Who: The Coalition for a Livable City
What: A press conference to announce our vision for a
“better town center” and referendum petition plan
When: Monday, September 26th at 11 a.m.
Where: In front of the mall entrance on Church Street
The Coalition for a Livable City will be announcing its
vision for a “Better Town Center” and ways to better engage the citizens of
Burlington on the proposed, sweeping changes to downtown zoning.
Although proponents of the Town Center Plan and the radical
rezoning which enables it have said that opponents do not have a Plan B, the
Coalition for a Livable City has a great Plan B—rooted in Plan B -T-V.
This vision of a “Better Town Center” would honor existing
zoning, democratic processes, and due diligence, while allowing for a new development
within what PlanBTV calls “the permitted development envelope” of 65 feet by
right, or 105 feet with benefits. Utilizing the incentive amendment for
underground parking approved at a recent City Council meeting, and in keeping
with the city’s recent Parking Study and commitment to fewer cars downtown, the
“Better Town Center” project would eliminate the three floors of above-ground
parking. Details will be revealed at the
Press Conference, but you can expect recommendations for affordable housing,
green building practices, bike and walk best practices, the fostering of local
businesses, livable wage jobs, and more.
The CLC will use neck-craning elements to illustrate just
how out-of-scale this proposed center is with existing zoning regulations. What
will they use? Well, bring your cameras, measuring tapes, and binoculars to
find out.
In addition to this vision, the CLC is planning a petition
campaign to put the downtown mixed use overlay district zoning on the ballot in
March if the City Council votes to approve it on Thursday, the 29th.
This Public disapproval referendum may be unprecedented in Vermont history.
Should the City Council vote to approve the rezoning of the
overlay district on Thursday, the 29th, the Coalition for a Livable
City is ready for its campaign to petition the city to put the zoning change on
the ballot for a binding referendum. We will have 20 days only to get more than
1600 valid signatures of local residents and stand prepared to begin
petitioning on September 30th, with over 60 eager volunteers.
Although it is our belief that the citizens of Burlington
have already said NO to this zoning change, most recently two years ago in Plan
BTV, the city’s push to pass this zoning change has ignored the public
consensus. The Coalition believes that a
zoning change of this magnitude, increasing the by right height allowance from
65 to 160+ feet, increasing by right Floor Area Ratio from 5.5 to 9.5, and
eliminating bonuses for affordable housing or other public benefits, is
something all citizens should have a chance to vote on.
City officials have distracted you with the shiny object - building height - while unnoticed is the $20 million in taxpayer money slated to reopen city streets that cost $20 million to close.
ReplyDeleteHeight is an easy argument you are using to attract the cheap dates, while taxpayers squeeze their bank accounts to finance yet another city project with literally no vision whatsoever.
If you want to fight city hall, think globally rather than parochially.
Hi Ted, Thanks, we are not distracted from TIF, and have been talking about it publicly and privately for quite a while now. See Shay Totten's blog post, posted on our Facebook Page (Stop the 14-Story Mall) and discussion of TIF on our most recent flyers. We are also working on a TIF flyer to go out with petitioners. The TIF is definitely centrally important. Best to you, Genese
ReplyDeleteOK, good.
ReplyDeleteMake sure to point out in your publicity material that TIFs are not, contrary to popular belief, tax-free.
TIFs merely shift the tax burden from the developer to the chattering class!