Wards 4 & 7 NPA — Burlington, VT
Date: 2025-05-28
Time: 18:00

Wards 4 & 7 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA):
 Agenda

 Wednesday, May 28th, 2025
 6:00PM-8:00PM

 Join in person: Robert Miller Community & Recreation Center
 Join virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85494151752

 Facilitator: Sarah Diaz Note Taker: Annie Lawson Time keeper: Steven Brown


6:00pm Free Community Dinner from Delight | 30 mins

 ● Aloo Tikka and Naan (vegetarian)
 ● Aloo Gobi Mater (vegatarian)
 ● Chicken Tika Masala


6:30pm Welcome & Introductions | 5 mins
 ● Adopt the agenda. Ground Rules
 ● Introduce - Name, pronouns, Ward

6:35pm-6:50pm Open Forum | 15 mins
 ● Invite residents to make short announcements, share neighborhood updates and
 upcoming events
6:50pm-7:10pm Clayton Clark General Manager at Green Mountain Transit (GMT) | 20 mins
 ● Discuss upcoming changes to GMT route changes and budget short fall
 ● Questions

7:10pm-7:35pm Phillip Peterson- Department of Public Works (DPW) | 25 mins
 ● This presentation provides an update on key Department of Public Works (DPW)
 transportation and traffic calming projects in the New North End, highlighting efforts to
 improve safety, accessibility, and mobility for all users. These updates are important to
 Burlington residents because they address neighborhood concerns, enhance quality of
 life, and support safer, more connected streets for everyone.
 ● Questions


7:35pm-7:50pm Elise Guyette- Starting a Burlington History & Culture Center | 15 mins
 ● https://burlingtonhistoryandculturecenter.org /
 ● Results of a "listening tour" to glean ideas from the people of Burlington so far.
 Presented at all the other wards, gathered lots of good ideas, ending with wards 4 & 7.
 ● Open discussion of ideas from Wards 4 and 7 concerning themes/issues and specific
 content. What would we like to see in such a place? How should it feel? What should
 we not do?


7:50pm-8:00pm Invite Wards 4&7 neighbors to join the Steering Comittee
 ● About 4-5hrs/month committment. Responsible for planning &hosting the monthly
 neighborhood meeting and spending the yearly wards budget.


8:00pm Adjourn
 ● Next Meeting will be Wednesday, June 25th. Hope to see you there!



 Ward 4&7 Steering Committee:
 Annie Lawson
 Joanne Hunt
 Sarah Diaz
 Stephen Brown
 Jane McDonald
 To email the full steering committee: wards4-7npasc@googlegroups.com

NPA Meeting Wards 4/7, May 28 2025

6:30: Introductions
6:40: Community Announcements

Re-Ordering of Agenda Items:

Phillip Peterson, Senior Transportation Planner, Burlington DPW
ppeterson@burlingtonvt.gov
(802) 598-8356

Current projects: sidewalks on North Ave and the Rock Point bridge
Upcoming projects:
Route 127 Paving Projects:
Beltline: Paving and painting, in mid-June
Ethan Allen Parkway traffic calming: speed humps adjacent to the park, and also a flashing light
set-up at Farrington Parkway, near CP Smith. Also re-paving along stretches of the road.

North Ave/Plattsburg Ave intersection: removing right-turn lane. Proceeding with this project.
Currently it is timed, but going forwards, there will be a camera to help with cuing the light to
change. They will also install raised curb barriers along the bike lane, to make it protected,
based on safety concerns.

Speed bumps on Gosse Court; also near school crosswalk on North Ave near Barley Road, due
to speeding drivers. Didn’t qualify for RFBs (flashing lights).

Sidewalk scoping: Stanbury Road and Green Acres. Stanbury: very basic sidewalk. The existing
one ends; this would extend it from Dale Rd to Staniford, where there is currently no sidewalk.
Green Acres: a future project that may happen: First step would be to install a study/pilot.

Transportation Planning: Plan BTV Walk/Bike Safety Action plan: going to City Council on
Monday for approval. Nothing as major in this as in other plans. They are looking to create a
pedestrian safety improvement project (and using some grant dollars, federally or through the
state). Transportation Plan is due for an update, and that will start this year (currently from
2011). CCRPC (Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission) and others will weigh in on
this, and there will be data collection. Some data collection already in the work on Starr Farm
Rd: data shows that the places where people want the traffic calming is not where the speeding
is happening. More to come on this.

