Not so new
Don’t feed the ...
For public works, city promotes from within
‘A fed bear is a dead bear,’ wildlife officials warn
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the APRIL 7, 2022
In redistricting
otherpapersbvt.com
VOLUME 46, NO. 14
Spring sketch
City gains in House, Senate AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
South Burlington is set to be a heavyweight in Vermont’s newly redrawn legislative maps, gaining another state representative and cornering a third majority in a new Senate district. But the city’s gain could also potentially overshadow several smaller Chittenden County towns lumped into those new districts. In the House, the city will share a fifth state representative with a portion of Williston and could rule one of three new Chittenden County Senate districts should Gov. Phil Scott lend his signature to the maps, which headed to his desk last week. “We will be well represented,” South Burlington city clerk Donna Kinville said. “Not to displace anybody else, but I mean, technically we are kind of the largest municipality in this group, and therefore have the possibility of having three senators.” The Legislature has broken up Chittenden County’s six-member Senate district, replacing it with two proposed three-member districts and one single-member district: Chittenden Central, Chittenden North and Chittenden Southeast. Two Chittenden County senators who currently reside in South Burlington, Thomas Chittenden and Michael Sirotkin, both Democrats, would keep their seats, alongside Sen. Ginny Lyons of Williston in the new three-member ChittenSee DISTRICT MAP on page 16
PHOTO BY COREY MCDONALD
A man sketches the scenery of the Red Rocks Park beachfront in South Burlington on a sunny day, April 4.
Developers feel ‘unwelcome’ in South Burlington Legislature attempts to reform landmark Act 250 law, reactions remain mixed AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
Roland Groeneveld pulled out a sheet of paper printed with a list of 35 items, all permits his company OnLogic had to acquire in their attempt to build a new building near their headquarters in South Burlington. In total, permitting cost about $1.3 million, he said. A native of the Netherlands
who’s lived and worked in Vermont for 20 years as a cofounder of OnLogic and its executive chair, Groeneveld doesn’t dance around the subject of development in Vermont. He’s candid about what he describes as a redundant permitting process, calling the local environment unwelcoming to business growth and a reason why the state is in a housing crisis. One of his biggest qualms is
with Act 250, Vermont’s nearly 50-year-old land use law that has, some developers argue, become a harbinger of doom, tying up projects in years of review and appeals. “I think Act 250 should go away,” Groeneveld said, leaning back in an office chair near a bright orange wall in the OnLogic offices. He’s not anti-government or anti-regulation but argued that the law is duplicative, especially
with extensive local zoning like in South Burlington, and holds back economic progress. Written into law to control development in the 1970s, in a time of mass migration and “significant development pressure” per the Vermont Natural Resources Board, Act 250 is now often at the heart of grumbling See ACT 250 on page 16