Burlington, Vermont officials held an informational meeting on proposed zoning changes this week in advance of the city council holding public hearings and considering formally implementing the plan.
A joint committee of the city’s Planning Commission and the City Council’s Ordinance Committee conducted a four-month review of proposed changes to Burlington’s residential zoning, or Neighborhood Code. Recommendations are expected to be implemented in two parts. According to the Planning Department, the first part adjusts residential zoning standards, allowable uses, district boundaries, adjusts lot sizes and setbacks, adjusts density, and creates a new Residential Corridor district along major streets.
Director of Planning Meagan Tuttle began a hybrid meeting explaining why the city is changing the Neighborhood Code.
“The Neighborhood Code was part of the city's 2021 Housing Action Plan,” Tuttle explained. ”The action plan included 10 initiatives that were both short range and long range. The last set of initiatives that were part of this plan were three major zoning changes that are kind of longer term in nature. You've probably heard conversation about the discussion of housing on campus particularly for UVM. That was an important part of this housing plan. The creation of a new zoning district called the South End Innovation District which will help support the creation of a new neighborhood in a portion of the South End and this zoning amendment, the Neighborhood Code, which is really then about how we support the creation of new homes citywide across neighborhoods.”
Tuttle outlined some of the key changes that have been proposed, including zoning adjustments.
“Today we have five residential zoning districts citywide plus two overlay zones that apply to just some of these areas,” said Tuttle. “The first thing that we're proposing to do, which has very little impact on what can be done in residential areas, is to just streamline this map and bring together some districts that are very similar to one another into one district. I think this is probably the change that most people have asked us questions about and have been interested in, which is the proposal to rezone some neighborhood areas. And the purpose of this is to help us to more closely align the zoning with what's actually on the ground so that when we think about how new homes can be created, we're making sure the rules are responsive to the context of those locations in the city.”
Resident Deb Lyons was curious about how the city is defining “permanently affordable housing” in the plan.
“Good job going for 1,250 new homes with 25% of them being permanently affordable by the end of 2026, which is only in two years,” noted Lyons. “I'm wondering what permanently affordable means to you, Meagan?”
“Generally, when we talk about permanently affordable housing we mean two things,” replied Tuttle. ”One is that it is affordable at a rate that means that however big the household is that's living in that home doesn't pay more than 30% of their income on their rent or mortgage. And the other is the permanent part. Which means that under the city's inclusionary ordinance, for projects that are required to provide inclusionary units, they have to be affordable for a period of 99 years.”
Resident Caitlin Halpert asked how a timeline would play out if the new Neighborhood Code is approved.
“Have you done any projections on the reality of how long it would take for meaningful impact on the number of units to come to fruition given cost of construction, cost of borrowing, you know, the time it takes to get through zoning and all of that?”
“We are currently estimating that over the next period of 10 to 20 years, that the Neighborhood Code could help facilitate hundreds of new homes,” Tuttle said. ”We understand that the cost of construction, the cost of complying with things like building and fire codes, those continue to be major barriers. And so that's something that we're trying to keep in mind and keep in balance with the work that we're doing, but recognizing that the implementation is likely to be very incremental due to those realities.”
The proposed code was presented to the City Council at the end of January and a public hearing on the plan will be held next Monday evening.
