Building in Parks? Dig Into PlanBTV 2050 & Be Heard Tuesday 7/28
Bird’s eye view of the New North End
Recently there has been a lot of community concern about conceptual design images showing housing in Starr Farm Park and Ethan Allen Park. The full plan was only released recently and is 216 pages. This is a critical and important community conversation and I urge everyone to stay tuned and be involved. I am thankful to the roughly 150 people who came to the Miller Center last week to advocate for their concerns, share their opinions, and ask important questions. Here are a few reflections I have to offer at this time:
While there is no active proposal to build housing and this is simply a visioning project, it is important that we get the vision right because down the line, that vision is much more likely to become a reality if its included in the plan. I remain troubled by seemingly intentional language choices by the Mayor’s administration such as:
There are no active proposals. Well yes, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be. In addition, we have not heard from the Mayor if she has already met with any developers about this topic.
We are not selling off any land. That is true but if developed on the land would be leased, likely for an extremely long time. As some speakers put it, once you build on it we can’t get it back. We need to better understand what leasing and development would look like for the public and what benefit we would receive other than simply making the project more affordable for the developer and therefore making rents or home prices reduced.
Last week’s meeting the Mayor, CEDO Director, and Planning Director all could not be there unexpectedly so unfortunately not as much could be covered and some questions couldn’t be answered. Some community members raised concerns about a vote occurring on Tuesday the 28th at the Planning Committee meeting and asked for a postponement of action. While I was only in the audience in the back of the room, I did reach out to the Planning Chair, as did Planning, and asked that they consider extending public comment if needed and postpone taking any vote/action that would move the NNE plan forward until folks have this opportunity to be heard. I am pleased to say that they made this exact decision and so the Planning Committee meeting will center listening and postpone action. I encourage everyone interested in this topic and those who were at the Miller Center to either attend in person or Zoom from the comfort of your home–even if you don’t plan to speak, to listen and share space with your neighbors and the varying pros and cons of the ideas expressed in the plan.
As the Ward 7 representative, I have limited my opinion to Ethan Allen Park since Starr Farm is in Ward 4 and refer you to Councilors Barlow and Carpenter for questions and comments about Starr Farm. With that said, I have spoken to many Ward 7 residents who are concerned about Ethan Allen Park and if it came to me for a vote as it stands now I can’t and won’t support a plan that develops this critical community space beyond something small-scale and appropriate such as community gardens or a community gathering space. I believe we have better sites for potential large-scale development and we are doing some serious heavy lifting by bringing Cambrian Rise online, which stands to become Vermont’s most densely populated neighborhood. Ethan Allen Park is the closest large park and playground to the rapidly-growing Cambrian Rise neighborhood and our high school and that should not be ignored either.
As a lifelong renter, a 12-year resident of a CHT affordable housing community, and a voting member of the Housing Trust Fund, I am passionate about bringing more and affordable housing online, but I don’t believe park land needs to be sacrificed to achieve our shared housing goals.
VISIT THE PLAN BTV NNE WEBSITE AND SIGN UP FOR EMAIL ALERTS
ATTEND THE PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY AT 6:30PM OR SEND THEM YOUR WRITTEN THOUGHTS