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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 10/04/2021CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, 4 October 2021, at 6:30 p.m., in the Auditorium, City Hall, 180 Market Street, and by Go to Meeting remote participation. MEMBERS PRESENT: H. Riehle, Chair; M. Emery, T. Barritt, T. Chittenden, M. Cota ALSO PRESENT: J. Baker, City Manager; A. Bolduc, Deputy City Manager; C. McNeill, City Attorney; P. Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning; C. Baker, CCRPC; J. Louisos, R. Greco, B. Sirvis, B. Milizia, M. Mittag, A. Crocker, D. Wheeler, K. Braverman, R. Finkelstein, G. Jelleran, J. Dinklage, F. Von Turkevich, C. Shaw, J. Hunt, A. Strong, L. Bailey, T. McKenzie 1. Instructions on exiting building in case of emergency: Ms. Baker provides instructions on exiting the building in the event of an emergency. 2. Additions, deletions or changes in the order of Agenda items: No changes were made to the Agenda. 3. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda: Ms. Hunt said she was ashamed of her generation which has taken from nature without conscience and asked that every decision include thought about impact on climate. Ms. Perry proposed a 24-hour city noise ordinance to protect people from unhealthy noise from music and other sources. 4. Announcements and City Manager’s Report: Council members reported on events and meetings they had attended. Ms. Baker: The Kimball Ave. bridge replacement project is going well and should take 5 more weeks and be completed on time. On 12 October, the Economic TIF Council will be in South Burlington for its annual review. Ms. Baker advised that she has participated in a Cannabis Control Board forum with municipal leaders. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 2 There are 2 vacancies on the Recreation & Parks Committee because of people moving out of the city. These are exciting times for the Library, including a Young Adult Advisory Board. The Library is still offering curb-side pick-up. Since the Library opened at 180 Market Street, there are close to 800 new members. There was a Hazmat incident on I-89 last week when a truck rolled over. The Police Chief reported that 8 member of the Police Department have volunteered for a project at St. Michael’s College. The Steering Committee will meet on 27 October. The Council’s retreat is on 30 October. Ms. Riehle advised that Ms. Baker has been elected President of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. 5. Consent Agenda: a. Approve and Sign Disbursements b. Approve minutes from 2 August and 7 September 2021 Council meetings c. Approve Stormwater System Maintenance Agreement with South Village Communities, LLC, and South Village Community Association, Inc. Ms. Emery moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Mr. Barritt seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 6. Approve an Appointment to the Climate Action Plan Task Force: Ms. Baker reviewed the history and noted that the Economic Development Committee has designated Sriram Srinivasan as its delegate to the Task Force. Mr. Barritt moved to appoint Sriram Srinivasan to the Climate Action Plan Task Force. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 3 7. Consider a Memorandum of Understanding for the conservation easement for the Wheeler property: Mr. Bolduc said staff has now fully reviewed the MOU and made a few minor edits from what the Council previously saw. The terms of the MOU include: The City will convey to the Vermont Land Trust a conservation easement for 107 acres. This excludes the homestead property and the portion of the property in the southeast corner that was part of the J. M. Golf land swap decision. The Vermont Land Trust will manage all legal work and all mapping of the property. The City will be responsible for conveying title. The City will pay $16,000 toward closing costs plus $25,000 toward maintenance. Ms. Riehle asked whether the city retains governance of the homestead piece. Mr. Bolduc said it does. Ms. Riehle also said she assumed there could be access for motorized wheelchairs though not for other motorized vehicles. Ms. Emery asked if the J. M. Golf piece is part of the 107 acres. Mr. Bolduc said it probably will be, but they haven’t seen all the information on that as yet. Ms. Emery said she assumes the pasture will be brush hogged appropriately. Mr. Bolduc said that will be part of the discussion at a future date. Mr. Cota said he assumes the 107 acres does not include the land for the Dog Park. Mr. Bolduc said that is correct. Mr. Bolduc said there are options for where the money for this will come from. These are: from the Open Space Fund, inclusion in the FY23 budget, and overspending and using the fund balance from FY22. Council members favored using the Open Space Fund money for this use. Mr. Mittag asked the Council to consider using the fund balance since they forgot to budget for it. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 4 Sen. Chittenden then moved to approve the Memorandum of Understanding for the conservation easement for the Wheeler property. