any other questions or comments? Councelor Grant,

couple quick questions. Um, so we have to follow this timeline in order to accept the money. And when would we be looking at construction starting? So, the current schedule has us getting construction authorization um in September of 2026. You know, obviously we're not going to start any construction that time of year because we're going right into winter. So, the plan would be then to to bid the project over the the winter, fall and winter, give the contractors a lot of time to to dig into these plans and and really put together good bids, and then um start construction in the spring of 2027.

Spring of 2027. Okay. Um, I would like to see if possible we get as much feedback from the business community that has really been through it. Uh, with regards to the St. Hall Street project, um the Main Street project, uh the dual Main Street intersecting with Pine Street project, and there is a feeling that businesses need relief. So, just to throw that out there. But obviously if pushing out the start date jeopardizes the funds, I would understand that. But we just want to be making sure that we're doing um better communication and also uh better signage as well, which was the area that we failed in um around the Main Street project. Thank you. Um just to clarify that our schedule, we do absolutely need to move through and solidify the easements that are required for the funding. The funding itself it itself has already been accepted. Um Corey BB if you want to unshare your screen, it'll just make our dialogue a little easier. And um so we do need to solve these property rights to kind of prove to the funding source which we have already accepted. The city council accepted the grant uh back in 2023 I believe was the time frame for that and we've been using those funds to create the design council grant to your point um so spring of 2027 is the earliest that we will likely be able to start the construction project but it is not um the latest that we have to start. We fundamentally it'll be two years of construction and to your point if

through any other outreach or input that we receive we choose we could start the project a little bit later but certainly no later than spring of 2028. Um the funding does come with a timeline that we need to be complete by which is September of 2020 2030. Thank you for this portion.

Thank you Laura. Thank you councelor Grant. Councelor Litman. Thank you. Um, and I remember being on toque when we were discussing this project and I wanted to thank you for all the work you did to make sure that this was not happening while the students were in the high school. And I think we can all agree that Cherry Street um is in desperate need of repair, including we used to have somebody who came pretty much every council meeting from Cathedral Square. I haven't seen her in a while. Um, asking for the sidewalks to be redone. So, this is important work. being particularly familiar with Cherry Street myself, I was looking at the uh addresses and the um architectural diagrams you have attached to tonight and was just curious um a lot of those properties have no setback. They're they're just right up against the sidewalk and so I'm I'm wondering if and and I think this is where a site visit is actually going to be really helpful for us. Um, but maybe if you could walk through uh what some of the sticky wickets are, particularly that may be holding up the three properties that you're saying you're still in conversation with. Um, and if there's any sort of significant impact for them.

So, the property rights that we're requesting are somewhere between four to six feet on the back side of the sidewalk. It depends on a paved driveway, the steepness of a slope. The properties where their building face is the exact edge of the sidewalk are properties we actually don't need requests from because we can reconstruct the sidewalk with that firm edge of their building and not need to go onto their property in general. So really it is the properties on Cherry Street which is a little bit more unique where the buildings are set back from the side of the sidewalk where they have lawn landscaping and driveways that as we reconstruct the sidewalk it actually takes a little bit to go into their property. I wouldn't say that there's really any sticky wicket kind of property owners um similar to the conversation under the Wookski Bridge. This is just a really fast timeline to ask anybody to settle property rights and specifically on Cherry Street. there's some larger entities um state of Vermont uh and a couple other businesses that they just have a large process like we would have a large process and unfortunately 6 months just may not be enough time for someone to be able to review the documents and settle and feel comfortable signing easements.

Okay, thanks. And then the second question I had um and should wrap me up is about the phasing or if there's going to be phasing because you're talking about Cherry Street, the entire length of Cherry Street from Battery to South Wooki. So, I think to councelor Grant's point, um, since most of the businesses that we would really want to make sure, um, are not being as impacted would be on that block from South Wooki uh, to St. Paul Street probably um, rough roughly speaking or maybe no, sorry, not St. Paul Street, um, Church Street. And um so then my question would be is are are you planning on phasing it so that Cherry Street can be used in any way at least for parking um while the western end of Cherry Street is being worked on?

I'm actually going to let Israel answer that. They've done a u mockup of various different traffic control scenarios to address that question. Okay. Thanks.

Yeah. So, this came up a lot during our our meetings with the property owners and and one of the things that was really a theme of every property owner is they don't want the road entirely closed. Um, so we did do a lot of work in in looking at phasing and especially with a lot of the utility work really trying not to put anything right down the middle because then you have to close both sides. So, what we were able to accomplish is a scheme in which we can keep it going one way um for the entire duration of the project. I think there's still some work to be done whether that's keeping it open east to west the whole time, west to east the whole time or varying depending on what they're doing. Um but that that's uh for some future discussions and and yeah, we we also are putting limitations on the contractor as far as how long a long Cherry Street can be constructed at a time. We don't want them closing half the road for the entire length of the project and then closing the other half for the entire length. We're really going to encourage them to to break it down into say three to 500 foot segments and and get that area constructed back up to grade so it can be driven on and then move on down the road so that uh we keep as much parking during construction as possible.

Thanks mayor. If I'm at time I'm happy to email my final I didn't realize we'd have so many questions. So it would be great to I can send an email. It's a non-urgent question. Okay. So Okay, great. Thank you. Any other final questions or comments from counselors? Councelor second pass quickly. You were brief before though.

Yeah. But I So if you could go back to your um first slide with the dates because the motion that you're asking us for talks about a necessity hearing and a compensation hearing. But what I saw or remember this is why I need to get that corrected is for the site visit and uh a uh a necessity and I just want to just make sure in terms of the difference between the necessity and the compensation um hearings that we're all set. So I just need to because we've got blanks that we've got to fill in. Yeah. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. Second.

Yes. So, in filling this in tonight for you, I noticed that we need to also note that there is a site visit that you would also declare the time and date for, which is what's required. It needs to be So, the the motion needs to reflect a uh also a date for the site visit. Is that correct? Yes. So, everything listed in bold on the screen is an amendment to the motion in your packet. Okay. So, to set a date. Uh the motion. So the proposed language for the motion, councelor Bergman, is right up on the screen. And we are very lucky to have you and all of you here tonight. So thank you for catching that. Are you all set?

I'm all set. We're doing the right thing. Yep. Are we ready for a motion? Sure, I am. Council Bergman, are you ready? I'm ready to make a motion if anybody wants to. Well, I'm presiding, so go for it, please.

There you go. I would move uh that the city council authorizes the city to initiate proceedings pursuant to 19VSA chapter 7 for the highway alteration project known as reconnecting bank and cherry Burlington CEDS CD23 parents 1 and to set a time and place for the site visit and hearings to determine necessity and compensation if any at the times and places described. described in the attached draft citation/notice and a to set the date for the necessity hearing on Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. B to set a date for the compensation hearing on Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. and C to set a date for the site visit on Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 5:00 p. p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Well done. Is there a second on the motion? Second. Second by councelor Grant. Thank you. Any further discussion on the motion on the floor? Councelor Barlo. Just the I think we're in Eastern Daylight Time this time of the year. It's a knit for sure, but no. Yeah. Is it are they different? If they're if they're like an hour later, then I would like to amend that. Thank you very much. I was just reading that. There's a lot of stuff to Eastern Daylight. EDT, say that again. Eastern Daylight Time. Eastern Daylight Time.

So, there's a friendly amendment, it seems, uh, to the maker. And who is my secondary counselor? Grant, is that friendly? So it will read 6 pm EDT 6 p.m. EDT 6 p.m. uh 5:00 pm EDT. Are we all following? Yes. Thank you for that. Any further discussion or question or questions on the uh on the um the question on the floor. All right, with that I'll call the question. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. I.

Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries unanimously. Team, thank you very much for being here. Laura, thanks for being online. And with that, with no other business for the mayor presiding city council, I will adjourn this meeting at 7:32 p.m. Thank you, and pass it back to you, acting president. Um, and with that, we will re uh return to our city council meeting at 7:32 p.m. Um, and the next item on our agenda is a work session on uh it's item 3.1, final recommendations report from the mayor's climate advisory group. And I'll turn it back to you, mayor.

Thank you, acting president Barlo. Well, as Jen joins me at the table, I'm going to open up this item and work session with just a few comments uh for the public and for our counselors. I want to thank, first of all, I'll say this a couple times, but thank Jen for being here tonight with me to present the report from this advisory group. Moving Burlington forward on climate has been one of my key priorities during my first term as mayor. And tonight, we mark an important milestone that signals the beginning of a new phase of climate action. Over the past year, my administration brought together a diverse group of residents, technical experts, city staff, and city councilors to help answer a critical question. How does Burlington lead on climate in a way that is ambitious, practical, equitable, and financially responsible? Because we all know Burlington is already experiencing the effects of climate change. From flooding and extreme weather to infrastructure and public health challenges, this is no longer a future issue. It is a present responsibility and the present the present moment is not an easy one. The financial landscape is challenging and national headwinds are making climate pro progress even more difficult. But those realities cannot be an excuse for standing still. Our responsibility is to adapt and meet this moment with practical investments that strengthen Burlington's future and reduce long-term cost. Because climate action is an opportunity to lower our cost over time, to improve public health, to strengthen our neighborhoods, and to protect our national resources, and to make our our city more resilient for the next generation. I created this advisory group because the choices we make now will shape Burlington for decades, and I wanted to make sure that we're making the best possible choices in this present moment. I asked the group to ground its recommendations in reality, to consider our budget

constraints currently, to center equity, to build on our existing work across the city, and to focus our on actions all city departments and the community can actually begin implementing in the near term. By specifically centering equity, Burlington can advance a climate resilient future in which all residents, especially those most affected by climate risk, have the opportunity to thrive. The group has not delivered just a list of ideas. It is a road map rooted in science, community expertise, and a clear understanding of municipal realities. one that focuses on the need to urgently increase our work and investments in adaptation and resilience to drive down Burlington's climate impact. Their work spans the systems that shape daily life here in Burlington. Transportation, buildings, land use, f food systems, waste, water, and nature-based solutions. One of the clearest messages in this report when you read it is that the climate progress does not happen on its own. It requires governance, accountability, and coordination across all of our city departments, institutions, and community partners. Importantly, if Burlington is going to continue to be be a leader, we need to move from isolated projects to a citywide system change. That is why one of the report's most important recommendations is not what we do, but how we organize ourselves to do it. So our climate work is clearly owned, implemented, measured, and sustained and is not dependent regardless of one administration or one moment in time. This aligns with my administration's broader focus on moving Burlington forward by making government more effective, more accountable, and more oriented towards the future. Climate action is part of that same work, investing wisely, protecting residents, modernizing infrastructure, and ensuring that every neighborhood benefits from a more resilient city. Fundamentally, the city's climate

leadership is about good governance, and I want to thank every member of this advisory group for their time, expertise, and thoughtfulness that they brought to this effort. Their recommendations will help guide the next chapter of Burlington's climate leadership. Thank you to councilors Carter Newbieser and councelor Becca Brown Mcnite for serving on this group from the council. And I especially want to thank the two co-chairs of the group, a new northn community member and NOA Vermont executive direct director Grace Odell and Jen Green, our director of sustainability and workforce development at Burlington Electric Department. They sp both spent many extra hours designing and facilitating the meetings of the group and preparing this report. I also want to express appreciation to specifically community members and members of this group uh Elena Greenberg, ETA Meno who is a policy equity an analyst at Beed, Zoe Richards, Dan Cahel who's the land steward at Burlington Parks Recreation Waterfront and Ally Kenny. All of them added significant contributions to the final written report. So that's added labor and I really thank them for their time and effort. Grace was not able to join us here tonight. So, I will turn it now over to Jen who will walk us through the group's process and report and highlights. Thank you for being here, Jen.

Thank you so much, Mayor. I appreciate being here. Thank you for the opportunity.

I don't think your mic is on. You want to turn your mic on? How's that? Great. And it I I'll reiterate again, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much for asking me and I really appreciated working with Grace. She was a great partner. Um there is a slideshow. Thank you for pulling it up, Cara. Um in our few minutes together, I want to give you an overview of what happened. um in our climate group, including um the tasks that we were charged with, the composition of the group, which the mayor outlined, the key sectors that we covered, the themes that emerged as we worked together over those many months together, and then uh a review of the recommendations. So, thank you for your time. Um, as the mayor mentioned, we were set forth with devising a group of recommendations that could be implemented in a fairly short time frame. We were charged with considering equity and ensuring that any of the recommendations that we put forth had an equity element and recognize the unequal distribution of um, climate issues on people of color, etc. We were charged with ensuring that we thought uh carefully about sort of the financial uh challenges and wanting to ensure that anything that we put forth was feasible and cost-effective. And then our recommendations had to have um several or multiple co- benefits. the mayor recom the mayor um iterated the the group already and I will I'll just say again um as noted there were 12 community members many of whom were experts in their in their own right for example um Christina Ericson as you know is the director of locomotion for example or Jen Holiday is the communications director at CSWD uh Zoe Richards runs the Wild Ways program and Sandy Thibo is the director of Katma or the Chittton Area transportation management associ for example. Um and

then as the mayor mentioned, we had um two counselors join us and three city staffers. Um the next slide, please. We looked back at the climate action plan and considered the sectors that were outlined in that plan and realized that they brought forth both uh the opportunity to mitigate greenhouse gases while simultaneously making us more resilient. So um again some of these have been um already outlined in the climate action plan. We brought them forth into our uh deliberations as a group. So the sectors included nature-based solutions, farm food and food security, water, waste, compost and recycling, city planning, buildings, transportation and then although not sector specific um important city assets i.e. the the the Ley International Airport and the McNeel generating station. So after much deliberation um and again we used a consensusbased model. So every recommendation that was put forth in this proposal was agreed upon by the group and much deliberation. We met um starting in spring of last year all the way through the fall. we noticed that the key themes were beginning to emerge that we wanted to ensure were addressed regardless of which recommendations the mayor decided to put um to advance. Um number one was the recognition that while we continue to mitigate greenhouse gases in transportation and buildings, we really need to prepare for the future, become a more resilient city, and consider adaptation and in particular the role of nature-based solutions. Again, we have to be sure that everything we do has an equity focused and hence all the recommendations that we put forward um had equity as a theme. And another key um element that came forward was this idea of uh governance

and ensuring that um recommendations um have a way by which we can ensure that they are advanced. We don't want them just to be um thoughts on paper but that they are implemented, tracked and monitored. and we knew that a solid governance structure was going to be imperative to making that happen. So I want to leave you with um of the 25 recommendations a few sample recommendations um one or two from each of the various sectors that we covered including uh the importance of expanding our natural habitat uh through planting and native species. Some of this is started but we need to continue to advance this work and really empower um uh parks and department of public works to do that. Um, okay. Second key recommendation that we were particularly um um I was going to say enamored with was accelerating the move from fragmented waste collection to consolidated waste. Um from a transportation perspective, we want to mandate near-term implementation of high priority walk and bike infrastructure and ensure that we pilot a flexible demand response micro grid transit um pilot. We looked at food access and security and the example that we list here is the idea of shared um use policies for existing commercial food scale infrastructure or ensuring that we we um tap on to um opportunities like the high school that's going to have a large commercial kitchen to ensure that we can continue to u make food more readily available for the people of Burlington. From a building's perspective, the the recommendation of the 25 that's listed here is to look deeply at the rental weatherization policy and provide regular updates to to the city council on where we stand in terms of property owners abiding by the policy. We looked at mixeduse development and you can see the recommendation here. And then finally, another example that we we included in this um PowerPoint is the

deployment of eco-friendly pop-up cooling technologies, which I know the mayor mentioned in her state of the city back in April. So um I'll leave it at that. I will also mention again this was consensus based. However, we realized there were folks that had where whose items were not included because there was not consensus and so there is an appendex that's included in the final report.

Thank you, Jenna. And I also just will note um posted on this work session is another really useful document that is the climate inventory of work for the city that we also posted just you know Jen and this gives a the public a much more comprehensive understanding of work across the city that is currently underway um by our many city departments and I think that was a very helpful thing at least for me um as mayor back in 20 at the end of 2024 when we began this work to just understand how much uh climate work uh both a mitigation and resilience work is happening across the city and it's a useful read for anyone in the in the community just to have an understanding. So with that, back to you um acting president and we're happy to answer questions.

Great. Um I will then open it up to the council and would like to get an idea who'd like to get in the queue here. Looks like councelor Bergman, why don't you start? And then councelor Carpenter.

Sure. Thanks, Jen, and thank uh for your work um as co-chair. Um, I am interested in the micro um, transit and I'm curious in terms of who you had at the table. Uh, when I sort of spun through all of that material, I I I must have missed sort of any granular details about how we go from the grand recommendation to the actual uh, uh, wheels on the road. Yes. So could you just sort of share some of that and what our next steps since the toque has been talking about saving um GMT from the mismanagement of the governor and the rest of uh state leadership. Thanks.

