Welcome to everyone who is joining us in Contois and to those who are joining us online for the Burlington City Council meeting. It is now, it is now, the time is now 5.34. The first item on our agenda is the agenda. And is there, this is item 1.1, a motion to adopt the agenda. And with that, we do have a bit of reading. So I don't know, should I call on someone for whom it's last council meeting or does somebody want to volunteer to make a motion to adopt the agenda? Councillor Miki. Thank you, President Paul. I would move that we amend and adopt the agenda as follows, add to the consent agenda item 6.51, communication, Mary Gade, re neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.52, communication, Michael Long, re neighborhood code, send it back to the drawing board, add to the consent agenda item 6.53, communication, Kason Hudman, re support for neighborhood code change, add to the consent agenda item 6.54, communication, Evan Gould, re neighborhood code support petition, add to the consent agenda item 6.55, communication, Rye Sherman, re please pass the neighborhood code on Monday, add to the consent agenda item 6.56, communication, Jack Tiano, reassessment of and support for the neighborhood code. Add to the consent agenda item 6.57, I did not see this extra reading. Jake Tuarag, re forward, neighborhood code must pass, add to the consent agenda item 6.58, communication, Colin Larson, re 325 comments, support the neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.59, communication, Midori Little, please pass the neighborhood code for a sustainable future in Vermont, add to the consent agenda item 6.6, communication, Benjamin Cooley, re please pass neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.61, communication, Ashley Dembinski, re support for neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.62, communication, Chris Yoon, re in support of neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.63, communication, Tim Stevens, re support for neighborhood code, add to the consent agenda item 6.64, communication, Evan Gould, re support for the neighborhood code responses, add to the consent agenda item 6.65, communication, Paul Bierman, repetition with 303 signatures to send neighborhood code back to committee for refinement on 7.7 ordinance comprehensive development ordinance ZA 24-02 neighborhood code part 1 ZA 24-02 amendment 125 v2 for ccph 2 on 3 25 24. Thank you so much, Councillor McGee. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded by Councillor King. Is there any discussion on the motion to adopt the agenda? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion to adopt the agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. That motion passes unanimously and we have our agenda. The first item where we're going to begin our evening with two exciting presentations. The first is regarding the creation of a sister city relationship between the city of Burlington and TS east Senegal. For this presentation, I'll turn the floor to Councillor Jang who has worked many months in developing this relationship. And I understand you have some guests that want to speak as well. And do you need to get them on? So the guests are not online yet. Maybe you can allow the assistance. Okay. All right. Well, with that, as long as the other parties are able, we'll go to the sister city relationship with Keelnik, the community in Ukraine. For this presentation, we do have with us Colin Hilliard who is here as well with Adam Roof who is unable to be here due to an illness. Colin, actually, I don't know. Councillor Travers, did you want to speak to this or was there others you wanted to speak to this Mayor Weinberger? Okay. Why don't you go ahead and we can go on to Colin after. Thank you, President Paul. My colleagues may remember at the state of the city last spring that I charged Colin as well as Adam Roof with exploring a sister city relationship with a city in Ukraine. We are almost a year later and I am more excited and believe creating such a new relationship is more important than ever after the events of the last year in which we have seen the terrible war there continue. And we have also seen our federal government increasingly struggle to play a role in supporting the people of Ukraine and I think we find ourselves perhaps in the not unfamiliar position of being able to take meaningful action on the local level that substitutes brings light to the inability of our federal government to take action. I think this Colin and Adam have taken this charge seriously. They have done a great deal of work as you can hear some from and as Colin can answer questions about if there are questions I know we're very pressed for time tonight. But they have made a relationship with USAID which has supported this exploration and I think they've found a community that is in the Odessa region that is the comparable size to Burlington has many similarities in terms of the way in which the society functions and my hope is that this is the beginning of a long relationship that will be important for the people of both communities and that perhaps with a focus on rebuilding efforts from the start that could be exciting for city officials to it could be an exciting part about working for the city of Burlington having this relationship in the years to come as well. So I'm excited that Colin is here to make this report out and that we could take this action tonight before the end of the year in which I charge him with doing this. So thank you President Paul. Thank you so much Mayor Weinberger. So Colin you're on. Tell us about the tell us about the sister city relationship. Awesome well thank you council for your support of this initiative and taking the time here today and thank you to Mayor Weinberger for for this opportunity. So this sister city that that we're proposing is Kealnik village in the Odilsk district in Odessa Oblast that's in southwestern Ukraine. Folks might be familiar with Odessa as a major city in Ukraine in the south right on the Black Sea. This community is about three hours north of that. So this is far western Ukraine quite far from on the front lines of the war. The Kealnik village population is around 20,000 people but you can kind of think of them as a district seat or county seat excuse me for for their region of about 45,000 people so comparable to Burlington. Their major industries include agriculture, specialty foods and green tourism. Some areas where they've expressed a really strong interest and opportunities for educational and professional exchanges and partnerships include agriculture those specialty foods and solar infrastructure as well. Community energy efficiency and energy independent projects are really a top priority for this community and communities across Ukraine given the that Russia continues to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure so there's some really unique opportunities there I think for us given Vermont's real success in in solar infrastructure and solar investment and with tech startups like Verde Technologies right up at Beeset doing some really revolutionary stuff on on solar technologies there's some really interesting opportunities partnered there I think as well on in areas of specialty foods they have a big honey industry specialty honey industry which I think is very interesting and and so some comparabilities there with Burlington's really diverse and and successful specialty foods industries. I also add that the Podilsk excuse me medical college is located in the community and they've recently opened a rehabilitation hospital for soldiers. Lastly also they kind of some of the the unique cultural things that I think are very interesting and really critical to a successful partnership like this. They have one of Ukraine's largest borscht festivals that they are very excited and proud about every time we're on the phone with them they they are a zoom they invite us to come to their borscht festival. They're one of the regions in Ukraine that claims to have the the best and inventors of borscht and it's something that they're they're very proud of and they also have a very popular folk choir scene and festivals around that in my experience with with our Yarslavl sister city the music exchanges were something that were really important around both our jazz festival and theirs so I'm excited about opportunities for for music exchanges there as well. I think lastly just want to highlight that you know given the situation in Ukraine finding community with the administrative bandwidth to take on a new sister city relationship was really important for us and we believe we've we've definitely found that here. A lot of communities are are really entirely focused on the war effort and so being in western Ukraine and being a little bit farther from quite far from the front and investing in things like rehabilitation hospitals and things like that we see them as a really exciting partner that has the bandwidth and it has expressed you know very serious interest in a sister city. They've been seeking a sister city for about a year and a half or two years and we we how we got connected with them was through a Ukrainian member of parliament Alexei Ganashchenko and he represents this region in the Ukrainian parliament and he had been a been a really key contact and helping this relationship come together. With that I'll just thank some folks that that have been involved and open up to questions but want to thank my colleague Adam Roof, Avery Anderson who formerly worked at the Vermont Council on World Affairs who's supporting us in this effort, Ellen Yut who lives down in Bristol and works at Tetra Tech. She lived in Poland for a year courting Tetra Tech's efforts in Ukraine and also Peter Kovell all who we've had conversations with given their experiences with this and have been really important in helping us form this this relationship so thank you to all those partners. Thank you thanks so much Colin. If there are members of the council who have questions or comments on this item the floor is open now for those comments and questions and also to just keep in mind that there is a resolution formally creating the sister city relationship we have that on our consent agenda we'll be voting on that later this evening. If there oh I'm sorry Councillor Travers. Colin I just want to briefly express my thanks to you and Adam and those you referenced for putting the work in. I recall the mayor in the state of the city address a year ago pointing to you and Adam saying to get it done and you've got it done. So thank you very much for that work and credit to you all really for representing Burlington and for bringing our community with you in your travels overseas and representing us in this region at this at this time so thank you very much for this work and I'm looking forward to supporting the resolution. Thank you. Thank you thanks so much Councillor Travers. If there are no others Councillor Jang are you are you ready? Okay so we will go back to the other sister city and thank you again for hot Colin for being here. Thank you President Fallon. Also just wanted to very briefly add that they've this community's invited us to on a trip to go visit them so we're in discussions on that of a date in April or May and finalizing that and would would be very happy to share that with the council and welcome any members of the council that would like to join us on that trip to really officially meet our counterpoints in this community so thank you very much. Thank you again Colin. We will now go back to Councillor Jang and the floor is yours. Thank you President Fallon and I just also wanted to recognize that we have couple people from green across the world Peter Lynch and Adam Mbeng they are online we also have Mr. Pabba engineer civil engineer right here in in in attendance and as you know just last night Senegal elected its fifth president 44 year old Mr. Jamar Faye Basiri Jamai Faye was elected for the first time as the youngest Senegalese who ever held the presidency in Senegal. We are very happy for what has happened in Senegal lately. Senegal is known to be a very stable country many active members of our society live here in the city of Burlington they work here they have their children in the schools and as you know the Vermont National Guard has a sister's military partnership with Senegal since 2008 it's been 15 years that they're working together and also they helping the Senegalese people in terms of security in terms of medical responsiveness in terms of climate change. The Major General Knight has been invited both the past Senegalese presidents such as Makisal came here in 2014 and also President Abdulai Wad came here in 2008 I believe they both one of them at least met with Mira Weinberger. Major Henry Kez is joining will be joining us soon he has a presentation about this military partnership between Senegal and and the Vermont National Guard. In August 2003 I traveled to Senegal to start the establishment of the sister city relation between Chess East where I grew up and the city of Burlington where I reside work raised my children right here when I was there Mira Weinberger and the mayor of Chess is Adama Usman Jang have discussed the establishment of the sister city relationship between the two municipalities this potential exists for the continued development of educational cultural environmental and economical opportunities between the two municipalities I think this will be a very beneficial sister city because the city of Burlington has never had any sister city relation with the country in Africa this will be the first time in the history of this city and also Chess is where I grew up the mayor and I went in the middle school together it's when where I sat at his office that he recognized me telling me that we went to the middle school same class I I could not know because I was not a good student maybe now I think it would have been great to have the presentation but I was just wondering if you can promote Peter Lynch he's one of the attendees and also Adama to just talk about also the work that they do here and also the people in Senegal and around the world yeah Peter we were wondering if you have something to say go ahead Mr Peter the floor is yours greetings hello thank you councillor jen we I'd actually strongly encourage you to support both of these resolutions I have a a Ukrainian flag flying outside of my house right now but I'm here to talk about Senegal and say tremendously valuable relationship Mr Jung mentioned the National Guard's relationship we've been in discussion with the National Guard I'm actually I should I should make it clear who I am first I'm the executive director of Green Across the World and we do environmental cultural exchanges for middle and high school kids both virtually and travel exchanges we've taken kids from Woodstock to Senegal currently Essex High School has an online exchange with fatigue in Senegal we also work with Burlington High School with respect to Japan and would happily add Senegal to that list it's an incredibly vibrant and welcoming culture with remarkable textiles music and a perspective on history that's linked to our history but adds to our understanding of of American history in a great way so it's a valuable educational tool in that sense um councillor Jung just mentioned that you know they we just had an election and there's there's a back story which was that it really is one of the safest and stablest democracies in Africa and there was some effort to delay this election until I think it was December from all the way from February to December and the court stepped in and said no no no we're going to hold the elections just yesterday and as you pointed out an opposition leader