BURLINGTON — The City Council failed to push through regulations on the city’s short-term rental industry early Tuesday morning after Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger issued a rare veto to block them.
Though the restrictions passed by a two-thirds majority last month, Councilor Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, reversed her position Tuesday and voted against the regulations that would have severely limited how property owners could rent out their dwellings through platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
The resolution received seven “yes” votes — one short of the eight it needed to override the mayor’s veto. Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, joined the council’s six Progressives in backing the regulations.
The proposal would have required short-term rentals to be located in the host’s primary residence, with an exception for those who own a multi-unit building that leases at least one unit to a long-term tenant with a federal Section 8 housing voucher.
Envisioned as a way to free up residential units amid a serious housing shortage, Weinberger argued the regulations would actually worsen the crisis.
In a letter explaining the third veto in his decade as mayor, Weinberger argued a healthy short-term rental market would funnel revenue into the city’s Housing Trust Fund. It also could allow property owners to earn supplemental income, which would encourage them to convert single-family homes into multi-unit buildings, he said.
The mayor also voiced concern that the regulations could interfere with “the ability of residents to make personal decisions,” and said the city knows too little about the current short-term rental market to enact such stringent regulations.
But Shannon blasted the mayor’s argument, saying the veto thwarted the council’s two-plus-year effort to police the short-term rental industry.
Even without the ordinance passing, city officials wrote in a memo that they would try to more firmly apply the city’s current ordinances on bed and breakfasts to short-term rentals as well as hire a third party to monitor the industry.
Pod encampment
To wrap up the six-hour meeting, 11 councilors approved a request by city officials to erect a managed encampment of “pods” for people experiencing homelessness on an Old North End parking lot. Councilor Mark Barlow, I-North District, dissented.
In July, officials hope to open the site at 51 Elmwood Ave., where it is expected to remain until spring 2025 with periodic reviews to assess whether the project is working, according to a memo from the Community and Economic Development Office.
Proponents envision the encampment as a response to the need for low-barrier housing, which they say was demonstrated by the growth of the Sears Lane encampment last year. Officials shut down that encampment, which was also located on a city-owned lot, in December, citing the dangerous conditions presented by residents inhabiting improvised dwellings.
The Elmwood Avenue encampment is expected to include electricity, toilets, showers, spaces to relax and internet access, officials said.
The site also would be home to the city’s Community Resource Center, a daytime warming shelter currently located at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post on South Winooski Avenue, officials said. The city’s agreement with the post expires in a matter of months.
Councilors allocated nearly $3 million toward the plan last month, though a formal request to locate the site on Elmwood Avenue did not emerge until two weeks ago.
Some neighbors have criticized the project, saying city officials did not properly notify residents about the proposal. Others say it brings those who rely on social services closer to the Church Street Marketplace, where business owners decried disturbances caused by a small group of individuals last summer.
Councilor Sarah Carpenter, D-Ward 4, said those concerns presume that a community of people experiencing homelessness would cause problems in the neighborhood.
“People (who are) unsupported, I’m just going to say ‘loose’ out there in the environment, that’s when you’re going to have problems,” Carpenter said. “When you give them an opportunity to lay their head down at night and get support, that’s how you start to manage behaviors.”
Parking debate
In other business Monday night, councilors advanced a plan that would convert some street parking spaces in the Old North End to expanded bicycle lanes.
In an 8-4 vote, councilors cast their sights on removing 39% of the parking along the North Winooski Avenue corridor when the state Agency of Transportation repaves the street next year. Shannon, Barlow and Councilors Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, and Sarah Carpenter, D-Ward 4, voted against the resolution.
The broader plan to transition parking into bike lanes has drawn vigorous opposition from businesses, nonprofits and residents along the corridor who say it would remove critical parking spots on which customers and neighbors with mobility issues rely.
Proponents of the plan say it would increase biker safety along the stretch of road and incentivize more people to trade gas-powered cars for cycling or walking.
In addition to outlining a plan for the repaving of the corridor, the resolution set aside more than $50,000 to keep Green Mountain Transit’s “City Loop” route fare-free and allocated $15,000 to help local businesses figure out how to reduce the demand for cars in the area.
The measure also instructed staff from the Department of Public Works to help businesses figure out how they can still serve customers if the changes go into effect.
The resolution sparked a fierce debate among councilors, with a handful delivering impassioned speeches for and against the measure.
In his final meeting as council president before his term expires, Progressive Max Tracy of Ward 2 relinquished the role of meeting chair to Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, so he could defend the plan as an integral part of the city’s goal to build a network of bike-friendly thoroughfares.
“I certainly understand that there are a lot of localized concerns here,“ Tracy said. “But we need to take a step back and look at the broader climate picture.”
Dieng responded with an equally emphatic rebuke of the plan, arguing that reducing the corridor’s street parking would hinder access to businesses and the Community Health Centers of Burlington.
“We need to find a balance,” Dieng said. “People need their health. People need to eat. People need to dine, and they need also to park.”
The council gave initial approval to another parking-related resolution at the meeting, eradicating minimum parking standards from its zoning rules. Supporters say the proposal — which now heads to the Planning Commission — would make it easier to develop housing in the city.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how two councilors voted on the North Winooski Avenue parking resolution. Ward 5 Democrat Chip Mason voted for it, while Ward 4 Democrat Sarah Carpenter voted against it.