Yeah. So taking a step back I should have mentioned but each of the sectors um the recommendations were derived by meeting with sector experts. So in the case of planning, we met with Charles and other folks in the in the um uh in the planning group to ask what he would suggest um given the um qualifications that we had. Those were brought forward to the bigger group and then we sort of deliberated and voted on them. So the micro microtransit um came up specifically through the planning department um as something that they thought was important and again after deliberation with the group agreed that it was worthy of putting in our in our list of short-term recommendations.

Okay. So um and clearly Sandy Tibo is part of the group so she has a a place at that table. GMT were they brought in at all? Um, we read through GMT reports. Um, however, at the end of the day, and I'd have to look back on the total number of transportation recommendations we had, it was quite a bit, as you can imagine, we distilled them down to the top couple. Okay. Sounds like TUK has a lot more work. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. We'll go to councelor Carpenter next.

Thanks. I appreciate councelor uh Bergman bringing up this topic because that's the one I was going to bring up. um to achieve that goal of the microtransit there needs to be a lot of work. There needs to be some professional expertise brought to the table. Um as somebody who was a founder of SSTA many years ago, that system is not working and it needs to be broadened to other folks in the community who who need specialized um transportation. Angie Vitz pointed out that soon 30% of the city may be over 65. So I just want to clearly say that there needs to be some work and expertise there. We don't we don't even have much to start with and I appreciate you've couched it as a pilot, but if it's going to work, we got a lot of work to do. uh we have a much more developed bikew walk infrastructure. We have an advisory group. We have experts in that. We don't have any experts at the minute um in in that type of transportation. So, I'm glad it made it to the list and I just think we got to take it very seriously.

Uh thank you, Council Carpenter. Are there other counselors who'd like to speak to this item? Councelor Sanchez Parkinson, go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh to you and the working group. I'd like to take my time to actually just read um a portion of the report. Uh I specifically want to read the page on centering equity in Burlington's climate action. Um I first want to thank the group for being honest and I think that um that is highlighted in what I'm about to read. From the outset, the mayor's climate adviserss were asked to embed equity into all recommendations, recognizing that climate impacts are not experienced uniformly across Burlington. Factors such as race, income, language access, immigration status, disability, and housing tenure shape a resident's ability to prepare for climate risks and benefit from climate solutions. The group recognized that it did not fully represent Burlington's diversity. Accordingly, members of the group agreed to avoid making assumptions about the needs or experiences of residents whose live experiences were not represented in this group. The adviserss recognize it's difficult to center equity in a close advisory process that excludes individuals most affected by climate change. Going forward, the advisor suggests a process by which a more diverse set of voices is included. The adviserss also recognize the challenge of advancing equity focused strategies in a challenging budgetary time giving how these strategies require investments that correct historic and ongoing divestments in marginalized populations. True equity work is rarely costneutral. Desp despite these constraints, the adviserss developed an evaluation matrix that weighed equity heavily alongside co- benefits and feasibility. This tool created by a subgroup of advisors with diverse expertise and identities was used to assess recommend recommended

actions. However, due to the fact that the working group was made up of volunteers, application of the matrix was inconsistent across sectors resulting in uneven equity review. Um, I'm not I won't go into the full, but I wanted to read this because we might some of us might have lost this really important what I thought was really important component of the report. Um, and I I again commend you all for being honest and also um noting the limitations of the working group as we move forward into implementation. Thank you, Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Next we'll go to councelor Newzer.

Um, thank you, Council President. Um yeah, I wanted to speak briefly to what I think the value of this report is and and first I should just say thank you to everybody who served on it. Um I I was grateful to serve on this committee as well. I think we did a lot of good work and I think there's real value particularly for members of the TUK to pull from this. Um, I want to reiterate the the mayor's earlier comments around just the idea of sort of coming together and getting a clear inventory of everything that is happening around climate across city departments I think was really really valuable. Um, certainly there were things in there that I I didn't recognize or or know anything about. Um so it was actually really good um in the sense of like part of I think our charge was well are there lowhanging fruit that we can we can um move on in the immediate and it was really reassuring to see a lot of sort of the things that first came to mind city staff have already been leading on and the city's already been leading on. So, um, definitely worth a read through and and sort of understanding where we currently are if, um, because it is reassuring because we are doing a lot as a city. And that said, I do think that per some of the public's comments and and you know, I do think there's there's real limitations. I mean, the charge here, and this isn't the introduction, there's really five goals um, in terms of the recommendations that came out of this group. One was to consider the financial constraints of the federal, state, and local resources. Two, to embrace equity. Three, demonstrate multiple co- benefits. Four, advance existing gaps or efforts. Um, and five, be implementable in the short term. So, I do think that this is not, at least how I've thought about this report and this work, um, isn't necessarily all-encompassing for everything we could or should be doing on climate. Um but these recommendations are important for

thinking about like what are what are some of the first steps that we can do. Um it is notable that you know McNeel is not part of this and I think that's partially because I mean we did talk about that as a group um because I don't think that's um that fits that criteria. That said, I do think it's essential. Um, and I want to reiterate that we need a a clear plan on how we're going to phase out McNeel. Um, I do think that it is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions. I think it's the the largest source of stationary carbon emissions in the state. Um, and certainly I think we're under we're under accounting for it um as a city and have historically. So I think that is a really really important conversation that we need to move forward and be clear about. Um two pieces I want to point to in this report. Uh and they were in the slides and I'm trying to pull the slides back up but I I can't find them in my going through tabs here. Um two pieces though in some of the recommendations. One was we highlighted the work around buildings to um we sort of brought forward the the rental weatherization ordinance uh universal rental weatherization ordinance and the need to ensure that implementation is happening more quickly on that front. Um I think there's a huge opportunity there. I am a long time obviously there's like so many things you need to do on climate and energy and and a lot we need to do in our in our city and in our state and country. Um but I I am so passionate about the idea that we should be leading with weatherization because it when you talk about sort of um overlapping interests uh it's there right like some of the most equitable reduction in our emissions is energy that we just don't use. Um and so to me, uh making things more efficient in that respect. The fact

that it reduces uh the energy bills for residents um and businesses, small businesses alike, um the fact that we're creating oftent times really good paying jobs, uh union labor, uh in the trades, I think is really important to me and really um a huge benefit for our local economy and and and the city. um as we need folks to to do that work and we as we do the workforce development um workforce development work a lot of works in there um to to you know to fill that need um and we've been doing some of that I think there's more uh room to grow um the other piece I wanted to bring attention to that isn't necessarily uh wasn't necessarily in the slides but I think is really important as we as the Duke approaches its work in the in the coming years and this is certainly a longer term not a short-term uh project because it's built infrastructure and it will take um some time as we redo different roads but I think it's critically important that if we are going to get off of fossil fuels completely uh in terms of heating and cooling our buildings in the city that um thermal energy networks geothermal are going to be um incredibly important uh piece of of that equation. And I'm really excited that I know I just toured the library. Um some folks there over at Fletcher Free were kind enough to uh provide some information and they were talking about um I think uh they were talking about having already done um a test well for geothermal at the library. Um, and I am running out of time here, but um, I think there's a a number of different pilot sites that provide real um, opportunity for us moving forward. So, uh, I'm looking forward to using this report as a really important resource uh, and and making sure that

that work is integrated with the work that TUK has been doing and uh, we'll continue to do moving forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Nubies. Is there anyone else who wants to speak to this item before? Go ahead, Councelor Shakar, and then we'll try to we'll try to wrap this.

Thank you, acting president Barlo, and thank you so much, Jen, and the mayor and the group um for putting this important report together. Um I just had a couple questions, which is really thinking about sort of next steps and in particular, how as we're nearing approval of next year's budget that we can be thinking about where some of these shorter term recommendations live. So, this may be answerable now or maybe kind of just a flag to my colleagues up here. Um, but I would love to see us kind of as we're looking at these recommendations be thinking about, you know, we're talking about the nature-based climate solutions coordinator role. What is the status of that? Are we funding that for next year? I assume we are. Um, and what would it take to grow the conservation legacy fund along with the grand list? Um, and there's a whole host here. Um, but you know to really be thinking with an eye towards towards action at this point. This is a lot of work. Um, and uh, I want to make sure that we don't lose this momentum. So feel free to mayor or Jen or anyone to answer now, but I also acknowledge that might be more of a comment, but something that I'd love to dig into um, over the next six weeks or so as we're working through the budget. I can stop there for now.

I will I appreciate that, Councelor Shar. some some of the things you mentioned for example um the conservation legacy fund is a charter change for example so some pieces are more applicable to our budget discussions that are about to start and some are a little bit more I mean not super long term but we all know how long a charter change process would take but heard and we will get back to you in more detail that's great um and then the last thing I want to say is I'm pleased to see here the idea of a consolidated collection s waste management collection system I know we've spoken um quite a bit on the floor this last year about what that would take. Um our hope that seven years from now we could maybe be building towards that. So um I would be interested in are there any sort of shorter term more actionable steps we can take towards um considering to explore that. And mostly I just also want to say I'm I'm pleased to see that in here. Um and that I hope it's yet another uh mandate to all of us to keep that top of mind as we're you know it's going to come up quickly this sort of seven-year window we've given ourselves to work through this. and I I'm glad to see that in here. Thanks.

Thanks, Councelor Shakar. Councelor Broadri,

um thank you and thank you for your work on this report. I think um the recommendations that are in here are are all great. Um I'm going to have a question coming up about one of them. Um but um seconding the comments from councelor Newbieser uh I wanted to reiterate um the the calls from the community that we need a plan to um to phase out the McNeel plant. Um I I I've heard on that I it seems like it may not have applied to some of these goals um especially shortterm implementation. Um but it is something that we need to be working on as a city. Um we simply just cannot become the city that we all want um in terms of climate uh without having a plan for a just transition. Um now my question it's about um rental weatherization. Uh so I see in the sample recommendations um it just says about requiring regular updates on advancement. Were recommendations made um on how that advancement could come and implementation could come faster.

Yeah. I don't want to speak on behalf of Bill Ward, the director of um permitting and inspections, but the implementation of that ordinance falls within um Bill's purview. So, I think it's finding out sort of where the the um shortcomings have been in terms of regularly getting out correspondents to property owners and then a means by which we're hearing on a consistent basis sort of where they are in the lineup. I will also mention that we we know there's a workforce problem um and property owners who um do contact the department with the intention of complying but note that they can't get uh the workforce that they need to do that work has been a hindrance but capturing all that would be I think especially helpful.

Great. Thank you. Thank you councelor Rodri. Councelor Grant.

Thank you. Um, I've agreed what with what my fellow counselors have said and I I really want to uh piggy back on what councelor Sanchez Parkinson said especially about uh the appreciation for the fact that equity issues were brought up. And I would just remind um the council that we have failed often with regards to issues of equity in terms of what was the expression that's been used in the past? Kicking the can down, right? We we say and we have a history in our country of businesses especially not wanting to make certain changes. Uh for example, automobile companies back in the day didn't want to spend the money to add seat belts and now we can't imagine being in cars without seat belts and they protect us if an accident has occurred. So I look at climate change as um fighting that same fight where people are going to look at how the immediate bottom line is being affected and be resistant to making changes that if don't happen and some scientists say we're already too late like we are starting to to see those type of of reports. How we have to maintain the strength to say this is what we need to do for um our future, our earth's future, our our country, city, state, community, our children um who are growing up uh during this time. So um here's to having more more strength to to really pursue uh the equity issues. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councelor Grant. Is there anybody else who wants to speak to this item who hasn't spoken? Okay, I see nobody else in the queue. So, thank you, Jen. And I'll add my thanks to the uh climate advisory group and we'll look forward to uh more on some of those recommendations in the near future. Thank you. Great. Thank you.

Um next on our agenda is uh item number five, uh mayor, city council affair, uh city council affairs. Thank you. Thank you very much, acting president. So, a few updates for the council and the community. Um, I am happy to announce uh my new chief of staff will begin on Wednesday. I recently announced the hiring of Lisa Geros, who it will be the new chief of staff in my office. She brings extensive political experience and most notably serving as Lieutenant Governor David Zuckermanman's chief of staff and most recently as a legislative director at AFT Vermont. Um, as I said, she'll join us on Wednesday. She'll be at next week's council meeting, I'm sure. Um, and I want to big send a huge public, although she won't like this appreciation to Cara Olasare, who's sitting behind me, who has very aptly filled the role as interim chief of staff and CEDO director, which is an impossibility. um she's done it so well and I really appreciate this is a true act of service to this community, to this council, to me as the mayor um to serve so uh capably over these last few months. On to our budget. Uh my administration is finalizing uh my proposed fiscal year 27 budget. Uh we if you've been serving on board of finance, you know, we've been through now all of the budget hearing nights uh for each of our departments. And I am very pleased to announce if people have not heard yet that we have successfully closed the projected 10 to12 million budget gap when we began this process. This is a structural budget gap issue that has been going on for a number of years now. Really revealed now that when uh one-time funds have have gone away among some other things. And the other significant point um to take away tonight before we get more into the details at coming meetings is that we were able to also close this budget gap without laying off any currently filled city positions. That is a major feat frankly. Uh we're quite proud of this. I

am proud of the city team working very diligently and across all departments to find solutions big and small. Uh we'll present this balance budget to the council next week on May 18th. We've already presented it to the board of finance and we'll ask for your partnership in bringing this to a final vote on June 15th uh by the full council and next week uh or no this Wednesday, this Wednesday, I'll be holding a press conference with more details with all of our department heads present. On to uh immigration and our continued Burlington process on our reviews regarding March 11th, 2026. Pursuant to state and local laws and policy, the city of Burlington is conducting a full review of local law enforcement actions during a federal immigration enforcement action in South Burlington on March 11th. And I just want to emphasize while the other entities have released their reviews, Burlington has uh different standards, different processes, different entities that have a a step of our a process, a responsibility within our review. Want to just briefly so the public knows all use of force incidents are investigated by the Burlington Police Department and this is in accordance with the police department's directives DDO5 which is a statewide policy on police use of force and DD40 which is the external internal complaints supervisor reviews administrative views and internal investigations and discipline. Those are two primary policies that govern our first steps of our review. The ultimate decision-making authority on discipline or other corrective employment actions rest with the chief of police in the city of Burlington. That is per our charter. The mayor and the police commission play key roles in the review process, but we are advisory here. The Burlington Police Department and I have completed our use of force reviews. The next step is for our chief of police, Chief Burke, to present uh the case to the police commission in executive session, which will take place tomorrow,

May 12th, for the police commission's review. Once the commission gives their feedback and recommendations to the chief, the chief will render a final use of force decision, which we will anticipate by the end of the month. At that point, all use of force review reports and supplementary materials will be released to the public. Starting this week, the city attorney's office will also work with the chief to conduct a legal review of whether the fair and partial policing policy was followed when our law enforcement uh when our local law enforcement were at the scene on March 11th. The findings of this legal review will be shared with me and made public once the review is completed. We anticipate this will take roughly about 14 days from the launch of the review. And then in the coming weeks, the city will examine compliance with my executive order 20 uh 2026-1 as well as existing protocols for the interactions with federal immigration enforcement, including our mutual aid agreements with neighboring municipalities. These reviews are not structured or time bound in the same way as our use of force reviews are. And we will continue uh it will continue after our use of force review is completed. But I will emphasize that the policy review of this of what we experienced on March 11th is critically important and I look forward to that engagement with city councilors. We've started this already with council leadership uh to make sure that if we change things going forward that we are clear that we're values based and we're making sure that we're uh now contemplating all the ways that this can show up in a mutual aid scenario. On to the overdose prevention center and an update here. The city has completed a major milestone in our OPC project, what is called the service assessment. This assessment was conducted and to inform the planning and design of an OP center in Burlington in alignment with the state guidelines that were passed with the enabling legislation a couple of years ago. It helps identify the right services, the design, location, and potential impacts of the OPC. The Pacific Institute for

