CEDO

Public Investment Action Plan (PIAP)

In February 2013, the City of Burlington became the first city in Vermont to embark on an open and transparent public process to determine how to use the City's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars on the waterfront.  The process was dubbed the Public Investment Action Plan (PIAP) that set out to search for catalytic infrastructure projects that would benefit the community, advance the goals of the City's various planning efforst, and foster economic growth. 

Through the PIAP, the Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO) received 50 concept proposals during a two-month Request for Concepts (RFC) period for infrastructure improvements on the waterfront. Between May 16 and June 4, 2013, the Public Investment Team (PIT) met three (3) times in open, deliberative meetings to review project concepts and advance a total of 29 proposals in three (3) categories forward to the next round.

Over the summer and early fall of 2013, the 29 finalists responded to a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the City, with final proposals due October 17, 2013.  The City received nine (9) Final Proposals - five (5) were chosen to advance and four (4) did not advance.  To help determine which would advance, five (5) open house events were held in the City Hall lobby the week of November 11, 2013, with comments from those forwarded to the PIT. Then, final proposals were discussed and scored by the PIT at two (2) public meetings held on November 20 and 21, 2013, in City Hall. The scores and comments for each proposal were then advanced to the Mayor's office, and the Mayor created a project slated to go before City Council Committees.  The City Council voted in January of 2014 to put the projects on the March 2014 ballot for a public vote.  The slate of projects passed the public vote, and the City proceeded to take the necessary steps to implement these projects.

 

Helpful Documents:

 

The Waterfront Master Plan describes the overall strategy for the waterfront and the major projects. This is the guiding document for the City's waterfront development activities.

If you have any questions, please contact CEDO.