Planning Commission Updates:
The Planning Commission meets just once in November, on Tuesday, the 15th. The meeting agenda includes the public hearings for two important zoning amendments, which are detailed below. You can find the agenda here once it's posted.
- Public Hearing - ZA-22-04: UVM Trinity Campus Overlay
- The Planning Commission will hold the public hearing for the proposed zoning amendment, which would facilitate greater amounts of student housing on UVM's Trinity Campus. The amendment is part of the Mayor's 10-Point Housing Action Plan to ease the burden of housing costs and address the lack of supply in Burlington.
- Public Hearing - ZA-23-01: South End Innovation District
- The Commission will hold the public hearing for this proposed amendment. The overlay, if approved, will facilitate development of a mixed use district with space for hundreds of new homes and space for artist, makers, and the South End's growing office economy. Learn more about this work here.
Three housing-focused zoning efforts to launch in 2022
Updated January 3, 2022
In December 2021, Mayor Weinberger announced the Action Plan to Fulfill the Promise of Housing as a Human Right in Burlington. This 10-point plan outlines a roadmap to double the rate of housing production and end chronic homelessness in our community. The Office of City Planning will lead and collaboate with numerous community partners the three zoning efforts included in this action plan: opening new housing opportunities in a portion of the South End through the creation of a mixed-use Enterprise Innovation District; opening new on-campus UVM student housing opportunities by rezoning the former Trinity Campus; and identifying opportunities for new homes to be created in every neighborhood in ways that reflect the character of the City through "missing middle" zoning reforms.
This Action Plan continues work that has been under way since 2012, with the creation of the Housing Action Plan and the zoning reforms developed by the Joint Committee following the 2019 Housing Summit.
Department welcomes new Planning Director
Updated: January 3, 2022
In November 2021, Mayor Weinberger appointed Meagan Tuttle, AICP as the City's next Planning Director. Meagan served as the Principal Planner for the City for the last six years, and brings more than a decade of experience to the role. Since June, she has also served as the City's Covid-19 Reponse Leader, coordinating the City's internal and external efforts to respond to the pandemic. Meagan succeeds David E. White, FAICP. David's 26+ year career with the City began when he was hired as the Comprehensive Planner in 1995. From 2007 until his departure in 2021, he served as the Planning Director, including managing the department's transition from the Planning & Zoning Department to the Office of City Planning in 2019.
The City Council confirmed Meagan's appointment in November, and she began serving in the role the following day. See more, here.
COVID-19 Analytics Team
Updated: June 15, 2020
The City Planning staff was repurposed on March 13 to help form the nucleus of a team of City employees from several City departments with analytics capacity to support decision-making by the Mayor and the City's Emergency Operations Center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work involves:
- Analyze a large volume of information about COVID-19 and how it is transmitted
- Research and synthesize best practices from local efforts around the country
- Track State and federal legislation regarding relief and recovery
- Plan for relief strategies and community resilience
- Analyze data on local activity, impacts, and response efforts
The Analytics Team has developed a dashboard to synthesize key information about the impacts of the pandemic, aid local officials in data-driven decision-making, and to help inform residents about our local response efforts. The dashboard is intended to complement the important and timely information that is being shared by the State of Vermont, the City's Resource and Recovery Center, and other research being conducted by the Analytics Team. The Analytics Team has also prepared a number of research memos on issues related to COVID-19. They contain a review of actions, events, case studies, and/or data based on specific requests of and research by the team. The original audience for these documents was the Mayor and/or members of the City's Emergency Operations Center, but some may have value to others in our community and beyond.
The work of the City's COVID-19 Analytics Team is regularly highlighted in the Mayor's COVID-19 Updates, and has even received some national attention - see Planning Magazine from June.
Net Zero Energy Roadmap
Updated: March 5, 2020
City Planning is working with our colleagues at BED and DPI to undertake two initiatives related to implementing the NZE Roadmap:
- a proposed ordinance to require electrification of new development as proposed by the City Council in January; and,
- the development of an information guide for owners of historic properties for achieving energy conservation improvements. For this, DPI staff was successful in obtaining a CLG grant of $4,207 for creating an Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings guide.