Research and Evaluation or Py was contracted to conduct this work which began late in July of 2025. Vermont for Criminal Justice Reform or VCJR, the city's lead partner and future operator of the OPC has been instrumental in supporting the development of this report. The final report was delivered on March 29th ahead of schedule and we are planning a work session with the city council I believe on Monday the 18th for more details. On to infrastructure updates. Great street main streets. If you see outside there are trees. It's quite exciting. Uh and the Champlain Parkway are near completion and I will keep talking about this until we actually celebrate and kick this off with events because this is quite significant. The parkway is open to set uh open to uh planned to set to be open later this month and Main Street will be open and finalized by mid July. There'll be very big public celebrations because again this is a big deal planned for each including a two-day event that I hope people mark their calendars for on July 17th and 18th for the great street Main Street project and it will include a very cool that's in my notes but I'm sure it is actually very cool art public art installation and parade. Who doesn't like a parade? On to our office of city planning and plan BTV 2050. I do have to say if you were not able to attend the kickoff a couple of days ago or a few days ago now, 300 Burlingtononians came through this great and highly participatory event down at uh the train station. Uh it was really incredible to see this many people participate and dream alongside each other in a creative fashion about the kind of Burlington we want over the next 25 years. It was interactive. There are people of all ages. There's information about all the elements of the plan which really brought so many of our departments together in a collaborative way which is new for the city of Burlington. Uh this citywide effort not only talks about our future as I said it for the first time

it's brought the office of city planning DPW parks recreation waterfront and CEDO together along with our Chitten County Regional Planning Commission partners to create a comprehensive vision for our city. So, we're no longer doing project-based plans here and there and everywhere, but actually comprehensively bringing that vision together. You can still contribute your insights through a survey that is available on the plan BTV 2050 web page, which will be used to improve existing programs and services and again help determine our long-term planning and investment decisions. And there'll be many more ways to provide input. This is an ongoing effort over the next several months, and we'd love to hear from you. A few more quick updates. Our police chief search process is underway. The position itself was posted today by our partners IAP and we're finalizing steps with them to begin recruitment for the next chief of police. I will be appointing a uh both a community and city uh search committee in the coming days here to help do the initial vetting of candidates brought forward by IAP and then I hope by the end of July, early August to perhaps have final candidates for my selection and then uh being put forward to the city council for final confirmation. Peace officers Memorial Day is this coming Friday. This week itself is National Police Week. In observance between May 10th and the 16th of this of this year, in 1962, President Kennedy issued the first proclamation for peace officers Memorial Day and National Police Week to remember and honor law enforcement officers for their service. And May 15th is specifically again on Friday designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day, which honors law enforcement officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. I just want to thank our officers for their continued work and their commitment to this city and helping us continue to advance our community safety goals. Over at Burlington Electric Department, uh Beed

just announced this week two new direct current fast chargers uh who are now that are now online and available for use downtown on St. Paul Street. The department also introduced its new AI customer support website chat box named Sparky. I did not consult on that, but it is named Sparky. And this is available. I think it's clever though. Uh is available to help customers learn more about beed rebates, programs, offerings, and more. This does not replace any city employee jobs. Just to be clear, it helps with efficiencies. And this uh this chat box bot um does refer people to human beings who still work at BED to support customers with more nuance questions. Uh on to DFA. is quickly. The first version of our capital plan report is out and it's available for the public to explore and you can find that on our clerk treasures off office office web page or on the city website in general. And uh on to just the library quickly. The public uh currently has a rare chance to see a 532year-old manuscript. I'm pretty sure that's older than anyone else in this room on display at the Fletcher Free Library which was recently discovered in the basement's building. This manuscript is a this manuscript is a religious uh document written in a biblical Latin and published in 1494 and the city of Burlington has this on hand. The man uh manuscript will be on view in the main reading room until May 24th. So please go ahead and check it out before uh that date is up and after that the friends of Fletcher Free Library will auction it off to support the libraryies um operations. And with that, acting president, back to you.

Uh thank you, mayor. Um, which brings us to our consent agenda and I would entertain a motion to adopt our consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Moved by councelor Bergman. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Shakar. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting our consent agenda, indicate by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Which brings us now to our deliberative agenda. And the first item on our deliberative agenda is a presentation from Run Vermont regarding the Vermont City Marathon. And I know Thea has been waiting patiently for us to conduct some business here tonight. Welcome. Thank you for having me. So, I have a slide deck. Um, I believe Lori has posted it, but I will put it up on the screen for everyone here as well. And while I'm doing that, and hopefully my tech will cooperate, um I'm Anthia Dexter Cooper. I am the current executive director of Run Vermont. I was here exactly a year ago, less a day, which means I was here the same number of days before the Vermont City Marathon last year as I am this time around. So maybe this is turning into a wonderful tradition that I get to come and talk to you. Um let me share my screen. So, Run Vermont is the nonprofit that puts on the Mnt Bank, Vermont City Marathon, and Rele along with some other events throughout the year. The Mnt Bank, Vermont City Marathon, Relay is the largest event that we put on. It is sort of the most prominent in the city of Burlington and Run Vermont in general exists to support running as a lifelong activity through the promotion of events and other programming. Here are some photos from last year. Um I'm going to talk about two of them briefly. bottom right corner, you only see their backs, but those were the then chief of police um Chief Burke and the um soon to retire uh fire chief, Chief Leance. Um it's fun to incorporate the city of Burlington in the festivities of

the weekend, and that's going to sort of be a little bit of the theme in the balance of the presentation. One photo up from that, that's uh Leon. Leon turned 70 on May 25th last year. And in honor of that, he ran his he likes numbers, his 70th marathon, completing his 50th state. And he finished in exactly 5 hours and 25 minutes to memorialize his birthday. And he ran the whole thing with helium balloons behind him and a whole um entourage that came with him from Michigan. I like the wow that was back there. Uh some other photos from the weekend. Junior mileers are um the um athletes that participate in our relays. Many of them are in Burlington. There are programs through King Street and the Boys and Girls Club. We've got our hand cycle division. Last year we had a pushroom athlete participate as well. The Church Street Marketplace is featured prominently and it will actually be on the medal this year and we're excited to do a re reveal for that. We also have a strong invited runner contingency bringing um really accomplished athletes from all across um the country and we have uh some people that are going to be trying for the Olympic trials qualifying standard this year. So it should be an exciting race. Um I have an executive summary that's got some highlights from last year. In general, we saw really strong jumps in registration numbers. Um we are seeing sort of a stabilization at those numbers for this year. Um, but there's a lot going on in the world that might be impacting that. Uh, the largest demographic increase that we saw amongst marathoners was in the 18 to 29 year old age range, which is really exciting because it means that more people are taking to running and that we've got the sort of third running boom that's taking place. And in terms of the largest jump in participation, it was in first-time marathoners. They don't comprise the majority of the field, but it's where

we're seeing the largest increase across the field. In the marathon last year, we had representation from 44 states in Washington DC. And I can say that we've already surpassed that and we still have a few weeks to go before um the race itself. There are 6.5 billion earned media impressions and the MT Bank Marathon continued to deliver on its existing reputation of being well organized with amazing crowd support and community vibes. And those community vibes have led it to be named as the 2026 Road Runners Club of America Eastern Regional Marathon Championship, which is an honor that's bestowed upon strong community-based events. It's also a race that has been listed by Runners World as one of the best marathons for beginners and one of the best marathons to do in the spring. Um, this is just a small excerpt of the data dump that I could do on you. Um, but these are our registration numbers for 23, 24, and 25 split up by events. I like to say the very easy way to talk about the number of participants that we have is about 2,000 in the marathon. And these are registrants and some people don't end up participating. 500 3 to five person teams and we have about four people per team there and about 500 twoerson teams. And our youth events which take place on Saturday and comprise a half mile, a mile and a two-mile, has about 600 participants. This is basically talking about what I had said earlier about the largest jump in 18 to 29 year olds and you can see that now 18 to 29 year olds that's the dark green line towards the top are comprising the majority of the field in the marathon. This is representation that we're getting from different states. Obviously, you know, people are more likely to drive than to fly. Um so the largest population breakdown is in Vermont followed by Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire. um and on down from there. In terms of the split in participants, we have about 25% of our participants in the marathon coming from Vermont and then 75 from outside of Vermont and then it reverses. So, we've got about 75% of the people

that are doing the relay coming from the state of Vermont and then 25 outside. This is a map that shows where um all the participants in the marathon were last year. I also included a little factoid there about half marathon unplugged which just took place. That's our second largest event and we had representation from 39 states in the District of Columbia. A lot of those people are people that are trying to do a half marathon in every state. And it's fun to hear people say, "You said this was flat, but I'm from Chicago." So apparently our little hills in South Cove are a lot more than what you get along the lakes in Chicago. And uh at present for VCM 2026, we have representation from 49 states in the District of Columbia. While not all of those are participating in the marathon, we've got a um registrant from Alaska that's participating in the relay. The only state that is not currently represented is Idaho. Uh this is the breakdown of experience level. So you're seeing the largest jump being in those that are doing their first marathon. And then we continue to have the largest proportion of the field being people that have done a marathon before, but this is their first Vermont City Marathon. It takes a lot of people to put on this event. We have a very, very small staff. There are only four of us that work for Run Vermont year round and we have some seasonal staff that comes in and then everyone else that you see out on the raceourse during the race in a green shirt is a volunteer and we really really rely on the community to provide those volunteers. Last year there were 486 unique volunteers and this is not including a lot of the volunteers from Mnt Bank and some of the members of the race committee that don't sign up through the volunteer portal and they filled 542 volunteer slots. Our biggest need right now is for course monitors and I said this last year because it was our biggest need then as well. Course monitors are out on key intersections throughout the course directing traffic

and ensuring that the participants, the spectators, the general public are safe. This is in addition to law enforcement and flaggers that we contract with, but a lot of the people that are out there for the entirety of the race, and it's a long race, um, are volunteers. Um, so if you know 20 more people that would like to be course monitors, please send them our way. Um, this is just some fun stuff that I want to update on for 2026. Um, all of the, um, pages that you'll see on the next few slides are coming from our 2026 race guide. This in and of itself is something that's slightly new. We haven't had a race guide in a number of years. It's hosted through Flipping Book and it's great because if I find a typo, I can update it and then it magically is fixed. But, um, I have a QR code there as well as a click here button. So, if you're looking at this online, you can click there. This is also, um, on our website. I wanted to talk about the race guide cover a little bit. It's very very hard to pick one static photo to encapsulate an event that spans over the city and includes thousands of participants and hundreds of volunteers. What I some of the things that I like about this photo are look at how beautiful Main Street is right there. This was like the first footprints on Main Street when it was briefly opened last year before it was open to um traffic and it was just wonderful. We would get calls from people being like, "So, is Main Street going to be open?" And we'd be like, "Well, we were told by DPW that it was going to be pavement ready and DPW delivered and then some." That is a beautiful, beautiful street right there. It's also the most complicated intersection on the course. If you're doing the marathon, you go through that intersection four times. The first time you're turning right on Pine, then you go up Main Street, then you turn right on Pine, and then you go up Main Street again. And it takes a massive effort from volunteers, those course monitors to direct those participants to make sure that they're doing all the loops they're supposed to do and not more loops than they're

supposed to do. It also highlights some of our non-title sponsor partners. There, Skirack and uh Altra, it's hard to see, but there's some Altra pillars back there are um some of our partners that we work with as sponsors. In addition to title sponsor Mnt Bank, it also shows volunteers, spectators, and participants for our little slogan of run, cheer, volunteer. The next uh slide over there is just the table of contents from the race guide. Um I've got slides up there that show the schedule for the weekend. We're excited to have a very robust set of programming. It's all free up at the Double Tree for the Sports and Fitness Expo. Really trying to make this a weekend. Um, and also we've got the schedule in there for what's taking place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in terms of the races or sorry, Saturday and Sunday in terms of the races, including um some really great involvement by the community. We'll have the chiefs back doing the color guard. Your mayor will be doing um one of the starts and we'll be speaking to the crowd. And we have Lyric Community Theater that's going to have eight people up there singing the national anthem. And I don't know what else could be more communitydriven than a community theater organization singing the national anthem before the start of the race. Um, we'll always want to show maps. Um, we've got street closures, we've got a waterfront park inset, we've got the course map. All this is available on our website and very, very useful for participants and those of you who are just trying to get about your day um without being impacted by the race itself. And then I've got every volunteer up there as of May 6, 2026. Every person's name is up there. And those people are the people that are making this event possible along with the amazing batch of sponsors that we have. And for the most part, if you're looking at those sponsors, you are not seeing a business that is not based in Vermont. For the majority part, all of those businesses are either Vermont specific or they have a strong base in Vermont itself. And these are the people

that are helping us provide food for the racers. And then all of the food that is not consumed at Waterfront Park is driven up to CS and it's donated. These are the companies that are providing the energy gels that are on course. No energy gel is going to be as low in transportation emissions as one that is coming from trees in Vermont and is in the same county as where it's being consumed. We've got our new waste management partner up there, been there, dumped that, which has the most creative number ever, name ever, that will be picking up refues from on course and allowing us to have more trash recepticles on course than we have before. And that bottom row, those are the bottom two rows. Those are all of the businesses that are providing snacks to um keep our course monitors sustained while they're out there for their long shifts. So again, this really is made by the community and I think it really shows um a wonderful representation of the city of Burlington and the surrounding area. Um in terms of the city of Burlington and the surrounding area, we've partnered with a lot of lodging establishments this year. Um, we've got an interactive map that shows you where all of them are. And we're also providing um more robust shuttle service. It's not the same extent of shuttle service that we used to provide. A hope is that we'll return to that again. So, no one needs to drive into downtown Burlington and park before the race. They can take buses, but it's really wonderful to work with the lodging partners that are providing discounted block rates and we're able to have people book directly with the hotels is using a thirdparty booking agent. And then uh the last slide I have up here are some of the welcome letters that have been included in the race guide from Mnt Bank um regional president Heidi Stumpf, our board chair Heather Hennessy, and the mayor in the three welcome letters that are up there. Finally, in talking about the community, we're offering some discounts this year um that are provided by businesses in Vermont. Um these are just two of the pages in there. I think that the Church Street Marketplace rose to the occasion

better than anyone else that we reached out to on this where if you show your bib or your medal or your shirt um for the weekend um you will get discounts from all of those uh locations that are in the um part of the slide to the right. And I think that this is a really great opportunity for people to be encouraged to wear their accomplishment proudly. Maybe you don't want to walk around the city wearing a medal, but if you're going to get a discount at Ben & Jerry's, you might as well. So, I hope that we will see shirts and bibs and medals all across the city um during the race and then following it. This is not updated. I wish it could be, but it's not updated from what I presented to you last year. Um it's so it's not accounting for inflation. It's not accounting for changed estimates for these things, but still feel very confident in saying that it is approximately 3 million plus that is being brought into the city through the people that are coming from out of town, the people that are local and are just going out for a cup of coffee or a piece of pizza after the race. And um it would be great, I said this last year, if we could have a more robust economic impact analysis be conducted. um it is on my list of things to hopefully do in the near future and you'll see a lot of these being um prepared by other races across the country showing that they are an important um piece of the tourism sector and I've just got the last of the calculations and that is it. I'm happy to answer questions, talk more about the importance of volunteers if given the platform but uh thank you for your time.

Well, thank you for that presentation. Um, and there is no action on this item. This is just anformational presentation, but I'd open it up for counselors for comments or questions. Go ahead, councelor Sanchez Parkinson.

Hi. Um, thank you so much for all of the work that you do. As a I call myself a former runner, former runner, I've always wanted to run the marathon, but not quite there yet. Um, two things came to mind and happy to follow up as well, but I just wanted to sort of put it out on record. Um, one of the things that I often hear throughout the city, um, is how do we strengthen our workforce? And the one of the biggest things I hear is, well, people don't ever come to Vermont or people don't know about coming to Burlington. How do we get them here? And I feel like you have unlocked this beautiful thing of bringing people from all over the country to visit Vermont. um and to v visit Burlington specifically. Um I wonder if there are any partnerships um where there could be opportunities and this is like me thinking like hiring recruitment like come and run a marathon and by the way there might be an interview here for you for a job or something. So I you know any opportunity I think about workforce uh development I think is an opportunity to to engage folks. So, I don't know if there's any, again, that's like a total just side note. Um, the other thing I often hear every time the marathon comes around is like, how do we get our house in order, right? Like, how is how does it look? How are visitors going to see our city? And how do we get it in the best best shape? Um, and I'm sure that you all also think about like how it's impacting our community, obviously, both positively. Uh but I wonder if you have any communication or ways of engaging our unhoused neighbors and how they're being impacted by this um citywide event.

Yeah, so we certainly don't want to impact anyone that is unhoused. We work very closely with the city of Burlington and this is across multiple departments, parks and wreck, the department of public works. Um there are a lot of items that the city of Burlington takes care of. I talked about the road earlier, but potholes, the removal of refues, and we try and be a good partner in that where we're not leaving an impact on the city after the event. That's part of the reason why we're so excited to work with been there dump that to make sure that we are not adding any burden to the city in terms of the generation of waste that is on the streets. Um, in terms of um, any impact that the race feels from Burlington, I have only been with Run Vermont for a year and a half, so I'm speaking a little bit anecdotally and as a former participant in the race, but I do think that the city really shines on Marathon Sunday. And I think that it creates really strong good vibes in the city and I hope that that is having a trickle down effect.

Thank you. Uh, councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Anybody else like to speak? Go ahead. Councelor Sen and then councelor Lland.

Uh, thanks so much for the presentation. Just want to say, you know, I've always been a big um fan of the event. I I tell people this uh the when I moved to Burlington right after graduating from college. I woke up the ne and the next day was the marathon and I was just surprised moving here and seeing the marathon go on, it was just an amazing welcome to Burlington moment and seeing the community come together. So, it has a special place in my heart now spending 35 years here in Burlington. I just want to speak to the growth of the youth events. Um, and you know, I think that's great for our community, for health of our kids, uh, getting outside and participating in these programs. Additionally, I love the mission of Run Vermont that you've grown. you know, the status quo isn't good um in a lot of cases and this is one of the places where we are seeing growth again in an event that highlights Burlington. So, I want to thank you for that and the economic impacts are real. You can just walk downtown um or even, you know, even in our neighboring towns, you can see uh all the people out taking part in the expo. So, thank you again for putting this on and um I hope we can continue supporting this going forward.