very young Mr. Fay won the election so there are checks and balances there the electoral system is working and it's yeah it's really pretty exciting to see the promise of this election here and the last thing I'll mention is that we are working with the National Guard and several you know Vermont Council and World Affairs several other organizations to promote the bill s 30 which is a a bill originated in the Senate to establish a sister states committee for the state of Vermont and Senegal would almost certainly and Japan will be on that list but Senegal is almost certainly going to be one of the five sister states that that are established initially so it means there could be continuity of support for this kind of work from between Burlington state off you know a state committee and ultimately sister states can be supported by an umbrella nonprofit that's national that supports sister city relationships all over the country so I think there there's some real funding opportunities for this kind of work that go well beyond what you know any I know I understand that the taxpayers of Burlington are under a little bit of strain these days and I think there's money outside of the tax base for this sort of activity and I would love to hear Audema speak to this if we don't have Major Enriquez here yet but Audema is our Director of International Outreach at Green Across the World she's from Senegal and I think can speak to the importance of of connecting Burlington the Senegalese community immigrant community in the larger Burlington area and Senegal itself which I think is has creates powerful opportunities for learning for both adults and children youth in all parts of the Burlington community and and beyond so thank you for taking the time and I surely hope you will vote in favor of this resolution okay hello everyone thank you for having us tonight thanks Peter for giving us the giving them the history of the organization so I'm not going to go into that it's just going to be a repeat so I'm just going to introduce myself my name is Audema and Jai and I live in Winooski for over two decades I'm from Senegal I also work at the Medical Center UVM and also like Peter said I'm the International Director of the Green Across the World so she just he just described what we do for work but I'm here today to just support this bell and telling you guys the good work that's going to be being ahead of us to do this is very important because it's all about it's all about connection we need to connect to solve problem in the world and as a Senegalese living in Vermont for over a decade and also having some knowledge on connecting people working with students and community so I will be willing to be part of this to um to help us um achieve our goals so I hope you guys pass this bell because we have a little community of Senegalese here who will be willing to do the work thank you so much for having us tonight Ms. Elhaji Mamodouba, Vermont since the 2006 moved straight from Senegal to Vermont I just want to share a little bit of my experience uh when I was in Senegal since 2000 I can say I was always welcoming Vermonters coming to Senegal staying with me learning the culture of Senegal because I was a dance teacher there and I have them stay with me over two years sometimes to just study the culture it has always been a connection between Senegal and Vermont that's not surprising when I came to the United States I just wanted to come to Burlington and since then I've been living here I went to school here I went to Vermont Tech that's why I graduated graduated and I'm working here as a civil engineer an inspector and I will really this is a really good opportunity for us to just come together ensure these two countries have always a connection which is has always been a connection between Senegal and I have felt it I have seen people from through my dancing career came from different parts of the world but I always feel good being around Vermonters being around people from Burlington and it's really exciting to hear about this when I was really excited to come here and start an experience with you and would you appreciate everything you guys have are doing for the city of Burlington and just as well thank you all right thank you Peter thank you Adama and thank you and we know we don't have a lot of time but thank you also to all the city councils for sponsoring this resolution and for putting it on the consent agenda thank you president thanks so much councillor Jang if there are any members of the council that have any questions or comments on this item the floor is open at this time or or or the mayor as well Mayor Weinberger I just wanted to um voice my support for for taking this action tonight improving this resolution I want to thank and congratulate councillor Jang for the leadership and hard work he's put into this effort it was really a privilege and a highlight to be on a on a call with councillor Jang when he was on his last trip to Senegal and speak to some of leaders there that will help make this relationship a reality and I think councillor Jang is quite right that it is overdue and important that we have we have we have many sister city relationships none of them up until now have been with any city in Africa and as you know especially as Burlington changes and involves as a community it has more and more direct links to cities and countries in Africa I think this would be a very fitting and important thing to do at this point and it's quite a poignant that councillor Jang in his last meeting is able to bring this forward and for our action tonight so I thank you councillor Jang and and happy Ramadan to you and it's been a privilege serving with you for all these years thank you so much Mayor Weinberger I think we'll all we'll all second that if there's no one else we will move on and again this is the same situation we do have a resolution formally creating the sister city relationship it is on our consent agenda when we get to our consent agenda we will we will be voting on that that will move us since we do have some time we have two local control meetings and since we do have a little bit of time we'll go to those the first so we will recess the council meeting at 603 and we will go to the local control commission at 603 the first item on that agenda is item 1.01 which is a motion to adopt the agenda commissioner Shannon would you be willing to make that motion yes i move to adopt the agenda thank you so much seconded by councillor Travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to adopt the agenda please say aye aye any opposed please say no thank you and we do have a councillor grant who's joining us by zoom the second item is the consent agenda commissioner Shannon is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated thank you so much seconded by commissioner travers all those any discussion on that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no that passes unanimously so we have three items on our deliberative agenda the first is 3.1 which is a first-class liquor license application for Queen City cafe commissioner Shannon move to approve the 2024 2025 first-class liquor license application for Queen City cafe at 377 pine street contingent upon the fire marshal approval and with all standard conditions thank you so much seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion is made by commissioner Shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which moves us to 3.2 an outside consumption permit application for the same business Queen City cafe commissioner Shannon move to approve the 2024 2025 outside consumption permit application for Queen City cafe at 377 pine street thank you commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously which brings us to the final deliberative item which is 3.3 a first and third class liquor license application for rogue rabbit uh commissioner Shannon I move to approve the 2024 2025 first and third class liquor license applications for rogue rabbit with all standard conditions thank you so much uh commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion is made by commissioner Shannon please say aye aye any opposed please say no that motion passes unanimously and with no other business on this agenda and see point of order president Paul there is a 3.4 there is okay my apologies thank you for bringing that to my attention so item 3.4 is an outside consumption permit application for the archives commissioner Shannon president Paul on this one it's going back to the old days when we actually didn't have the prompt of what the actions were so I'm going to to wing it and move to approve the 2024 2025 outside consumption permit application for the archives at 191 college street with all standard conditions all right well we will our somewhat someone will let us know if that's not correct seeing no one who's letting us know that that's not correct we'll go with it uh seconded by commissioner travers uh is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no uh that motion passes unanimously and now we can say that with no other business on the agenda and seeing no objection will adjourn the local control commission meeting at 608 and call to order the local cannabis control commission at the same time um the first item on that agenda is 1.01 motion to adopt the agenda uh commissioner Shannon move to adopt the agenda thank you so much uh seconded by commissioner travers any discussion on the motion seeing none um all those in favor of the motion please say aye hi hi any opposed please say no we have our agenda and we have one item on this agenda i believe and that is item two which is a 2024 local cannabis control commission application 2.1 for judy's holistic solutions uh commissioner Shannon move to approve and authorize transmission of local approval of the following local cannabis control license application to the state cannabis control board subject to all municipal conditions currently in effect on such local license for judy's holistic solutions at 64 archwald street thank you so much uh commissioner Shannon seconded by commissioner travers is there any discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed please say no and that motion passes unanimously with no other business on this agenda and seeing no objection will adjourn the local cannabis control commission meeting at 609 and will reconvene the recessed council meeting at 609 with our thanks to the members of the license committee which this year was commissioner Shannon travers and grant um we do still have a little bit of time before 6 30 so we will go to item number four which are climate emergency reports is there any counselor or the administration that wishes to offer a climate emergency report at this time uh mayor weinberger thank you bresen paul um sorry just one second so um since we last met um we did provide a important update to the the public i'd like to summarize it and share it here as well it's been five years since we city the city council together announced the most um ambitious climate policy of any city in america our net zero energy roadmap in the five years since we did that we have seen 100 year storms warming winters early frosts and of course a multi-year global pandemic response that through families and businesses and a crisis and ultimately costs us the lives of over a thousand brahmans and that unleashed an enormous economic volatility here in burlington and around the world through all of that and more burlington has stayed focused on our climate goals and is making substantial progress towards them in those five years we've installed 2,300 heat pumps increase the uptake increasing the uptake of our heat pump rebates 25 fold we've helped over 700 families switch to hybrid or electric vehicles and each of those households can charge the new cars on 100% renewable electricity and and more uh you notably we are we are electrifying our city fleet with 25 new EVs and 16 new hybrids um we can say uh tonight as of the last couple weeks with confidence that these efforts are working to bring down our emissions last week we released the five-year net zero roadmap update which showed that we are now 18 percent below our 2018 emissions levels a reduction of about 40 000 metric tons of co2 annually um this demonstrates that with pioneering policy and collective action across the community we can end our reliance on fossil fuels and save vermont families and and businesses money at the same time i think it's important to note that this documented now measured progress has taken place um even while we are building hundreds of new homes we have more homes being built right now than any other point in the city's recent past and before the new financial incentives of the historic late 22 biden inflation reduction act have fully kicked in um we certainly expected in 2024 and future years that federal action will put wind to the sales of of this effort um but we are not just going to leave it to the federal federal uh government we um also announced a new slate of programs and incentives um simultaneous with this announcement last week i encourage burlintonians to check out these new programs on bd's website there are new opportunities for home owners and renters and people commute by car or bike um as well as more exciting news about new chargers and electric buses thank you president paul thank you so much mayor weinberger uh if there are no counselors who wish to offer a climate emergency report then we will move on to item number five which are the public health and safety emergency reports uh counselor dority uh thank you thank you president paul president paul as you know uh you and myself and counselor grant attended our monthly public safety committee meeting last thursday where we received our um monthly reports from chief murad and chief lechance um i wanted to highlight one thing that was in uh fire chief lechance's report that i think is worth drawing the public's attention to um and that is uh his report and the public can go to the website uh the city website and uh and see this slide deck for themselves it's public information um but but chief lechance reported to us um in in a pretty demonstrative and clear graphic um that the monthly the monthly overdose um uh reports the monthly overdose responses um is down dramatically and specifically uh around august in september uh if you look at this chart and i won't i won't try to describe it but uh the numbers look like they have fallen off a cliff and have maintained um i wouldn't say a low but it's considerably lower uh level through the months of september october november january and into february um president paul you and i and counselor grant asked um chief lechance and chief murad and some of the other professionals that were in attendance uh at the committee meeting um what they thought might be responsible for um this uh dramatic improvement um albeit temporary uh or short term um but hopefully will extend to longer term uh no one understandably had definitive answers um but one of the issues that was discussed um was that in the fall our federal and local law enforcement partners um engaged in a number of significant law enforcement uh activities against uh out-of-state drug dealers um who were supplying the community with xylazine which is a substance for those who are not aware uh that is more resistant um to uh overdose prevention drugs or overdose prevention reversal drugs like narcan um and um speculated um that there might be some connection between those enforcement activities uh and the decline in in overdose rates no one understandably was willing to say for sure that there was a causative relationship as opposed to just a correlative relationship um but i think it's worth noting and