The Burlington, Vermont City Council had an extensive agenda at its Monday meeting. It included consideration of a revised development agreement for a major downtown development.
Members of the city council had taken a tour of the CityPlace construction site before their Monday meeting and their agenda included authorizing the mayor to execute an amended development agreement between the city and CityPlace Partners LLC subject to review by the city attorney.
Mayor Miro Weinberger noted that the council had discussed the item in an executive session last week and this would be the first public disclosure of its details.
“The council approved the ARDA 2.0, which stands for the Amended and Restated Development Agreement, in November I believe of 2022 and this is the first time that we are back to address some of those refinements and changes. The most significant change is that we are changing the way in which the city is protected and guaranteed to not be taking risks going forward from this point. We’ll put public money into the effort but we’re not going to take the risk.”
Attorney Tim Sampson noted that any funding would involve reimbursing the developers for building municipal infrastructure associated with the project.
“There is a June 30 legislative deadline for the issuance of the TIF debt. But at this point in the development process the CityPlace Partners hasn’t put together all of the financing for all of the project. We don’t want the city to issue permanent debt before June 30th. So what do we do? We can’t avoid the June 30th deadline. The city has an opportunity to issue interim debt. A short term 12-month, I guess 11-and-a-half-month, note at a fixed rate. The proceeds of that are going to be controlled by the city. And the risk of that borrowing is going to be secured by the developers posting a cash escrow to cover the incremental debt service on that borrowing if there is any.”
The council approved the resolution unanimously.
The council also held a public hearing regarding a change request involving the city’s downtown Tax increment Financing, or TIF, district. Consultant David White explained what is being filed with the state agency.
“This public hearing is with regard to a proposed application to the Vermont Economic Progress Council, also known as VEPC, for what’s called substantial change. Now I’ll caution you that’s their term. In fact, I think in this case we’re not proposing any substantial changes. In fact, quite the reverse. We aren’t proposing any new debt. We’re not proposing any new projects. This is more of a procedural application.”
No comments were made during the public hearing and a motion to approve Burlington’s change request to the Vermont Economic Progress Council passed unanimously.