Thank you. Councelor Litwin.

Well, I didn't think I could be more excited, but you have a a way with presentations and words. I'm always so impressed with how you come to the table. Um, and I think just I I did really quick math, but just in the past two years, you've you've grown the runner numbers by 17 or 18%. So, that's pretty impressive and brings that many more people to our community, to our business community, which we're here constantly talking about. How do we support them? Um, 542 volunteers I think I saw are needed. Um, it's a I'll just do a public plug for it. I've I've done it um a couple years now and it's a great way to just be out and enjoy without having to sweat and exercise. Um although you do stand on your feet a lot and um if I can just attest to how important it is because of how many intersections and driveways and places where things can very quickly go wrong. Um uh we had an incident at my uh intersection last year and I was uh able to compliment formally my neighbor who jumped into action and stopped a wrongway driver who you know could have caused a real serious incident had um she not interceded quickly. So, um it's so important for the community to get out there and it was a great way for actually my neighbors who often maybe don't have as um much going on and they'd like to be more connected to community uh but maybe have some more limitations or don't have a car to get around. It's a great way to get out. Um and I just had a lot of fun and I really thank you for bringing this to our community. It's a huge uh economic impact. I'm sure the numbers are higher. Um and our hotels probably thank you as well. Um, and certainly I know our gross receipts do. So, um, I do think, um,

it's important to make sure that the city looks great, that the bike path looks great. I appreciate the efforts that have recently been taken to clean up some of the areas on the bike path, um, and get the city ready. So, um, please sign up and if you know someone in Idaho, I think it was, maybe we'll get a toaster oven for you if you get somebody to register from Idaho. All right. Thanks. That's all I just wanted to say. Thank you.

Thanks, Council Lin. Are there any other counselors who want to speak to this item? Seeing none, there's no action on this, but I thank you and uh uh I just add add my uh thoughts that it's one of our marquee events in the city as part of our collective identity here in Burlington. So, I look always look forward to it and thank you for all the work that you and Run Vermont are doing. So, thank you.

Thank you very much. And to everyone in the city, thanks as well. Okay, moving right along. The next item is uh 7.2, a resolution reinstating the Burlington Aging Council in implementation of the Agrong BTV plan. And I'm going to turn to councelor Shector to introduce this and for a motion. Sure. Uh thank you so much, President Barlo. Um I'm just pulling up the motion language here. Um, I'd like to uh wave the reading and adopt the resolution and then have the floor back. Is there a second? Second by councelor Carpenter. Go ahead. The floor is yours. Councelor Shakar.

Um, thank you so much. Um, I'll keep this brief. Um, I'm excited tonight to be uh bringing forward this resolution to reinstate the aging council um and to move towards implementation of the aged strong BTV plan. I want to thank my close partner in this uh councelor Carpenter who's really been a leader uh for so many years in this work in the city. Um and my co-sponsors councilors Sanchez Parkinson and Grant. Um just to give a quick history. So my understanding I was not on the council yet but the first aging council the first iteration of the aging council was formed in 2021. Um it was staffed by CEDO and that group worked very diligently over many years to create um the age BTV plan which we approved pretty much I think one year ago maybe to the day as Anthia was just saying. Um and that's a really robust report with a lot of recommendations. Um and then uh since we approved that report um this group sort of dissolved waiting for next steps. They've been waiting very patiently. Um we've had so many um staff and departmental transitions and then the closure of the core program and all the things we've been navigating as a city, but they've been so committed and persistent. And I'm also very very grateful that um Dr. Perkins and her team at the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging have agreed to staff this um this uh this new iteration of the Aging Council. Um and so, uh I I'm very grateful for that. Um and I just want to say a couple words. So, the work is critically important. Um as Andrea Vitz with Heinenberg spoke to during public forum, um our senior population continues to grow. Uh we have a um I I last I heard we have more folks ages 55 and up than we do under age 18 in our community and that number um continues to grow. Um and so this new iteration of the aging council as

outlined in the resolution will have four mandates. Um to elevate the contributions of older adults in Burlington, to identify and raise issues impacting older residents and the organizations that serve them, to make policy and budget recommendations to the mayor and the city council, and to lead, monitor, and support the implementation of the aged strong BTV plan. And one thing I want to say is that this fir the first iteration aging council 1.0 know was really a planning body um and spent many years devising this plan and uh this new iteration is really going to be geared towards implementation. Where do we go from here and take the recommendations from that report and start to act on them um in a real sort of advisory capacity. Um so I think this work is critically important. One member of the aging council introduced me to the concept of an 880 city. Um, and I see this as an important step towards ensuring that we can truly be a city in which both our eight-year-olds and our 80-year-olds can thrive. Um, and before I turn it over, just um, a very modest amendment at the recommendation of our city attorney's office. This is in writing to my colleagues on council. Um but to lines 45 and 46, it will read um be it further resolved that aging council members shall be recommended by the office of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging and appointed by the city council with half of the members serving two-year terms and the other half serving one-year terms beginning July 1, 2026 and shall include and that's the only change. So I will seed the floor there. Thank you. Um, before I open it up to the council, do we need to vote on that amendment or is it included in the motion language?

That is a good question. I guess it's a question for maybe attorney Brown. Um, I think that councelor Shaker being the counselor making the motion can make it with that amended language. Okay, very good. So, I don't think there needs to be a separate vote on that amendment. Thank you. Um, and I know councelor Carpenter wants to get into the queue. Are there others who want to speak to this resolution? Councelor Grant. Okay. So, we'll go to councelor Carpenter then to councelor Grant.

Thank you. And thank you to um councelor Shaker who did a lot of work on this and councelor Parkinson Jazz Council Grant and uh Kelly Perkins from RAB um and as well um Andrew Vitz who runs our only senior center in the city and who's been incredibly supportive and Glenn McCrae who was the former um chair of the uh council. So this I think is is a really a good step. It's been a little frustrating that we've had this sort of lull. Um but a lot has been going on during this past year and including the significant changes around eliminating core in the city. Our work to get city programs up and going and then reaching out to each department. So I'm not going to talk a lot. The words are in in the resolution. The council itself has a great work plan to start their guide, but it's really going to be important that we take this seriously. It's it's easy to not take it seriously. We have so many fires to put out. Um, and as we've endeavored for other long-term planning in the city, um, we've got to take take our own aging in into consideration and and really follow through on the, um, age strong Vermont or agrong Burlington plan as we make all of our policy decisions and not forget um, this group of citizens who really are as Andrew pointed out will soon could be almost a third of our city. So I again I appreciate everyone who worked on this and look forward to the new recommendations and implementation.

Thank you councelor Carpenter. Councelor Grant.

Thank you. Um I agree very strongly with what my colleague councelor Carpenter just said. I feel like we had these discussions and then these work and then everything just went away. uh there were questions about this um council and there weren't answers with regards to to what was going on or where to find the information. So I hope that we can move forward and have a place where this information is easily accessible by the public and um because it is really crucial at this time. we we know the demographics and we have to really be more mindful because it is an equity issue. It's it is an equity issue. It's one of these equity issues that we keep not fully um engaging in. Uh the other thing that I have is that if we're going to uh bring this back together again and we want to say that it is put together by July 1st, how are we recruiting? Because it's not listed on the open positions. So, how are people going to know that they can apply or are we automatically going back to people that served on it before? That wasn't very clear to me. So, I' I'd like to know if we've um we've thought about that. Maybe there someone who has the answer to that question. Thank you. Because I know people who would like to to be on it.

Thank you, Councelor Grant. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak to this this resolution before we go to a vote? Councelor Shakar. Oops. I see councelor Newbieser. So recognize you next.

Dr. Oh, sorry. Go. No, you go, Councelor Newbieser. Sorry about that. I didn't see the room in. I thought

my fault. Go ahead, Councelor Newer. Well, my apologies. Um, well, I just want to say briefly, uh, agree with the need for this. I'm going to support this resolution. I'm happy to support it. Um, but I did just want to thank Councelor Shaker for, you know, we've had a lot of conversations about process and, um, how we're doing this work together as a body and I thought this was a really, really good example of folks coming together around an important issue. um some good due diligence and work being put in um and sort of bringing this council together to support an issue. So, I just wanted to point that out. I appreciate that. Um and I want to do more of that in this body. So, thank you for for leading in that respect.

Go ahead, Councelor Shear, and then we'll go to a vote.

Um thank you and thank you for your kind words, Councelor Newbieser. Um just to answer your question, Dr. Perkins couldn't be here. I'd love to bring her into that conversation. And Attorney Brown, not to put you back on the spot, but this is not sort of the same type of board and commission that has certain governance authority that the other boards and commissions have. This is, I think, more along the lines of like trusted community voices and that sort of. So, there'll be a little bit of a it doesn't have to go through the same formal We need some sort of formal recruitment process. Absolutely. And I would love for Dr. Perkins to help lead that. and it won't have to be the same application process as everything else that's going on right now.

Okay. And with that, um, all those in favor of the motion as made by councelor Shakar and seconded by councelor Carpenter, indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Thank you for this. Look forward to that work. Um, and we'll move on to item 7.3, which is the uh Vermont Route 127 shared use path scoping study project preferred alternative approval and BPRW is on deck for this.

Uh, good evening everyone. I'm Max Medalinsky. I'm a project manager with Burlington Parks and Recreation and Waterfront. Uh, I'm joined obviously by my colleagues who are there at the table with you. Uh, Maline Suender from DPW. I believe Brian Davis from the Chitten County Regional Planning Commission is there. Uh, we were all partners on this project. And I'm actually going to hand it off to our consultant from BHB, Drew Gingress, who has a presentation shared for you about this project. And um, yeah, looking forward to discussing it.

All right. Good evening and thank you to the council for having us. So yeah, as Max described, this is the culmination kind of the final step in what is known as a scoping study. So we're going to provide you a very brief overview in the interest of getting to kind of Q&A and any questions you have um as we look to put a bow on the study and seek your approval on the recommended preferred alternative. So just a quick overview. We're going to give a again a very brief overall project overview and then really focus in on the the real nitty-gritty of what was done uh for the alternatives development process. Um I'll share the scope of work in that brief overview to kind of give everyone the full capsulation of the scoping um process before we shift into a recommended preferred alternative which is what we're seeking your approval of and then obviously leaving for open discussion to answer any questions that you may have. So, just a a quick overview of the project. Um, again, I apologize I did not introduce myself at the beginning of the menu meeting, but my name is Drew Jingris. I'm the consultant project manager joined to my right by Mattie Cinder with the city of Burlington DPW. And then as Max kicked us off, uh, this project was done in connection with the Chitten County Regional Planning Commission. We are supported by Brian Davis who is here as well and then was um supported and constantly uh met on with the both BPRW as well as DPW recognizing that the path is kind of maintained by Parks and Recre while DPW owns and operates and maintains Vermont 127 which the path will cross and connect into. Um, so those that may not be as familiar with the overall scope of work for what's known as a scoping study, we just wanted to provide a a very quick overview. This project culminates in what's called a recommended preferred alternative. This is not a design project. This is not a construction project. We are not asking

for permission to put shovels in the ground or to stamp uh plans of final design. This is a process focused on evaluating opportunities for an identified need in the city, engaging with the public, engaging with an advisory group, and arriving at a preferred alternative that is community supported, stakeholderbacked, and informed by engineering uh and planning analyses. So, such a project like this really starts with looking at what you have on the ground. In our case, we're looking at the interchange of Vermont 127 and North Avenue as it pertains to a connection opportunity with the existing shared use path that travels on the east side of Vermont 27 between the old north end and the new north end. Uh back in 2018 in Plan BTV Walk Bike, there was an identified desire for a new connection between that facility and the new North End neighborhood. This study sought to evaluate options for such a connection. So following that initial kind of existing conditions uh assessment, we engaged with community members. Um and from that we took their input, combined it with our advisory group engagement and developed conceptual alternatives that met an identified purpose and need for the project. From there we present those uh alternatives to the community which we did in a joint session with um Plan BTV New North End last summer uh which had great turnout and really kind of honed in for us on what was very clearly a community supported alternative which we'll get to in detail momentarily. From that we really take time meet with our advisory group, meet as a project team, refine that preferred alternative and put forth a wellthoughtout um option for this connection as originally scoped and then put together what's called an implementation plan which is kind of a how to get there, how to make this new

connection that is now fully kind of realized. Uh how do we get it on the ground? what are the next steps for the project in terms of funding, in terms of planning, in terms of design and permitting etc. So with that, I really did want to kind of zoom in uh not in a lot of detail on the alternatives development, but really shift um after this get into what where we landed for for a preferred alternative. So this is kind of a very very very succinct look at our alternatives analysis. Three considerations um were evaluated for a new connection between the existing path and the new north end neighborhood at that North Avenue and Vermont 127 intersection. The first alternative in involves kind of reallocating space along the existing bridge that crosses Vermont 127. um that was uh obviously scored well in our evaluation criteria. Number one, because um it utilizes an existing piece of infrastructure and anytime we can avoid significant new construction and use existing pieces of infrastructure, particularly when that piece of infrastructure is a bridge, um that's generally seen as very favorable, especially from a cost and impact standpoint. We also then evaluated a new fully independent structure for bicyclists and pedestrian to use to cross Vermont 127 immediately parallel to the existing bridge. And then third, we evaluated uh an alternative which affectionately became known as the bridge to nowhere alternative which would utilize the existing timber structure that crosses 127 just north of that existing interchange. um as that came up from community members and our advisory group as an interested option for such a connection. Um but that one was relatively quickly ruled out as uh can be seen here by our color-coded evaluation matrix that

resulted in significant natural resource impacts. uh high embodied carbon and a cost that was higher than um both of the other options mostly because of the rehabilitation that would need to occur to the existing bridge as well as the lengthy connection as it was a bit more of a securous route to get to that structure. So from there that uh alternatives development and evaluation process which took about a year uh compressed into I think I'm at maybe eight minutes now I'm not 100% sure uh resulted in the identification of a preferred alternative alternative and subsequent refinements. And so that recommended al preferred alternative that came out of this study that we are presenting to you today for approval is the alternative one which was reallocating space along the existing bridge. Uh that that crosses 127 and kind of presents itself as an ideal alignment for a new multimmoal connection between the new north end and the existing path. Um as I touched on it utilizes existing infrastructure while minimizing new construction. It minimizes resource impacts. It has the lowest estimated engineering cost, the greatest level of public support was unanimous unanimously supported by the project's advisory group. Uh after we did kind of de develop that recommended preferred alternative, we worked with our advisory group to identify some areas of refinement to really put together a fully baked alternative and and a really informed imple implementation plan, excuse me, to make this alternative a reality. Uh and what we did when we looked at that refinement was we improved um separation between motor vehicles and vulnerable roadway users. We sought to improve aesthetics uh with tree street tree plantings to make it feel more like a boulevard and less like a interchange. Uh we added or at least added for

consideration pedestrian scale lighting. And then at the North Avenue intersection, we are proposing to reduce uh one of the westbound lanes and uh in the interest of shorting pedestrian crossings and establish a new pedestrian crossing along the north leg of that intersection given the new path connection that would be possible from this alternative. Following our initial presentation of the recommended preferred alternative and this these slides kind of speak to the last a little bit. Um the advisory group was curious about the traffic at that North Avenue intersection understanding past sensitivities to traffic along North Avenue. So we did extensive traffic analysis and determined that with that one lane reduction along that westbound approach from 127 to North Avenue that um that that leg of that intersection is over capacity. And so a reduction in one lane of capacity was not seen as detrimental to the standard to the uh traffic operations at that location. They also inquired about a more informed conceptual cost estimate. And so we did what would be considered slightly beyond a level of order of magnitude to look at full soup to nuts. If we were to start design on this project tomorrow and go all the way through construction, what would that look at? What would that look like in terms of a cost? And that was uh determined to be just over $5 million. and that is inclusive of engineering, design, construction, permitting, and all relevant contingencies that you would typically include when estimating cost uh at a project that's been brought through a scoping level. So, all in all, this looks like it might be a little small on the screen. I apologize to council members further away, but such a new connection um would look like this. We've kind of highlighted highlighted where new lighting would would go, where street trees would be planted, how that new bridge uh or excuse me, how space on the existing bridge would be allocated. Uh currently there's very wide lanes,

there's very wide shoulders, there's a very wide median and all of that leads to the opportunity to reallocate that space uh to be inclusive of a new fully separated um vertically with a with a crash barrier from the roadway uh connection that would then tie into the existing path. Um, I'm not sure if you can see my cursor, but up here and that kind of upper right corner of the screen. And then it would travel west all the way to connect into 127 where we'd establish that new pedestrian crossing um, and reduce the lane with street trees along this segment kind of leading up to or traveling away from the real on-ramps. Um, creating that more kind of boulevard. Um, more equal use of space there as you approach the new the north avenue and the new north end. So, with that, I realize that was pretty rapid fire, but I'd love to hear any questions from council members and hopefully answer them adequately.