Questions:
 -​ Why was the bike path detour posted under the Rock Point bridge, on the greenway, but
 then the path was open? Answer: the concrete slab was poured yesterday and so it was
 closed, but the detour route was moved. If you don’t mind getting wet as water may drip
 on you, it’s fine to walk and bike underneath.
 -​ What are the feelings of residents on the streets where sidewalks are being installed?
 This project is not imminent (2-3 years) and DPW will gather information as it gets closer.
 -​ Lots of people standing in line in front of creemee stand by Echo: line spills out in front of
 bike path. Worried about hitting pedestrians and feels it should be addressed.
 -​ Safer crosswalks on Gosse Court: kids are not able to see around cars, and also putting
 no parking signs in the problem spot is not helping. Feels that existing strategies are
 band-aids rather than actual effective strategies.
 -​ What options do people have if they want to initiate traffic-calming studies or initiatives?
 Email Phillip. Tell him we want more studies and traffic calming.
 -​ What are the options for changing the speed limit to 20? Reach out to state legislatures
 to change the designation of the zones to extend 20mph into other neighborhoods
 outside of downtown core.
 -​ What about poor paint signage on College Street that makes it hard to bike safety since
 the bike lane is not clear? It is being paved this year.
 -​ Line striping is related to staffing, rather than funding: this used to be done by college
 students.
 -​ Bus stop locations are changing out front of the new BHS. Current situation means that
 kids run across the street. New location will be just north and just south of the
 intersection, to make it much safer to access bus stops.


Coming up in June: City coming to talk about some Open Space projects. If you want info
before then, go to City Website: depts→ city departments→long range planning→ library→
open space project. Leddy Improvement Project: Depts→Parks Rec
Waterfront→Space→Active improvement projects.

Clayton : GMT
Regrets having to participate by Zoom rather than in-person. Sends thanks for being on the
agenda tonight. Presenting an update about where things are with the overall service, including
upcoming changes.
GMT: Currently, they provide service in 5 counties: Chittenden County is the urban service, but
also in Franklin, Grand Isle, Washington and Lamoille Counties. It is looking likely that the state
of VT will be breaking GMT up. It is rare to have a transit provider that serves both rural and
urban areas, and this is because they are funded separately. The funds have to be separate and
cannot be mixed. This means GMT operates an urban system that is separate from the rural
system that they operate in the other 4 counties. Nationwide, there is only one other transit
company that does it this way, outside of California. VT is joining the majority of how transit
companies are structured. There has been a 42% reduction in the admin staff (aka not drivers,
mechanics or schedulers, or customer service). These are the folks who manage funding and
services. Clayton feels hopeful about the urban service after this transition happens because he
hopes they will be much more focused when they only have Chittenden County, rather than 5
counties. He also feels this will lead to increased flexibility and responsiveness to folks in rural
areas as well.
There has also been a reduction in services in recent years. If a route gets cut, it doesn’t matter
if only one person used the route; it can still be catastrophic to that single person. (GMT is a
municipality: not a for-profit or non-profit. They are a government entity.) Pandemic funding is
about to be exhausted. Fiscal cliff approaching when funds are gone. They have reduced
service by just over a million dollars a year. Those reductions have not impacted service on the
number 7 North Ave line: the only changes have been reducing 3 runs on Saturday night. Route
7 is very productive and is always high on the list of most-used ride (we are often tied for 3rd
place out of all the GMT lines). Because it is so robust, it is likely to be insulated from future
service reductions.

There is a $3M funding gap for the fiscal year starting in July 2026. They are working with the
state to minimize this gap. Many legislators are working to save services and limit reductions;
however, Clayton assumes that there will be some reductions in services in places other than
the Route 7 line. Clayton acknowledges that it is hard to be positive and cheerful about the
outlook when there are upcoming restrictions in services. This is representative of the time that
we are in.

Clayton appreciates that the city of Burlington contributes about 2M a year to services; we
match what the state of VT contributes. Local government here has shown a commitment to
public transit with this funding. 60% federal funds, 10% from fares, 10% fron the state, and 20%
from the municipalities where they operate. The reliance on federal funding makes them uneasy
in the current political moment.

Questions:
 -​ what can the public do to help GMT improve their situation? Clayton says that sending
 your legislators an email or a call can be very helpful. Let the Mayor’s office know that
 you appreciate the way that the City has funded GMT.
 -​ Can we imagine a route that is specifically geared to bring folks from the NNE to the
 hospital during rush hour? Clayton expects it will be difficult to propose new service in
 the next couple of years, but this is an interesting idea to look at down the road, to see if
 there is enough demand in the NNE to warrant that kind of route. To stay in compliance
 with rules around federal funding, they have to be careful to not provide a route that
 would look like an employee shuttle. Three weeks ago, a team of inspectors from the
 federal government came through and audited how GMT is using their funding.
Clayton came to GMT 2 years ago after a career working for the state working for human
services. He thought this role would be simpler but he has been educated in how complicated it
is. He thanks us for our time and our caring about these issues.

Elise on the Burlington History and Cultural Center.
There are over 200 Historical Societies around the state. Burlington has none.

Many aspects of this are in the works. Many stories to be told and there are ongoing efforts to
gather more stories. Currently looking for sites. Will offer walking and biking tours. Please take
the survey and find out more info at burlingtonhistoryandculturecenter.org