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City Council Deliberation on Housing Action Plan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2015
Contact:  Jennifer Kaulius
                 802.324.2505

City Council to Deliberate on Housing Action Plan Tonight
Plan Identifies 22 Initiatives to Make Burlington Housing More Affordable;
 Result of More Than One Year of Public Input and Collaborative Process

Burlington, VT – Mayor Miro Weinberger, City Council President Jane Knodell (Central District), and Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization (CDNR) Committee Chair Councilor Selene Colburn (East District) today announced the release of the City’s Housing Action Plan, which identifies 22 proposals intended to help reduce the cost of housing in Burlington for all residents and to make the City more inclusive, livable, walkable, sustainable, and vibrant. The Housing Action Plan is the result of public discussion and feedback for over the past 16 months and comes before the City Council for adoption by Resolution at the Council’s meeting tonight, October 13.

“Burlington has a great opportunity to create substantial new housing for households of all income levels that makes our City more affordable and enhances the character of the downtown we love,” said Mayor Weinberger. “This plan – which both recommits the City to perpetually affordable housing and launches numerous new initiatives – lays the foundation for this progress.”

“I have worked hard to ensure that this plan continue the City’s commitment to perpetually affordable housing and that it set measurable targets for the creation of different types of housing, from market rate to lower-income housing, from senior housing to student housing. We have to start building housing of all types if we want to have a vibrant shared future as a community,” said City Council President Knodell.

"I’m pleased that the final version of the plan reflects the input of so many City Councilors, affordable housing advocates, and engaged citizens. It’s stronger as a result, and I’m excited to lead the Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Committee through the important work ahead of us as we contemplate new strategies alongside hard-won historic gains," said CDNR Chair Councilor Colburn.

The Challenge
A housing study commissioned by the City in the spring of 2014 found that Burlington renters (about 58 percent of the community) spend an average of 44 percent of their income on housing, one of the highest ratios of any American city. The report also found that Burlington is lagging behind the region and peer cities in the production of new downtown housing – housing that is particularly important for serving low-income families, young professionals, empty nesters, and seniors.

Addressing the inadequate supply of housing in a way consistent with the community’s character is therefore crucial to creating a healthy housing market for residents of all income levels. Increasing housing options, particularly in the downtown, means less need for cars, less congestion, less environmental impact, improved active transportation options, job creation, and increased economic activity in the City.

Proposed Action
The product of extensive collaboration between the Administration and the CDNR Committee – chaired at the beginning of the process by now-Council President Knodell and currently chaired by Councilor Colburn – the Housing Action Plan outlines 22 proposals in five categories:

  • Expanding existing municipal tools to support affordable housing;
  • Addressing regulatory and land use approaches that have limited Burlington’s ability to create new subsidized and non-subsidized housing options over the last 15 years;
  • Improving the quality of housing stock and addressing long-standing quality of life issues in the City’s historic neighborhoods;
  • Strengthening efforts to address homelessness within the City; and
  • Taking steps now to better support an aging population in the future.

 

Each of the proposals in the plan identifies a separate task or project for the Administration, and each proposal requires continued work with the City Council to implement (or has already been adopted by the Council during discussion about the plan).

Public Process Prior to October 13
The release of the Housing Action Plan follows an extensive public process over the last 16 months, including a public forum to solicit input on the Downtown Housing Strategy Report released in May 2014, a public forum in October 2014 to solicit feedback on the original draft of the Housing Action Plan, public discussion at the City Council in April 2015, and extensive public comment at five meetings of the City Council’s CDNR Committee. These CDNR Committee meetings took place between November 2014 and September 2015. Detailed comments from community members, Council President Knodell and Councilor Selene Colburn, and fellow CDNR Committee members Councilor Tom Ayres, Councilor Adam Roof, and former Councilor Bianka LeGrand were incorporated in revisions of the Housing Action Plan.

* Please see the attached Housing Action Plan.

 

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Press Release Date: 
10/13/2015
City Department: 
Mayor's Office