Uh, yes. And thank you for that presentation. Um, I'll just note that this also comes to the full council with a recommendation of the Duke. Um, and before I open it up for to the full council for discussion, I'll turn to councelor Bergman for a motion on this.

Yes. Yes. Thank you. And um just to preface the motion, um the Duke did uh unanimously um support this and recommend it passage after a long presentation. Um, and so I would move to approve the Vermont Route 127 shared use path scoping study project advisory committee's selection of alternative one to reallocate space for a shared use path on the north side of the existing bridge over Vermont Route 127. Thank you, councelor Bman. Is there a second?

Seconded by councelor Broadick. Um, so then I'll turn to councilors for questions and discussion. Who'd like to get into the queue? Um, councelor Litwin,

I don't mind kicking us off, although I'm also pulling up documents at the same time, so you may have to reiterate something that you already said, but um, so this, you know, is is in Ward 7 as well as, uh, Ward two. Um, so I've been following this uh from the get-go and I think it's headed in the right direction. I think it's worth if if you did say it in the presentation repeating um how much of the funding is coming from uh the county the CCPRC um to to do this and how much it where the funding sources are coming from. So the the CCRPC funded the study itself. Mhm.

So, this study was done, I believe, using city match with CCRPC dollars. Are you referring to the funding to potentially realize the construction of the connection? Yes. Yeah. So, I did not speak to that. Um, so there's no current plan in place to see that through. Um, given the magnitude of the cost of the project, I I would think kind of federal andor peacemeal state funding would be required.

Okay. So this is like um imagine we're imagining what this could be together. So I think it's important for the public um because I've seen comments out there concerned about us spending uh large amounts of money uh that we don't have. And so I just wanted to be clear that um wasn't uh it's not happening immediately. Um, and then the second thing I just wanted to say is I I think that, you know, you've done a great job with um kind of having an intentional process. I know there were public meetings that were advertised to the community. Um, one thing that I didn't see come up in terms of what you're recommending that I would um, recommend integrating is, and we've talked about this before, um, folks usually from Councelor Bergman's area, kind of somehow getting onto the that path with cars, uh, particularly at night and using it as a road. And I've gotten complaints from constituents, photographs sent to me over the years of cars at sometimes high speed. I've gotten text messages from folks in councelor Bergman's neighborhood letting me know, hey, somebody's driving up the bike path at a high speed in a car. So, it would be and I've gone down there to look at it. So, it would be good to have ballards or something in place to protect uh a biker should they uh come across a rogue driver, we would we would do everything in our power so that that could not happen. Um that's important to me just because it's come up more frequently than I really ever would have hoped or imagined. So, thanks. Yeah, and I will note one one element of this study that I did not mention was as part of it um at the request of the city and supported by the

CCRPC was to complete two different assessments of the path. One was a trail widening feasibility assessment and the other one was a safety assessment as it related to roadway departures from Vermont 127. Um, and naturally when we did engage with folks, thoughts on thoughts on other or I guess other thoughts on path improvements were shared similar to what you're sharing for wrongway or motor vehicle access, lighting, etc. And we we kind of took those into account and noted them in this study, but did make sure to note that the main impetus for the study was this new connection. But it's certainly not the first time that feedback was heard for sure.

Okay. Thank you, Council Litwin. I saw councelor Bergman wanted to respond to a comment about his neighborhood. I think so.

I I think it's important to note that this is on the northern part after you get off of the bike path and then you've got to as you come up the hill and you go down you you cross the the entryway to Ethan Allen Homestead as to okay, how am I going to get to North Avenue? Now, me, I have on occasion wrongfully taken my bicycle or run mostly across the highway to get up to North Avenue. It's a really stupid idea. I do not recommend it for anybody, but if you're trying to get to the the center part of North Avenue, there is no way to get there unless you go all the way up to to Ethan Allen Homestead and then circle back around. What this does is allow people to cross over onto the bike path and then safely, and this is a beautiful picture for how we can do it safely as pedestrians and bicyclists, get from there to there, right? You can get there from here, so to speak, if we could afford to do this. And just to I I don't know because I you haven't forwarded me those um those emails, but the people that are driving up the bike path up from the dump road, right, are driving down the dump road and then turning around and coming back and got nothing to do with this path. So, for anybody out there that's confused or is questioning people, the the it makes no sense at all for anybody to be driving a car back and forth on the beltline bike path, the 127 bike path. There are

people that go down into the dump and that but it's actually is somebody who lives right at the entrance there. it is very infrequent. So I really look forward to us finding the extra money somewhere, you know, some Santa Claus to be able to make this thing happen. And I think that this makes a lot of sense. So I want to thank everybody for for doing the work and for the presentation that we had at the TUK and getting that unanimous support. So I hope we can get to it. Thank you, Council Bergman. Um, is there anybody else who'd like to speak to this item before we go to vote? Councelor Carpenter.

Um, I don't want to recruit. I I really do appreciate the work and uh along with Council Berkewin, I do I do hope we can find a way to do this. There is so much demand, if you would to connect the neighborhoods. It really would have meaningful impact. Um, and I think uh in some ways um get rid of some divisions we have in the city. um it's it's a logical way um particularly if you're walking and biking um to get from here to there. So I just hope we can figure out a way to do it and thank you for the work.

Thank you, Council Carpenter. Anybody else? Going on was going twice. I'm going to go to a vote on the motion is made by uh Councelor Bergman and seconded by Councelor Broadick. All those in favor, please say indicate by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you for this. This is going to be a good project. Thank you, council. If we can get money for it. Thank you.

Okay. Uh moving on. Uh next is item 7.4. Uh purchase of vehicle installed equipment for parking enforcement. We have DPW coming to present on this one. All right, good evening everybody. Chapen Spencer, director of public works. I'm joined with Jackie Esperi here, our division director for parking and traffic. We're here tonight uh to seek your support for a contract amendment for our parking uh enforcement and software system and specifically to uh implement license plate reader technology which can help approve our operations and enable us to offer a suite of new products and uh Jackie will provide the detail and happy to answer any questions.

Sure. So, we're looking for approval for um authorization for the money, additional money to be spent from our as contract that was approved in 2022. Um this technology is very similar to what we're using right now instead of um or in addition to the phone camera that we use. This will just be mounted on the vehicle that we're driving. Um we plan to use it starting in the garages. Um, it'll also give us another permit option where we're just calling it a punch card. So, someone can purchase um multiple days at a time at a discounted rate from the daily parking rate at the garage and um use it when they please. Um, we wanted to to speak to some of the privacy policy issues that were um brought up in the board of finance. Um, we've updated the memo from that time just to um go over some of the some of the policy that we have over privacy. Um, yeah, if you have any questions, we're happy to answer them.

Thank you for that. Um, I'll open it up for questions, but before I do that, I think we ought to go to a motion on this one as well, and I'm going to turn back to councelor Bergman. Sure. Um, I'd like to move to approve the purchase of a vehicle mounted camera technology from AIMS parking for a total cost of $54,58 and authorize the director of public works to take such further actions and to execute such further documents approved as to form by the city attorney's office as may be necessary or convenient to effectuate the transactions contemplated hereby. Thank you, councelor Bergman. Is there a second?

Second. Seconded by councelor Grant. Um, and now we'll open it up for discussion. We'd like to get in the queue. Councelor Grant.

Uh, for discussion for the public. Um, that doesn't always get a chance to watch the board of finance meetings. Could you, and we've, as a council have gotten a lot of concerns about the privacy issues. if you could briefly uh review those and also talk about what we currently do. Uh because there are some things that we are currently doing with regards to accessing information around cards uh around cars such as the fact that we have to register our cars and we have to have licenses. And so all of that is already uh in the state government system and not necessarily fully in control with regards um to the city of Burlington. It's like we don't necessarily have that permission and we know the state has already released some private information of individuals uh to the federal government. So a lot of people are concerned about what this new agreement will bring. Thank you. No problem. I'll start off and Jackie, please feel free to uh jump in. Uh it is important to note Burlington made a very important policy decision back in 2021 to separate parking enforcement from law enforcement and that was a major uh decision for our community and uh DPW operates parking enforcement with uh no connection to Burlington Police Department. So this Ames software platform we have is entirely in DPW's management and there is both license plate information to help us understand who has a credential to appropriately park on the street in the garage and then there's driver data that's related to registrations uh addresses of vehicle owners etc.

We do not access the driver data anywhere in the field. We have a few trained staff who are criminal justice information service certified called sieges in a locked office who are the only ones who have access to driver data. That driver data is only accessed when someone does not pay a ticket for the 30 uh days and that ticket is delinquent. At that point, our trained and um protected staff do connect then the LPR data with the driver data and that data um with the driver data is not stored locally on our servers is not printed out other than uh a letter being printed and mailed out. So um we uh have very robust systems in place. There are signs on the doors that no one is allowed into that area where driver data is accessed uh without being siege certified. And lastly, I will just say that we since we took over parking services in 2021, we have not had any court order or subpoena or departmental request for any of our data. I hope that helps. Anything you like to add? Now I think I'm not sure just to clarify if if um if the camera or parking services takes a photo of the license plate and the person has paid um that data is not stored. It's just completely erased. We don't t uh track the number of lookups that we do or anything like that. So that that information is is just erased like it never happened. We only look up the the person's personal data if they received a ticket and they did not pay in 30 days.

We also have councelor grant. Okay. Thank thank you um councelor sing and then councelor lightland.

Thanks so much for this presentation and also uh Jackie I appreciated you responding to my I'm sorry I was late with my email but how quickly you responded. So thank you for that. I just want to be clear, you know, this is one of the things when I read it that I flagged was about the, you know, paying for a permit to park downtown for an employee. I want people to know this does not affect uh the one that's designated where you can go in the Cherry Street lot for uh servers and janitorial staff downtown. That program is not a part of this and we're not asking people to opt in and now pay for that. I think that's really important to know because most of our workers downtown probably can't afford to live in Burlington that are in those type of jobs. So, thank you for clarifying that 100%. Um, and then I just want to talk, you mentioned that this is used at the airport. Can you share with any um anecdotes on how it actually works? Like they drive through the lot, it reads it. Just kind of set the stage of what this is actually going to do. So in the airport it's it's a little bit different than our what we what we are u looking to purchase. So I don't know 100% I'll preface with that but my understanding is um if I drive through the entrance of the airport um they take a photo of my car and I have the option let's say I'm waiting for baggage to pay for my parking after I've returned and then I can just it scans on my way out and as as I'm driving out the the gate gate lifts and you can just drive out. Um I I don't I'm not sure what around that the enforcement it doesn't enforce anything in the garage because you can't leave.

Yeah. So, it's just an ease of payment option. So, it's an ease of pay and I think that's important for people to understand. Yeah. What this is, you know, everybody talks about the customer experience downtown and getting a ticket is the last thing if they're leaving for the customer experience. Um, but understanding this techn technology and how it's going to be used I think is really important for the public.

Thank you. And so downtown basically the the technology is a little different in that uh right now we have attendance parking agents walking through the garage with uh their handheld device. The difference is that device now would be mounted to a vehicle. Same process if there's an uncredentialed parker will do the same thing. The agent gets out of the car, takes the various pictures to document the violation uh and places the ticket on the windshield. Okay. Thank you, councelor Sen. Councelor Litwin. Uh, thanks very much.

Um, I was not able to be at the board of finance presentation, so I appreciate that. Um, starting with my first questions are really within the memorandum that is attached. Um, so we're talking about what you're asking for is essentially a little over $50,000 to purchase and install these vehicle mounted cameras. And my understanding from reading the memorandum is that it is in excess of the contract as it currently stands, but that you anticipate double that number in additional revenue from your ability. what I would imagine is uh to issue tickets faster

um and cover more ground. And so I guess I've got a couple questions there. One is um how do we come up with those numbers? Um nice round numbers like 50,000 and 100,000. What analysis was done there? That's a lot of tickets. And additionally, uh, I'd like to better understand what percentage of tickets I know our core is probably more visitors than residents, but what percentage of our tickets are Burlington residents. Um, and then if you're planning on covering more ground, is that going into more residential neighborhoods? And are we essentially coming up with a way to tax or punish uh folks parking uh in the central district area particularly um to make this money up.

Um so right now we we hit every residential street two times per day. I don't think that we would change that in the near future. Um, so residential street with with our residential permit parking. Yeah. Not every street in the city, right?

So with our plan with this is just most people that park on residential streets do have a permit. So going through that right now takes approximately 30 minutes and you know it's the same folks that park every single day. This enforcement is just it's now going to take three minutes to drive on that street. Everyone has a permit. Great. We can move on. Um, the parking garages are a little bit different. It takes hours to walk through the parking garage and, you know, we may go at 7 a.m. and do the garage and then again at 5:00 p.m. Um, we're just missing a lot of people in between there. So, I do think um to your point, there's a lot of visitors, maybe business um owners or or people that are working. So, we don't have great data on if they're people that live here or um or visitors.

Okay. Thanks. Um is there a contingency plan if you don't make up the money?

Um I I would say that, you know, our goal entirely is to help people avoid tickets. When I started here, there was only one way to pay, and that was coinage. We're now uh at 99% of our spaces able to pay three ways. Uh we have uh had a pretty aggressive uh performance benchmarks to help support the general fund uh just in terms of the amount that $100,000. U we normally uh gross around $1.4 million a year. So we're really talking about, you know, a six 7% uh increase in in uh ticket revenue. and or additional parking product revenue. Uh so we feel that this is doable with the um with the approach without having to add additional staff. We can be more effective with our existing staff.

Great. The last question I have really and concern I have is again around privacy. um when I look at the attached license plate reader policy and I scroll down to um both persons entitled to data if the public is watching and also prohibited use of data. Um I'm wondering if you can address any concerns that I or others might have around um so for example the driver data which uh there was question about whe what was held you know how much you actually held on to will be made available only to staff as directed in the administration enforcement section. Um, and then I think I saw something here around a valid court order. Um, which as we saw on March 11th, there was a valid court order. Um, and I would argue that it was invalid. Um, and then on prohibited use of data, we do have some language here in section three around targeting individuals um, based on a variety of protected classes. Um, and also number five, um, for the purpose of infringing on First Amendment rights, how do you, um, what steps would you take? It sounds like you haven't had this request before, but what steps would you take if we were to approve this tonight to make sure that folks who are expressing their first amendment rights, particularly right now in this country's m in this moment in this country and folks who are uh immigrants in this country, uh new Americans um or on their immigration journey uh don't feel unsafe driving around our community going about their daily

business or patronizing ing our stores, right? Um I will start off and then uh city attorney Brown, if I could uh ask you to jump in here. I think the fundamental split between parking enforcement and law enforcement was a very major and significant decision that the council and the administration made. Our data is not connected to the police department in any way. And uh this policy which has been in place uh has been an effective tool for us. If we do get a request uh through a subpoena or other legal method, we'll be working immediately with the city attorney to figure out what the next steps are and how we respond.

And well, first of all, I just want to say that I Chapen and Jackie, you're doing a great job explaining the privacy aspects of this. Um, my office has worked with DPW and the airport to draft this privacy policy and I think what's important for the public to hear again is that number one there are two different kinds of data that we're talking about. So what we and we already collect this data, right? There's license plate literally like the number on your license plate, right? that's used for determining whether someone is in compliance with the parking rules and if they're not issuing them a ticket. That doesn't involve identifying the owner of the car or anything. Right. Then there's the driver data which is um held by the DMV and only obtained by DPW by parking services if someone doesn't pay their ticket. Right. And um what I think is also important for the public to know from this policy is that once a ticket is resolved, we don't keep that data. Um we uh it's either 30 or 60 days, but we get rid of it. Right. So what you're getting to is that the only and um Chapen spoke to this already, but like the only circumstance under which parking services would be perhaps sharing uh driver data would be if uh if there was some sort of court order, if there was some sort of subpoena issued. Uh that's never happened. Um, and so it's sort of hard to speak to like how we would deal with it since it's never happened, but it would become a legal matter at that point and we would fight it out in court basically.

Thank you. I'm pretty much at time, but I want to thank um I I've received some pretty difficult questions around license plate readers in general, and I think it's important that we overly discuss this and not rush this through. um so that I understand it and that the public watching um understands it. So I will um support this ultimately but uh trusting that our city attorney's office which has shown to be effective so far and you folks are going to do everything to protect um all driver data that we have. And I guess I I I don't know if this helps or not, but like I just want to be clear that we're not this um technology is not going to result in parking services collecting new information that they aren't already collecting. This is information that parking services is already collecting. Um this is just different technology for doing it. So these questions around privacy, frankly, have already existed and as we've noted, we've never faced a situation where we were being asked to disclose it beyond our parking services needs.

Very good.