we all urged uh the professionals um to continue to look hard at what they think might be going on and what might be responsible for this improvement in the overdose um situation and i i hope that as we move into a new city council year um with a new mayor uh that we keep our eye on on what we're doing in the city uh and its relationship to these overdose rates so that we can really assess what's working and what's not working um rarely at this point in the city council meeting do we hear hopeful news um but this is certainly a a a ray of sunshine perhaps um that hopefully will continue thank you so much uh councillor doherty um i would agree with you that was certainly encouraging news at our public safety meeting um if there are no other councillors or the do you uh mayor weinberger i think uh councillor highter may have had an update too oh my apologies sorry i must not understand um so this is the public safe the time for the public safety update so um i do have a few updates i'll try to keep them short um we've communicated this some with the council already but i want to discuss here the benefit of the public operations of the cherry street shelter which was open for about 10 days closing today um there was very little communication with local communities before the opening of this shelter by the state only about 72 hours notice um but i supported that the action was clear that closing the shelter if it was well used by guests would um really not be acceptable it would be a huge mistake after what we saw last summer when we had unprecedented levels of unsheltered homelessness in chitin and county on dozens and dozens of people sleeping outside um intense under awnings and really no reason to think that those conditions have changed substantially um uh so um we communicated through the week that we thought the shelter needed to remain open um uh the state actually closed the shelter on friday morning um but uh fortunately i am grateful that they at the eleventh hour they did see the need to keep it open with the storm that was coming and the shelter was well was substantially utilized it didn't open until 8 15 on friday night but 12 people used in that night 28 people used it on or 26 people used it on saturday night and then on sunday night um almost 40 people 38 individuals stayed there um one wonders uh how much that count would have continued to rise um as if it had been kept open longer um my uh people will remember council i'm sure will remember that we advocated for a permanent additional shelter to be open in the spring of 2023 and it's clear to me that's still what is needed at a time when we have almost no vacancy when our existing shelters and social services are overwhelmed uh i am concerned that without a additional facility um that we will have another difficult summer with uh unprecedented levels of unsheltered homelessness um what i've communicated i know the mayor elect has communicated the state as well as the city as we always have would be a partner to the state in finding further shelter options it cannot be however that all of this uh falls to the city of burlington to um to to take action on we we already have opened three new shelters in this community since uh since the fall of 2020 no other community in the state has done anything like that and we certainly need help from the state to provide the level of shelter that's needed um i also want to share that the opioid settlement advisory committee met today um it was the last meeting that i attended as a member of and um a decision was made by the committee to issue a letter endorsed by the committee that would be um in addition to the letter that dr levine issued to the legislature uh early in the new year this is a letter that has been controversial the aclu has actually threatened a legal action over this because it short circuited the the sending of that letter really short circuited the process that is supposed to take place at the settlement committee and kind of remove the ability to settle of the settlement committee to communicate directly with the legislature i believe we will now do that um and by um there will be a substantial change to the way to what is recommended to the legislature in that the committee's letter will recommend the funding of overdose prevention sites in the use of settlement dollars to fund that opening dr levine's letter mentioned that the council that the committee was supportive of that but i did not recommend the use of the settlement dollars to be used for that um from my perspective it's important that the settlement dollars be used as the funding source as opposed to a new or an increased tax as the legislature is currently considering for two reasons one this remains a controversial issue and from my perspective the public there are many members of the public who are not comfortable with this strategy and don't like the idea of their tax dollars funding this strategy whereas um there's a considerable additional comfort with these targeted restricted opioid settlement dollars being used for this i think it broadens the number of people for monitors who are supportive of this action it also removes uh one of the reasons in which i am concerned Governor Scott will veto the overdose prevention site legislation in that he uh for many years has made clear he does not support the increase or expansion of taxes or fees and this would give this would violate um that principle of his so my hope is the legislature listens to on this do us on this and finally um i do just uh share with my council colleagues particularly the ones that are going to be remaining on the council that um i hope uh we have not heard back yet as to whether the state will be funding the meta methadone dosing unit that we and the Howard center together have proposed be opened uh in downtown Burlington the need for methadone treatment is greater than ever given the fentanyl and uh crisis and the impact it has on people who need treatment and uh we are expecting a response any day on that that's been pushing a year now since the legislature appropriated money for expanded methadone access and um i hope the council will continue to focus on this and urge uh state action on this so that we finally have this additional strategy in the downtown to build on the uh momentum uh the counselor Doherty uh mentioned where we are seeing some hopeful signs uh with uh overdoses being down to continue that to expand it i think expanded methadone is critical thank you president paul uh thank you so much mayor Weinberger uh uh counselor grant welcome by the way thank you um so this past thursday at the ward five in pa i spoke and i had a member one of the residents of decker towers with me and also a community member that has been very involved with um helping out the residents in decker tower they live uh in a building that's kind of right behind decker towers uh technically on church street and i think it was a really great discussion about what we can do as community members to help residents out in decker towers and other residents in other buildings that are having the same problems although maybe not to the same degree but um since i kind of started this journey with decker towers other places have definitely been reaching out um i was discussing the concept of mutual aid in the community and how once the security issues were under control there could be some uh improvements made in the building for example the residents would really like to have the building painted but they're willing to do some of the work themselves they just need some help in terms of donations uh sweat equity maybe we could get some people to donate art things like that and so it was a really great discussion once again it was at last thursday the ward five in pa which is available to view on town meeting tv um on their youtube channel or on town meeting tv's web page and it was uh it was a really wonderful discussion so i hope you all take the time to consider watching that um i've also been talking to some of our first responders and it is really clear that we can't have another summer like we had last summer we are as we all know are struggling to maintain um our police force this is definitely affecting our fire department as well so we as a community really need to look deeper at these issues and look deeper at what we can do to help both of these departments um and i'll leave it there only to say i hope to have some future ideas around some specific community engagement thank you thank you so much council grant uh if there are any other counselors who wish to speak to a public health um and safety emergency report now would be the time uh seeing no others will close that item and it is now uh 6 27 which is close enough to 6 30 and that brings us to item number three which is the public forum before we begin public forum i'd like to know that we do have a process for public forum and i speak for the full council as we share a strong commitment to an orderly process and one that honors all voices um and includes a very just a very respectful discourse uh for those that are joining us in con choice we have a timer system that's on the table in front of me that has three lights the green light will shine when you begin speaking the second when you have 30 seconds left and the last light will shine when your time is up please complete your sentence when the sound and light indicate your time is up so that everyone has the same amount of time um i do apologize in advance i will need to stop you once the clock runs down to zero as we must keep the public forum moving along uh if you're joining us online there's a timer system that we will set up on zoom um if you we don't have a light system but when your two minutes are up in the clock winds down to zero please complete your sentence so that we can move on to hearing from the next community member if you wish to speak in person there are forms to my right in the back of the room please leave them on the table and we will collect them um as it has been our practice Burlington residents will have first priority to speak we will go to the Burlington residents in conchoice who have submitted a form in person then to Burlington residents online who've completed the online form and then we will go to any a Burlington property owners and or representatives of Burlington based businesses in person and then online and then back to conchoice to hear from any non Burlington residents and we will wrap up with online non Burlington residents who are joining us via zoom uh we do have a large number of people who wish to speak during public forum this evening please um if you um uh please if you wish to speak and someone has already said effectively what you want to say there is no need to repeat what others have said when your name is called if you wish to yield your time to others who have spoken um all you need to do is let us know that your feelings have been expressed by others before you and you will be recognized um and you can just say your thoughts have been expressed um we see you and we will know the support for the sentiment that you that others have expressed okay all right um my apologies we'll we'll we'll hold off on this for just one moment there is a representative from the from on international guard who does wish to speak to the sister city relationship and we will let them speak at this time if you want to just come forward right here good evening and apologies for missing the uh initial portion of the sister cities i don't know if the slide presentation was shared but uh on behalf of major general night from the from on national guard i want to thank the city for inviting us to speak on behalf of our partnership with senegal i'll keep this short since i know you only have about two or three minutes before the next agenda item um the republic of senegal has been partnered with the state of vermont since 2008 through the vermont national guard state partnership program in this time over 800 900 national guards men and women have had the opportunity to travel to senegal to provide military assistance and security cooperation for the citizens of senegal this new initiative which has been proposed by uh councilman yang in the last year brings a lot of opportunity for the state and for the city to contribute to our national and international strategic objectives i'd say senegal is a country that always welcomes assistance it is in the far west corner of africa where resources are limited they just recently went through a significant political process to yesterday they went through national elections and with this new election there's a likelihood that there are opportunities for uh the city of berlington to contribute to change especially governance development and peace in in the region so uh like my fellows uh peter from vermont council uh excuse me green across world and our our colleagues in the vermont council world affairs we seek to open the city of berlington for more international cooperation in particular with the vermont national garden who does an annual medical exercise in in the cities in senegal in local health clinics and local military clinics but to close i would say this is a great opportunity for young political leaders educators the health sector and other communities in vermont to to engage with our partners overseas and especially since vermont and berlington have a diaspora of senegalese citizens here gives them an opportunity to work with our fellow countrymen at home thank you for your time and i hope to see a positive result in the vote this afternoon thank you so much so we'll continue of course we'll continue with the uh with the public forum um so we have an order for how we how we speak during public forum berlington residents will go first we will then go to berlington non-berlington residents who are berlington property owners or representatives of berlington based organizations and then we will go and finish up with non-berlington residents um during public forum we ask that you please use respectful language we'd like to remind everyone here this evening and those that are joining us online that there are families who watch our council meetings is their connection to civic engagement parents use our forum to teach our city's children about city government and we expect that everyone will refrain from using profanity let's model the best of berlington as well and given the nature of the items on our agenda i would just ask that it's important that our language and whatever you have to say tonight reflects the presumption that everyone here tonight is interested in what is best not only for themselves and their neighbors but for all of berlington presuming and expressing that in that speakers are here only for self-interest just simply cheapens the level of discords and it serves to prevent us from coming together with reasonable solutions we ask that you please keep us in mind to that end uh when you are speaking at the table i would ask that you please face me direct my director comments to me as the chair and not to anyone else at this table or to the audience that is gathered around you and please do not personalize your comments this rule will be enforced again we want to hear what you have to say and we will listen much more intently if you speak respectfully when i call on you if you do wish to speak in the public hearing later on the agenda on the neighborhood code or the proposed amendments you can just let me know we do have two different forms for the public hearing and for public forum but if you've made a mistake and you wish to speak later just let me know and we will put you to the we will put you in that queue with that we will go to those that are joining us in con choice who wish to