[B]URLINGTON — An advisory question on the city’s Town Meeting Day ballot that sought to demonstrate public opposition to aspects of a traffic pilot program on North Avenue failed Tuesday.
Question 2 asked voters if city officials should maintain four lanes for car traffic on North Avenue from Shore Road to the Route 127 interchange.
Proponents of the traffic experiment say the change to two driving lanes with a middle turn lane, plus bike lanes in both directions, will improve safety on a stretch of road that is among the city’s most dangerous. The pilot program had unanimous City Council support.
A group of New North End residents who felt sidelined by the public process through which the lane plan was developed said going from four lanes to three for car traffic would increase congestion. They also questioned the safety benefits that proponents touted.
Originally the group tried to gather signatures to get the advisory question on the ballot, but several hundred signatures were found to be invalid, and the question’s language was said to be too vague.
However, the mayor and City Council felt the group shouldn’t be denied access to the ballot for those reasons alone, and the council approved putting the advisory question to voters.
The measure was defeated by a citywide vote of 6,932 to 4,998, or 58 percent to 42 percent, [according to results collected by Channel 17]. However, in wards 4 and 7, which encompass North Avenue and the New North End, the measure passed by a margin of roughly 700 votes.
https://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/elections/results/town-meeting-day-2016#city-of-burlington
City Councilor Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4, said the results from the New North End send a “clear message” that the city needs to reconsider how it will gather input from residents as to whether the pilot is working once changes are in place.
“There need to be some concessions and changes made in light of the vote in the New North End,” Wright said.
Wright said he’s not certain what shape that should take, but said there needs to be a dialogue between the city and those who feel disaffected by the pilot process.
The new road and traffic features are expected to be built along North Avenue this spring. City officials have said there will be opportunities for public input before any changes become permanent.
In a statement Mayor Miro Weinberger said he believes that Tuesday’s vote on Question 2 indicates “there are a lot of people throughout the city who are interested in improving North Avenue, and I continue to believe it is important to explore if that can be done.”
“However, I am concerned that so many New North Enders have reservations about the pilot and hope they will reserve final opinion until they experience the reconfiguration and review related safety and traffic flow data,” he added.
Weinberger said he will work with the New North End councilors and residents to build confidence in the process and reach consensus about how to move forward.
All the other item’s on the Burlington Town Meeting Day ballot passed by wide margins. Voters approved $84 million school budget, of which $58 million is paid for with education taxes.
Burlington’s per equalized pupil spending is $14,033.35, which will result in an estimated 1.72 percent increase in education property tax rates. The owner of a home worth $250,000 would pay an estimated $4,207 in education tax, up $71 from last year.
Two measures increasing membership on the Police and Parks and Recreation commissions were approved as well. Turnover on the commissions is low, and increasing the number of members from five to seven is viewed as a way to create greater diversity in membership more quickly.
A final measure changing how quickly the city audit must be completed and what information is included in about the audit in the Town Meeting day report passed as well.
The measure updated the city charter to reflect how the audit has been conducted in practice for years, according to city officials. The full audit will no longer be printed in the report to save paper, but will be available online.
The Town Meeting Day report will instead include an audit summary and management letter from the firm that conducted the audit.