Okay. Thank you, Councelor Litwin. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Um, I I want to again thank you um for how you're um addressing the privacy question and I feel like I'm just going to build on it as well just because of how important it is and I think you're hearing it from multiple perspectives. Um, I have not shared this publicly, but just a few weeks ago, a close um, family member was stopped randomly in a parking lot of a store surrounded by seven jeeps of ice and all because they had the wrong license plate. So if you would have brought this um at any other given with any other given context of what is happening in our society, I think people would be responding differently. But this idea of gathering um license plate information is just has brought a level of heightened awareness for everyone including those who have been directly impacted by this. Um so even though that data has been collected um it's been recently because of state federal um how how specifically how ICE is working with state level uh level and um cities is impacting people in a very different way. And so I think having sensitivity for how that is communicated is very important. Um and in many ways unfortunate but um just wanted to just continue to reiterate the importance of um even though this data has been getting collected right now in the way that is being brought in. we're in a whole different context and we have a lot as a community and as people we are um not trusting of any type of entity that is collecting any of our data. Um so again thank you for being thoughtful

in how you're responding to it and how we can communicate that u moving forward. I want to acknowledge how this is gonna increase our efficiency for our work and I appreciate continuing to think about that as well. Um and I think just generally as a culture we're in a a place of asking now time and uh time again anytime we're introducing new technology particularly around data collection um how are we ethically and how are we thoughtfully and critically adopting new technology and new data collection um ideas or or or systems. And so again both related to uh legal elements but just also how our culture is shifting and how we think or how we're thinking about data collection I think is different. So um just want to again reiterate that concern and how important it is to communicate it given our current context.

Thank you.

Thank you councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Um councelor Newzer's online and you're next. Go ahead. Um, thank you, Council President. Yeah, I I also just want to speak I I raised concerns in the board of finance, so I guess I wanted to speak to it, and I'm I'm not going to be voting for this um today, but I do appreciate the thoughtfulness around uh the information provided and the discussion we're having around privacy. I guess my concern isn't necessarily current practice or the current policy. I, you know, I might, if I'm really trying to like quibble, you know, have like a difference of opinion here or there on the finer details of that. Um, I guess my concern is just, you know, I I'm sensitive uh to the moment we're living in. Uh, and um, I guess I'm sensitive to like slippery slope argument, for lack of a better way to put it here. Um, and while I understand the current policy, I do think is is relatively thoughtful and um, it sounds like current practice is even more so within DPW. Um, one I think it is fundamentally different when you're talking about the the sort of efficiency in which we can collect this data. I think that is just fundamentally different, right? The idea that we're taking three minutes instead of three hours, I think changes the landscape and and does make it a slightly different conversation. And then two, I guess my other concern around this is um, you know, I just a city policy within the bureaucracy feels like a flimsy protection, I guess, and that's not anyone's fault or like on city staff by any means. Um but it feels like you know one one one thing that at least I've taken away and I think a lot of folks um living through this moment and certainly

you know this is sort of like people's um understanding of government especially younger generations it's like laws and policies only mean so much um it requires actual buy in and so um I think to me it sort of raises I'm getting a little off topic but it it raises this broader question and and you know I mean the the beed w uh beed rather update um that folks mentioned earlier and and I got an email earlier as well like the idea that we're using like AI in city government like maybe that's a good thing and it's innocuous thing um in its current form and we haven't had a really robust community conversation around privacy, around data, you know, in an ideal world, I think, and one of the things that I guess is coming out of this conversation for me is really wanting to as a council start discussions on um yeah, coming up with something in charter that speaks to the use of data uh or the use of AI rather and then just data privacy and what protections uh we can put in as a city because I think that's really relevant and I know that we've adequately had that discussion as a community. Um, so I just wanted to throw that out there and uh explain why uh I can't support this. One question that just came up for me as we were talking though was and I didn't uh send this in advance so I apologize but um because of the staff efficiency because you know something like going through the parking lot is reduced drastically in terms of staff time. I'm curious how if DBW's thought through um just how we're anticipating using that extra staff time um because what I definitely don't want to see is an efficiency in technology result in staff reduction. I

know that's not what's being discussed here. Um, but I'm curious, how have you thought through using um this this newfound capacity, I guess, moving forward? Run out of things to do yet. So, there's always something for the parking service agents to do, um, calls that people have made, um, places for them to to go and and check out. So we haven't had that problem and we have no plans right now to reduce uh our staff.

Yeah, I think just to add on to that there is possible as as division director Esparity said earlier increased enforcement in the garages just given the turnover in the garages that that feels like an appropriate uh place that twice a day is is a very limited slice of the activity of the garages. And second, uh, in our FY, just in full disclosure, in our FY27 budget, uh, we are proposing to eliminate a parking service agent position that has historically been frozen for years. We have op been operating on 10 parking service agents. We plan to continue to operate with 10 parking service agents. And frankly, there's a whole myriad of work uh such as crosswalk painting and other activity that if in the future this work does get u more efficient, we will happily redeploy uh forces. And as a matter of fact, we do have a reorganization proposal that we are working on currently that we hope is in front of council within a month looking at how we tier positions, adjust positions to take care of the moment. Our signals are aging and need extra attention and our crosswalks uh residents are asking for more painting. There is plenty of work to do.

Uh thank you councelor Newbieser. I have councelor Brick and then councelor Traverse and then I hope we can go to a vote. Um thank you. Um I so just to be clear I am I correct in saying that the technology that we're talking about here that where there's a lot of concern the that is the LPR integration that you were talking about the license plate recognition technology um is that the technology that you're referring to that is causing the concerns about privacy or what is that

yes this contract amendment is for the acquisition of license plate reader technology that's mounted to vehicles as opposed to our parking agents phones. So, um what is what is then not included in this bid in the paragraph where you talk about the the add-on that we are not accepting right now?

I'm not sure I I fully understand the question. Um I'll I'll read it. Um, the bid included an add-on option for license plate recognition, LPR integration. Great. Uh, so originally when we put this out to bid uh a couple years ago, there wasn't an ad alternate at the time that we had not taken advantage of uh for the license plate reader technology. We are now a couple years into the contract seeking to uh accept that uh additional uh service. So yeah. So we're we're doing this now. This is what we're doing now.

Yes. And because the original contract was uh valued at you 300,000 or something over the course of the contract, that bumped us. Even though this $50,000 ad is pretty small and under the purchasing policy, we wouldn't be in front of the council, it's because it's part of a larger contract that put us over the threshold. Okay. Sorry, I needed that clarification because I I apparently read it wrong twice. Um so, um

probably wasn't clear. I uh so I'm going to be voting no for the the same reasons that uh councelor newbies recited. Um regarding the privacy, I think the the the privacy policy that we have regarding LPR is good. Um I think it can be it can be stronger and that's another conversation. Um, but I think the, as was stated, what matters to me is not just are we going to be following this policy now, which I know which I'm confident that our um that that we would. Um, it's for me it's it's the future. And I think a policy like this needs to be enshrined in in law, in my opinion, our charter or in state statute. um as it's it represents to me um a major protection of our civil liberties not just in this case with this LPR technology for parking but with the whole conversation around automatic um LPR technology um for things like speed cameras and other places that have generated much more controversy. Um so this is a this is a policy that like I said it's good. Um, I think it needs to be as protected as possible so it cannot be changed easily. And so before something like that were to happen, I don't I don't feel comfortable uh accepting this technology. So I'm voting no. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Broadick. Councelor Travers.

Yeah. Thank you, Councelor Burllo. And um regret chiming in here after my significant tardiness due to professional conflict, but there's just a couple items that I want to add. First, councelor Broadderick, I had the same confusion that you did. And so, we are not alone. Uh, and I think it's somewhat related to the fact that on our agenda, we have the memo that's back from 2022 and then the memo from today. And I admit the first time I read that first memo, I thought it was from today, too. And it took me a moment to see, oh, it's from uh four years ago. So, in any event, I I had those same questions. Um, more importantly, Councelor Sanchez Parkinson, I really appreciate your um, speaking to your family's personal experience and I'm deeply sorry uh, that that happened to your family. Um, and very much appreciate your sharing it here in in a raw way this evening because I think it provides a incredibly important perspective. Um, I also want to echo the gratitude that your voice uh, that you voiced for the efforts that have been put into the privacy protections historically as as well as today. And um from my perspective, the most important point on on that issue raised by the city attorney is that we're not collecting any information that we don't already collect. We're collecting it faster. We're collecting it more efficiently, but it's the same system. It's the same private information. And I know the city has put a ton of work in over the years to protecting the confidentiality of that. The point that hasn't been raised that I just wanted to make sure that I noted now is that um I am voting on this because I want to provide our staff 21st century tools and make sure that they have the same tools available to them that their colleagues do in other communities around the country. I am not voting on this as a revenue generation tool. Uh I I think that if anything um we need to be looking for ways to expand free parking opportunities. We need to be looking for ways to uh lower the cost of parking downtown. I'm always thinking about the fact that, you know, Burlington is community is competing against communities where there are stores that people very much want to go to and parking lots where they can park

for free right in front of the front door of that establishment. And Burlington needs to be thinking about that when it thinks about its parking policy. So to the extent this does result in the generation of additional revenue whether it's 50,000 100,000 or or more I do hope that we're thinking of ways as to how that can be reapplied back to what I just mentioned there. How how can we expand free parking? How can we lower the cost of visiting our downtown because I do think that that's the way we need to be approaching this. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Travers and we'll go to councelor Carpenter to hopefully wrap us up. Thank you. Um, Council Travers said it very well and I appreciate his comment that if we do generate more revenue that it strategically used for free parking. And then just to specifically clarify, as I understand it, they're collecting the data now with their phones. So, this is really no different. It's just if if you have the data on the phone, it's the same technology. It's just whether it's on the front of a car or the phone in in your hand. Right. Thanks. Yeah.

Thank you, Council Carpenter. And hopefully we can vote on this now. Does anybody else need to speak again? No. Okay. Excellent. Um since we're going to have a divided vote on this, I'll ask the clerk to call the role, please. Acting City Council President Barlo. Uh yes. Councelor Bergman. Yes. Councelor Brick. No. Councelor Carpenter. Yes. Councelor Grant. Yes. Councelor Litwin. Yes. Councelor Mcnite. Yes. Councelor Newbieser. No. Councelor Sanchez Parkinson's. Yes.

Councelor Shaker. Yes. Councelor Singh. Yes. Councelor Traverse. Yes. 10 eyes, two nays. With 10 eyes, two nays. The motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, and next we'll move on to a at item 7.5, a public hearing um on the community development block grant and home investment partnership proposed allocations for the 2026 action plan for housing and community development. And before we go to open the public hearing, we'll uh we'll have uh some CEDO staff up here to talk to us about this. Thank you, councelor Barlo. My name is Cara Elnowi. I'm the director of CEDO and I am joined today by Christine Curtis who um is the manager of our CDBG program. I will pretty much pass it over to you and I'll hop in as needed.

Thank you. Um I'll just do a quick introduction in the interest of time and then we'll open it up. Um so as stated in our memoed council, we are here to solicit comments and or questions from the public, city councilors, city staff, um in regards to our uh draft 2026 action plan for housing and community development. Uh more specifically for two federal grants that the city receives every year. Uh, one of those grants is the community development block grant or CDBG and the other grant is the um home investment partnership grant or home grant. Um, starting on July 1st of this year, that will be the start of our upcoming 2026 program year. Um, that will run through June 30th of 2027. Um the city will be receiving uh 765,285 in CDBG funds and 339,484 in home funds. Um also outlined in the memo to council and certainly in more detail in the um action plan itself um are the CDBG subawwards for the upcoming uh program year. So those sub awards that you're sub awards you're seeing outlined in that table are broken out into two categories. Uh development and public service um development activities for the city currently look like public facility and infrastructure improvement projects um as well as economic development activities andor projects. Um public service activities are those critical services provided by our um nonprofit partners. Um and they serve Burlington's um lowincome population.

Uh so with that said, I will open the floor to any comments andor questions. Um, I am in my role here as acting council president. Unclear if if we first go to uh counselors or we go right into the public hearing. I think it makes sense to go to the public um so that then uh staff can address. Okay. Any questions? Thank you, Attorney Brown. Um so I will open the public hearing and we have two people who have signed up already. um to speak at public hearing. The first is Travis Puland.

Hi, I'll sit next to you in case you have a question. Is that okay? Questions.

Hello. Thank you. Um my name is Travis Puland. I'm the community action network director for the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. I'm actually just here tonight to thank the city and the staff at CEDO for their ongoing support over the years for our volunteer income tax assistance program. We have for many years received financial support through CDBG funding for our free income tax preparation services. Um this year uh we were granted $15,000. Burlington households represent roughly 35 to 40% of the total households that we see. Uh this tax season we worked with 42 community volunteers who were IRS trained and certified. They donated 2,493 hours of service between February 1st and April 15th, preparing 1,562 federal returns and,545 state returns for a little over $3 million returned to the community in tax credits and refunds. And as I said, about 35 to 40% of that um are represented by Burlington residents. So we are extremely happy with this ongoing long relationship with the city of Burlington to support this program. I would be remiss if I also did not thank the uh management of the university mall because for the last six years they have donated the space that we use to see people. Um and I'm just here to say thank you. It's been a wonderful program. uh it helps a lot of people. Uh we work with many different social service agencies to make this happen, including AALV and other organizations that help provide interpretation

services. Um and uh we are still catching up on data entry. So that's all. Thank you. Thank you, Travis. Um we also have online former counselor Sharon Busher who signed up to speak at public hearing. Go ahead, Sharon. Can you hear me? We sure can.

Okay. Sorry. Um yes, thank you so much. Um I wanted to comment on the three categories. Um the public service awards, the um CDBG development awards and then the home awards. So, with the public service awards, um, first of all, the memo was very clear and I the CEDO director and the lady that just spoke whose name just slipped my mind anyways who's in charge of the the grants um uh actually did a wonderful job with the with the memo um and explaining um this year that for whatever reason and some were suggested that there weren't as many development um requests and so the process was a little different because they were able to award money to all of the requesters. Um and that was very helpful to understand that. Um, in the past, and I'm talking way past before the the C the CEDO director probably started with the city, there used to be in the synopsis in the synopsis tables that you have in your packet. There used to be not only um let's just take uh the the public service awards. There used to be who requested it, what the request a what the ask was, and then what was awarded. And I found that very useful because it wasn't that I was going to take issue with the fact that somebody didn't get all the money because usually there's not enough money to go around. But I think it made it clear to the community how great the need is for certain categories for certain services. And so I just wanted to state it. I thought

that that would be I know if you dig down oftenimes you can find that information but it's hard to put that all together. So, that's just a request and I and it hasn't been acted on, but I'm still going to continue to request it because I think it does serve a purpose. Um, my last comment has to do with home. Um, and the dollar amount was stated, how much money, but in the table, um, it just says affordable housing and then the agencies are to be determined. So I find myself at a loss giving feedback to I don't know how many agencies are asking for money and if all of them are going to get funding. So I I really don't know how to respond in this public hearing. And so that leaves me wondering you're going to act next Monday. Um, and so will the home section really have had an opportunity to have it aired and for the council to get feedback um to take action on that and I'm not trying to delay it. I just don't know how to proceed because I can't I can't comment on what is unknown to me. So those are my comments. Um but overall once again we don't get enough money. Our need is great and the people that do this work that the people from the NPA and CEDO um does an excellent job in trying to dole out less than adequate funds in a fair and equitable way. So thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here tonight who'd like to speak at this public hearing? And I'm not seeing anybody. Um, and there's no one online. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, but I guess I'll also open it up for uh counselors to comment briefly on this item. Anybody wants to? I'm not seeing anybody. I guess that um we might address uh Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, if I could. um because I think um and thank you Sharon for your comments as always. Um I want to address her questions about the home program and the awards and funding as they're outlined in this table because this item will be coming to board of finance in full counsel next week for approval. Um so you know the home program grant program and the CG program are operate very differently. Um probably one of the biggest differences is that um for the home program uh we receive applications on a rolling basis throughout the year. Um whereas for CDBG there is a timeline that's followed every year. We release a NOA, there's a competitive application process and then it closes. Um that is per HUD regulations. we have to have all of our specific activities for development and public service um laid out in complete detail um in the action plan before we can receive that CDBG grant that does not apply to the home program. Um, so the reason why uh the for the home awards and funding table in this memo it says TBD that is because as of I checked in with our home program manager a few weeks ago. Um we currently do not have any um home applications. Um so what you all will be reviewing and approving right now at this moment to receive any applications would be just this funding amount. Um, if this doesn't get approved in this plan by full counsel and then by HUD, then we don't receive the money at all. So, we want to make sure we receive the money so that when we do receive any applications for affordable housing that we would be able to utilize them.

Well, thank you for that clarification. Um, and is there anything else you want to add before we close this item out? No. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thanks for everybody who participated in the public hearing. So, I'm going to move us along to item 7.6, uh, the CCORD phase one development agreement. And I think back for this one as well. Yeah, I'm gonna be here for a while.

