Dear Neighbors,
This coming Monday, the City Council will convene its second of two meetings for the month of August.
The Council will begin its evening with a work session on Burlington Telecom. This will be the third such work session in the past two months. At the first session, the full Council had the opportunity to meet and interview those entities that the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board (BTAB) felt should be advanced. At the second session, we discussed our impressions of the presentations we heard, which allowed for plenty of time for Councilor questions and a discussion of our overall impressions of the entities we met. At this coming session, we will continue our discussion and there is a possibility of our coming out of Executive Session with an action and vote. Please keep in mind that there will be an opportunity for the public to participate, comment and share insight with us.
After this work session and a brief Local Control Commission meeting, we will begin our Council meeting with an annual report from the Parks and Recreation Commission. Following a vote on an indoor entertainment permit for Great Northern on Pine Street and an outdoor entertainment permit for the Gryphon on Main Street, the Council will vote on the appointment of Cindi Wight to be our next Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront.
The rest of our evening will be devoted to three resolutions and one ordinance. The first two resolutions relate to homelessness and quality of life in our downtown. The first resolution is a referral to the Council’s Public Safety Committee to convene a group of service providers and other stakeholders to devise a multi-pronged and evidence-based strategy outlining options to better serve our homeless community to address public safety and health concerns. A report would be due back to the Council in October. The second resolution addresses specific quality of life concerns in our downtown. Some of these concerns have been written about recently in our local newspapers. The resolution addresses the concerns around repeat offenders to quality of life offenses and would allow the police the option, but not the requirement, that would create a criminal penalty for such violations in our downtown. The resolution would be referred to the Council’s Ordinance Committee and be due back to the Council in October. I am a cosponsor of both resolutions. As many of you may feel, the issue of homelessness demands our attention and action. Similarly, we all need to feel safe in our downtown and allowing the police the option of taking further action toward repeat offenders will be an alternative to effective enforcement of preserving our downtown for Burlingtonians and our visitors’ enjoyment.
The ordinance amendments we are voting on relate to the Form-based Code for the Downtown as set forth in planBTV. They relate to green and high-performance buildings, substantial modification definition, and historic buildings and districts.
The last resolution relates to the authorization to enter into a license agreement with PC Construction to obstruct the street and sidewalk on a portion of the right-of-way on Bank, Cherry, Pearl and Pine Streets regarding the Burlington Town Center redevelopment.
Following committee reports and comments from Councilors and the Mayor on general city affairs, we have two executive sessions, one of the Moran Plant and the other on the Burlington Town Center development agreement.
As with all Council meetings, please keep in mind that you are always welcome to come and speak to the Council on any subject you wish during our Public Forum which begins at 7:30pm. Clickable agenda items can be found on the City's website: https://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public All Council meetings are televised live on BT Channel 317 and streamed live to your computer or phone.
As always, I welcome your questions and concerns. Please be in touch over the weekend and on Monday.
My best,
Karen
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