The city’s five-year goals, strategies, objectives and outcomes, as identified in its Consolidated Plan for Housing & Community Development, are:

DECENT HOUSING

Goal: All Burlington residents have a range of housing options that offer them safe, decent, appropriate, secure and affordable housing

Strategy: Produce new affordable rental housing

• Objective DH-2.1: Develop 128 new units of affordable rental housing over the next five years

Strategy: Promote homeownership

• Objective DH-2.2: Develop 41 new units of affordable owner housing over the next five years
• Objective DH-2.3: Help 120 low- and moderate-income residents purchase a home over the next five years

Strategy: Preserve and upgrade existing housing

• Objective DH-3.1: Preserve 427 units of affordable housing over the next five years
• Objective DH-3.2: Rehab 74 units of rental housing over the next five years
• Objective DH-3.3: Rehab 33 units of owner housing over the next five years

Strategy: Protect the vulnerable

• Objective DH-3.4: Help 3,585 residents each year over the next five years to remain housed and living independently
• Objective SL-1.1: Provide 880 homeless residents with shelter and services each year over the next five years
• Objective DH-1.1: Develop 36 new units of transitional housing over the next five years to help homeless residents move towards permanent housing
• Objective DH-1.2: Develop 88 new units of permanent supportive / special needs housing over the next five years
• Objective DH-3.5: Reduce lead hazards in 180 housing units over the next three years

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Goal: A prosperous Burlington economy provides all Burlington residents with access to livable wage jobs, to the education and training that qualify them for those jobs, to business ownership opportunities, and to the supports necessary to access those opportunities.

Strategy: Retain and increase the number of businesses and jobs in Burlington by providing technical assistance, information, entrepreneurial training and business loans

• Objective EO-1.1: Support the start-up of 60 new businesses, the retention/expansion of 60 businesses, the creation of 190 new jobs and the retention of 75 jobs over the next five years by providing technical and financial assistance, information and training to 166 customers each year

Strategy: Enhance commercial infrastructure to increase business opportunities and the city’s tax base

• Objective EO-1.2: Support the development of 50,000 new sq. ft. and the retention/renovation of 150,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, the improvement of public infrastructure facilitating business development, and the collection of $500,000 additional nonresidential property tax dollars over the next five years, with 1,750 associated construction jobs

Strategy: Reduce barriers to economic opportunity

• Objective EO-3.1: Help families access quality childcare/early education for 75 children each year over the next five years
• Objective EO-1.3: Help 50 residents with improved access to economic opportunity each year over the next five years

SUITABLE LIVING ENVIRONMENT

Goal: All Burlington residents enjoy livable, attractive neighborhoods, are assured of safety and quality of life in their neighborhoods and in their homes, and have the necessary community supports to thrive.

Strategy: Provide access to services to stabilize living situations; enhance health, safety and quality of life; and improve youth development

• Objective SL-1.2: Help 2,000 residents access nutritious food each year over the next five years
• Objective SL-1.3: Help 400 youth access after school and summer recreational and educational opportunities each year over the next five years
• Objective SL-1.4: Help 400 residents access health and public safety services each year over the next five years

Strategy: Improve public facilities and public infrastructure to foster livable neighborhoods and access to public amenities

• Objective SL-3.1: Improve 10 public facilities over the next five years
• Objective SL-3.2: Improve the public infrastructure serving 39,815 residents over the next five years

Strategy: Redevelop brownfields into productive use

• Objective SL-3.3: Redevelop 55.2 acres of contaminated sites into 5 new/renovated public facilities, 61 new units of affordable housing and 5 new commercial spaces over the next five years

Outcome measures are prescribed by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and are abbreviated above according to the following:

The Action Plan identifies the projects/programs to be funded with CDBG and HOME resources this year under each of the five-year objectives. With this year’s CDBG and HOME funding, together with leveraged resources and funding in previous years, the city and its subgrantees plan to:

• Complete the construction of 20 new affordable rental housing units on King Street, the construction of 11 new units of transitional housing for victims of domestic violence, and the construction and purchase of 11 new affordable owner units on East Avenue.
• Preserve the affordability of 79 housing units at Salmon Run and begin the renovation of 49 other affordable rental units in the Old North End.
• Help 3,552 residents remain housed and living independently through utility assistance, homesharing, home-based and center-based services for seniors, access modifications and other housing retention services.
• Provide 2,100 residents with emergency shelter and housing placement services.
• Support the creation of 10 new businesses and 43 new jobs and the retention/expansion of 10 businesses and 17 jobs.
• Support the development of 10,000 sq. ft. of new commercial space, the renovation of 16,800 sq. ft. of existing commercial space, and the collection of $100,000 new nonresidential property taxes.
• Help families access high-quality, affordable childcare and early education for 118 children.
• Help 478 residents access literacy, computer skills and financial education.
• Help 5,600 residents access food, 620 youth access summer and after school programming, 120 people access prescription assistance and 587 victims of crime access crisis and support services.
• Support the renovation of the Heineberg Senior Center and two community gardens.
• Support the assessment, remediation and redevelopment of 10 brownfields sites.

The citizen participation and consultation process for this Action Plan included:

• Notice about the availability of funds published online and in the Vermont Times;
• Direct mailing to over one hundred nonprofits, city departments and residents about the availability of funds;
• Outreach to the Neighborhood Planning Assemblies and in low-income neighborhoods about the opportunity to submit resident-generated neighborhood improvement applications for funding;
• Two workshops for applicants;
• Seats at the CDBG Advisory Board for representatives from each of the city’s seven wards and a resident living in assisted housing;
• A presentation by local low-income residents (participants from the Mercy Connections Transition and Education Center in the Old North End) to the CDBG Advisory Board about their lives and the barriers they face;
• Four public meetings of the CDBG Advisory Board, which develops the funding recommendations for the Action Plan;
• Publication of the Action Plan online; and
• A Public Hearing before City Council.

An evaluation of past performance is contained in the Executive Summary of the 2008 Consolidated Plan. Public comments are summarized below.

COMMENT: Several residents of the Flynn Avenue Coop commented that their application for repairs should have received funding.

RESPONSE: This application was the lowest rated of the Development applications, and the Advisory Board unanimously voted against funding it on the first round of discussion and voting. City housing staff will continue to work with the Coop on other potential funding sources such as HOME and Housing Trust Fund monies.

COMMENT: On page 3-27 of the Consolidated Plan and on page 54 of the Action Plan, there is a reference to on the record development review hearings as one step that could be taken to further reduce barriers to affordable housing. Specifically, both Plans say that, “In 2005, Burlington was recognized by HUD as a model for reducing regulatory barriers that drive up housing costs. There are, nonetheless, several actions which can be taken to further reduce barriers, which include the following steps. These are recommendations of both the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force in 2002 and the City Council Housing Super Committee in 2005: . . . Conduct on the record development review hearings for projects that meet the requirements for Major Impact Review.” Is this language consistent with the most recent City Council directive regarding on the record review?

RESPONSE: The language of the Consolidated Plan will be amended to reflect the language of the October 29, 2008 resolution relating to Creation of a Pilot Project Relating to “On the Record” Zoning Appeals. The resolution states that the “City Council hereby directs its Community Development Committee to develop the necessary and appropriate protocols to carry out a pilot project, of not more than two (2) years duration, involving on the record review of downtown area projects, commencing no later than May 1, 2008, with the understanding and stipulation that the precise protocols for implementation will be recommended to the full City Council for consideration and vote on implementation no later than the first City Council meeting in March, 2008.” Since the Council has not been presented with the precise protocols for implementation, the vote has not yet occurred as of the drafting this plan.

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