speak during public forum the first is jennifer ealy to be followed by david collie good evening if you could just make sure that the microphone is on the green light should be on right in front of you you can move that down how's that that is perfect first off i want to share the good news that burlington is amazingly biodiverse most notable are the presence of medium-sized mammals such as foxes that provide a couple of very very important services for us people our city's biodiversity is in no small way attributable to its topography specifically its streams and its ravines natural ravines not like the big one being worked on here in burlington um burlington has many steep-sided ravines that serve wildlife as their most safe and most comfortable way to travel and to hide from guess who us why should we ever put wildlife habitat ahead of further housing development that's a good question the answer is we don't want to lose a couple of a very important redeeming qualities that wildlife are currently providing to us at no charge burlington's red and gray foxes hunt and feed on species that us people consider nuisance species they are key players in keeping skunk populations in check so that's one thing they do foxes also prey on mice that carry lime disease medium-sized mammals in our city such as the fox are keeping us safer we can keep them safer by protecting their habitat and their travel corridors in closing my request to the council is to specifically include wording in the new neighborhood code such as this wording that ravines shown to be functioning as wildlife habitat and corridors for burlington's red and gray fox and other mammals will have a 30 to 50 foot wide no mo buffer that follows the level ground on both sides of the ravine thank you so much our next speaker is david collie to be followed by um joanne tetzel thank you good evening thank you good evening i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening i'm speaking in favor of the neighborhood code which will be considering later on this evening i'm a resident of ward one and have been a resident of the ward for 32 years the proposed changes i believe are a key step to address the housing needs for our city i want to acknowledge and appreciate the work of the office of city planning cito and city council ordinance committee that developed these concepts and and their ability to inform the public about this vision i also appreciate that the neighborhood code has been supported by notable individuals and organizations such as champlain housing trust habitat for humanity aarp vermont and locomotion to name a few while this neighborhood code removes significant barriers to missing middle housing in our city i'm not afraid that it will result in a runaway development that will completely upset our neighborhoods i believe that will be possible to blend the missing middle into the existing fabric of our neighborhoods and there are many development and permitting processes controls that will remain in place to prevent possibility of runaway the proposed neighborhood code has sparked a lot of dialogue in ward one this has resulted in a few amendment alternatives i support the alternatives proposed by councilor hightower i believe the neighborhood code changes are needed to keep burlington viable for the future not just for those of us who have lived here a long time middle missing housing will welcome young people families and help to stabilize housing for some of us older citizens by adding smaller more affordable housing types please consider this when you vote now is the time for action thank you thanks so much our next speaker is joanne tetzel to be followed by michelle everlith good evening hi um i have come to city council for the first time ever so i also went to an mpa meeting for the first time ever i am not a burlington native but i consider burlington my home and i'm very proud to call it my home i love the community that burlington brings and i'm glad you've got us having the conversation about neighborhood code it needed to happen 100 percent i have um recruited in this area for the 13 years i've lived here and it's hard to bring top talent to somewhere where there is a housing crisis but you've started the conversation we don't need to finish it tonight you've got our attention we're engaged i've left my kids at home i'm here so please consider that the conversation should still be open and let's look at the committee and with a new council coming in find the right solution that works for all of burlington i appreciate those of you on the council who have replied to my emails that i have been sending out i am very appreciative of what we do here in burlington but let's please continue the conversation and not end it tonight thank you thank you our next speaker is michelle everless to be followed by uh janet colburn and we are in the process of opening the upstairs we don't have it open quite yet but for those who are standing uh you need not stand for such a long period of time we will get the upstairs open good evening good evening um i didn't come prepared with anything as a speech but i just want to share that i've lived in burlington for 30 something years i've lived in my neighborhood for 20 i think it's important to stop the process right as you see it for the same reasons that joe had mentioned we have started the process of understanding what you're trying to accomplish here we agree with more housing being a priority in the town of burlington but to do it in a meaningful way that engages all of us now that we are aware of all of the um proposal and the steps that are being asked to be taken we just like to slow it down take a look at what's on the on the books and maybe come together and think more thoughtfully of what's going to be best for everybody involved thank you thanks very much uh our next speaker is janet uh col might be colburn um kilburn and to be followed by uh romeo romeo herman hi there thank you i'm going to ask that you all consider do not pass this neighborhood code tonight please as michelle and joe have said slow it down and let's do it right we don't want to go back and fix things with unintended consequences but this was really pushed through quickly our neighborhood just became aware of it a few weeks ago and it hasn't really been vetted with a lot of public input diverse public input so first of all in terms of equity if we're going to increase housing we need to make sure it's affordable and we can't just rely on market forces and landlords to do that it hasn't worked we need to tie it to legislation that ensures some of this housing will be equitable and affordable the proposal itself is flawed in that the wealthiest areas in burlington are going to remain or or not change at all or are going to be low density that is not not acceptable furthermore if it violates plan btv and the state uh Vermont state statue 24 why are we even considering it like why why would we do a large zoning change that does not support incremental slow changes in keeping with the neighborhoods i've lived in burlington over 30 years and i've rented and i've owned a house and i've lived among college kids for 20 years in my current neighborhood and if we're going to increase the density of college kids in a particular area what i've seen is their responsibility and kind of civic involvement with their neighbors decreases so i we really just need to think this through i also say um if uvm as the state auditor found has really increased the pressure and the burden on the city for housing then we need uvm to be part of the solution so let's work with them on the half million half half million feet of parking space that they have to ease up the zoning for uvm so they can build up and house more students on campus and finally climate change anybody who's lived here for a long time thank you thanks very much our our next speaker is romeo herman to be followed by uh mary and danis thank you good evening madam president and uh i haven't prepared any remarks as usual but uh mr mayor counselors uh fellow burlingtonians uh city residents everybody um i know there's a lot to talk about tonight but i want to specifically not to put you on the spotlight madam president um i want to recognize that um your indouble indelible mark that you're living in this council and your presidency at this council it's been outstanding and one to be remembered and it will be on the history books without a doubt and i equally want to thank um other counselors who really uh leaving their you know mark in this city as well as our wonderful mayor here regardless of what anybody thinks out there i'm grateful for your service to our city um i just want to just share my thanks for the service that if you've contributed to our city the level of calmness that you brought to our council i know there's been quite a number of situations where things got a little bit out of hand but you find a way to bring back to measure so thank you for everything that you've done for us for our ward as well as for the city and as well as the rest of the council and our mayor so thank you thank you very much uh our next speaker is mary and danis to be followed by um Laura hallowell good evening slow my name is mary and danis i have lived in lakeside my entire life um my parents were part of the organization that got the historical neighborhood past and i'd like to see that stay and i believe the new zoning and possibly the new neighborhood codes are going to change that and i beg you i beg you to look at things again there are certain things within the city that we need to consider we need to block out all the historical uh neighborhoods we need to block out you know the historical buildings we need to you know there's just so much that needs to be thought of before it's past so i'm gonna i know people have already spoken um but i'm gonna beg you to hold off on the zoning hold off on the neighborhood codes and then turn around and even reconsider the parking the ratio between apartments and parking we in lakeside don't have any street parking my son has to come down at six o'clock seven o'clock at night to get even a parking place in front of our house so i beg you i thank you for your time but i beg you to reconsider these things for the sake of everybody in the city thank you very much thank you very much uh our next speaker is laura hallowell to be followed by eric ferrell hi good evening my name is laura hallowell i have been a very long time renter in burlington over 40 years and only recently have become a homeowner as Joan Shannon knows um i um want to say that on close examination the neighborhood code is not about gentle infill and incremental change it's a massive rezoning of burlington i feel the code hands the keys of our city to developers and removes the guard rails that protect our neighborhoods from speculation and over development to suddenly allow this intense development in historic neighborhoods full of compact homes is not incremental in the long run these drastic changes decrease home ownership and the variety of housing in particular the very neighborhoods that are proposed for upzoning contain the type of housing that is very hard to find in burlington these small lots with green spaces absorb storm water and protect the lake they create beautiful streets and sustainable communities our bungalows and trees and birds don't threaten the Vermont landscape they're part of it and they should evolve to create more housing cities especially older ones are full of opportunities for development that don't dismantle neighborhoods and destruct green spaces i urge the city council to reject the current neighborhood code and support a new and better code that protects housing and our neighborhoods thank you thank you very much our next speaker is eric ferrell to be followed by Kathleen donahue good evening eric good evening so i'm here to encourage you to pass neighborhood code tonight without delay burlington needs all the housing you can get and sooner is better than later and more is better than less that's the way i feel about it i'm a housing developer and even though what we're building at cambrian rise and what's planned for the news for the south end and what's being built currently at city place is not the least expensive housing that can be created in the city and i think that what might be overlooked by a lot of people is that the neighborhood code is a serious opportunity to provide affordable housing in burlington housing at scale with smaller buildings smaller footprints i also expect that it will roll out slower than most people expect and that there'll be plenty and it will evolve and there'll be plenty of opportunity to tweak the ordinance as required as we see how that it unfolds so i would encourage you to pass it tonight and let's build all the housing that we can thank you thank you very much eric our next speaker is kathleen donahue to be followed by uh selvae goverby good evening hi my name is kathleen donahue and i live in ward one on henry street i want to recognize the efforts of the mayor's office the planning office and the planning commission for their hard work in attempting to meet the current housing crisis you have succeeded in putting forth a document that has the best interests of the city at heart however now it is time to show that you have listened and understood the public comments and it is time to modify the code so that it is responsive to the many valid concerns and ideas raised this is an opportunity to make the document stronger more enduring and gain wider public approval there is no perfect code but there is a better code that reflects the needs the pressures and the character of different neighborhoods there is a better code that creates greater opportunity for affordable home ownership stable neighborhoods and that values permanent residents old and new and there is a better code that responsibly preserves green space and trees that contribute to the health and well-being of the residents as well as to that of the natural environment my strong preference is that you send the code back to committee to modify and strengthen it short of that i ask you to compromise and adopt councilor doherty's amendment number four given the extreme pressure of student rentals in our area as well as those amendments that shrink units per lot and lock coverage and i ask you to create a realistic plan that deals with the parking demands that will inevitably come with an increase in the number of housing units there needs to be a solid plan to park all of the extra cars other than on the limited green spaces around homes and the already crowded streets thank you for being thoughtful forward thinking leaders your vote is consequential and i hope that your decision considers the long view and unintended consequences as well as the demands of the moment thank you thank you very much our next speaker is solveig overby to be followed by uh anyhow good evening i've learned that these microphones don't work unless you're breathing right onto them despite our best efforts i'm going to try i was told to hold on to it like this my name is solveig overby and i know i've spoken to you before um and the reason i've communicated with my city councillors jean bergman and milo grand about a specific couple specific concerns that i have i'm asking you to not vote approving the neighborhood code and that you actually give the next city council an opportunity and the next ordinance committee an opportunity to review it um and the reason the reason i'm asking for that is that it it really is wishful thinking to think approving 10 units per property lot is going to actually bring in more housing it's it's just wishful thinking to make that happen dependent on private people and