[B]URLINGTON — City leaders struck a deal with both the University of Vermont and Champlain College, where the two institutions will start making large annual payments to help the city with a major infrastructure project.
Both institutions have been in talks with city leaders for about two years to help the city afford payments on a $6 million bond it will ask voters to approve in March. The bond will go toward a decade-long plan to upgrade aging water pipes, buy new fire trucks, improve sidewalks and undertake a litany of other projects.
The agreements with the two institutions will be void if voters do not approve the bond.
The city has already bonded the majority of the $50 million plan, after voters approved ballot items in 2016.
UVM will pay for its $386,000 annual contribution to the city for the next 20 years by imposing a new $19 per semester fee on students.
Champlain College will be contributing $61,890 over the same timeframe, but college spokesperson Sandy Yusen said the college was able to move money around during its budgeting process and students will not directly bear the cost.
“This will not be passed along to students in terms of a fee, or anything similar,” Yusen said.
The Burlington City Council approved the agreements during its Jan. 29 meeting. The measure passed with near-unanimous support. Councilor Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, voted against the proposal because he said information about the plan came to the council’s attention unusually late.
“It just feels very late to come to us for such a big thing,” Tracy said.
Councilor Sharon Bushor, I-Ward 1, was the only councilor to raise concerns about the agreement with UVM. Bushor, who represents much of the UVM campus and parts of the Old North End, said some elements of the agreement gave her pause, including language that gives UVM the power to stop several projects on city property close to campus.
“I feel, and I want to be on record, that this is overreaching for the University of Vermont,” Bushor said to the council.
The city and UVM are slated to collaborate on a major component of the 10-year plan — revamping University Place, an important thoroughfare that cuts through the UVM campus between Main and Pearl streets. The road is owned by the city, and officials from both sides say the road needs improvement.
Bushor said she was put off by a piece of the agreement that, should city and UVM officials not be able to agree on a plan for University Place, UVM’s design would move forward.
Officials for UVM said that the agreement is sound, and improvements to University Place are key.
“We wouldn’t have had a deal otherwise. Our desire to do something with University Place is a deal-breaker,” said Tom Gustafson, UVM’s vice president for university relations and administration.
The road is narrow and not as pedestrian-friendly as it could be, Gustafson said.
“Sometimes you feel like you take your life in your own hands with people zooming down that street and people cutting between parked cars. I’ve seen a number of close calls,” Gustafson said.
Bushor said she had not heard of UVM’s plan to pay for their contribution through a fee. Bushor, a UVM graduate, said she believes the institution has struggled to make housing affordable for students. The $19 fee may seem small, she said, but “ every little bit adds on to the cost.”
“I guess I would have wanted to know what other options could have been considered,” Bushor said.
Mayor Miro Weinberger echoed Gustafson, saying that students will benefit from the improvements, as many live in the city.
“It would be very difficult to be a student here for four years and not get some good value out of the city infrastructure,” Weinberger said.
Weinberger cast the agreements with UVM and Champlain College as a win for the city and a sign that the administration has worked to keep the cost of the improvements off the backs of property tax payers.
“I think we’re doing well on delivering on the commitment to voters to be as creative as possible in searching for other sources of money,” Weinberger said.
Last year, UVM paid the city nearly $3 million to satisfy a variety of other agreements. About $1.4 million of that goes to payments for city services such as fire and police, and about $100,000 goes toward extra police patrols in the student-heavy neighborhoods between Main and Pearl streets just west of the UVM campus.
The rest of the $3 million goes toward other taxes and fees UVM pays on property that isn’t tax exempt and other various fees.
Champlain College paid about $2.3 million to the city last year, $1 million of which goes to the Burlington Electric Department. Other big costs are property taxes to Burlington, and $260,000 to support downtown Burlington’s TIF District, and other voluntary payments to support city services similar to UVM.
Yusen said it’s important to note that UVM and Champlain College’s contributions shouldn’t be looked at as an apples-to-apples comparison because its contribution includes utility costs.