HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 05/11/2021May 11, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 1
Approved on May 25, 2021
AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE May 11, 2021, 10:30 a.m., meeting held online
Members attending: Leslie Black-Plumeau, Vince Bolduc, Sandy Dooley, Patrick O’Brien, John Simson, and Chris Trombly Others: Monica Ostby, PC liaison; Kevin Dorn, City Manager; Laura Lapierre, VT Department of Environmental Conservation; Alan Long, SoBu property owner; Andrew Gill, O’Brien Bros. Agency; John Burton, Ariel Jensen-Vargas, Tonia Karnedy, Michael Mittag, and Darrilyn Peters, SoBu residents AGENDA
1. Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of minutes (04/27/21), announcements 2. “Wetlands Regulation Overview for South Burlington” presented by Laura Lapierre, State of Vermont, Department of Environmental Conservation 3. Discussion and possible action regarding wetland regulations for South Burlington 4. 5. Discussion and possible action on inclusionary housing plan for O’Brien Bros. six multi-family building plus office space development at 255 Kennedy Drive (#SD-21-13)
5. 4. Communications Update 6. Adjourn
1, Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of Minutes (04/27/21), announcements Call to order: Chris called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m. Agenda review: Leslie proposed reversing the order of agenda items 4. and 5. so that Patrick, who is recusing himself from agenda item 4, may leave the meeting and not miss the Communications Update. Members were amenable to this change. Leslie moved and Vince seconded motion to approve agenda as modified. Motion approved: 6-0-0. Public Comments: None. Minutes: Leslie moved and John seconded motion to approve the 04/27/21 meeting minutes as drafted (with
addition of “was” between “Sandy” and “concerned” on page 2, line 5). Motion approved: 6-0-0. Announcements: Monica shared that she and Paul Engels, also a Planning Commissioner, recently walked the Long property and, based on her observations, she does not support current housing-types proposed in the Long
application. She would favor removal of detached single-family units from plan and more multi-family units so that number of units is maintained but area of combined building footprints is smaller. This means she does not support requiring all TND PUDs to include detached single-family dwelling units. Sandy reported “attending” May
4 DRB meeting during which Long application’s sketch plan was reviewed. Lots of input—both for and against; most negative input was from neighbors. DRB member Mark Behr described it as a nice infill development (while also proposing some changes). SD Ireland staffer Robin Jeffers also described it as a nice infill development (while also proposing some changes). Chris introduced Tonia Kenardy, who has applied for appointment to the committee. Tonia shared background about herself and why she would like to join the committee. 2. “Wetlands Regulation Overview for South Burlington” presented by Laura Lapierre, State of Vermont, Department of Environmental Conservation: Chris welcomed Laura to the committee. She presented a PowerPoint about VT’s wetlands program and how they review development proposals whose land includes
regulated wetlands. Here is link to this presentation: Wetlands Burl2021.pdf. Her comments included: peatlands
hold 30% of the world’s land-based carbon; the line between a “wetland and upland can be difficult to define”; class II wetlands do not provide significant contribution to defined functions and values (covered in PowerPoint); class I & II wetlands are State jurisdictional wetlands; not all protected wetlands are mapped; State has a new wetland screening tool; also has an “avoidance and minimization checklist”; class I & II wetlands must have “boots-on-the-ground” delineation; regarding permitting (quote from PowerPoint): “To receive a permit you must: Avoid, Minimize, Restore, Compensate. No undue adverse impact to wetland function or value”; example of wetlands impact mitigation approved for Dorset Meadows development; zoning regulations should not be so strict that a project cannot happen; flexibility is needed to avoid/minimize impact on natural resources while allowing for
May 11, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 2
use of property; State would not require modifications to a plan solely due to impact on class III wetlands.
Comments, etc. following presentation: thank you to Laura; great and helpful presentation; SoBu on its own vis-à-vis regulating development on class III wetlands; question about delineating wetland boundaries when wetland crosses parcel boundaries; importance of relying on field verification; State allows modification of boundaries
based on field verification; UVM students doing project that inventories information about VT municipalities’ environmental regulations relating to development; inventory for largest municipalities (which includes SoBu) should be available soon; BTV has 100-ft buffer for class II wetlands; unclear how involved Army Corps of Engineers is in protecting wetlands; Monica recommended consulting proposed LDRs at 12.03 D & E; wetlands must be re-evaluated every five years; questions: what %age of field evaluations are done by State; does SoBu requirement for field delineation of class III wetlands add major expense—maybe/maybe not; in SoBu’s proposed LDRs, is there an “undue adverse impact” type of screening and allowance for mitigation—yes for class III wetlands & no for class II wetlands. Sense of group: presentation and Q & A very helpful; unanimous view: City
Council and Planning Commission should have benefit of the same presentation. Laura indicated availability for this and mentioned additional resources that might serve similar purpose. Patrick moved and Vince seconded motion that committee recommend to the City Council that they arrange for the same Wetlands presentation. Motion approved: 6-0-0. 3. Discussion and possible action regarding wetland regulations for South Burlington: covered under item 2.
above. Only action was motion relating to City Council. 5. 4. Communications Update: Leslie shared that article about Fair Housing Month was published in recent City
News. Leslie will prepare “book review” on book that was basis for webinar that Councilor Emery recommended and submit for publication in City News. Andrea Leo now in charge of managing City News and additions to City’s website. She is happy to receive submissions for City News and prompt in posting additions to committee’s
webpage. Monica and Kevin complimented Sandy and Chris on timely preparation of minutes and preparation of meeting agendas. Patrick left meeting. 4. 5. Discussion and possible action on inclusionary housing plan for O’Brien Bros. six multi-family building plus office space development at 255 Kennedy Drive (#SD-21-13): Andrew Gill gave brief summary of situation with this development; prior plan was to have one building include inclusionary units and limit number to what regulations require; due to potential availability of ARA funds for housing, now exploring possibility of having two of the buildings include inclusionary units; would like these “excess” inclusionary units to be counted toward future inclusionary housing requirement in contiguous area of O’Brien Farms development; LDRs may disallow this because the units are not part of same PUD; how LDRs apply is unclear. Committee supports addition of large number of inclusionary units in development that has already been approved; will work with O’Briens to determine
whether/how it would be possible for “excess” inclusionary units to be counted toward future inclusionary requirement that is part of an O’Brien Farms development PUD. Motion regarding this PUD was prepared for committee action before this information was known. May still need the motion that was prepared. Committee
will consider that motion and, possibly, a second motion at its May 25 meeting. 6. Adjourn: At 12:38 p.m. Leslie moved and Vince seconded motion to adjourn. Motion approved: 5-0-0.