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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 05/15/2012CITY COUNCIL 15 MAY 2012 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Tuesday, 15 May 2012, at 4:00 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Members Present: R. Greco, Chair; S. Dooley, P. Engels, P. Mackenzie, H. Riehle Also Present: S. Miller, City Manager; R. Rusten, Assistant City Manager; P. Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning; I. Blanchard, City Staff; A. Lafferty, City Attorney 1. Agenda Review: Mr. Miller noted receipt of a communication from the City Attorney. He suggested the Council go on to items 3 and 4 until the City Attorney can be present. 3. What information does the City Council need in preparation for their discussion on 21 May regarding the airport and F35 Draft EIS?: Ms. Greco said a resident raised a question about the matrix used in making decisions and wanted information about other matrixes. Mr. Engels asked what jurisdiction the city has with regard to the EIS. Mr. Miller said the city can provide comments just as any citizen can. Mr. Miller also noted that there is a question of Channel 17 taping the 21 May meeting as they will be doing the DRB meeting which follows the Council meeting, and there isn't time in the schedule for another South Burlington meeting. Members agreed to put this issue on another agenda. Ms. Dooley noted that in 2012, the City Council took a negative position on the Airport Strategic Plan based on there being nothing in the plan regarding noise mitigation. The Council opposed any expansion that did not provide for noise mitigation. Ms. Dooley noted that in the paper today, the EIS has a totally different baseline from what the Airport is using. She said she would be interested in knowing what the Airport has to say about that. Mr. Miller said the meeting on the 21st is for the Council to develop a position. He stressed that this would not be a public hearing, though the Council can entertain public comment. 4. Comments & Questions from the audience, not related to Agenda items: No issues were raised. 5. Interim Zoning and Related Administrative and Structural Issues: A. Economic Analyses: 1. Review of responses to the economic analyses' RFP 2. Does Council wish to formalize a structure or committee for the economic analyses studies and related tasks? If so, how should this be done? B. SusAg, Affordable Housing and Form Based Codes: 1. Status of RFPs for SusAg, Affordable Housing and possibly, Form Based Codes 2. Does Council wish to formalize a structure for Sustainable Agriculture and Affordable Housing Committees? If so, how should this be done? C. Discussion about affordable housing regulatory approaches: Mr. Miller said staff has reviewed the responses to the RFP for economic analyses and has found that none of the applicants were acceptable. He felt there may have been a lack of clarity in the RFP. He suggested taking a time out on this so staff can concentrate on the RFPs for Affordable Housing, SusAg, and possibly Form Based Codes. When the new person is on board, they can then come up with some ideas on the economic analysis RFPs. At present, there are not the staff resources to do more. Members were OK with this. With regard to the SusAg committee, Ms. Greco reported they had held their organizational meeting last week with 29 people attending. They agreed to form a process committee to determine how to conduct future meetings. Ms. Dooley said that she sees Interim Zoning as a time to deal with Comprehensive Plan goals and LDR tools. She felt a lot of the energy and knowledge of the people in the SusAg committee will be to "take the goals and run." Ms. Riehle asked the time-frame to get a regulation into place. Mr. Conner explained the process, including vetting by the Planning Commission and 2 City Council public hearings. He estimated a 3-month time period from the time a regulation is first presented to the Planning Commission. Mr. Miller noted that Ms. Greco has circulated a vision, etc., for SusAs and this has never been adopted by the Council. He asked if the Council wants to adopt that. He also noted that any committee or sub-committee formed by the City Council has to follow the open meeting laws. Ms. Dooley said she felt there should be a clear message regarding possible changes to the Comprehensive Plan and time frames. She felt a message is needed that the first priority is how to change the Comprehensive Plan and the LDRs. Mr. Engels asked if the Council can only make changes to the Comprehensive Plan and LDR's that relate to the interim zoning goals. Mr. Miller said they can consider other changes, but not in the realm of interim zoning. Mr. Miller stressed that there will have to be formal studies as well as the committee work. He asked Council to let staff know anything more they will need as soon as possible. Ms. Riehle said what would be helpful for the RFP would be for the Council to review revisions, priorities, etc., and adopt them and structure what they want outcomes to be. She said she would like specific recommendations of changes to the Comprehensive Plan and LDRs that would make those outcomes happen. She felt the committees could do research and then task the consultants. Mr. Miller said he wasn't sure what the task forces (committees) and consultants will be doing because the Council hasn't charged them with anything specific. He added that if the Council will charge the committee, it would help staff to draft an RFP. Mr. Rusten added that there are different levels of agriculture, for example (e.g., farming, vegetables, etc.). It would help to tell the committee what level the Council is interested in. Regarding affordable housing, Ms. Mackenzie noted she had spoken with Mr. Knapp. All but three of the participants have been identified and include: Champlain Housing Trust, banking, real estate, economic development, rural development, etc. The next steps will be to finalize the last 3 slots for participants. Mr. Engels said he felt affordable housing was not working well with Mr. Knapp not being at the Council meetings. He said there are obvious people for the committee who are not on the list and said someone from the Council should be overseeing this. Ms. Dooley volunteered to do this. Mr. Miller said it needs to be clear if the Council wants to approve membership on the committees. He recommended they do this. Ms. Dooley suggested people like Deb Ingram, the Affordable Housing Coalition, and Champlain Valley OEO. She said the committee needs advocates and developers who have done affordable housing. Ms. Mackenzie said people who have ideas Ms. Riehle moved to appoint Ms. Dooley as chair of the Affordable Housing Committee. Mr. Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Engels felt there should be discussion on form based codes and how that will evolve. Mr. Miller said there should be an agenda item to present options on how to proceed with form based codes and how to pay for it. Mr. Conner said there are 2 parts to the question: 1) completing the process underway now, and 2) expanding the study of form based codes to other parts of the city. Mr. Miller asked if the Council wants to expand the study, do they want staff to negotiate with the current consultant. Mr. Conner noted that with regard to the current form based codes project, the Planning Commission felt it got a lot of good information from the community and suggested a committee with residents, Council, landowners, Commission members as a sub-committee of the Planning Commission. Mr. Engels said he was willing to take responsibility for form based codes. Ms. Dooley moved to appoint Mr. Engels as chair of the form based codes study. Ms. Riehle seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Conner added that the Planning Commission felt it might be appropriate for a single consultant to work on other parts of the city as well as City Center, but to do it in segments. 6. Other Business: Ms. Dooley offered members excerpts from prior Council meetings regarding the National Gardening Association. 7. Deliberative Session: Ms. Riehle moved that the Council meet in deliberative session with the City Attorney to discuss applications under Interim Zoning, and to resume regular session only for the purpose of adjournment. Mr. Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 8. Regular Session: The Council returned to regular session. Ms. Greco moved adjournment. Ms. Riehle seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The council adjourned. 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