Beta Technologies can proceed with building its 40-acre South Burlington campus, the city’s Development Review Board said Tuesday, one day after the burgeoning electric aircraft maker agreed to reduce the amount of parking included with its project.
Beta officials presented the board with its compromise to remove more than 250 parking spaces at a public meeting Monday night. In approving a permit for the project Tuesday morning, the board agreed to that deal.
The decision resolved a month of wrangling between Beta and South Burlington officials about where the company would locate parking lots on its planned campus, which sits between Route 2 and Burlington International Airport.
The review board drew blowback from prominent figures such as Gov. Phil Scott last month when it initially declined to exempt Beta from a city zoning rule that requires parking lots to be positioned behind or beside newly constructed buildings.
To be in compliance with the rule, Beta would have needed to resequence its master plan. Instead of prioritizing its 285,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, the company would have to first construct a building it eventually planned to build along Route 2, also called Williston Road, to block the view of its employee parking lots.
Following that schedule would have thwarted Beta’s plan to start pumping out aircraft for high-profile clients such as UPS and the U.S. military, company leaders argued. If South Burlington held up the permit, they claimed, Beta might move its operations across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh, New York.
The threat of losing Beta and the manufacturing facility’s anticipated 500 jobs mobilized some government leaders. At an unrelated press conference on March 29, Scott called on South Burlington officials and the state Legislature to clear a path for Beta.
Both bodies responded to that appeal. The South Burlington City Council is considering a zoning amendment that would undo the parking requirement for any new airport-adjacent projects — though that change wouldn’t apply to Beta’s permit process since it was already underway.
The state Senate, meanwhile, passed legislation that would strip cities and towns of their authority to regulate parking near some airports, including Burlington International. The bill still needs final approval from the House before heading to Scott’s desk.
The review board’s decision said the parking requirement was waived because Beta “has provided a large lawn with decorative grading features on one side of the parking area and a landscaped area on the other side.”
To make up for the lost parking spaces, Burlington International’s acting director of aviation agreed to let the company occupy spots near the airport’s passenger terminal. The company would then shuttle employees to the campus using an electric bus.
Beta called the arrangement “not an ideal solution,” but hailed South Burlington’s decision as a boon for the company’s future growth.
“This permit is an important step as we continue to build an electric aviation company and create jobs right here in our own community,” Goldman said in a statement. “Vermont is a leader in clean energy and we’re really gratified to be a part of this effort.”
The board’s decision — which also required the company to meet a number of other, smaller conditions — can still be appealed in environmental court for the next 30 days. Beta can also apply to reconfigure its parking setup with a future permit.
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect the latest status of legislative efforts to remove the parking requirements that affected Beta’s initial permit.