my real concern is the fact that we're going to have a possibly a property tax increase this summer and i'm very concerned about the potential for predatory real estate companies private equity people who are once this happens those properties that we have in those neighborhoods that we're hoping that there's going to be people coming along and putting in housing at the scale that we were talked about there's going to be people that are going to go to i'm sure you've heard of 990.com and 72 soul.com which when a senior sees their property tax bill they're going to be calling those people up and then before they're going to be getting a price tag and we are we are basically making the value of those properties as as investment properties rather than as residences more valuable so i'm very concerned that we haven't considered that and i would really like to encourage you guys to recognize that that's going to happen we are going to be subject to predatory real estate private equity firms that are going to recognize that we've just made all of our neighborhoods so much more profitable i have a house a two-bedroom house i could have 10 units on my lot which is completely crazy but i could maybe just cash out and leave but please please do not approve this thank you thank you very much so our next speaker is annie howell to be followed by uh touch losberg good evening my name is annie howell and first i wanted to say thank you to the current configuration of the city council and especially to president caren paul and all of your hard work to this matter over the last years i've enjoyed being your neighbor and i look forward to working with you and partnering with you on this side so i want to talk early and briefly about the neighborhood code especially as a city council representation turns a new leaf and there's a lot of newness to the council in terms of what's been going on in the city currently um so in addition to studying the larger city systems the housing needs the water the green spaces the parking that everybody has been referring to tonight i'm hoping that the city council really reviews the specifics at the ground level and pays attention to current developers landlords some of the loopholes that get um uh taken advantage of um understanding how sometimes those very people can not be the best neighbors business people landlords um their development maybe is not always as green as we would hope and use those not necessarily to scare ourselves that they might do it again but as case studies to make sure that the language doesn't just represent the ideal but that it represents the very specific so that we can make sure that um whatever we pass is very specific to what the the less than ideal could be so that's my hope is that the city council really studies what's going on now to put current language in it i'm happy to be a liaison um with our new city council um and help introduce what neighbors have complained about for a long time at the ground level thank you thanks very much um and again just to keep in mind that the upstairs is open uh you don't need to stand um if you would like to go upstairs you're welcome to and if you are signed up for public forum that's not a problem you know we will wait for you if you want to go upstairs and have a seat um when we call out your name um we will uh you you will still be part of the queue whether you are downstairs or upstairs um our next speaker is Todd Schlossberg to be followed by uh Andrew Listerjin good evening good evening thank you i'm Todd Schlossberg i live in ward one i moved to barrington in 1981 um and i've seen a lot of change on my street luma street uh lower luma street to the west of uh willard was largely predominantly um working families and working people either owning or renting properties and now that's almost almost entirely student rentals so we've seen a lot of change uh that go that is consistent with the auditor's report that tells us that um uh two-thirds of the growth in barrington population since 1990 is accounted for by uvm student growth uh without concomitant uh construction by uvm that's been compelled by the city using all leverage available um i am here in favor of neighborhood code and i'm in favor of a neighborhood code that is equitable and responsible by equitable i mean no exemptions no privileges for the widest wealthiest neighborhoods we can't have a city uh an increase in zoning that leaves the largest most vacant lots that have the most room for expansion remain as low as low density it's not conscious it's not it's not a conscientious responsible way to to legislate in our city we also can't have a neighborhood code that places the greatest burdens on neighborhoods in ward one and ward five that are closest to the campuses that have already borne so much impact without an effort by uvm to make up for the student increases um so i'm asking we're asking for an equitable code it's it's been said that the choice between four against is often a false choice and um this is not a question of four against housing we need infill we need responsible growth we need equitable and responsible housing but to allow a change in the code that will end up promoting developers building a small number of units on lots that will cost uh what will require high rents is not going to uh lead to responsible results asking that you send this back to the planning commission and to the committee thank you very much thank you so much our next speaker is andrew listerian to be followed by julie springer good evening hi hi my name is andrew i'm the resident that milo mentioned earlier uh who lives next to decker i'm not here to talk about that tonight i've got a lot of your ears and we're making really good progress as fast as i can anyway i don't know how you all do it uh my uh people who are older and wiser than me tell me that uh all of you have thankless jobs and i think that's probably true so i'm here to thank you all a lot of this is for a lot of you this is your last meeting um so mr mayor and mark jone sarah hannah alley president caron paul ben tim zaria joe milo and jean thank you so much thanks for what you do for the city thanks for all your hard work thank you thanks very much our next speaker is julie springer to be followed by um kathy nielson good evening hi can you hear me just get as close as you can without like eating it eating the microphone okay my name is julie springer i live in word one and um i i'm going to do some dittoing here but i did want to say thank you to the council the neighborhood code has actually gotten me more connected with the council and i've been so impressed with the professionalism and the service that you guys provide to the city so thank you um i wanted to say i love berlington i'm a strong proponent of modifying berlington's zoning rules to allow for increased density throughout the city at the same time i urge caution to the city council and the mayor to not move forward with the neighborhood code as written with or without amendments many people have spoken about lot coverage lake health parking concerns lack of affordable housing increasing uvm enrollment not being offset by uvm sponsored housing and i share those concerns as well but what's most important to me in addition to those is keeping green spaces it impacts our mental health our physical health it's a refuge for people it provides food for people it helps our pollinators it helps reduce runoff it can be a gathering space for friends family neighbors it's a place for our pets for urban animals to thrive it's a safe haven for our city's trees which need green space for their extensive root systems trees that offer a shade oxygen take in carbon dioxide and our green spaces provide places for children to play so i would urge adding a green space a minimum green space requirement to the neighborhood code to keep our people animals plants and our environment healthy so again i increase i support increased density in berlington but i urge a much more moderate approach three to four x density increase is thank you very much our next speaker is kathy nielsen to be followed by nick persampieri to be followed by robert bristo johnson good evening good evening my name is kathy nielsen i live in ward one two minutes is not a lot of time so i will forego the many details outlined by many neighbors around the city that leads so many of us to believe the neighborhood code should be sent back to committee i wish to address the problem that i believe has the greatest impact on the city now and for years to come the push to pass the neighborhood code has been a flawed process it has promoted anger and distress distressed and it has invited deep skepticism excuse me like so many berlingtonians i found out about the proposal weeks ago and frankly my first reaction was this can't possibly be true how could a proposal with this degree of significance with such severe ramifications for our neighborhoods be close to being voted on and i we're just hearing about it now i still don't understand how the process evolved as it did and you as city counselors and mayor who have lived this have a clearer view but it is important that you understand the ramifications of what has happened what started as a moderate upzoning proposal in october turned into a more radical and far-reaching document by the end of january it never should have happened like this those who questioned the final proposal were left to do research and post questions that in the end were not answered please don't say people should have known the reality is they did not over and over again people said to me you know i follow city city politics pretty closely and i knew nothing about this intentional or not the process resulted in a tremendous amount of confusion and distressed and by the end some pretty despicable name calling berlington residents have an important role to play but we desperately need the mayor and the city council to lead the way ensuring that the process of governance is open and honest please stop and send the neighborhood code back to committee this is the only way we can be sure that the final product is one that best serves all of berlington thank you thank you very much our next speaker is nick resampieri to be followed by robert bristow johnson to be followed by uh loren sheppy good evening good evening i feel really lucky to be able to own and live in a condo in a high density part of ward three i urge you to pass the neighborhood code tonight preferably without weakening amendments as others have said this is a needed first step to address our critical lack of housing in our in in particular our lack of affordable housing it will allow multi family units and the bulk of what we should be building should be multi family units because with immediate sales price of four hundred and sixty thousand dollars single family homes are just simply out of reach of the average berlington household which has a household income of sixty five thousand dollars the neighborhood code is also needed to address the climate crisis uh households that live in units and multi family buildings use on average less than half the energy of those who live in single family homes and increased density also helps reduce transportation emissions of greenhouse gases which is our largest source of greenhouse gases in berlington and in the state we need this to allow more development to happen in berlington rather than out in the surrounding suburbs which has all kinds of negative impacts between 2010 and 2020 berlington gained five and a half percent of population at the same time williston grew by over 16 percent in south berlington by 13 percent please pass the neighborhood code tonight thank you thank you very much our next speaker is robert risto johnson to be followed by lauren shepi to be followed by uh philip kiefer kiefer you'll you'll let me know if i've mispronounced your name good evening robert so i don't want to repeat what romeo and this other guy said but i i will anyway i am in deep appreciation uh of our city council president and our outgoing mayor especially 12 years but um do not repeat i'm just going to go to chapter two and chapter two is the flip side of this thing in which um of the 13 policymakers sitting at this table uh six of you are not going to be here next week and i'm concerned about the loss of institutional memory and so um the six that are replacing you aren't there so i can't harangue them at the moment but if i could i would tell them to listen to you the at least the other seven because sometimes there are issues of stability that are that are that become untenable when there is this much institutional change in one in one simple term of government and so um i'm i'm glad that there's at least seven of you that's hanging around so thank you thank you very much our next speaker is lauren shepi to be followed by philip keifer to be followed by uh lisa lax good evening hi uh thanks for giving me time to speak tonight my name is lauren shepi i live in word seven um i don't usually tend these things in person so i'm a little nervous sorry um but i did feel like it was important for me to show up in person tonight uh my partner and i moved here to burlington for the community um this is the type of place that we could see ourselves starting a family and putting down roots uh affordability and housing is a really big barrier to entry for that as someone whose future in this city depends on affordable housing and the development of affordable housing here in burlington i've followed the neighborhood code for the i think seven or eight months that it's been in development and i've seen the immense body of work that has gone into this passing this code tonight is a really huge step in making burlington a more vibrant and more affordable city where myself and my peers can afford to own homes and start families the best time to pass these changes was 10 years ago but the second best time is now so please pass the neighborhood code tonight thank you thank you very much our next speaker is philip keifer to be followed by lisa lax to be followed by um matthew thank you good evening hi my name is philip keifer i'm living ward two i'm here to ask this council to pass the code as written without amendments um accepting the wildlife corridors i'm into that um last time i was here i talked about struggling to afford housing while apprenticing in the trades in burlington tonight i'm really angry um i think many of you might be thinking this is about a couple amendments to the code maybe thinking about it a little more what's the big deal um but the point is that until this city stops entertaining knee jerk concerns about density we're going to continue having this fight every time burlington thinks about building new housing and i'm not talking about a slippery slope in the future we had this same fight over city place and the south end and that delayed new housing for years and honestly i'm sick of being told to pretend that everyone opposing the code is acting with the public good in mind organizers against the neighborhood code have continually misrepresented its effects on public on social media i literally don't have time to list all of the misrepresentations that it violates the home act that it'll lead to building eight units on any lot or that it's going to lead to a giant increase in lot coverage clearly that misinformation has worked the opposition to the code we can go into the details but don't have time is led by people who've opposed housing in their words and their actions full stop any housing any compromise i think that part of a healthy democratic discourse is being able to call that what it is which is nimbyism and i'm sorry to those of you that didn't hear about the code until now but