Tuesday, March 20, 2018
A lawyer for developer Don Sinex and a group opposing his project are in a back-and-forth dispute over several proposed amendments to the downtown mall redevelopment plan. Each side has accused the other of violating a settlement agreement they reached last July.
Last week, after Seven Days reported that Sinex had received the necessary permits for more apartment units and alterations to the parking plans, John Franco — a lawyer representing project opponents — wrote to assistant city attorney Kimberlee Sturtevant and Sinex's lawyer, Brian Dunkiel, challenging the changes.
Tags: Don Sinex , John Franco , Coalition for a Livable City , City Place Burlington , Burlington Town Center , Brian Dunkiel , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 19, 2018
Marty Hornick found no new messages Friday inside a small box affixed to a post alongside of the Route 127 bike path in Burlington. But, he noted approvingly, he did find two hats, a a sweatshirt, a scarf and a cup of applesauce.
Hornick, a 37-year employee of the Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Department, was paying a regular visit to one of the small pine boxes that he's hung around Burlington. The aptly named "little boxes" offer free clothes, food, or information to the homeless — and include pencils and paper for those who access the supplies to write notes back.
Tags: Burlington Parks , Recreation & Waterfront , Marty Hornick , Little Boxes , homeless encampments , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
"It's so easy to get involved," Brown announced from a podium, as other students held up posters with contact information for state legislators. "Take a picture of these posters right now, make a call, and then you can keep going about your day."
The demonstration came one month to the day after 17 staff and students were killed in a Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland, Fla. Since then, Vermont has seen 10 threats reported at schools around the state, according to school safety liaison officer Rob Evans.
Tags: Burlington High School , Gun Sense Vermont , Miro Weinberger , Sharon Panitch , Allie Brown , Silas Brown , Image , Slideshow , Web Only
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Sinex described the alterations to CityPlace Burlington plans as an inevitable part of the development process. "We didn’t change any aspect of the design. We didn’t change the square footage," he said.
"We would expect a project of this size to make changes," said Mary O'Neil, a city planner.
The 16 new units will be constructed on the second, third and fourth stories of the planned building, under the original footprint. The 14-story development will now include 288 units, up from 272 in the original design.
Tags: Don Sinex , Burlington Town Center , Coalition for a Livable City , John Franco , CityPlace Burlington , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 12, 2018
"I think it is important to give others the opportunity to lead us, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to play this role," she wrote in an email last Wednesday informing the council of her decision.
Knodell said she had been "thinking for a while" about stepping down to make way for new leadership and to participate in meetings rather than facilitate the discussion, which is the president's role. "I’m ready to get back into the debate," she said.
Tags: Jane Knodell , Kurt Wright , Burlington City Council , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Members of the Patriot Front group, about six or seven in all, ended up holding a short-lived rally in Burlington City Hall Park before they took the ferry to New York and held a similar demonstration in Plattsburgh.
Meanwhile, a group of anti-racism demonstrators who had learned of the planned rally gathered at the Staples Plaza to denounce the white supremacist, anti-immigration group.
Details of the Patriot Front’s planning process and its members' reactions to the demonstration were made public on Monday. Unicorn Riot, a nonprofit “alternative media” website based in Minneapolis, posted a searchable database of the group's audio recordings and online chats. The conversations were made over Discord, a chat platform used mainly by online gamers.
Tags: Patriot Front , Burlington , anti-facist , neo-Nazi , demonstration , Staples , Burlington City Hall Park , anti-immigration , racist , Image , Slideshow , Web Only
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
About 50 members of the Keep the Park Green group turned out to a Development Review Board hearing at Burlington City Hall to argue in favor of keeping trees slated for removal as part of renovation plans for the park.
"The trees are the vibrancy of the park as we, the people, are the vibrancy of the city," said Charlie Messing, a member of the group.
The city is slated to install a new fountain and walkways as part of the redesign. Under the current plans, the city would remove 34 of the park's 56 trees. Sixteen new trees would be planted for a net total of 38 trees.
Tags: City Hall Park , Scott Gustin , Keep the Park Green , V.J. Comai , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
The advisory vote, which passed 6,482 to 5,237 in a preliminary tally, asks the Burlington City Council to request that federal officials cancel the basing decision.
The fighter jets, scheduled to arrive in 2019 and replace the 18 F-16s currently at the airport, have been a source of controversy for years. The Vermont Air National Guard was the first reserve unit in the country scheduled to receive the next-generation fighter jets, despite vocal opposition from environmentalists and local residents concerned about noise.
Tags: Burlington , F-35 , Vermont National Guard , Burlington International Airport , Town Meeting Day , Image , Web Only
Incumbent Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger sailed to a third term Tuesday night, capturing about 48 percent of the vote to defeat Carina Driscoll and Infinite Culcleasure.
Weinberger, a Democrat, tallied 5,749 votes, compared to 4,155 for the Progressive-backed Driscoll and 1,910 for Culcleasure, an independent, according to unofficial election results provided by the city. Driscoll earned 35 percent of the vote, while Culcleasure picked up 16 percent.
The 11,884 voters far surpassed turnout in 2015, when 7,865 voters cast ballots, and 2012, when 10,129 people showed up at the polls.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Adam Roof , Carter Neubieser , Max Tracy , Brian Pine , Lizzie Haskell , James Lockridge , Kurt Wright , Karen Paul , Chip Mason , Sharon Bushor , Town Meeting Day , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Laura and David Stiller, son of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Robert Stiller, are offering to help kickstart the renewed effort. They've pledged a dollar-to-dollar match for the first $100,000 in new gifts to the campaign, which YMCA officials hope to wrap up this summer.
The Y needs everyone's help to get to the final goal, the organization's president and CEO, Kyle Dodson, said at a press conference Wednesday in one of the preschool classrooms of the current building at 266 College Street.
Tags: YMCA , Kyle Dodson , David Stiller , Image , Web Only