Earlier this month, the council solicited help from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to put pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration. They want the FAA to run and pay for a noise study this year to predict what the sound levels will be like upon the arrival of the F-35s in 2019.
The council has also crafted a resolution to be voted on Monday night that will be delivered to the FAA with a long list of requests. Councilors want buyouts halted immediately. They want advance warning of noise mitigation studies that will affect the city. And they want to allow a cluster of already bought-out homes on Lily Lane to be transferred to Champlain Housing Trust.
Council chair Helen Riehle predicted that there’s only “a slim chance” that the resolution would halt the buyouts entirely. Nevertheless, she added, it is vital for the city “to say on record that it’s our fundamental belief that there shouldn’t be any more buyouts.”
The city could suffer a $163,000 loss in tax revenue if the airport demolishes all of the 39 homes after the sales, according to a letter the council drafted and planned to send to the FAA.
Last Tuesday, the five-member council listened to citizen input on the buyout issue for hours. More than 40 residents attended and most of them, said Councilor Meaghan Emery, asked the council to allow the home buyouts already under contract to proceed.
On Monday evening, the council will hold a special meeting to revise its resolution and hopefully, Riehle said, pass it. It’s a nonbinding resolution, she added, with no real power. Still, she’s expecting an even larger turnout at the meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
At the center of the debate are seven cottages around Lily Lane. According to Lily Lane residents who spoke with Seven Days in November, all of the homeowners planned to sell to the airport.
Now, some of those sales have hit a hiccup. Three of those cottages are currently under affordability covenants with the city of South Burlington, meaning those houses must be sold at affordable market rates in perpetuity. The airport can’t buy those homes until that contract is dissolved, said Riehle.
That means, for the first time in the process, the city has some leverage. City officials want the Lily Lane homes, which were built in 2010, to be saved or moved to another location. “We request that each deed be transferred at no cost or at a reduced cost to a third party, such as the Champlain Housing Trust, in order that the properties may be maintained as affordable housing for residential use,” the resolution read.
They’re also asking that the airport run a preliminary noise study on the effect the F-35s will have on the neighborhood. It could cost between $25,000 and $75,000 — estimates vary — but the FAA has agreed to foot the bill in similar situations around the country, said South Burlington city manager Kevin Dorn.
On Thursday, Dorn and Riehle were part of a contingent that talked for two hours with the airport’s director of aviation, Gene Richards. It was “really productive,” Richards said, though he added, “I don’t know how helpful [the resolution] is.”
On January 10, members of the council and city officials sat down with three members of Leahy’s office, said Dorn. The senator’s staff “agreed to research the issue,” said Leahy spokesperson David Carle.
Riehle said she did hear through Richards that the FAA would consider the city’s petition.
“My hope is that we have a strong resolution that really articulates our concerns about the community and the school and those desires,” she said. “We’re going to go on record supporting this, knowing that it might not change anything.”
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The F-35 exists only to enrich the shareholders of the Lockheed-Martin conglomerate – to the harms, losses and injuries of everyone else. It is a grotesque military boondoggle – an unreliable, useless airplane that is a huge parasite on the community. The logical solution is to require the Vermont Air Guard to stick with propellor-driven airplanes, or else disband. Tearing down perfectly good houses to make way for these technological monsters is folly.
Next time Jane Knodell and Mayor Weinberger talk about their commitment to affordable housing, you can ask them about their decision to support the F-35 and its destruction of yet more houses, including the super energy efficient units with affordable housing covenants discussed here.
We can appreciate that there seems to be some better communication occurring between South Burlington and Burlington leaders for the moment. That said, the entire scenario of having an airport owned and run solely by one city but geographically located wholly in another city is proving a disaster. Whether it is the F-35, a desire to build adjacent hotel, expand the parking garage, etc., City of Burlington is heavily incentivized to do everything they can to grow and expand the airport because they get the financial gain and its residents, taxpayers and voters do not experience the worst negative impacts of noise, neighborhood destruction & loss of property tax revenue. Especially when federal taxpayers are giving them “free” money to buy these houses & take over more land in South Burlington, essentially immunizing Burlington taxpayers from the true financial cost of Burlington City Council’s decision to support the F-35. Make Burlington taxpayers pay for these acquisitions and watch the Mayor’s tune change.
It is past time for Burlington International Airport to be co-managed and co-run by something like Chittenden County Transportation Authority, with equal representation from Burlington and South Burlington (and probably Winooski too). Denver has had similar problems, leading to lesson learned: “Land use planning around airports should be coordinated and consistent among affected jurisdictions.”
Or given Burlington wants to keep buying & demolishing South Burlington homes, why not reincorporate South Burlington into Burlington city limits? Make Burlington leaders accountable for their decisions. In Boston, East Boston voters next to Logan have the same vote as someone in Back Bay or Beacon Hill.
The F-35 is a white whale and a drain on the budget of the US. But, if it’s going to get built why can’t we spend some prey making it quieter? All that noise represents wasted energy so making it mess noisy would save fuel too.
Excellent point about Weinberger and Knodell, Chris in S. Burlington! In fact the push for zoning to allow too-tall buildings in downtown Burlington was largely justified by the benefit of increased affordable housing. Those 55 units were touted as a boon to the affordable market. Meanwhile how many houses have been torn down in South Burlington already, and how many more are threatened? The Lily Lane CHT housing is both perpetually affordable, and energy efficient and I understand these perfectly good family homes are threatened as well. Perhaps Burlington is really only interested in housing that increases tax revenues in their city. This suggests more interest in financial gain than a real concern for the affordable housing needs. Until we have a housing solution that is county-wide, we are going to see the Weinberger administration saying all the right words but with little effort toward honestly altruistic solutions.