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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 01/15/1976CORRECTIONS TO MINUTES CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 15, 1976 At the City Council meeting of January 19, 1976, the Minutes of January 15, 1976, were accepted subject to the following change: Page 2, line 18, delete the rest of the sentence, South Burlington had projected... and replace with he felt the three areas the Regional Planning Commission had selected for growth for South Burlington were unrealistic, were already developed or undevelopable. CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 15, 1976 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Thursday, January 15, 1976, in the Conference Room, Municipal Offices, 1175 Williston Road. MEMBERS PRESENT Paul Farrar, Chairman; John Dinklage, Michael Flaherty, Duane Merrill, Catherine Neubert MEMBERS ABSENT None OTHERS PRESENT William Szymanski, City Manager; Walt Platteborze, Susan Guffey The meeting was opened by Chairman Farrar at 8:00 p.m. Discussion of March Primary This item was added to the agenda by agreement of the Council members. Mr. Dinklage felt the citizens would feel slighted if South Burlington did not hold the primary. Chairman Farrar felt a primary should be held if there was a meaningful contest and that the problem was how long did the City have in which to make a choice as to whether to hold the primary or not. Mr. Szymanski thought it had to be warned thirty days in advance but will find out definitely what the deadline is, also whether or not the City actually has a choice in the matter. This will be on the agenda for Monday, January 19th. Discussion of Regional Plan Chairman Farrar reviewed Opinion 609 from the office of the Attorney General and asked the City Manager to have copies made for the members. Reference was also made to the motion of the Planning Commission concerning the Regional Plan. The members of Council had received copies of this motion. Mr. Szymanski said one copy of the latest revision of the plan had been delivered to his office during the day. The public hearing is to be held on February 4th at the Essex Junction Learning Center at 7:30 p.m. Chairman Farrar plans to attend the hearing. He said the Regional Planning Commission can vote to adopt the plan anytime after the public hearing. Concern was expressed that the plan can be put into effect by an appointed board, not an elected board, whereas the local plans can be proposed by appointed boards but must be approved by elected officials. This Regional Plan could be adopted after a single public hearing. Mr. Dinklage said he was curious as to whether or not the public had any referendum authority, what options the public would have. Chairman Farrar is to check with the City Attorney on this, but from reading the opinion from the Attorney General's office he didn't think there was much option for the public. Mrs. Neubert asked what the plan would do for South Burlington, that Mr. Behney had said it would help in getting Federal funding. After reading the plan again she said she was so negative. She felt people could offer objections at the public hearing and the Regional Commission could come back with another revised plan, and they could just keep doing this. She asked what South Burlington wants from the plan. Mr. Farrar said a plan should not propose what the officials dream is good for the people but should propose that which makes the people's dreams realizeable, and he could see no attempt here to do that, only an attempt to draw up an impression of what a community would be like and then force the community to recognize that. The sections on population, growth, transportation, and land use were all discussed. It was felt none of these were realistic nor fair to the communities. The land use map does not reflect the growth that has got to take place. One growth area selected is an area in South Burlington which is already built up. The growth rate for the Core was questioned. Mrs. Neubert said the projected growth rate for the 70's has not taken place, also the size of the family is decreasing. Mr. Farrar explained this as being due to the fact the younger families with children who had located in South Burlington were becoming older parents whose children had grown and left; the older people continue to live in the same homes but the size of the family has changed. Mr. Merrill felt the population figures shown in the plan to be very unrealistic. Regarding the land use plan, South Burlington had projected a reasonable density but the Regional Plan projects a lower density. Land available for development could not now be developed because it would be inconsistent with the Regional Plan. Mrs. Neubert objected to the strips the Regional Plan had outlined for the southeast quadrant. Mr. Flaherty felt in the application procedure the important hearing would now be the Regional Planning hearing under the staff of the Regional Planning Commission which would mean going from a resource outfit to a legislative outfit. Mrs. Neubert asked if that was what the law intended; if so, there was nothing to do except force them to give us a plan we can live with. Mr. Dinklage