Hello Neighbors,
On Monday June 12 at 7 pm the City Council Ordinance Committee will be discussing the new zoning for the South End Innovation District and I'd like to invite you to share your thoughts with your representatives serving on the committee (me and Councilor Traverse who serves as Committee Chair) either through email or by attending the meeting. Here's a link to the meeting information: https://burlingtonvt.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2036/overview
The current proposal is to take 25% of our "Enterprise Zone" (the Enterprise Zone is the Industrial area of Pine Street Corridor which has historically been reserved for industrial and commercial uses) and allow housing and a mix of uses. The allowed height would increase to up to 8 stories and 80% lot coverage. The entire lot would not be allowed to be covered with 8 story buildings however as there are other limitations (a 2.5 Floor Area Ratio as mentioned explained in a previous post). An 8 story building would only be allowed ½ the footprint of a 4 story building for example, and only in certain portions of the new district.
Some decision points that I think will be important to consider are:
Is 8 stories the right height limit? My understanding is that the developer wanted 8 stories which is the main reason that this is the proposed height limit. How tall can buildings be and still have a connection and interaction at the street level? Keeping in mind that with an FAR of 2.5 you can build just as many units in a 4 story building as you can in an 8 story building, so this is not a question of more density vs. less, but rather how the density is configured on the lot.
Is 25% the right amount of space to take from the current industrial/commercial district and dedicate mostly to housing? Is the boundary from Sears Lane to Howard Street on the west side of Pine St the right boundary?
Should we require balconies on multi-unit structures? I notice that around the world you can recognize a residential building from a commercial building because residential buildings typically have some outdoor space, including in neighboring Canada. Why have we not required this up till now? It seems an important piece of connecting humans in a neighborhood.
The current zoning only allows up to 20 surface parking spaces (even for an 8 story building). Do we really want to force a developer to build expensive structured parking when surface parking could suffice? Also, surface parking may have more flexible uses. In my neighborhood growing up the Church parking lot was used for parking on Sundays, and for recreation during the week. On a recent trip to Italy I observed courtyards that were used for surface parking, recreation, or container plantings, depending on household needs and desires.
Is a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 2.5 the right number? This number determines the volume of building that can go on a given lot. It replaces the concept of x units/acre. I'm told by our planning office that Cambrian Rise on North Avenue is an FAR of less than 2. A typical 3 story row house neighborhood would be an FAR of 1 (according to a City planner).
How do we encourage owner occupancy which is the best way to assure perpetual affordability? Our City Planner tells us that smaller buildings are more likely to lend themselves to owner occupancy. Our City is currently about 70% rental. This is not healthy and rents are far too high for most people. Most of our new construction is rental. How do we change the trend?
We have not yet had a presentation on the parking requirements of the new zoning, and still need to carefully review the proposal. I'm fully supportive of rezoning this area, allowing increased density and height. However, I believe the devil is in the details and it is important that we fully understand the details and make choices that assure we are building a community that will serve its residents well. Having recently visited a neighborhood of 8 story buildings in Tampa Florida with a lot of vacant ground floor commercial space I want to assure that we do better here. We need more housing. We also need to build community, stabilize our housing costs, and encourage home ownership to assure the health of our City well into the future.
Please share your thoughts.
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