I think Andrew, are we gonna One second. Just give us one second. We have some people joining us and I'm going to share my screen as well. Cara, while you're doing that, classic mayor filibuster moment. It's going to be efficient on our time. Um, as Car's pulling this up, I just want to start by saying, uh, starting with deep appreciations for just the strong partnership that this has been, at least since I've been mayor. Um, and really this moment, this historic moment that this uh this agreement being brought to you represents for the city of Burlington in our journey and in our strategy for really bringing thoughtful affordable housing development in the city in new and exciting ways that are values-based um that align with the city in terms of not only deeper affordability, but creative um creative thought around livability and the and the beginning of what is really, as people have heard me talk about a neighborhood built being born out of a big uh parking lot at this moment in time and it's just been remarkable to be able to work with a team who um brings new insight and innovation into this conversation and really has I think are going to push us as a city in the right ways and what public private partnerships can really be about. So I just want to thank um the team overall our CEDO team for working so hard as well as the Jonathan Rose company um and every person who's been part of this this uh new partnership that's been emerging. It's been great to watch and I really appreciate how well the negotiations have gone.

Great. Thank you, mayor. Um, I will kick off again. Uh, Cara al-Nisrai, director of CEDO. I am joined to my left by Gumi Jansen, who is our real estate development manager. Andrew Foley, who um represents Jonathan Rose Companies, who is um our private developer. They are out of New York. Um, and uh, I couldn't see who was there. Charles Dillard, our director of city planning. I will also note we have some other members um in the public here who represent Ride Your Bike, which is um another group of investors in this project that are local. And we also have Jeffrey Glassberg sitting behind me, who is our real estate development consultant. Um we're really excited to be here today. This is one of the largest housing projects in the state of Vermont. Um, and we're coming to you with phase one, the development agreement for phase one. So, the entire project would encompass uh 1,400 units of housing. Phase one encompasses 204 units of housing, mixed income. Um, and we're really excited to be uh heading forward with this. Um something that's a little bit different about this development agreement um for me represents a a change in um thinking from the administration as well as from CEDO as ways that we can incentivize our private sector to be building more affordable units or more deeply affordable units. Um and so this is um uh you'll see our approach in this development agreement is to incentivize our private sector partners to um bring

housing to our community that can serve all members of our community. Um, and I think at this point I'll stop talking and I'll pass it over to um, Charles Dillard, who is our, uh, director of city planning.

Thank you, Cara. Um, I'm going to keep my comments brief. I think most of you know the planning history of the south end, but I'll for those of you who don't, I just want to recap it briefly because I think it's an important story uh to tell in advance of the conversation about the development. So 10 years ago, Burlington's community was engaged in a planning process for the South End. That planning process was largely focused on infrastructure, on access to open space, on remediating brown fields, and on fostering and protecting and preserving the South End's economy, which at that time, uh, was largely based around legacy industrial uses, uh, artists and makers, um, and a burgeoning sort of brewery and restaurant scene and retail scene. At the time, uh, housing, um, was discussed. There was a housing crisis bubbling up in Burlington and across the country. Uh, but at the time, it wasn't as severe, uh, as it is now. You didn't hear the housing crisis discussed every day. And so, in 2019, uh, the the community rejected the idea of housing in the South End, uh, but left the door open for an evolving picture. Uh three years later after a pandemic induced housing crisis that only worsened in Burlington, the community uh made space for that conversation and it was the South End Innovation District um that sparked a great dialogue uh in the community across the community about what housing could look like in the South End amidst uh this great legacy of industrial uses of artists and makers and everything else that was happening in the South End. Um, we engage the community on pretty sophisticated topics. Uh, mass timber, uh, carite, urban design, cross ventilation, all sorts of things that

you don't normally hear about in a zoning amendment. We, but we did that because we knew it was important to craft a zoning amendment that was um, reflective of the community's values um, centering density, sustainability, and public health. We also had a land use conversation that uh strived to center that existing econ economic base in the south end. And ultimately uh in 2023, just four years after the community have rejected the idea of housing in the south end, uh the city council unanimously adopted the idea of not just housing in the south end, but the densest zoning district in the state of Vermont. um that again center sustainability uh and uh progressive values. So here we are today and I think just briefly on this slide I just want to point out that cord embodies so much of the vision that was in plan BTV Southoun um but also so much of what we're excited about looking forward in plan BTV 2050. Uh it combines thinking about housing but about affordability, about transportation, mobility, open space, uh and economic progress. Um and so we're really excited to see this first phase of the project doing exactly what we hoped for when we started that zoning amendment process back in 2022. Um and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Goome to tell you a little bit more about the project and then you'll hear from Andrew. Thank you, Charles. Very excited to be here tonight. Um, I'm Gonen, the city's real estate development manager. And just to give you sort of a visual of of many of the things that Charles um was mentioning. This project obviously didn't happen

overnight. Uh what we're seeing tonight is the result uh of years of planning, zoning work, interdep departmental coordination and uh a lot of collaboration with the community and as well as private partners. Um so the south end uh plan sort of established the vision back in 2019. Uh the zoning the south end innovation district zoning created the regulatory framework and then throughus pre-development agreement um and a lot of subsequent work. We have sort of advanced the feasibility and coordination and planning of this project. And now um we're finally at the implementation stage. Um and you know just a quick note that we are sort of discussing the development agreement tonight but we will be coming back uh in the coming hopefully weeks uh as soon as possible with uh future agreements related to both phase one and then and future phases of the project. So the development agreement that we're discussing tonight is uh sort of this bridge between planning and actually delivering phase one. A major theme of the project has been deep collaboration and iterative design um that has been achieved by involving a number of city departments, Champlain College, the development team of course uh a lot of community engagement. I would say this project represents sort of one of the more deeper collaborations that I have experienced at least. Um and it's been an ongoing refinement over multiple years um getting to where we're at tonight and the phase one sort of project. So like we've been discussing what the project is fundamentally about is

transforming an underutilized surface parking lot into a new mixed income neighborhood. Um, it's more than a site. It's going to be an entire neighborhood. Um, like Cara mentioned, target of 12-,400 residential units, mixed income, uh, mobility, in particular, walkability and bike ability uh, are at the forefront of the sort of streetscape that we have uh, designed over the past Yeah. two or three years I would say uh sustainability, lowcarbon development, infrastructure modernization uh as well as sort of focusing on the goal of of improving the water quality of of Lake Champlain and the benefits that we can sort of achieve by turning a a surface parking lot into something that actually captures water and and builds infrastructure that protects our envirment. environment. So the project aligns housing, infrastructure, climate, mobility goals into a single coordinated redevelopment uh effort. Uh and it's exciting to sort of look at the aerial photos. Um and then compare them with uh it's more than a conceptual framework. Uh you know the city and the developers we've agreed on the on the streets and many of components you can see in these renderings uh as well as of course the phase one building. So as we're sort of specifically focusing on on phase one u tonight and the development agreement um I just want to say that it sort of establishes the the agreement establishes the framework necessary to move from planning into

implementation. Uh it defines responsibilities between the parties. uh aligns public and private investment. It establishes the framework for future CHIP or tax increment infrastructure financing. It advances the city's housing and affordability goals uh with a quite novel approach. It links permit fee reductions to expanded and deeper affordability outcomes. Uh and importantly, it preserves the future sort of council oversight of the project as we will be coming appear again in the future uh to discuss chip approvals, housing infrastructure agreements, financing approvals, and any substantive amendments, you know, that we will of course bring back to council for review uh and approval. And yeah, with that overview, I'll hand it over to Andrew Foley and Todd uh to walk through the phase one project and implementation details.

You want to go microphone? I just wanted to make sure I introduce Todd Sarandos who um is from the ride your bike portion of the development group. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Uh I think due to the the scope and the the size of this project, I I really wanted to kind of formally introduce Andrew Foley um and maybe brag a little bit about the Jonathan Rose Company and and uh how fortunate we are to have Andrew as our development partner. Uh, for those of you that don't know or unfamiliar with the Jonathan Rose Companies, they are a nationally recognized multifamily mixed income affordable housing developer. Over, I think it's like 37 years, they've created $5 billion worth of value in the projects that they've developed. They own and operate over 19,000 units in 14 different states. I mean this is like this is significant experience to bring to our community. Um and in the dozens of developers that we interviewed there were none that had this kind of experience and resume and that that doesn't even I mean there's the awards that they've won for sustainability and community resilience and social impact. I mean if you read their website it just goes on and on. Um and and we're really excited that we have the opportunity to work with them um and particularly with like transit oriented development and with um urban infill and and creating high quality affordable housing. It's it's to to execute on this shared vision that the Cord partners have spent years developing and in such a in a large capacity, such a large project. It was really important for us to get this right. And uh we couldn't be more thrilled to have Andrew Foley and Jonathan Rose Company on board as our

partner. and Andrew's been with us for like maybe a year and a half working side by side with the ride your bike team and um and really has taken the lead on everything. The design, the development, um has worked with Champlain Housing Trust, with Evernorth, with the various state housing and finance agencies. It's it's just been an amazing partnership so far in and um I guess with that I can turn it over to Andrew Foley. Wow, appreciate that really warm introduction. Uh, and it's a a pleasure to uh see many of you again and and meet some of you in person. Um, Andrew Fo at Jonathan Rose Companies. Uh, and just to echo what the mayor said, this is a really important milestone for the project and all the hard work we've been doing um over the last several years, but not only the work recent, but all of the past work that Charles elaborated on to to get to this point. Um, as as Todd mentioned, we we work um uh around the country and uh it is a it is clear to us that this is a really special opportunity to develop a a mixed income uh deeply sustainable community in the in the south end. And so we are uh feel really privileged to be uh here at this table and and talking a little bit about the project. Um I will just to go a little bit more into detail of uh the first phase. So, uh, we're here to talk a we have some detail around what phase one looks like, but this is really a development agreement that charts out a course and a framework for developing future phases, but let's just talk a little bit about phase one. So, 204 residential units with 7,600 uh square feet of uh ground floor non-residential space, which will include a variety of of uses that will serve this uh community. Uh in addition to the building itself, uh we'll be building the first phase of housing infrastructure on the site. So that'll

include the first segments of two future public uh streets uh we're calling the main street innovation lane and North Cross Street, which are are working titles. Uh we'll also be advancing uh the first phase of storm water and wastewater improvements uh that will reduce uh combined sewer overflows and help protect the lake. And then a range of other uh site utilities that will not only uh enable this project uh to open to residents but also uh uh set the foundation for future buildings to come. Um we'll uh we are also very fortunate to to uh with the passage of the CHIP um uh program last uh year in the legislature and are um looking forward to bringing that uh proposal forward. A bit on the affordability as um Cara mentioned uh we are providing um a third affordability in our proposal. So that is taking the baseline of inclusionary housing with some of the additional incentives under act 250 for the baseline 20%. And we're doing two things. One, we're doing deeper affordability. So we're proposing that 20% of the units are affordable to households at or below 50% of area median income. and we're expanding that affordability to get up to a third affordable using the full uh benefit of the federal uh 4% low-inccome housing tax credit program. Um so, and you can just see the example here um that'll be providing uh units that are have uh monthly rents at $1,100,200 a month um and uh uh and above. So we we appreciate that this is uh to go deeper on this affordability requires a public

private partnership and funding at city, state and federal sources. So as a project we are um fully maximizing all of those uh resources to get uh to this level of affordability and we're also proposing a deeply uh sustainable building. So this first phase building will be um uh an allect electric highly efficient building. We're utilizing mass timber. Uh we have uh are proposing an openloop geothermal system for HVAC system and 130 kilowatt uh solar array on the roof. We're also going to be implementing uh a range of amenities to encourage residents uh to live a car-like lifestyle through uh car share, through ample uh bike storage and promoting alternatives to uh uh car ownership. So uh I want to stop there to leave as much time for questions as as possible as we want to focus in on the development agreement and uh but it's a pleasure to meet um you all and for to your questions.

Is there more or do you want no want me to go? Okay. Um well we're getting near our witching hour. We have uh council rules that say we can't um take our deliberative agenda beyond 10:30 without suspending our rules. So before we get into a motion on this, I'd like to entertain a motion on suspending us. Go ahead, councelor B. So I'd like to move to suspend the rules to complete our deliberative agenda. Second.

Is there a second? Seconded by councelor Travers. Okay. All those in favor of suspending our or is there any discussion before we vote? Okay, I guess not. Um, okay. All those in favor of suspending our rules to complete our deliberative agenda, please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Okay. So, our rules are suspended to complete our deliberative agenda and we'll continue with the CCORD presentation. And now we're on to questions. So, um, are there counselors who want to speak to this? We'll start with councelor Bergman.

So, I actually don't have any questions. I just want to thank you for um the combination of work that you're bringing to the city team for doing good negotiations, including Jeff back there. um for you guys and the owners uh for putting together a proposal that really um deals with a triad of of issues. Your um environmental, your um your housing um and well, I guess invi maybe it's just two pillars as opposed to to three because so much is really related to the environmental, you know, many pieces of it. So, I'm I'm really looking forward to the um the mass timber and the geothermal and the solar as being examples of uh of a new type of building. And I I hope that you can get as close to passive house if you can adopt it as you possibly can. I want you to prove that the governor is wrong about rolling back the standards, the building code standards, that you can do this in a cost-effective way and still protect our environment so we can do our part on climate change. Um, and very excited about the TDM stuff that I've been talking with you people for, you know, a year and a half or or so. Um, I'm very excited about the affordability that you're bringing, particularly the expanded affordability. And I was asked, you know, why are we ponying up possibly $500,000 to do this? Well, if you look at what um people in

this city are making, right? Uh we have got a city of great income disparity and uh like in 2023 that's the latest tax numbers that we've got 53% of the total households of the total taxpayers of this city were making under $50,000. Okay. and the expanded affordability that you've got there will reach those people because that's about um $100,000 or $90,000. And so you are you are you are hitting a population which is getting priced out and we heard all night about um homeless folks and the contradictions that we've got and we have got to do a good job on that. So expanding the numbers and expanding the range of affordability and also the 80% and se well I think it is yours is a 70% um affordability starts to hit working people because when I adopted uh got past the inclusionary zoning in 1991 when I was on the council before I said if you're going to build rich people's housing you better build working people's housing

right and I I'm absolutely committed to doing that so I'm glad glad that you are showing that um that this is possible and um I hope that we will um support this unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Uh councelor Carpenter and then councelor Sing. Thanks. Um I just wanted couple to clarify. Did I hear you that you are working with some of the local nonprofits like CHT and Ever North and could you explain that a little bit? Uh yes. Uh so Champlne Housing Trust is uh going to be an active participant in the project help um uh with uh first providing residential resident services.

Yeah. Um they will be also a co-developer and helping us develop the project uh and and playing an important role with VHCB who's providing some funding for the project. Okay. And your intent maybe is to work with Evernorth on that syndication. Uh yes, correct. Uh uh we have selected Evern North as our tax credit indicator. Okay. And is is um your company intending or hoping to continue with the development of the rest of the housing in on this budget? Yeah, that that is our that is our that is our intent. Yeah. So uh in this framework allows us to continue to move move forward on future phases.

And are you the management operate do you provide the management services as well or will will that be another entity? So, we have a strategic partnership with a group called Win Residential. They're a large uh uh manager of affordable housing and mixed income housing based out of Boston. Yes, I'm familiar with them. Um Okay. And so they would they would be the management agent. Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Carpenter. And I was remiss not to entertain a motion at the beginning of this item. You see, I'm not very good at this. I don't do it very often. So, I'm going to now turn to uh councelor Singh and he's going to he's going to remedy that for me. Yeah, I'll make the motion to approve the development agreement and to authorize the mayor and the city of Burlington to execute the development agreement between the city of Burlington Roger Bike LLC and RYB building A LLC for phase one of the Southland Coordinated Redevelopment Cord project subject to review and approval of the documents by the city attorney's office and take such further actions and execute such further instruments approved as to form by the city attorney as may be necessary or convenient to effectuate the transaction contemplated hereby, provided that the HIA and any substantive amendments to the HIA or to the development agreement shall require the city council approval.

Thank you, councelor Singh. Is there a second on that? Second. Second, council shar.

So, point of information council council saying, read it again. I was trying to preserve time by reading faster. I I'll just make some really brief comments. I I want to welcome you, Andrew Full. I I don't think I've met you. Um hearing about what you do throughout the country and you're bringing it here, you know, warm welcome to Burlington. I hope everybody welcomes you with open arms in this council, I believe, will tonight, too. So Todd, thank you uh for everything you do and and the thoughtfulness and the project that you put forth for, you know, I represent the South District, so this is huge for us. Uh Gi and Cara and um Charles, your staff and the hard work you've put into this. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you because reading through this, you it looks, you know, there's a lot of work in here. You know, the biggest thing, 200 new housing units. I mean, this is huge. uh change in the way we do things here in the south end as far as you know transit oriented. Uh we're going to get great infrastructure. We're going to protect the lake. Um this is just amazing and the fact that we're using the newly you know minted chips uh to to make this happen. These are all the things that um I hope we can model in other places and I just really appreciate the hard work on this.

Thank you councelor Singh. Um so we have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion on this before we go to a vote? Councelor Shakar.

