HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda 08_Foster 2020-05-14 1
14 May 2020
Dear Marla Keene and South Burlington Development Review Board (DRB)
We are submitting this written testimony as a statement of concern regarding development of lots
4A and 4B on Aiken Street in South Village per 24 March 2020 letter submitted by Robin Jeffers
of SD Ireland Inc. The undersigned represent interested parties as real property owners in the
Phase 1 South Village neighborhood affected by the proposed development. All owner-occupant
abutters of the proposed development on the north, east, and south sides (the west side is open
space) are also included. In sum, we feel: (1) misled by the developers based on two different
presentations, each time lowering the proposed building densities for 4A and 4B; (2) concerned
about traffic safety in the core of phase 1 if the proposed multi-plexes are approved; and (3)
concerned about the 3 story height of the proposed multi-plexes.
We acknowledge that the 2 x 12-plex buildings (24 units total) SD Ireland proposes for 4A and
4B were approved per master plat 7 June 2016. However, over the four intervening years, SD
Ireland made presentations to the community of property owners proposing much lower densities
for 4A and 4B. Many property owners have likely made their financial decisions to purchase,
retain and/or improve their properties in Phase 1 based on these presentations. SD Ireland stated
in each presentation that plans were tentative pending approval. However, at none of the
presentations did SD Ireland state that their ultimate objectives for these lots remained 24 unit
densities pending financing. In fact, per attached documents of 27 July 2017, SD Ireland
proposed to decrease densities to 13 townhouse lots for 4A and 4B. On 8 October 2018, SD
Ireland held another presentation and proposed to further decrease densities to approximately 6
single family house lots.
We are also concerned about the potential traffic safety impacts from the 2x to 4x higher density.
The core of Phase 1 for lots 4A and 4B is not an area that lends itself to dense development and
the associated traffic as evidenced by the placement of existing multi-plexes at the far
peripheries in all of the neighborhood phases which shunts traffic away from pedestrians,
including children. SD Ireland has proposed a circular one-way route with 1 aboveground and 2
belowground parking lots for the potential 24-48 additional cars. However, SD Ireland did not
present plans for managing traffic on the corner of Aiken and Chipman with future development
of adjoining southern lots 5 and 5A. We would suggest for traffic safety that any approval by the
DRB for multi-plexes on lots 4A and 4B be conditioned upon conserving adjoining corner lots 5
and 5A as open space.
Finally, we are concerned about the height of the proposed multi-plex buildings in lots 4A and
4B, which are out-of-scale with the rest of the South Village Traditional Neighborhood Design
(TND). These two buildings would be the only 3-story aboveground multi-plexes in any of the
neighborhood phases and therefore visually tower above all other South Village structures.
Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.
2
Sincerely,
Bryan Foster Mark Merrill
123 Chipman St 84 Chipman St
bryancfoster1@gmail.com msparky802@gmail.com
Elaine and Bill Harwood
61 Chipman St
Luis and Rosa LaBoy-Hernandez
98 Chipman St
Robert and Jane Perrin
110 Chipman St
Arnold and Brenda Feldman
111 Chipman St
Patricia Stokowski
9 Flanders Ln
Elaine Hazelett
4 Dewey Pl
Mike and Martha Smiles
38 Aiken St