there have been months of outreach that's not a reason not to take this tiny first step at reforming discriminatory neighborhood code we're in a desperate place last week the scott administration evicted hundreds of people from motels if we give in to nimbyism now we're just as responsible thank you so much we're we're gonna try not to do that we're gonna try not to do what you just did so please don't do that everyone deserves to be heard and they deserve to be heard respectfully and not called out for anything you can you can all speak to what you care about and the issue that you care about without doing it at the expense of others uh the next speaker is lisa lax to be followed by matthew pre-meister so hello my name is lisa lex i'm a 39 year resident of ward one and first let me say i do support increasing the density of housing here in burlington but i believe the proposed plan that the council is facing needs to be reconsidered and studied further and the reason for this is there's according to my city councilor there's been no study of how this plan would affect the infrastructure in burlington such as water sewer transportation electricity streets etc the impact on the lake or how it would contribute to the much needed housing specifically for low income and working young families um and i'll say in general i think we have a problem in the city and in our country at large in how we develop policies and plans for development business and economic interests tend to dominate the decision-making process and decisions are often made in a piecemeal rather than a holistic and systematic manner so i my hope for the future is that our council and our next mayor will lead a process in which we engage multiple group and voices to develop a vision for what we want burlington to look like in the next 10 20 30 years and then when the city is faced with proposals for change in housing density and other issues that we have established some principles um and goals in a larger vision thank you thanks very much our next speaker is matthew premeister premeister to be followed by uh sam black thank you sam blackman uh to be followed by uh rye Sherman good evening howdy my name is matthew premisler thanks for the attempt it's a very hard one and i'm a ward 8 resident i'm just here to quickly say i support the neighborhood code i understand there are a lot of there are a lot of concerns about it but right now the housing crisis comes first and there are people who are sleeping on the streets tonight because they can't afford homes and i understand all these concerns and yes it's imperfect but right now what we need to do is build housing so the people who don't have housing can live there um that's really all i have to say thank you so much have a good one god bless you thank you very much uh so our next speaker is sam blackman to be followed by rye Sherman to be followed by jason van der eich good evening uh you can go ahead it'll it'll catch up to you all right uh just like to say i'm here to support the neighborhood code tonight passing it without amendments and without sending it back to committee um this is because frankly it needs to be done and as a speaker earlier said it needed to be done 10 years ago that was the best time to do it um i think we all know that housing prices are extreme in burlington just prices in general are extreme in burlington um as a native vermoner myself and a uvm student i'm you know pretty used to extreme prices let's say and i understand that uvm isn't necessarily um a good actor in negotiations on housing and development and zoning and all that but um frankly i think that uh it doesn't really matter so much because we need housing really desperately like as my friend here said there are people sleeping on the street every day in burlington vermont there are people who want to move to burlington vermont but can't there are people there are students here who want to stay and can't because the housing prices are so high it's unlivable it's an untenable situation and i think this passing passing the neighborhood code tonight without amendments is the best way to remedy this situation thank you very much thank you our next speaker is rye sherman to be followed by jason vandreish good evening good evening my name is rye sherman and i am a resident of ward 8 i'm here today to ask you to please pass the neighborhood code tonight i'm currently in my first year at uvm and i already feeling i'm already feeling anxiety for when i have to navigate finding housing in burlington amidst our current housing crisis burlington desperately needs new zoning policies to replace our outdated policies that caused and perpetuate this current housing crisis we need to enact policy that allows us to build more residential units this is crucial to providing housing for burlington's rapidly growing population and reduce reliance on dangerous and environmentally unfriendly transportation this code will also increase energy efficiency in our buildings by decreasing the heat loss and number of systems per unit the neighborhood code is a small yet critical step towards better zoning policy and burlington this code can act as a launching point for more meaningful policy and work on the housing crisis please pass this code tonight thank you for your time thank you very much our next speaker is jason vandreish to be followed by martin gillies to be followed by kathy allwell good evening good evening my name is jason vandreish i live in ward five my family moved to burlington 16 years ago we bought a sweet little house um that was a stretch for us financially we paid 305 thousand dollars for it which would be a steal these days um and i love our neighborhood i love where we live i love everything about it it's a great place to live i love burlington's historic character and i want other people who arrived after me to get to enjoy that too that's fundamentally what the neighborhood code is about it's about not keeping the drawbridge up and when you hear let's go slower that's fundamentally what is being said let's keep the drawbridge up longer i want the drawbridge down i want more people to be able to enjoy burlington the city that i've come to love so much and if i were to move here i wouldn't be able to afford a house um and i'm not willing to take for myself something that i'm not willing to offer to others please pass the code tonight as is without amendments the city needs this so many people need this the people who need it uh are probably the people who are least likely to be able to turn out tonight and say that so i as a comfortable person who owns a house and have paid off my mortgage i'm asking you to make this change so other people have the opportunity to do the same thank you thank you very much our next speaker is martin ghillies to be followed by kathy allwell and uh karen long good evening hi council um i guess i would start by echoing romeo's comments um there will be a page in history for all of you we'll get working on the wikipedia um right after this meeting updating it um i live right around the corner from jason um i'm in support of the neighborhood code as written um i think it's important that as a city we have multiple tools to deal with the housing crisis new development being one of them that's what we're seeing at cambrian rise city place um there's also redevelopment i think you know the south end up zone has been a great tool to unlock sort of land that's under used right now and then infill will be the third tool and it's not that one of these solutions will be the the silver bullet but all of them need to be in our arsenal all of them need to be in our toolbox um i do think it's unfortunate that that people would would limit us limit us as a city um to only having two of the tools um i also would agree with jason's comments that calls for delay or sending it back to council or it's a little bit of the mark of privilege someone who owns a home and has stable housing can afford to you know delay talks on increasing housing um and so i just would ask that you do the what i think is the correct move in the situation and approve the neighborhood code tonight without amendment thank you thanks very much so our next speaker is kathy all well to be followed by karen long and michael long and then uh jim yes thank you uh kathy go ahead welcome i totally agree that we need housing and i would have no problems still passing neighborhood code but we haven't put anything about affordability into this thing and having worked as a social worker in this city for 30 years i can't sit here and say yes go ahead with it just because we need housing for housing sake we need it yes but i do think that we need to look at the affordability there has to be something in there that makes these dwellings that they're going to start building affordable and i guess that is for me the biggest thing you've heard me many times talk about infrastructure and all those other things but if you if you pass this thing tonight please do not do it without putting something in there for affordability and i would rather see um i want to say congressman councillor dory and councillor high tower's amendments passed before we put this forward thank you thank you very much our next speaker is karen long to be followed by by michael long and uh jim you're going to tell me your name one more time po drosky thank you good evening um i've been here before also like cafe i guess i my biggest problem has been the process as you know finding out in october and i do go to meetings like a lot of meetings um and then finding out in january how radically different it was that i found really troubling and i did help notify neighbors i stopped people walking their dogs on my street and said hey have you heard a neighborhood code nobody had nobody um we do have a petition there are 13 and 313 residents who have signed it and we are for increasing density we are for housing we want to protect the lake we want some protection for affordability and we want some protection for a variety of housing right now i really see um especially in ward one if somebody buys a lot next door to me and we're allowed to put eight or 10 units i think it will be student housing uvm should provide their own housing i think students do need housing but i would like to protect some of this housing for a residence and there's nothing in there for that at all uh i guess and i i get this i have three adult children actually one is in oregon and she does own her a home housing is not inexpensive in oregon my son is in florida and he would die if he could buy a house here for the prices of our houses florida is super expensive so i get that but it doesn't mean i'm a bad person because i own my house and there has been a lot of disparaging remarks um about people who don't want eight or 10 units in their backyard i do want to have a backyard i have grand kids that will play but i have a tiny little postage stamp so that's a big problem here one size fits all is not to me good zoning thank you thank you so much uh so our next speaker is michael long um to be followed by jim padrowski to be followed by uh jack tiano good evening welcome good evening plan btv declares that burlington will sustain neighborhoods with small incremental and subtle change 24 vsa section 4441 requires that every zoning ordinance conforms with or furthers the goals and policies contained in plan btv neighborhood code increases density eight or ten fold and lot coverage by as much as 71 percent this is not small or subtle and a one size fits all citywide mega up zoning is hardly incremental in a court of law i would rest my case open and shut neighborhood code is illegal under vermont law here tonight i will add that there is no downside for the community in returning neighborhood code to committee to be improved made legal and passed by the incoming council the community is unified in its commitment to increasing the affordability the diversity and the supply of housing opportunities but the community is deeply divided over this ordinance and if neighborhood code is passed tonight division will grow and intensify as more and more people discover and witness its actual provisions we will never get it perfect but we can get it right and respect one another doing so the incivility that has come to light among some of the avid supporters of this measure imputing motives wishing death on those who disagree discredits the process the product and the sorry state of burlington politics we have a chance to begin a new chapter together and embrace genuine public engagement but are at grave risk of doubling down on division thank you thank you so much our next speaker is jim padrowski to be followed by jack tiano and uh william morris good evening hello my name is jim padrowski i'm a cab driver out at the airport uh just uh this last week this memo uh gene bergeron has a copy of it uh about us getting a new meter increase but the way they say it here uh you guys can also get it from city hall here uh how is about the meter increase we're going to be getting a dollar which has been increased in 10 years which we all thank you uh but how they're going to set the meter up that's the question uh but i work but like my fellow drivers most of those guys are a emigrants they don't understand it uh we'd like some clarification on how the meter is going to be set up in the next couple weeks that's all i have to say have a good night thank you thanks so much our next speaker is jack tiano to be followed by william morris and amy mentis i had like a quick unrelated comment but there's a lot of people here tonight so i'll skip this and just speak at the public hearing later okay all right um i'll just put you in the queue for the public public hearing oh you did okay so we'll go to william morris to be followed by amy mentis to be followed by um ron wanna maker good evening folks um i think i am fortunate enough to know many of you i've been a homeowner in berlington for 20 years owing to happy accidents and no small amount of privilege um in that time i uh have noticed it somehow become miraculously even more difficult to become a uh a citizen of berlington i am here tonight to encourage you to pass the neighborhood code without amendments uh i think that the um just to echo some of the things that that jason said earlier uh this is a city a city evolves a city changes and a city grows and i uh i think that you know selfishly speaking the time to pass this was in fact 20 years ago would have made things easier for folks in my cohort but at this point waiting an additional 20 years means that my children who are berlingtonians as well uh will have an even poorer chance of being able to continue to live in the city that they love um i think that's about it i'll leave it there thank you great thank you so much uh so our next speaker is amy mentis to be followed by ron wanna maker and janet mcjugal good evening hi everyone um can you hear me can you hear me now all right thanks uh for all you do um i don't have much to say because it seems like everybody said well everybody already said thoughts that i had had had already and i also tried to post on the front porch forum but i think i've been banned and i don't know why because i sent it on friday and it never came out anyway um so i'm a little nervous right now i'm feeling a little paranoid now i didn't eat or smoke anything before i came down here it's not that anyway um i know i'm taking up my time talking about this but i i really want you to revisit this code i do agree that we need more housing obviously i was going to say obs and affordability that's a huge question like everybody said is it going to be affordable probably not um the whole green sustainability thing is new built new buildings