S. Burlington's Draft 2024 City Plan omits protections for Chamberlin Neighborhood

The Planning Commission will vote tonight whether to add the recommendations of the SB Airport Expansion Task Force into the City Plan

The Draft 2024 City Plan omits mention of the most important recommendations of the Airport Expansion Task Force. Set up by the Planning Commission in 2021, the Task Force was charged with considering the Airport’s request to rezone 11 acres in the Chamberlin Neighborhood for airport industrial operations. The Draft City Plan includes only the recommendation to do more so-called “community-driven planning.” But after holding multiple public hearings, the Report of the Airport Expansion Task Force had specific and mandatory recommendations. Its report was unanimously adopted by both the Task Force and the Planning Commission in 2022.

Gone from the Draft 2024 City Plan are the following recommendations from the Airport Expansion Task Force Report:

• “Preventing any further expansion of airport, commercial and/or industrial uses towards the Chamberlin neighborhood is the most certain regulatory action the city can take.”

• “Airport, commercial and/or industrial uses are incompatible with the residential uses in the Chamberlin neighborhood and should not be allowed to advance closer to remaining residences in the neighborhood.”

• “Residential zoning remains appropriate and necessary: The Chamberlin neighborhood, including the properties subject to the re-zoning request, has been zoned residential since South Burlington originally adopted zoning. For all that time, it has adjoined an airport. The line between the Airport (AIR) and Residential (R-4) districts represents a well-understood and agreed upon boundary between incompatible land uses. BIA’s acquisition and removal of homes from the Chamberlin neighborhood that were impacted by airport noise should not prescribe changes to the City of South Burlington’s longstanding land use policies.”

• “Given the severe housing crisis in the region, it is critical that the remaining housing and quality of life in the neighborhood be preserved. The character, convenience, choice and affordability available in the Chamberlin neighborhood is not something that can be readily replaced with housing elsewhere in the city.”

• “Over time, it may be possible to repair the damage done to the fabric of the Chamberlin neighborhood by the buyout program through a combination of greenspace and transportation improvements and, where noise levels would accommodate it, new residential development.”

• “Retaining the R-4 zoning district reflects the city’s planning priorities for open space, connectivity and housing in the Chamberlin neighborhood.”

The Planning Commission meeting is tonight, August 8, at 7pm to consider the Draft 2024 City Plan and recommendations from the public

Attend the meeting tonight and speak. Call for including the Airport Exansion Task Force recommendations in the 2024 City Plan and for a review of what is now in the draft 2024 City Plan to ensure that nothing now in the plan conflicts.

To attend in person: Go to S. B. City Hall, 180 Market Street, Library Community Room. Or to join by Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9960639517

Demand Immediate Abolition of the F-35 at BTV

Once the extreme noise of the F-35 is abolished the 44 acres of City-owned land can be restored to housing. In fact, under its FAA Grant Assurances, the airport is required to sell the land for housing once the noise diminishes. With its zoning authority, South Burlington can prevent any other use for the land.

In view of the housing crisis, the 2024 City Plan should specifically mandate restoring the 44 acres to housing once the F-35 departs. And it will.

Abolishing the 115-decibel F-35 from BTV is also essential to make 2,963 existing homes identified by the US Air Force as “unsuitable for residential use” in the Chamberlin Neighborhood, in Winooski, in Williston, and in the Chase-Street neighborhood of Burlington just as safe for children as homes in the South East Quadrant of South Burlington and on Summit Street in Burlington, where the Mayor lives. The 2024 city plan should zealously focus on eradicating this sickening class discrimination by expressly calling for removal of the F-35 from the runway in South Burlington.

Just one obstacle prevents return of 44 acres to housing—the 115-decibel F-35. Its removal from BTV is an eminently achievable solution to the housing crisis and for the health and safety of more than 1000 families in the working class neighborhood of South Burlington and for the 2,900 families in cities and towns around the airport. The disastrous F-35 basing and training in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Vermont must be abolished now. The 2024 City Plan must be revised to require abolition of F-35 training from the runway in the Chamberlin Neighborhood of South Burlington. And keep it out of any populated area.

Write or call your public servants and demand an immediate halt to F-35 training in cities.

Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>

Submit your report & complaint to the online F-35 Report & Complaint Form: https://tinyurl.com/5d89ckj9

See all the graphs and in-your-own words statements on the F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form (513 responses): https://tinyurl.com/3svacfvx.

See links to the graphs and in-your-own words statements on all four versions of the F-35 Report & Complaint Form since Spring 2020, with a total of 1670 responses from 658 different people plus 77 more so far on the form that remains active now.

Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>

Senator Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@mail.house.gov>

Rep. Becca Balint <RepBeccaBalint@mail.house.gov>

Burlington City Council <citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov>

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger <mayor@burlingtonvt.gov>

Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott <klott@winooskivt.org>

S. Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle <hriehle@sburl.com>

Williston Selectboard Chair Terry Macaig <macaig@msn.com>

VT Senate President Philip Baruth <Philip.Baruth@uvm.edu>

VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>

Attorney General Charity Clark <Charity.Clark@vermont.gov>

States Attorney Sarah George <Sarah.fair.george@gmail.com>

Vermont’s Federal Prosecutor <usavt.contactus1@usdoj.gov>

Adjutant General Brig Gen Gregory C Knight <gregory.c.knight.mil@mail.mil>

Major J Scott Detweiler <john.s.detweiler.mil@mail.mil>

Wing Commander Col Dan Finnegan <daniel.finnegan@mail.mil>

Vermont National Guard Inspector General Lt. Col. Edward J Soychak <edward.soychak@us.af.mil>

US Air Force Inspector General Lt. Col. Pamela D. Koppelmann <pamela.d.koppelmann.mil@mail.mil>

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall <Frank.Kendall@us.af.mil>