said he did not object to the concept of a plan. Mr. Merrill said the scary part of it was that the Regional Commission has the right to adopt this without having the public vote on it; basically they are wiping out local government. South Burlington's Master Plan is not a legal document but the Regional Plan will become law. Mr. Farrar felt both plans would have equal weight under Act 250; any development must be consistent with both. The Regional Council was discussed. Chairman Farrar felt if the Council did not have any taxing authority it might be a good thing to have in existence. Mrs. Neubert said the enabling legislation is already there; a Council could be set up anytime composed of City Managers, Selectmen Chairmen, etc. Mr. Dinklage objected to the fact there was no provision in the land use to respect the existing neighborhoods which is something South Burlington tries to do. Mr. Farrar felt the Regional Plan was not only inconsistent with South Burlington's Master Plan but also inconsistent with the Airport's Master Plan. Regarding the tax sharing proposal, it was noted there was no provision for other communities to share in the cost of development, such as South Burlington's Industrial Park; the proposed sharing was of income received from such development. Concentrating the shopping in the Core does not take into consideration the existing transportation networks; this was felt to be another unrealistic part of the plan. Any attempt to make the various communities more homogenous with all the various elements such as shopping, business, and industry, was being ignored. People will continue to live where they desire to live, and will prefer their area of work in a reasonable proximity to where they live, and will prefer to drive their own cars, although public transportation will always be a necessity for those who have to use it. Written comments submitted by the City Manager were reviewed, some of which had already been brought up in the earlier discussion of the Plan. Mr. Dinklage suggested accepting the motion received from the Planning Commission and sending it along to the Regional Planning Commission with the City Manager's comments, as well as comments made by Council members at this meeting, with the specific request to our representative on the Regional Planning Commission that this plan not be adopted. Mrs. Neubert referred to the letter sent previously to the Regional Planning Commission, saying this letter had not been specific enough. Mr. Merrill suggested going down through each section and just basically saying the City Council objects to each of these sections. Mr. Flaherty added that because of these the Council cannot accept the total plan at this time. Mr. Merrill said that economically, the development of Burlington as presented in the plan would do severe damage to South Burlington's tax base in terms of tourists and tourist shoppers. Pushing traffic onto Kennedy Drive and the development of Interchange 13 will be beneficial to downtown Burlington but not beneficial to South Burlington. The tax base that supports South Burlington is going to be taken away by this transportation system. Mrs. Neubert asked what the rationale was for the interchange at Dorset and Kennedy Drive, that Mr. Behney had said it was to pick up traffic from the Airport and the Industrial Park, Where would the traffic be going? Mr. Dinklage felt the interchange would allow traffic to bypass the University area, that South Burlington residents wouldn't be using the interchange. He stated he was in favor of it. Mr. Merrill felt the interchange would put a lot of pressure on the south end of town to develop. It was felt the Industrial Park would be a significant traffic generator over certain hours of the day. Chairman Farrar hoped the money wouldn't be spent on the interchange until it could be economically justified. The reaction of the other communities to the Regional Plan was questioned and it was felt that perhaps they had not taken the time to go through it as thoroughly as South Burlington had done. Chairman Farrar referred again to the economic chapter, saying it does not provide any plan for developing an industrial base to support the projected population, that tourism cannot provide the stable base for needed employment. The question should be asked of the Regional Planning Commission, what are they doing to solve this problem. Chairman Farrar is to assemble the comments by Council members, the Minutes of this meeting, the comments by the City Manager, and the Motion received from the Planning Commission, into a summary of reasons why Council cannot accept this Regional Plan. A letter will be sent to the Regional Planning Commission, also a separate letter to Harry Behney asking him to vote against the plan. It was suggested also to send copies of the letter to all the representatives and the heads of the Boards of Selectmen in the surrounding communities, hoping this would trigger some response. Mr. Merrill emphasized again that it was a scary situation. It was moved by Mr. Dinklage and seconded by Mr. Flaherty that the meeting be adjourned. Meeting declared adjourned at 9:45 p.m. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.