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. The Council affirmed their intention to use money from the Open Space Fund for this use. 8. Receive an Update on the July and August financial statements: Mr. Bolduc said they are right on target with 11.14% of expenditures (a little below normal) and 30.5% in expected revenues. Ms. Emery said a number of people have asked about road striping not being done. Mr. Bolduc said a lot of that happens in-house, some via contract. He explained the priorities and noted that the Bike-Ped Committee has not weighed in on this as yet. Ms. Emery cited the need to keep bikers safe. Ms. Baker said that as the City comes out of COVID and staffing gets back up, the hope is to focus on this going into FY22. Mr. Bolduc noted receipt of the July & early August local option tax numbers which look very good with just a slight lag in the Rooms & Meals tax. 9. (formerly #13): Reports from Councilors on Committee assignments: Mr. Cota: The update on the drivers’ union vote at Green Mountain Transit will come tomorrow. GMT is very optimistic. 10. (formerly #14): Other Business: Sen. Chittenden noted that he attended “Out and About in Essex,” a weekend event, and talked with the Town Manager. Gift cards were given out to participating stores. It was a great community event, and Sen. Chittenden said he’d like to consider something like that, possibly purchasing gift cards with grant money. Ms. Baker noted the request of a resident to care for an ash tree in front of her home. After discussion, the city is willing to consider this on a ‘streetwide’ basis via an agreement with a property owner. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 5 Mr. Cota asked if it is known that the pesticide chemical is safe. Ms. Greco said it is being used in other places. It does kill other insects but not large animals. Cities that use it believe it is worth it to save a mature tree. She said she can treat the one in her yard, but not the one on the city street. Mr. Barritt said he felt people should be able to say “don’t cut it down” until it is diseased. Ms. Emery questioned whether that could be a liability issue. Ms. Riehle said her preference is that if there is one individual willing to pay to save trees in front of her house, let them go forward. If there are 200 people, that would be another discussion. She was reticent about Mr. Barritt’s idea. 11. (formerly #10): Public Hearing on Proposed Amendments to the Official Map: Sen. Chittenden moved to open the public hearing. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Conner reviewed the history of the proposed amendments. He noted that the first amendment would remove a road from IDX Drive to Sebring Road. The second amendment would replace the road between Swift Street Extension to Hinesburg Road with a recreation path. Ms. Louisos noted that the road from IDX Drive to Sebring Road was taken out of the Comprehensive Plan. This amendment will make that official. She then showed the second location on a map and noted that residents brought this proposed change to the Planning Commission. Mr. Dinklage spoke against the 2 amendments, saying that connector roads do not increase traffic but instead reduce vehicle miles. He added that no one knows what the community’s needs will be in 20 or more years. Ms. Bailey agreed with Mr. Dinklage and spoke against removing the potential for a transportation corridor. She cited the current problems with not having Kimball Avenue available. Mr. Mittag favored the amendments and said the Swift St. Ext. was put on the map 40 years ago before Kennedy Drive, which is now underused. He said there will be 2 other connectors CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 6 through Cider Mill. The proposed connector would impact the quality of life for those at the Village at Dorset Park and also the Wheeler Natural Park. The road would also cross a wetland and a flood plain. Mr. McKenzie noted some markings on the map in the City Center area that don’t belong there. Mr. Conner agreed and said those would be corrected. Mr. Strong favored both changes. He lives on Sebring Rd. and the road would have gone through his backyard. He also said the Swift St. road would go through important habitat. Ms. Greco also supported both changes and said the focus should be on the environment, not on cars. She felt that in the future if something dramatic happens, a road could be built there. Ms. Crocker supported both changes as they were supportive of conservation. Mr. Finkelstein supported both changes especially the IDX roadway. He felt it lets UVM know the city wants the Horticulture Farm there. Ms. Jelleran felt removing Swift St. Ext. goes along with what the city wants environmentally. She felt Swift St. has too many curb cuts for such a road, and Kennedy Dr. is well planned. Mr. Conner showed the two connectors through Cider Mill. One is on the updated city map. The other is shown as “planned.” Mr. VonTurkevich supported keeping both roads on the map as the city needs more east-west connectors. Though he lives on Swift St., he would be willing to tolerate the added traffic. He noted that the roads don’t have to be built now and didn’t feel the city should “hamstring” the future. Ms. Louisos said there are strong policies for connections between neighborhoods, and this was part of the Planning Commission’s discussions. She noted that if UVM did develop that land, there are other policies that would assure connectivity. Sen. Chittenden noted that UVM supports removing the road. He noted that if the road is taken off the map, it puts the burden of a future road on the city, not on the developer. This is a benefit to UVM as it removes that burden from them. