Good news
Moving up
Newspaper groups wins big at press association
Holly Rees named city clerk
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the MAY 18, 2023
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VOLUME 47, NO. 20
SoBu housing boom continues in city center
Sail away
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY ALAN OUELLETTE
The Northern Vermont High School Sailing Team sent four teams of two sailors to Sail Maine in Portland on May 14 to compete against 14 Maine high school teams. Emaline Ouellette of Stowe and Lex Gerlack of South Burlington in bow number two lead the fleet off the start. They won two of the 11 races and finished 4th overall. Established in 1997, the Community Sailing Center hosts the only high school sailing team in Vermont. All students from area high schools (public or private) and home schools who have sailing experience and are in good standing at their school are welcome as team members. The team practices three to five days a week after school, with weekend regattas both at home and away.
More than 200 more residential units could soon be built in South Burlington’s City Center under plans proposed by Snyder-Braverman, a Shelburne-based residential development company with a large presence in the city, who has proposed building three mixeduse buildings off Garden Street. If approved, the development of the property would include the connection of Garden and Market streets via a new city street cutting through the property. Currently, drivers who take Garden Street to stop at Trader Joes or Healthy Living do not have access to the road. The application still has a way
to go with the city’s development review board, and only submitted its sketch plan application to the board on May 2. But it represents a continued development in South Burlington’s City Center — the city’s downtown hub where shovels have already broken ground on several other residential developments. “As I sit here at City Hall, I can hear construction happening next door on Market Street — fascinating earth movers and excavators and many, many of our hardworking neighbors are laboring each day to realize the community’s vision for our new downtown,” Jessie Baker, South Burlington’s See HOUSING on page 20
Burton-Higher Ground litigation awaits ruling from judge COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Plans to buildout a performing arts center at Burton’s Queen City Park Road headquarters remain tied up in environmental court as
Burlington and South Burlington neighbors next to the facility claim it would have negative effects on their quality of life. More than three years after the music venue was first proposed, Burton and Higher Ground are
still awaiting approval for both local zoning and Act 250 permits. Both were appealed by a group of residents, the Citizens for Responsible Zoning, and both cases were argued in Vermont Superior Court in April.
Post-trial memos are due on June 5, and Superior Court Judge Mary Teachout is expected to issue a ruling this summer, said James Dumont, the attorney representing the group. “Our group’s concern is that
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the impact on South Burlington resources will be significant, (as well as) the inadequacy of permit conditions put in place to protect See HIGHER GROUND on page 23
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