A longtime Chittenden County developer is suing the city of South Burlington over a controversial set of zoning regulations passed earlier this month.
The suit — which was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court — argues the regulations and the process South Burlington took to enact them were flawed and should be overturned.
The complaint also names three of South Burlington’s five city councilors (the ones who approved the regulations) and accuses one of them of violating the city’s conflict-of-interest policy.
In the complaint that triggered the lawsuit, local developer Jeff Davis said the City Council improperly took his land by rezoning it for residential, as opposed to commercial, construction.
“The City Council’s action constitutes an illegal taking under both the United States and Vermont Constitutions,” the complaint read. “It must pay for approximately 1,300 acres of land it has taken.”
Yet in his requests for relief, Davis did not ask the city to pay for the land. Instead, he entreated a federal jury to undo the zoning amendments that changed how he can develop his land, which sits off of Vermont Route 116, kitty corner across Interstate 89 from the University of Vermont Medical Center’s extensive Tilley Drive campus.
The zoning regulations — which passed the City Council on a 3-2 vote — have become a flashpoint in the region’s effort to balance environmental conservation and its severe housing shortage.
The amendments bar development in certain areas of the city’s more rural southeast quadrant, citing the need to preserve “open space, natural resources, scenic views and agricultural uses.” They also steer housing construction toward more populated areas and call for any development that does occur in the quadrant to be designed in clusters.
Critics of the regulations say they take the potential for 350 new residential units off the market, a step in the wrong direction when dealing with a housing crunch. Some, but not all, of those detractors accuse the zoning amendments’ proponents of trying to keep their spot in the wealthy section of town free from new construction.
The fallout from the zoning vote has also spawned political competition. Two of the councilors who favored the regulations — and who are being sued — now face challenges to their seats on Town Meeting Day. Councilor Tim Barritt is running against Linda Bailey for a three-year term, while Chris Trombly has contested the two-year seat held by Councilor Meaghan Emery.
The complaint argues that Emery, a professor at the University of Vermont, violated the city’s conflict-of-interest policy in voting on the regulations. As a result, the document said, Emery’s vote should be invalidated, which would kill the regulations with a 2-2 tie.
Emery’s alleged conflict-of-interest would stem from a carve-out councilors added that would exempt UVM from following the regulations in full, the complaint said.
While city officials acknowledged they added the language after UVM threatened to sue them, Assistant City Manager Andrew Bolduc told The Other Paper the addition was merely clarifying what was already a matter of state law: that government institutions do not have to follow certain municipal rules.
The university told city councilors that — if it chose to do so — it wanted to have the option of developing land it owns in the southeast quadrant for residential or academic purposes.
The city’s policy states that conflicts of interest arise when a “group closely tied” with a city councilor — including the person’s employer — has a “direct or indirect personal or financial interest” in an action by the council.
Emery, Barritt and City Attorney Colin McNeil declined to comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for Davis also declined to comment. Councilor Helen Riehle, the third ‘yes’ vote on the regulations, did not respond to a request for comment.
Beyond allegedly causing a conflict of interest, the complaint said the UVM exemption “fatally undermines” the concept of a “habitat block” — areas the council said it wanted to conserve from development for environmental purposes — by unevenly applying them.
The complaint also took issue with designating parts of Davis’s land as a habitat block. By conserving the land and encouraging wildlife to congregate there, it argued, the city would move animals closer to Interstate 89 and risk harming them.
Davis has long been a figure in Chittenden County’s commercial development scene. He spearheaded Williston’s Taft Corners retail complex and has fired up critics for building multiple Walmart stores around the state.
He also founded the local development firm J.L. Davis Realty in the 1980s, according to the company’s website. Though he is no longer listed as a co-owner on the site, he was a principal at the firm as of last year, according to corporate filings.
