Matt Cota has never run for elected office before — not even for student council in high school, he said. But he finds himself in a contested race against incumbent Meaghan Emery for a seat on the South Burlington City Council.
Cota has served on the city’s Development Review Board for the past five years, and he is the executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association. He hopes to use his experience mediating disputes and with development issues to make changes.
“It really became an issue where Development Review Board members didn’t feel like we had the ability to offer suggestions in a productive way,” he said. “I thought maybe the best approach was to run myself.”
Emery, who has served for 10 non-consecutive years on the council since 2008, said she is seeking reelection in order to spearhead projects that represent investment in South Burlington’s future. From helping to pass approval for the new police station during her first term, to her work on a new city center, she feels she has the requisite experience to continue leading the city in the right direction.
Two issues have dominated this campaign from the start: parking and development regulations.
Cota in particular has worked to make parking a central issue after the City Council voted to eliminate parking standards for commercial developments last year. While he said he understands that fewer parking lots means less storm runoff into rivers and lakes, he is not a fan of the new rules because businesses are instead pushing parking into residential neighborhoods or into the lots of their competitors.
“We don’t want a developer to get away with not providing parking … for their employees or their customers because either they planned improperly or because they know they can get away with it,” Cota said.
If elected, Cota would restore the previous parking standards and return control to the Development Review Board to grant exceptions.
“That’s what city government is for, to mediate problems not to create problems,” he said. “Under this new parking standard, I’m afraid that we’re going to have neighbors fighting each other and the only ones that win are the lawyers and the towing company.”
Emery feels the conversation about parking has been overblown, explaining that the vote to eliminate standards was taken in response to a local study, which showed that two-thirds of South Burlington parking lots sit empty for the majority of the year.
“We had used since the 1980s these national parking standards which were not based on local numbers at all,” she said. “It was pretty clear that those national parking standards were an impediment to economic development. Rather than have more parking lots that have storm runoff into our rivers and lakes, let’s use that land either to develop more businesses or more residential housing.”
Emery also questioned Cota’s motivation for championing the old parking standards, citing his role as a lobbyist for the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association and his membership on the executive committee of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America.
“He is making his living based on his advocacy on urban planning that is centered on cars and traditional modes of transportation based on fossil fuels, so I really have to question his motives when he says he wants to get on the council to reverse this decision,” she said.
Cota said he has worked at the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, which trains and licences those who work with boilers and furnaces, for 14 years. He is a registered lobbyist at the Vermont Statehouse.
“Lobbyists sometimes get a bad name, but there’s a lot of good lobbyists out there and I’m one of them,” he said.
While both candidates agree that South Burlington needs clearer development regulations, their visions for what those rules should look like differ.
Cota wants the land regulations to be modified in an open, public way that helps landowners understand their rights. Much of his focus centers on future developments in the “Southeast Quadrant,” where much of the city’s remaining open land is located. Cota feels the lack of clarity causes problems for all parties.
“That’s not good for a landowner who’s been paying taxes on this land and wants to know what he can and can’t do with it, because that affects the value of it,” he said. “And it’s not fair to the neighbors who may have bought a property under an assumption of what can and cannot be built in the field next door.”
Emery is also in favor of new, clearer regulations. She said regulations are already in the works and are currently being overseen by the planning commission. Rather than developing the Southeast Quadrant, Emery favors further developing the city center, which she said will lead to more affordable housing and better public transit.
“I really think it comes down to environmental and economic sustainability. I’ve always believed in city center and developing that tax base in a very dense area that will allow us to use public transportation,” she said. “I am not saying let’s stop all development, I just want us to develop smartly.”
Neither candidate supports the $209 million school bond on the ballot this March. Emery said that while she is in favor of supporting schools she worries about the measure’s long-term financial impact.
“I’m a strong supporter of the schools but not at the cost of making it very difficult for people to live here. I think that would be undermining the strength of our schools and our city,” she said. “I hope we can all rally around a plan that we can afford.”
Cota expressed a similar sentiment.
“It’s a beautiful school that they have designed but it’s not one that we can afford at the current time,” he said.
As the candidates have gone back and forth on their main issues, social media has played a larger role in the election than Emery expected. She says this is because Cota has taken to Facebook to publish videos and other content about his campaign.
Cota said he is new to Facebook, but as a former TV reporter, he wanted to use the platform to speak directly to voters.
Cota has also paid for mailers and advertising. Emery said she cannot afford to do likewise. Emery’s campaign has received about $4,200 in contributions while Cota’s has received about $11,200.
In campaigning, each candidate has tried to present their vision for South Burlington along with their view of the role of a city councilor.
“I take great pride in being able to listen to all sides of an argument,” Cota said. “I seek out that mediation, I want to be the person who does that.”
Emery has presented herself as a steady hand steering the city toward progress.
“The choice between my opponent and me is an important one. One to be thought about carefully,” she said. “He is seeking to carry on with business as usual, and I am seeking to help us round a corner so we can be more economically and environmentally sustainable in a rapidly changing world. Business as usual will not serve the public well.”
Polls are open in South Burlington on March 3 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
