In addition to deciding whether to take on debt to fund a new parking garage and wastewater treatment system upgrades, Montpelierites will decide whether non-citizens should be able to vote and if the City Council can restrict single-use plastics.
The four questions below appear in the same order that voters will see when they head to the polls Tuesday. Click here for the exact text on the ballot.
Parking Garage
The first ballot item asks voters to approve a $10.5 million bond for a parking garage downtown.
Fred Bashara, owner of Capitol Plaza Hotel, has been planning to build a Hampton Inn behind his existing hotel for almost a year, but has said he cannot do that unless the city finances and builds a parking garage.
Montpelier gained approval in September to set up a Tax Increment Financing district in the city’s downtown core and on Barre Street. Bashara has agreed to donate land to the city for the parking garage. The hotel would have a 30-year lease for $300,000 per year for 200 parking permits for hotel guests.
At a City Council meeting Monday night, city manager Bill Fraser stressed that residents would not be paying increased property taxes to fund the 348-spot parking garage.
While most of the money for the project will come from permits and use fees at the parking garage, the TIF district designation allows the city to pool municipal taxes and 70 percent of the education fund taxes collected on the new hotel for the rest of the funding, said Fraser.
Of the bond funding, $9.2 million will be for the garage while $1.3 million is slated for infrastructure including sidewalks, a bike path, lighting and stormwater upgrades.
During the City Council meeting, some residents expressed support for the garage and new hotel, saying that the developments would benefit downtown businesses by providing additional parking and overnight space for visitors.
Others expressed concerns about the impact of a multi-level garage on water quality of the adjacent North Branch and Winooski rivers as well as whether the project aligns with the city’s net zero goals.
Fraser said that stormwater treatment is incorporated into the design of the parking garage. There will be electric car chargers in the garage and most likely a solar array on the roof, he added.
Some meeting attendees also questioned whether a parking garage was appropriate in Montpelier’s historic downtown, but city officials noted that the land would remain in private ownership unless the garage is built.
“It’s not our land to play with,” said Mayor Anne Watson at the council meeting.
Wastewater System Upgrades
The second bond voters have to approve is for $16.5 million in upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant on the Dog River.
City officials projected that it would cost $13.4 million over the next 10 years to simply replace aging infrastructure. Instead, the city has opted to complete those upgrades in conjunction with ramping up on-site energy production.
The plant already generates some methane through anaerobic digestion, but the upgrades would allow the city to take in more organic waste and generate more methane for heating. The digester is projected to provide an additional $400,000 in annual tipping fees for the city while the biogas will heat the plant. The city signed an agreement with project designer Energy Systems Group guaranteeing that the revenue and savings from the upgrades will exceed the project cost.
The wastewater treatment upgrades will be funded through a combination of a 3-5 percent annual increase on the city’s sewer bills and fees charged for organic materials treated at the site, said Fraser. If the city receives a pollution control grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, rate increases would be less.
Noncitizen Voting
Also on the ballot is whether the city charter should be amended so that non-citizens who are legal Montpelier residents can vote on municipal matters.
Noncitizens would only be able to vote on city ballot items, which excludes school district and Central Vermont Public Safety Authority matters, noted council members.
Burlington voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar measure on Town Meeting Day in 2015. Earlier this year, the Winooski City Council voted against putting the measure on its ballot.
Single-Use Plastics
The final ballot item voters will vote on is whether to amend the city charter to restrict or ban single-use plastics within the city limits.
While the ballot language broadly refers to regulating environmental sustainability, councilors noted at Monday’s meeting that the charter amendment would grant the council the limited authority to regulate “non-reusable” plastic items, like straws and some plastic bags.
Due to a growing international concern about plastic pollution in oceans, the European Parliament voted last week to ban single-use plastics, including cutlery, straws and drink-stirrers. Brattleboro became the first municipality in the state to ban plastic bags this summer, and a Vermont teen has been leading a campaign to encourage restaurants to forgo plastic straws.