are even if you build them to be green when they're already there the whole process of of building new buildings the the carbon footprint everything that's involved the materials they're they're chinsier the materials now the new the best compliment on a new building i could say it could have been worse so um i think we need to look at well we can't anymore the memorial because we were really horrible stewards there um as and that went on for a long time that's a whole other issue however that is a building that's embodied energy that's sitting there um and i can go on about that but there's a lot of yeah i think we need to start small with infill there's plenty of spaces i've seen driving around walking around at that uh for example above old dole boys you could easily pop something up there you can still get a lot of housing that way thank you thank you so much uh so we'll go to ron wannamaker to be followed by janet mcjugel and susan montries and we will wrap up with that dug dug women good evening thank you all for being here thank you for everything you're doing um i appreciate uh all the efforts all the way across the board i'm a nimby i don't want something big and giant in my backyard or next door to me in my backyard so i'll just say that um i think that as previously mentioned we all acknowledge the um the need for housing i think as a carpenter the solution to every problem isn't isn't a hammer and i think that uh the solution to every problem we have been facing berlin can isn't development and isn't just blanket development um i'm also a preservationist and i care about um everybody wants to live here it's a beautiful city and i'm sympathetic i bought a house in 2004 i almost lost it in foreclosure twice didn't and um i understand the struggles it was a big single family home that i turned into four units so again i i live to increase density in housing and and do it in a way that doesn't impact the character of the neighborhoods and the character of the city we love and i'm completely sympathetic to the students here and i notice the big age gap the pros and the cons right so there's a lot of people here my age or older who've been here for a really long time are struggling to keep what they work so hard for and keep the character and the beauty of our city that we come to love and then there's a whole generation of people want to be here and want any kind of opportunity to stay here i think um sending this back to committee for revisions and further work is a necessary part of the process i know that these things take forever and everybody i'm agon everybody's really um trying to reach out and stretch out and get the word out across the board and it just is never as effective as we like it to be and i think there's a lot of room for improvement and i think if we're looking at projects and we're saying that we have to consider a historic building but not the site that's a step in the wrong direction thank you very much thank you very much so we'll go to uh janet mcdougall to be followed by susan montress to be followed by Doug weiman and we will end with mark stevensson good evening how are you great um well there's two things on the agenda the um cherry street the cherry street sidewalk right next to the courthouse is not totally done it needs to be replaced the other thing is that um esti ireland is the one that's building these houses and there's a house up cherry street that is being redone apartment complex they're going to be building houses as well as hotels and motels as well as housing that boston is going to come and help them that's what i heard on the news that's all the things that i have to say great thank you so much our next speaker is susan montress to be followed by Doug weiman to be followed by mark stevensson good evening good evening hi i'm susan montress no worries on the pronunciation it's a tricky one um and i'm here to speak in favor of the neighborhood code and urge you to pass it tonight with no amendments as another resident of ward five and long-term homeowner i've lived through so many processes plannings invitations outreaches and you know when we try to put in a community garden the neighborhood on the other side of the park said we didn't know about it and was in wild opposition um and i've seen bike lanes delayed and walk bike infrastructure delayed for more study and more process and more planning and more input from people who are not skilled or understand infrastructure and its development so i just want to thank you for all the work you're doing and say that i trust that you've done the research and i encourage you to have confidence in what you've learned and figured out and proceed a pace thank you thanks very much our next speaker is Doug Doug weiman to be followed by mark stevensson good evening good evening i'm Doug weiman i'm an architect in town i work with developers i have made myself familiar with the neighborhood code and wrote you a three page document about how it does not make affordable housing it only makes expensive housing um and there are half a dozen suggestions i made on how to make code changes that would make affordable housing and i'm sure there's many other people that could come up with other good ideas on how to make affordable housing um airheart monkey cannot be here tonight and i am going to he's right behind you airheart just walked in the door so um i will uh um the cost to build in burlington right now is it there's just no way you can make affordable housing without some sort of subsidies one of the suggestions i had was to come up with a way to allow people to build modular housing somewhere within the city limits and charge a no profit rent to use that space to find a way to um you know reduce the cost of building housing right now if you wouldn't need wanted to rent a two bedroom apartment or buy a two bedroom unit in burlington you need to make over a hundred thousand dollars and it's that kind of information that you need to do to do your homework on to understand why neighborhood code as written does not make anything affordable just adding units it's just over time doesn't bring the cost to the housing down because other costs go up the cost of the infrastructure goes up the cost of labor has been going up you need to come up with other ways to make this affordable whether it's amendments back to committee or more work on your part over the next year to get this affordable before it actually starts construction thank you thank you very much and our last speaker that's joining us in conchoice who's a burlington resident is mark stevensson good evening mark chairwoman paul city council i've jotted a few notes on the neighborhood code tonight's topic du jour the heart and the soul of new england vermont and burlington is its history it's lake it's mountains and the steeple at the end of church streets it's defined a large part by its architecture and its space the town square the town meeting we live in a community where i can go to the y and see my senator i can go to the tennis courts at the park and see my governor and i can walk down the street or the and i can say hi to the mayor if you think of vermont you don't think of wilson road you don't think of anywhere architecture you certainly don't think of the newly developed canyon corridor into a new ski coming in from st mikes that's recently been done and you don't think about the mall protect the integrity of the city as all of vermont has done to protect the beauty and spaces of its towns four two years ago we were dealing with the same exact issues the exact same vacancy rates and taxes and affordability were big issues regardless of how you vote on the neighborhood code to thoughtfully revise to a more vermont scale or to pass it as is the vacancy rates affordability and tax issues will remain we will then again try to grow our way thank you for your time thank you very much so those are the speakers that are joining us in con toys we do have uh eight people that are joining us online who wish to speak during public forum and um the first is julia randall uh to be followed by paul bierman and julia um i have found you and enabled your um enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now if you just unmute on your side can you hear me yes we can go ahead okay great great um i'm julia randall i'm a renter in ward six um i also work as a community planner for local firm and i serve planning commissioner in berlington and have since 2022 tonight i won't focus my comments on dimensional standards or specific changes uh instead i want to speak on something more fun which is the fabric of berlington's neighborhoods in the process of creating this amendment we've heard from some community members who claim that the neighborhood code will destroy the fabric of our neighborhoods this begs the question what makes the fabric of our neighborhoods strong is that the specific design and shape of buildings for a certain number of homes on the street or is it the sheer area devoted to private lawns i'd argue that these things guarantee a strong neighborhood fabric what does guarantee a strong neighborhood fabric is people and we're losing people in berlington i'm 26 and i'm rapidly losing my community of friends in their 20s and 30s through the housing crisis i've had friends tell me that they no longer feel like berlington has a place for them when they face astronomical home prices and they can no longer justify giving half their income to a slumlord they figure it's time to move on even if they love berlington and want to stay here when my friends move away they take their energy their talents their creativity and their potential contributions to berlington with them this is just my circle of friends there are many other stories like the one i'm describing berlington's intergenerational community fabric is at risk of unraveling because there are simply not enough places for people to live the neighborhood code which i estimate would add about 100 at most is a very very small step towards changing that trend please think of the people that would be homeowners who make up the fabric of berlington neighborhoods today but are being actively pushed out and will continue to do so if this is pushed back to committee and for the delay in this process to maintain so we need people and we need more homes thank you can you hear me so i want to thank you all for increasing housing in berlington as the council has done dramatically in the last year with the south end and other developments it's something we need to do and it's something i'm a strong advocate for i'm also a strong advocate for the environment and i believe that we can and should protect both housing and the environment i forwarded to you all a petition that has names of over 310 berlington citizens and they include constituents in every city ward who oppose passing neighborhood code as is and support sending it back to committee where with more public input the ordinance can be improved i want to make sure that you know this is not about delay this is about doing it right um there's widespread opposition to the current proposal along people who elected you to represent them and i think you've heard a lot about that tonight but i want to focus on the things that we can do to make neighborhood code better we can assure that much of the new housing is affordable we can remove inequality between neighborhoods we can ensure diverse housing options at a variety of price levels for single people couples and families we can protect green space we can minimize runoff that results in sewage overflows into the lake that impacts water quality and closes berlington beaches and we can preserve trees that ameliorate the urban heat island effect as our climate warms i want to say there's an elephant in the room that we're really not talking about and that's the university of vermont and i ask you to put pressure on the university of vermont which the state auditor says has caused much of the current housing crisis to build housing for its students now they could build thousands of beds and it could happen a whole lot faster and with a whole lot less environmental impact than infilling that's proposed in neighborhood code so lastly i urge you not to pass the code now and then try to fix it in the future as some has suggested there's just too much at stake to pass inadequate legislation and hope it'll get fixed later i urge you to take the time to get this right build consensus in the community follow plan btv and pass updated zoning with broad public support to increase house thank you thank you very much our next speaker is sharon busher and sharon i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now um president paul i wanted to speak during the public hearing thank you the next speaker is jim drummond and jim i have found you and enabled your microphone so this is anna drummond and i'm with jim drummond and the two of us have been looking at this issue as well we would encourage you to delay passing neighborhood code and send it back to committee um we've lived here for 30 years we love the variety of people who live here we love the vibrancy of the community we would love to see more young families working people seniors and students all living working and studying here together enjoying all that we have but my problem is that we believe that there will be unintended consequences of this code revision such that the people who will benefit most are those investors and developers who create housing to increase their profit by renting to students at ridiculously high prices and then not providing decent upkeep adequate garbage removal et cetera and that's not what we need more of so we need to make sure that this is really targeted to have more housing for people who will live here and increase vibrancy of our cities populate our schools enjoy our lakefront um and i have to echo what professor bierman has just said about eroding our green space and looking at the ramifications to the lake and our infrastructure that's pretty much that at all thank you thank you thank you thanks very much our next speaker is uh richard single and rich i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak now okay i first want to thank you councillor paul for your years of service to the city um i've written to many of you asking that you wait to finalize the neighborhood code until after a strong mou is negotiated with uvm i support the underlying ideas of the neighborhood code but the idea of trying to address the lack of housing in burlington without the city first negotiating a strong mou does not make any sense as you know the state auditor's report on the uvm mou states that uvm student growth accounts for more than two-thirds of all burlington population growth since 1990 my main concern is the potential for adding more housing that has a minimal impact on the availability for non-students that would make the neighborhood code a self-defeating proposal in the area around uvm this is similar to the concern of only addressing undergraduates at uvm in the mou it only sounds good if you really don't think about it all that long that is why i think that phasing phasing in modifications for the area around uvm after a strong mou makes the most sense please consider amending the neighborhood code with some type of financial disincentive in the neighborhoods surrounding uvm for adding housing that is primarily student housing another option is to limit the addition of infill for the first couple of years to owner-occupied houses it's pretty clear what will happen if these issues are not addressed proactively passing a flawed code with the intention of fixing it later is not a good plan thank you very much our next speaker it appears as though nancy kerby