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 7 As there was no further public comment, Mr. Cota moved to close the public hearing. Sen. Chittenden seconded. The motion passed unanimously. 12. Possible Adoption of amendments to Official Map: Mr. Barritt said 40 years ago roads were “aspirational.” He felt the Great Swamp road between Dorset Farms and South Village should never have been done. Ms. Emery agreed. Mr. Cota said there will be a connection from Cider Mill 1 to 2 but only after the 50th home is built. The Cider Mill connection to Hinesburg Road is not yet built and will not be built unless there is more development. He cited the need for connections but agreed with the removal of Swift St. Ext. He was concerned that the proposed right-of-way is not enough and suggested 30 instead of 20 feet. Mr. Conner noted that there is only one way in and out of Village at Dorset Park, and the Fire Chief has said that is not a good situation. Ms. Louisos noted that some Commissioners and staff did support a wider right-of-way. The concern was that the city would do “a sneaky thing and build the road.” Sen. Chittenden said 20 feet does not seem like good planning. He felt it was worth exploring a wider right-of-way. Mr. Conner said the Public Works Superintendent said a typical rec path right-of-way is 20 to 40 feet. He also noted that CWD has a right-of-way from Hinesburg Road to Dorset St. Mr. Cota noted that if the Hill property were to have more than 50 units, it would have to have 2 egresses onto Hinesburg Road. Mr. Conner said the property has about 1000 feet of frontage on Hinesburg Rd which is room for one or more connections as well as a connection to Landon Road. Ms. Emery moved to adopt the proposed amendment to the City Official Map as presented. Mr. Barritt seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 13. Receive annual update from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission: CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 8 Mr. Baker drew attention to the list of what CCRPC did for the city last year, some of which is continuing into this year. Ms. Riehle asked about the “guard rail inventory.” Mr. Baker said they got a request to do that. Ms. Riehle noted the issue with homes built right up to I-89 between Exits 13 and 14 and the request for a noise barrier. Mr. Baker said they will try to address that in the future though it is not in the current capital plan. Mr. Barritt asked who the “point person” is for the Regional Energy Planning. Mr. Baker said there is discussion on how to ensure that State energy codes are being followed. CCRPC has hired an energy person. Mr. Baker said to let CCRPC know if they need her help. He noted that there isn’t currently an inspection system to verify that what should be done is what is being done. Mr. Barritt said it is time to tell all the municipalities what the code should be. Mr. Baker said he feels the code is not being enforced equitably. Ms. Emery noted mitigation for part of the shared use path between the city and Williston where there was incursion into a wetland. She asked if that occurs, is there just a fee to pay. Mr. Baker said that is the case with the option to create a wetland elsewhere. Mr. Baker then outlined things that CCRPC is doing regionally including: a. A legislative forum in December b. Hiring a team to work on racial equity. There will be a Racial Equity Summit on 6 November c. “Building Homes Together,” the affordable housing program, built more houses than were targeted, but nowhere near enough to address the broken housing market. They did not build enough affordable units. d. The hiring of a new staff person to help municipalities with energy projects. Ms. Emery questioned how the state build empower municipalities to purchase land which could be gifted to an entity like Habitat for building affordable housing. Mr. Baker said Vermont has the most robust affordable housing program in the country and cited the efforts of Champlain Housing Trust. CITY COUNCIL 4 OCTOBER 2021 PAGE 9 Ms. Greco suggested rehabilitating derelict properties for affordable housing. Ms. Riehle said that is something the Affordable Housing Committee could look into. Mr. Baker said more could be done regarding permitting than is being done. 14. Consider entering executive session for the purposes of discussing matters relating to the City Manager’s Contract: Mr. Barritt moved that the Council meet in executive session to discuss the employment of a city official and to include Ms. Baker, Mr. Bolduc, and the City Attorney in the session. Sen. Chittenden seconded. Motion passed unanimously. The Council entered executive session at 9:00 p.m. Following the executive session, Mr. Barritt moved to adjourn. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:27 p.m.