Joel Banner Baird

Free Press Staff Writer

At the onset of its city approval process, a 14-story residential and office building proposed for downtown Burlington has garnered starkly contrasting reviews.

Height, in this case, is the primary divide between proponents and skeptics.

Illustrated arguments from both sides purport to show how higher buildings might enhance or ruin the Queen City.

Can a building reach a locally unprecedented altitude of 160 feet above street level and preserve a sense of scale that will be appealing to residents?

Both parties will pitch their perspectives to the Planning Commission at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Department of Public Works building, 645 Pine St.

For the project to advance, the commission must approve a zoning change that would allow for a building height increase in a narrowly defined downtown area.

That sticking point could subvert the new Burlington Town Center — as well as some of the primary tenets of the city’s own guidelines for downtown growth, developer Don Sinex said Monday.

“The city has set out an objective for expanding the downtown tax base, increasing downtown housing,” Sinex said. “You’re going to reach that objective with four-story buildings? It doesn’t work.”

Seen from the sidewalk, the buildings he proposes — stacked back from streets to more discretely amass height — would in most cases appear to be no more than four stories, Sinex added.

But Planning Commission members will also likely scrutinize photo-illustrations provided to them by the group Coalition for a Livable City that depict the project as a massive block.

Genese Grill, a founding member of the coalition, faults Sinex for proposing a structure that is out of character with the rest of the city, and for a zoning change that could set a precedent for vertical sprawl.

“It’s all going much too fast,” Grill said. “It’s the beginning of the entire transformation of the whole city.”

Plan BTV — Burlington’s plan for growth — was assembled with existing height limits in mind, and should be respected, she added.

Sinex’s proposal “is extremely different than what we, the people, wanted,” Grill said. “It’s spot-zoning, and it’s over-riding the democratic process."

Coalition for a Liveable City’s mission is outlined on a Facebook page entitled “Stop the 14-story Mall.”

Sinex finds the premise misleading.

“It’s going to be a two-story mall, just like it is now — and half of it will be underground,” Sinex said. “It’s a 14-story residential building, and only about 40 percent of it will be that high.

“I’m recognizing that we can’t please everyone,” he added. “But the overwhelming majority of people here are in favor of it.”

Earlier this month, Sinex secured a vote of confidence — literally — from City Council, which approved, 10-1, a pre-development agreement that outlines how the new Burlington Town Center might successfully address priorities in housing, transportation and economic development.

It was an encouraging start to a much longer process that lies ahead:

The Planning Commission’s decision, if favorable to Sinex, would signal the beginning of a far more exhaustive, public review of the proposed building’s aesthetics through the Design Advisory Board.

That board’s recommendations would be forwarded to the Development Review Board, which would further scrutinize the project.

A citywide vote would be required to finance the re-opening of St. Paul and Pine streets through future property tax receipts on the property (tax-increment financing).

Grill and other members of the coalition are hoping to head off the project sooner, rather than later.

They have distributed fliers (titled “The Malling of Burlington?”) to hundreds of residents, urging them to attend Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting.

It might get crowded. The Burlington Business Association officially supports Sinex’s plan, and Kelly Devine, the group’s executive director, is urging its members to show up and voice approval.

“This part of the city is the right place for height,” she said.

A concentration of ample new housing, office and commercial space would reinforce the downtown’s work-live-play lifestyle, Devine said; the vertically redeveloped town center would improve Burlington’s long-term prospects as a talent-magnet for entrepreneurs.

She offered an example. The University of Vermont Medical Center has run out of office space at its building at Pine and College streets, Devine said; if Sinex’s project stalls, the hospital’s annex would likely shift operations for 300-400 employees outside the city limits.

Building up, rather than out, helps eliminate sprawl — and confers a suite of environmental benefits ranging from stormwater management and lower energy use, to preservation of rural lands and shorter commutes, she continued.

“Right now the mall offers very little to our community,” Devine said. “This plan, which originated with the people of Burlington, could transform this part of the city.”

Grill still begs to differ.

“I think we’re going to stop it.”

Public comment at the Planning Commission meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

This story appeared first online Monday, May 23, 2016.

Contact Joel Banner Baird at (802) 660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com

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