[B]URLINGTON — Mayor Miro Weinberger said Wednesday afternoon that he hopes to put a controversial zoning amendment to allow greater height in a new downtown district on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The move comes as the mayor said it became clear that opponents of the new zoning, and a major downtown redevelopment project that it would enable, would otherwise launch a petition drive to bring it to a citywide vote anyway.
“Zoning changes are complex decisions that do not typically go to the voters, though our system does have a threshold for a petition drive to bring a zoning change to a binding citywide vote. It is clear that a small group will attempt to reach that threshold,” Weinberger said.
The City Council was already expected to take a final vote on the amended zoning language at Thursday’s specially scheduled meeting. Weinberger said he will introduce a second component to that resolution, asking that the zoning go on the November ballot.
There are a number of advantages to having city residents vote on the new zoning in November, he said. It would avoid the costs of a special election, which would be necessary because petition signatures could not be collected in time for Election Day, according to the mayor.
Voting in November would ensure a greater number of city residents weigh in on the transformative new zoning, as the presidential and statewide contests will drive turnout beyond what could be expected at a special election sometime later, Weinberger said.
Finally, voting in November would allow the city to stay as close as possible, at this point, to the timeline for approving the new zoning that it agreed to when the City Council approved a predevelopment agreement with Town Center mall owner Don Sinex, who has said he needs the new zoning for his planned redevelopment of that property.
The developer issued a statement through spokesperson Liz Miller, a former chief of staff to Gov. Peter Shumlin. “Although we face real deadlines and challenges to get this project completed in time to meet the needs of our prospective tenants, including the UVM Medical Center, we already planned for a November vote on the city’s investment in the public streets surrounding this project,” the statement said.
“Therefore, Burlington voters can affirm at the same time what I believe will be a strong City Council vote in favor of adopting the downtown core zoning ordinance that will allow this project to happen,” it continued.
The medical center is expected to lease office space but will have to make other arrangements if it appears the offices won’t be ready by January 2019, when it has office leases that end elsewhere.
At their Monday meeting, city councilors approved a separate ballot question, which Sinex referred to in his statement, that will ask voters to approve $22 million in bonds using tax increment financing to pay for new roads to be built through the Town Center property as part of that project.
The council approved two additional questions for the ballot that relate to bonding. One will ask voters to issue $8.4 million in revenue bonds to make improvements to the city water system.
Another will ask voters to issue $27.5 million in general obligation bonds for wide-ranging infrastructure projects, including street and sidewalk paving and redesign of City Hall Park. That measure, because it uses general obligation bonds, will require a two-thirds majority to pass.
A final question, brought via citizen petition, will ask voters whether to move a section of the bike path to the other side of the railroad tracks, rounding out a busy local ballot as the undercard on a hotly anticipated state and national election.