Yes. Uh, acting president Barlo, I'll keep it very fast. I just would be remiss if I didn't just say thank you. I think, you know, people ask, "What's it like to serve on council?" And my usual answer is it's never dull. And sometimes that's not a great thing, but sometimes it's it's there's such exciting things that come through that we get to have the frontline view of. and knowing how much work has gone into this, years and years and years of thoughtful planning, such care, such commitment to our values as a city. Um, and so I think this is one of the more exciting votes I've had the chance to take in the last year. Um, and I'm really excited to see this and so grateful for this uh really incredible team that's behind this project. So, thank you. And seeing no one else in the queue, um we'll try a a voice vote on this one. All those in favor of approving the art the uh core development agreement.

I I I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. And I'll echo my uh my uh my I guess appreciation for everything that's happening down there at that project. It's a It's a really important one for the city. So, thank you very much. Thank you all very much. And next, moving on, uh, to our second to last item, um, the fourth amendment to City Place Arta 2.0 inclusionary housing delivery timeline. And we have Cedto back for this one as well.

Yes. Hello. Um Carl Nrai Cedto director Gomeansen uh the city's real estate development manager. Um this was the item we had a work session on last week with all of you. Um I will perhaps kick us off the same way I kicked us off last week, which is this is not exactly the place we all want to be in right now. Neither the developers nor the city. Um, I know this last project that we just um cord that we just discussed is shiny and new and is hitting all the buttons. Um, I do want to say that this project in the heart of our downtown. I feel very strongly is so close to the finish line. It is in a little bit of a fragile state as you all know. It has been decades in the making and um our request here is to assist the developers in getting this across the finish line. That entails uh an extension of the delivery of the inclusionary zoning units. Um the maximum extension is to the uh December 31st of 2027. Um however we do expect um TCOs, so temporary certificates of occupancy will be issued some as soon as June 2027, so one year from now. And I want to reiterate that no certificates of occupancy uh permanent or temporary will be issued without the inclusionary zoning units. So we will not be having any more market rate units hit the market. um before we see inclusionary zoning units. Uh Gi, I don't know if you I don't have much to add unless we just want to run through the U amendment again. I'm happy happy to do that. Um

but

maybe I mean I'm I'm happy to entertain questions at this point if if you would like. Um at this point again uh we had discussed that some of their financing is in jeopardy. They need this extension to lock down the funding in the north tower which they hope to have in the next few weeks. Um again as the director of CEDO this isn't the f my favorite position to be in. Uh I will say however that when when we sign these development agreements like we will be signing with CCORD thanks to your vote. These are living and breathing documents. They are documents that react to market conditions whether we like that or not. That's the reality. This is not a project that's fully federally funded in any way. Um that funding has dried up. So, CEDO is in the business of um bringing forth public private partnerships where we need to be sensitive to our private sector partners and how the economy and market conditions are impacting them. And we will entertain questions.

Uh thank you for that. Uh before entertaining questions, I'm going to turn to councelor Travers for a motion on this item. Yes, I would move to approve the amendments to the arta and to authorize the mayor of the city of Burlington to execute the fourth amendment to the city place second amended and restated development agreement art 2.0 between the city of Burlington and city place partners LLC subject to the review and approval of the documents by the city attorney's office. I would ask for the floor back upon a second. Thank you. Is there a second? Seconded by who? By councelor Bergman. Okay. Thank you. Uh the floor is yours council travers.

Thank you uh councelor Barllo and thank you very much for this presentation as well as the opportunity for the council to weigh in uh at um our recent meeting. Um and and I just want to say just very quickly here uh that director I I very much appreciate your um comments with respect to this not being your your favorite place and wishing you didn't have to be here. But I I I just want to say I don't think you have to say that from my perspective. I think the more important item that you noted in your comments was that um we were told at the very beginning of entering into this development agreement that this document was just as you described it a living document. This is a multi-year project. Circumstances change as mentioned at our last meeting. I'm incredibly grateful to the local partners that we have here. Very grateful to your office for continuing to work with them. As mentioned in the motion here, this is this is the fourth amendment. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fifth amendment down the road. I mean, I I don't know that that's in the cards, but that that's what we've done here, right? And we were told very clearly and transparently um when we first entered into agreement with these partners to to expect just what is before us. Uh and I'm very pleased for uh the ability to continue to support this this great project in whatever way we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Travers. Who else would like to speak to this item? Councelor Grant. Thank you. Um I will be voting yes because to your point it needs to move forward. People want to see it completed. I have to say that there was that concern that was expressed around the units being rented at marketplace and then this whole idea of like well you don't want us to evict people that was just a wee bit not okay but um it has my support um as I just said because people want to see this done. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Grant. council when

uh thanks and um I appreciate that we were able to take a little more t time because of when this came to the council so that uh we could get questions answered offline. Um thank you uh Gumi and um director Alnesari for taking my call and and and answering my questions. I think the only question I am left with that I didn't see in the full execution agreement which by the way is 114 pages um in the four-page version uh when we're talking about south tower IZ shortfall payments I just couldn't find what that payment is and is that a city ordinance policy or like what is that you know what what governs how much they have to pay

so the mechanism uh as we laid out in the amendment uh is is basically at at the time when the payments kick in in the case that they will have not have delivered the affordable units by December 31st, 2027, we will look at their average market rate units as well as the affordable units that are missing. In this case, the 111 um from the south tower and the differential between the market rate and affordable will uh set the the payment or the the amount. So, as of now, it is estimated to be about $1,000 per unit. So, $11,000 per month, but that's uh an amount that we will have to uh recalculate at the time.

That makes a lot of sense. Um, is it worth putting this in the agreement or is this just understood? That is in the amendment to the to the agreement. Okay, great. No, we had the lawyers. Okay, do that. Yeah, we love lawyers. Thank you. All done. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Bergman.

Hi. Um, so I just want to thank you for um negotiating instead of just rolling over. This last point is really important because you know if they don't fulfill the requirement um you're going to be able to not allow them to profit off of that. That's the idea by this um by this calculation. And so we have to do it at a at an upto-date point in time. But you know so many governments they just roll over when you know the big dog says bark. you know, they just like roll, you know, they play dead. And I'm glad that you didn't do that. I'm glad um that we've got um the limitation um on the certificates of occupancy so that you just don't get to profit. And I I I I think that, you know, that is the advantage of having local um contractors and developers. So, there's something to be said, but everybody's in it for money. Let's be clear about it. You know, we've h we have local developers and landlords that would not do this. The fact that you're local doesn't mean that uh you are, you know, like an angel from heaven, right? So, we have to be particularly hard and you've got in here the continued um community benefit um parts of it that that those community benefits agreements that we've negotiated that are are very important too. So I'm disappointed but not surprised that the costs and the financing have changed given the chaos that the federal administration has uh reigned on the entire planet. So, you know, we have to take uh take into account of that and the fact that this

is about a year off when I is what I understood them to be. Um

uh I I do not want to go backwards on this one. Um you know, comments from uh uh councelor Travers in terms of wouldn't be surprised if there was another amendment. I I you know, so there's going to have to be a lot of good negotiating and give and take if you know, conditions um get worse, but given what um what we've got here and now, um I can support this and I want to thank you for the hard work that that you did. I thank them for continuing to stay with a project that should not be under construction till my grandkids like have kids. Thanks. Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Go ahead, Councelor Carpenter. Oops. We'll go to councelor Carpenter and then to councelor Newzer.

Thanks. Um, I just want to reiterate one of the points that um was in the memo that this particular project is doing their affordable housing units with no public subsidy. We just don't see that. I I'm the CC cord um development is very exciting but it is incumbent on a lot of public subsidy which means we won't do other projects. So this is so unusual. I just want us to to note that and the fact that there's a delay is not a surprise to me um particularly while they're striving to do it without any other public sub.

So correct. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Carpenter. Councelor Newbieser, sorry for missing you up there. All good. All good. Um, yeah. No, I I just wanted to say I appreciate the work. I wanted to

Yeah, I I I don't want to see us move backward. I also I am frustrated, I think, for uh the reasons that councelor Grant brought up. Um, and for I guess my other, and this is partially a comment, partially a question is, um, I'm glad that we negotiated this sort of fail safe, at least as I see it, around if they don't deliver the by December 27, if I'm getting that right. Um, that they basically start to pay a fee into the housing trust fund. I guess what I'm struggling with is we were supposed to get these units by this summer if I'm um as long as I'm not messing up my dates here at a late hour. And so why don't why don't we get or did we advocate for I guess is my question and maybe this just we you know landed somewhere different in negotiation um that payment starting over the summer. I guess that's what I'm struggling when uh struggling with in terms of supporting this. Um yeah, and just the idea too that like we're in a position now and I'm no housing developer and certainly no expert on public private partnerships, but just again going back to councelor Grant's point that we're in the position of they took units, filled them market rate, and then say well like you don't want us to kick these people out of their homes, do and it's like, well, of course not, but it puts us in a really difficult position that doesn't feel particularly great. Um, from my perspective at least. So, I'm wondering if you could speak to that a little bit. Um, yeah. And then maybe I'm getting punchy because it's like what is it? It's coming up on 11 here. But councelor Bergman to your point I think it's also important to remember while I appreciate partnerships with anyone uh you know city government and private developers or whatever other context designated agencies etc. you know these

folks are making money. This is not a this is not charity work. This is a um a professional relationship and certainly folks are not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. So, while I want us to, you know, obviously maintain a mutual respect and develop that, I also don't want us to forget as a community that that we do have often times divergent interests and we've got to be really um I think it's our job as a council and a city government to be skeptical constantly on behalf of the public's uh interest. So, I thank you for saying that because it's not it's certainly not charity work. Great. Thank you, councelor Newbieser. Um part of the I some of the issues you bring up um take me back to councelor Carpenters's comments. Um so in the world of financing um projects like this, a bank will typically lend 120 to 125,000 per affordable unit. It costs approximately $400 to $500,000 to build that unit. Um, and so these individuals are not relying on any other subsidies to get there. So, in the original plan, there were no IC units planned for the south tower, but because the project got delayed and had cost overruns, um we had put an original failafe in to move some of those units to the south tower that then if we had allowed them to have the IC units in the south tower, that would have jeopardized their funding of the south tower. So what can happen is a financial institution can do what's called a partial call which is that they will call back some of the

funds that they have loaned already and that would have put the entire project in um a much more fragile state. So again, part of the problem I know uh I and I don't disagree with councelor Grant or counselor Bergman or you councelor Newbieser. It's just that they are in this position right now where they can't lock down the funding to finish this project unless they are showing market rate income for what has already been built. And that's sort of the conundrum that they find themselves in right now. and we're trying to offer them some relief in terms of them paying us right now for those units that are not available. That is something that their banks will look at. So that is the same as them renting those units out at affordable rates because they would be paying the difference, thus decreasing their cash flow, thus showing a less stable borrower to their lenders. the financial institutions.

And maybe just to add real quickly during the sort of these discussions and negotiations with the developer, we we did consider and bring up a range of security mechanisms uh financial ones uh enforcement etc. And I you know I guess at the end of the day it's you know it's a policy question and this proposal that we have put forward with the amendment is would be sort of ultimately advanced given the range of considerations that we discussed. Um so yeah um just to add on to what what Ka was saying I think um I mean the main goal here is to advance the project help them proceed and most importantly help them deliver these 73 units of affordable housing on site in the downtown area. Um so yeah I know there is no simple answer to this question um but but I can assure you we we did discuss a range of possibilities uh with regard to this amendment.

Thank you. You all set council you're at time anyway so appreciate it.

Thank you. Um councelor Sanchez Parkinson. Um, first I just wanted to thank council Shakar for coordinating a twohour tour that we took of city place. Uh, it was really incredible to see the progress that's been made. Um, I wanted to point out three things. One, specifically related to this, I was um particularly interested to learn more about the student housing when I was touring and I was um glad to hear that it is part of the affordable housing um plan. And so I I'll be following that along as we think about student housing and student um you know their experience overall within our city as well. Uh two sort of unrelated uh but given that we're on this topic of um city plays. One is I'm thinking how that's impacting the projects on the streets around it. Given that we just learned about the plans for Cherry Street, there's Pine and just how all of that is impacted. So how does the timeline for city playset impact um the city the street work that's happening? Um and then uh the other point you know I it was very one of the things that as we were touring that was very obvious is like the number of workers that we have within within these projects and I'm thinking the same thing that will happen with ccore development. who are bringing in um hundreds of employees to be working um and to be building our our our city. And so I'm also thinking about workers rights, how we're engaging them as res like residents, many of them here for a number of years while they're working on this project. Uh many of them who live here, many who are uh visiting to just work here. Um so that is something that I'd like to think more about as we pursue these large projects. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, is there any anybody else you'd like to speak to this? Go ahead, Councelor Grant.

I just want to say that, you know, again, I do understand the change that they need to make with regards. It just it would have been polite to give us a heads up before they rented out those those units. Having them rent go ahead and rent out the units before we fully informed just leaves a little bit of a bad taste. I think we're all in agreement that we need to support this, but just as a courtesy with regards to when these changes are starting to happen would be appreciated. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councelor Grant. I think I'm going to try a voice vote on this one. Um, all those in favor of the motion made by councelor Travers indicate by saying I.

I. I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Um, excellent. Well, thank you again. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and move it moves us to our last item, which is an ordinance uh consumer protection BCO chapter 21 article 1. It's coming out of the ordinance committee. I'm going to turn to uh Councelor Bergman for a motion and an explanation.

Thank you. Uh, I'd like to move to consider this a first reading to wave that reading, suspending the rules regarding a referral back to the ordinance committee and set this for a second reading and action uh for a date certain of May 18th, 2026, which is our next meeting. Is there back after? I can second that. And seconded by councelor Litwin. Okay, the floor is yours. Councelor Bergman.

Thank you. Um, so let's be really I'm going to be really brief because it's really late. We did this in this way to give the owners of the lots and the gas stations an opportunity to speak here. Um, they have had opportunities, there has been communication with them, but given the nature of this and there's even been news stories about it that um, that was really important to have this not on the consent agenda. something very different than what we passed for UVM where they had been there where they signed off on it where the students knew that this was happening. We have you have a memo that explains the process. So, I won't go into the details of it, but we have dealt with this a lot and it's reflected in the language of the ordinance that tried but was not entirely possible to incorporate all the things that the resolution that sent it to us did that. At the end of the day, I think we're true to the intent that councelor Whit Litwin brought by bringing this forward. um had around this being consumer protection. Um but you will see that for example the details about the um the notice for the holds or the gas stations cannot have the specific details on it because every bank does it differently and you can't have it's an impossibility right so um uh I would just point out that um we have um an effective date of July 1st I believe it is uh on on this and then the grace period afterwards our ordinances if it is adopted go into effect on the 21st day after publication so if we

adopt it next s next Monday night and it's signed and then published in seven days on that Wednesday which may or may not happen maybe it's the week after you know you've got a period of time that doesn't give a lot of advanced notice. One of the reasons that I bring that up is like for all things that if there is a desire for more time an amendment on the floor or you know and circulating it before in terms of the time I I think I I would personally be open to that if that is desired but there because of both the delayed um effective date and the fact that there are these you know grace periods there's long grace I I'm not sure that that's necessary, but that's something that I just want to put on the table. This is longer than I thought I should and would give, but you can read it all and we can talk about it next week. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Bergman. Uh, who else would like to speak to this item? Go ahead, Councelor Lquin. Uh yeah, mostly I just want to thank the ordinance committee for giving such um attention to it and also I thought after I read it that it was very true to the intent really which was to improve the experience of our community when they are filling up their gas. Um, primarily that the folks who are mostly impacted by this are uh tend to be folks with um limited credit or limited access to bank accounts um or on limited incomes and we should be protecting all of those folks um including uh many of my um older neighbors who are on fixed incomes. And then in terms of the um parking rates, you know, I think you uh or the private parking lots, I think you nailed it really um with just sort of getting a lot more fair um with what's going on. And anybody who's walked into or driven into one of those lots downtown that is not a city-owned lot can see how easily confused any member of the driving public could get. and the sheer number of like tiny font signage all over contract signage. I mean, it's laughable, honestly. Um, and it's, uh, resulted in a lot of difficult situations for folks and spending a lot more money than they would in one of our wonderful city garages, um, which has a lot more accessible rates. So, I um hope that that uh this just makes it fair for folks to make the choice that makes sense for their um pocketbook, I guess. So, I'm perfectly happy with this. Um and I thank you

immensely, councilors Barlo, Carpenter, and Bergman for laboring through it. So, thanks. Thank you, councelor Lwin. Who else would like to speak to this? Councelor Carpenter. Oh, no. Well, I don't know if you were signaling me. I Well, you don't you certainly don't have to. Um, so if no one else wants to speak to this, we'll go to a vote on it. Um, all those in favor of the motion as read by councelor Burman, please indicate by saying I. I. I.

Any opposed? That's unanimous. And that completes our deliberative agenda that we said we would suspend our rules to do. So with no further business, I will adjourn us at 10:55. Yeah, heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N.