you have a letter that you had and i perhaps might be on our consent agenda and it didn't appear as though you wanted to speak although you did fill out the form and i don't see i don't see you online if you are online um and you can just use the raise hand function i'm happy to recognize you um with that our last speaker who's joining us online is karen dawson and karen i have found you and enabled your microphone you should be able to speak good can you hear me uh yes well thank you um i just wanted to register my hope that you do delay the vote and then that goes back to committee for a little further discussion and fine tuning and maybe not such a blanket zoning one size fits all really isn't good zoning i i don't think um it seems like we've got a pretty good object lesson right in this neighborhood i've been a resident of lakeside for 40 years and um there's a project that's been proposed it will pop right up in front of me i'm going to be a nimby here and say i hate to lose the view that i've had for 40 years but i myself and quite a few others will be losing a wonderful view of the lake and it's probably the only view corridor for the entire street that runs parallel from the st john's club down to the end of um central af um so the i didn't know anything about this until about three weeks ago i think many of us just found out three weeks ago so um it just feels like for such a major change um that's been kind of ramrodded through and i don't want to point fingers or accuse anyone um i'm at fault for not catching everything that goes into my spam box uh i just can't get that front porch form to come into my inbox so uh it's my fault but i also know a lot of other people that didn't know about it either and i'm kind of wondering why this kind of major change couldn't be agreed upon by the council and um and then put on the ballot for the city to vote on or at least a referendum item that would get you know citywide approval which implies kind of citywide awareness so that we'd all have been aware and not be feeling so distressed it's been a tough last three weeks kind of trying to make my peace with everything thank you very much thank you very much uh so that concludes the people that are joining us on zoom we do have two non-burlington residents uh they're joining us in contoy so we will wrap up with them the first is michael arnold to be followed by karen seda my apologies i'm sorry oh you wanted to be in the public hearing okay um and then so that would mean our last speaker is karen seda a Beyonce's album comes out this friday so i came to slay okay i do want to say congratulations to the new council i hope that especially uh Joan i all four bold women i always represent bold women i always represent women that are speaking the truth honestly and authentically no matter what opposition that's against them but i'm here to talk about the solar eclipse i really hope that when people look at the solar eclipse that they realize that there is a god and he is real and he is alive and he really doesn't play i mean i'm one of god's favorites so i can speak this with authority so i do want to say that with the solar eclipse when we look at it when we see it when we see the creativeness of god when we realize that he very much is real and that's why we should really learn that our actions are important what we do is important and karma is real like my girl taylor swift loves to say and we need to honestly remember that when we're treating others and how we're treating others and think about our citizens and how we're harming others when we don't let people speak the truth when we don't let other people get housing when we know that they can and deserve housing and things like that so we need to remember that god watches everything everything that's done in the dark always comes to light and to my righteous people who suffer to all my pretty girls who suffer for speaking the truth i'm here for you i represent you and you know the the righteous our afflictions are many but the lord delivers us from everything so i'm here to remind us that he is real he is alive shout out to all my pretty girls my honest girls my real girls my college educated girls shout out to women who are out here fighting continuously and loving each other loving our enemies all the girls that are in their era of loving their enemies loving their haters shout out to girls like us shout out to all the girls who come from nothing and still fight for a better future for your city and continue to come here so i represent those girls i see you my queens and i know that we're going to overcome thank you thank you very much on that note we are going to close the public forum at 759 and before we return to our consent agenda as a number of people have alluded to during public forum this is a special meeting for a number of us at this table along with our mayor we have five city counselors for whom this is our last meeting the mayor on behalf of the city has a gift to give each of our departing members to honor their service to our city and then it has been our long-standing tradition that we will go to the council either departing counselors or others for comments and reflections mayor weinberger thank you president paul and thank you for prioritizing a few minutes for this before we have important work to do that is going to consume a lot of the evening but i think it's important this is happening now instead of one in the morning first i want to start by thanking you president paul not only for for leading this council and the public through a very important and productive two years but also for your long and enduring service to burlington that goes back far beyond that as a lifelong resident burlington president paul served on the electric commission police commission pension task force and joined this council in 2008 we've worked together as council mayor for all of my 12 year tenure and i've always appreciated your meticulous preparation your guidance and council and partnership on so many efforts over these many years i want to extend my deep appreciation to the whole council together we have managed an incredibly incredible body of work over the last year and an important time the city's pandemic recovery our last budget deployed vital recovery dollars and we've secured progress on generational infrastructure projects we've accelerated the city's work in combating the drug crisis with a focus on both harm reduction and enforcement we strengthen the airport through several major projects and partner new partnerships and we've continued to make great progress towards delivering on the promise of housing as a human right and i hope of course that we take another major step forward tonight i'm proud of the work we've done together and i'm grateful for the time energy and focus you've each brought to the big challenges and great opportunities before burlington i want to say thanks especially to those counselors who are concluding their service tonight so councillor joe mcgee allie jang soraya hightower and hannah king i have enjoyed and valued our time serving alongside each other and i know that burlington is better for your service to the counselors who are remaining to start a new year's business in a few days time i hope you're able to get even bigger things done and i want to say to you specifically counselors shannon who i've also served with for 12 years that i've always benefited from your expertise your experience and support and i'm confident the new council will benefit from your wisdom and long experience and leadership on the new council um you will all have my support and encouragement from afar if there's anything i can do to help in a new role i'd be happy to do that and with that i do have some plaques to hand out so for those counselors that are either departing or for anyone else who wishes to offer this is your moment councillor hightower um i'll make quick comments just because i do especially as we're having this discussion i think about inclusivity and diversity all of the time and i do think i am really glad that i was i was somehow the first woman of color in the council but i wasn't the first woman of council to leave the council so i'm mad that i didn't get both of those titles maya beat me into one of them but um i i think especially when i look at the folks in them i think we're all wonderfully professional great people i'm glad we're all in the council and there's two renters on the council out of 12 people and i think that especially as we have housing debates it's very true also of the planning commission it's true of a lot of our um it's true of a lot of our bodies as the folks who somebody in public forum said that the folks who most need to see change in the city in order to be able to live here aren't aren't aren't at this table or can't joan hannah sorry i know you're both renters um but um so i just want to continue to encourage folks to get people who aren't us to this table thank you thank you very much councilor high tower uh councilor king thank you i will also keep my comments brief as i know we have a long night ahead of us first and foremost i want to thank my ward eight neighbors when i moved to burlington in 2018 i had no idea that i'd eventually have the opportunity to represent them on the council hasn't been the easiest road to get here but it really was an honor to spend my last year serving on the council i'd be remiss to not take this opportunity to i'm only going to thank three people there's a lot more that deserve to be thanked but i'm going to keep it at three um first and foremost thank you mayor wineburger you have been such an incredible ally to me and some of the toughest moments i faced while serving you've given me valuable advice and often just let me rant um i'm grateful to have served with you councilor shannon you have been the greatest mentor i could have asked for on the council you are the epitome of what it means to be a strong and intentional leader thank you for always answering my silly questions often with no judgment and i'm so i'm very grateful to consider you a friend and finally councilor dority i know you're embarrassed that i'm doing this i think my favorite part of serving on the council has been the opportunity to serve with you i'm so lucky to have you in my life and i can't wait to continue watching what you do thank you thanks so much councilor king uh are there any other counselors that wish to offer any comments um councilor mickey thank you president paul uh i didn't prepare any remarks this evening but i just wanted to say a quick thank you to my constituents who well we haven't always agreed over the last two and a half years i appreciate folks showing up for public forum for public engagement opportunities and uh i'm grateful to have had the support of of many folks um to to get me here and to have the honor and privilege of representing ward three in the city council for the last two and a half years it has felt like 10 years at some points and i certainly am grateful to be getting monday evenings back uh at least for the time being and uh look forward to playing a role in supporting new counselors and uh and just joining you all and making sure that we have a bright and optimistic future ahead of us thank you thank you very much councilor mickey uh are there any other count councilor jang yes um i also want to say thank you to everyone in the city of birdington um and especially for the people who live in ward seven i also want us to do a particular appreciation to all the city staff especially the department head that i worked with over the past six seven years you all care deeply about the city and i know with the change of administration i hope that most of you will keep on staying to keep on building and keep on making birdington the best small city in north america who would think one day that this new american from africa with no english or broken english will run for city council and win who would have thought of that nobody and i think while doing it i have learned so much this has been an opportunity of a lifetime if i have um misjudged you or misinterpreted you i really want to apologize to every single person because right now is ramadan it is required for us to apologize to every single one of us if i hurt your feelings or have done something knowingly or unknowingly i am apologizing you all have made me a better leader right now you a better person who would think also that this new american will win in the new north end world seven if you don't trust me go to our new north end facebook group the most controversial part of the city and i was able to keep on leading and winning as an independent i am not a democrat i am not a progressive i was just early jeng and you gave me the opportunity to serve to my fellow city councilors those that i that are new those that are old councillor shannon you always come in my dreams i don't know for some reason especially when we have a controversial issue she will show in my dreams and advocating for what she believe in um councillor paul really you have shown deep friendship i mean about this because sometimes you know we don't agree but we became friends along the way and i think you have done a lot for me and also for the people who are suffering back in home in africa i want to say thank you to my progressive city councillors i really tried to be like you but i could not i definitely i could not um yes we still love you babe yes but i you know you all contributed to my leadership style and to the love of the city and let's keep making burlington the best city it can be thank you all mr mayer for governor maybe councillor jang others uh i guess um i can multiply double however long you spoke because i've served a little bit longer than you have so you'll forgive me um i do want to express my thanks and appreciation to the mayor uh councillors jang magie hightower and king for their commitment and service to the city it's been a pleasure with working with all of you and i'm honored to have served with you uh i've thought about this day for a pretty long time i've been here for 16 years and i've wondered how i would feel when this evening finally came upon me tonight marks the end of an immensely rewarding and an honored journey and it is also the beginning of a new one because when a door closes another one opens um over my years on the council um i've served with two mayors five council presidents alongside 42 councillors and i've worked with 46 department heads and many many city employees who come to work every day working to improve the lives of the community that we all serve um i do want to express my sincere thanks to the department heads and many city employees that i've worked with uh you know it's when you're a city councillor you're incredibly dependent on the people that work in these buildings every day because to be honest with you they make you look good you can't you can't do we can't do our work without their help and so i am deeply appreciative of their of the of the efforts that so many have have given to me um so that i can do the job that i do um i can't thank them all personally tonight but please know that i know who you are and i appreciate your work and your dedication i do also want to highlight the work of one employee one of the unsung heroes in city hall um lori thank you so much she's crying so it's going to be hard for me not to cry um for those who don't know um lori is uh she has a long title but basically it should be the glue that keeps the city council together there is no there is no way that you can be a council president and certainly councillor shannon can attest to this without the help of lori olberg um i also did actually count up i know this is a little bit crazy but it's the