City council outlines what’s on the ballot March 7

Town Meeting Day is right around the corner, and this is your chance to vote on matters important to you and your city. On the ballot voters will be asked to choose who will represent them on the city council and school board. You’ll also be asked to approve city and school budgets.

We are not yet out of COVID-19, and the city budget reflects inflation pressures in addition to the need to restore full staffing to police and fire departments. Because of recruitment challenges and resulting understaffing, emergency personnel have been working overtime to maintain service 24/7. This level of output is simply not sustainable for police officers and firefighters and EMTs.

We have also relied on neighboring municipalities to cover 22 percent of residents’ medical calls, which we have not been able to reciprocate. We ask that you approve a 5.75 percent increase to improve recruitment efforts and restore a balance to our mutual assistance agreements, in addition to maintaining roads and parks, covering capital improvement costs, including a new ambulance, and hiring a new geographic information systems analyst to support data-driven decision making.

We will also be asking you to pass a bond vote on important upgrades at the Bartlett Bay Wastewater Treatment Facility, which serves a quarter of our residents and area businesses along the Shelburne Road corridor. The replacement of four pump stations will further protect local streams and the lake. We have long had the lowest wastewater rates in the state and need to increase them to cover these necessary upgrades, which add up to roughly $34 million. For this purpose, we are asking you to approve a rate increase of 6.75 percent (total of 8.34 percent), knowing that these expenses are critical to the public health.

In addition to these improvements, we are asking you to approve a bond vote tied to four important transportation infrastructure projects in the city center, likely the last tax increment financing (TIF) bond vote to come before you.

If passed, you will be authorizing the city to use 75 percent of incremental taxes received from new construction in the special taxing district along with federal grants and reserve funds to connect Garden Street with Williston Road; redo the White and Midas street and Williston and Hinesburg road intersections; undertake the creation of a streetscape on the south side of Williston Road, and build a new north-south lighted path in City Center Park, which will connect to Garden and Market streets; and construct a bike-pedestrian bridge over the interstate highway.

This bridge, which was awarded a federal grant, will increase safety for people travelling by bike and on foot between the Quarry Hill apartments, East Terrace and Spear Street, in addition to the University of Vermont campus and beyond, and the commercial district on Dorset Street. The cost of these projects adds up to $15 million and will not require an increase in the property tax rate.

Another long-awaited transportation infrastructure improvement, equally key to the city’s economic development and already approved, is currently being implemented as I write this, and so I have the pleasure of passing along news of the traffic and pedestrian crossing signals that are being installed on Dorset Street to improve the traffic flow and pedestrian safety.

If you wish to learn more about the proposed budget and infrastructure upgrades, there are more public meetings for you to attend. The first is a Town Meeting Day informational meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 6-7 p.m., room 301 at city hall. The second is the annual meeting presentation on the eve of Town Meeting Day, Monday, March 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m., in the auditorium at city hall.

Finally, if you don’t intend to vote by absentee ballot, polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7, Town Meeting Day. Please come out and vote!

Comprehensive plan

In addition to voting on the budget and infrastructure improvements, we hope that you will actively participate in ongoing community discussions about the city plan, called the comprehensive plan. As the city’s foundational planning document, it makes it possible for city staff to apply for grants and establish regulations governing population and economic growth.

I had the pleasure last year of reviewing and approving new regulations recommended by the South Burlington Planning Commission for the establishment of rules upholding sustainable, smart-growth patterns of development and conservation, integrating affordability, walkability, recreational and mixed-use goals. Commissioners, working with an excellent planning and zoning staff and joined by citizen committees, are now actively seeking your input to update the city plan through a number of public meetings focusing on public safety, public works, economic development, energy and climate change, recreation, culture and art, the environment and agriculture, transportation and bike-ped infrastructure and housing, in addition to separate meetings dedicated to five different geographical locations in the city.

This is a real chance for you to weigh in and inform future policy decisions in the city. Here are the remaining meeting dates: Thursday, Feb. 16, central neighborhoods; Wednesday, March 1, ecology, environment and agriculture; Wednesday, March 8, transportation and mobility; Thursday, March 9, southeast neighborhoods; Wednesday, March 15, housing and shelter; and Thursday, March 16, southwest neighborhoods. Look on the city website or The Other Paper for more information about these meetings, which are being held at city hall with an online option. If you missed past meetings, there is an opportunity to submit comments online.

As you can see from this information-packed column, many important discussions have been taking place, and the city council has done its best to provide to you what we believe is a responsible budget, built on staff recommendations and designed for our city’s prosperity and long-term sustainability.