The Burlington, Vermont City Council held several work sessions before reviewing an agenda that included syringe waste and graffiti this week.
Only one person spoke during a public hearing on revisions to the Neighborhood Code related to secondary structures with up to four units. Sharon Bushor is a former city councilor. She noted that the new ordinance has been considered for months with little significant change.
“For me there was no movement or change from the original version with one exception where the square footage for the second structure increased,” Bushor noted. “And what was sad for me was that there was no action or no additional incentive to spark the creation of affordable housing and I continue to feel really disappointed at a housing policy that has done nothing for that. And so you’ll move forward with this but I think that we as a community have got the short end of the stick because so many things have not been addressed.”
Ward 4 Democrat Sarah Carpenter says the revisions will create new housing, and considerable input was considered to craft the revisions.
“I think we need to go forward with this. I think it’s important to point out that ordinances can be changed,” said Carpenter. “This is not going to open up the floodgates. There’s lots of criteria to where and when you can build a second structure.”
The resolution passed 8 to 3 with one councilor absent.
Councilors also considered a resolution calling for the Board of Health to conduct a study evaluating syringe exchange programs and the impact of syringe litter and report their findings to the City Council in February. Ward 7 Democrat Evan Litwin says the tri-partisan effort is intended to centralize efforts to address increased syringe litter.
“We want to certainly make sure that we’re providing support that folks need. Clean syringes keep disease from spreading and infection from affecting patients who are struggling with substance use disorder,” Litwin said. “That being said, we do know that hundreds of thousands of needles are being distributed in Burlington alone annually and a fraction of those are coming back. And so really this is an employee protection effort. This is an ecological protection effort as we are sending millions of needles into our landfill in Coventry.”
Councilors voted unanimously to support the resolution without further discussion.
The panel also considered the first reading of a resolution that would update the city’s ordinances related to graffiti. It would add protections for defacements based on race, color, religion, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or military service. South District Democrat Joan Shannon said there have been some concerns about 1st Amendment rights the Ordinance Committee has been working to address.
“Ultimately this is more of a hate crimes enhancement. It doesn’t do anything to improve the situation with graffiti and defacement of property in general in Burlington as it is.”
Councilors discussed the potential challenges of enforcement and free speech before voting unanimously to approve the initial draft.
A final vote on the graffiti resolution will be considered at the council’s November 12th meeting.