Ward 5 NPA

Neighborhood Planning Assembly Draft Minutes NPA: ​ Wards Wards Wards Ward Ward (choose one) 5 Date of Assembly :_3/20/2025__ Start Time: (Commence): 7:03 PM Location: DPW building, 645 Pine St. Finish Time: (Adjourn): _8:30 PM Note taker: Cathay Foley Please forward these official minutes to: ____SH_____ Steering Committee Members in Attendance:​ Lena Greenberg, Jason Van Driesche, Joe Dery, Cathy Foley, Faried Munarsyah, Jak Tiano Actions Taken / Decisions Made Discussion Topics ●​ Immediately following Agenda Item ●​ These can be copied from agenda ●​ Generally includes: electing a new steering committee member, items voting as a body to send a formal communication to the City, ●​ Content of discussion not required decisions to spend money. Agenda Items and Actions: 6:30 PM​ Community Dinner​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 30 Minutes ●​ Commenced at 6:30 PM 7:00 PM​ Welcome + Public Forum​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 20 Minutes ●​ Introductions - Start Time: 7:03 Jak Tiano did introductions and slides. ●​ Open Forum for community concerns. ●​ Jason V. -Announcement group of volunteers for online privacy workshop FFL 10-12 next Saturday March 29th, free to public. ●​ Jason V.- Read a blog post relating to what we do at NPA’s. One key point of blog was what gets people to engage with people different from them. Strongest driver…Perceived Community Norns of Connection. ●​ Fareid M - Plug for Peoples Kitchen, how to support and thanked those who have donated towards the ice fishing shelters used as cold weather shelter. Reminded about the late night food distribution at Beard St and South Meaow Ave. ●​ Lena G. - Spoke about things going on in Montpelier with unhoused population in VT and the hotel/motel program.  ●​ David Foss - Talked about going to DC for Low Income Housing National Conference and what the NPA 5 does encouraging people to participate ●​ Greg Stepanski - Callahan Park Project. Still need volunteers paint picnic tables and benches. Also wants to organize a Summer picnic. ●​ Robin Skank - Hoping for a bigger turn-out with the NPA. How do we get more? ●​ Bram Kleppner - Update on what’s happening with the budget in Montpelier. Legislature gave the Governor 100% of what he wanted but he still vetoed the bill over the spending for the hotel/motel program extension through June 30. Legislature will rework the Bill. He mentioned the large and loud groups of protesters ●​ Cathy Foley - Reminded participants about the Blue Ribbon Commission vote coming up. Ben Traverse updated that the vote will be moved to April 14th City Council Meeting. ●​ Ludus Panavis - Not from Ward 5 but heard about the meeting through FPF. His group organizes a trash pick-up every other Sunday at 9:00 AM for an hour, and then get together at Vivid Coffee Shop for coffee. 7:30 PM​ Pine Street Updates​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 18 Minutes ●​ BCA’s Community Room and Exploration of Music Venue - Doreen did not show up. ●​ Presented by Ben Traverse o​ Higher Ground has interest in the north side of the BCA complex. Needs to have a zoning amendment to lift the 5000 sq ft. zoning restriction along Pine St. Then there would have to be conditional use permitting through the Review Boards. Council would also look into additional parking. Evan Peddlton from Home Ave. 7:48 PM​ Community Climate Conversation​ ​ ​ ​ | 42 Minutes ●​ Following our NPA conversations about important topics like Safety and Affordability, we’ll moderate a community conversation around  Burlington’s Climate goals to get a sense of our collective thoughts on both direction and progress o​ Jak gave an overview of the state’s overall climate action plan. Overall, the state is not meeting the 2025 or 2030 Climate goals for reduction of greenhouse gases. Presented a slide show of current goals and progress to date and why the state is coming up short of the goals. (See YouTobe playback for slide details). o​ Lena G spoke about Mayor Mulvany-Stanak’s Climate Task Force that is just forming. She will report back at a future NPA meeting on the progress of the Task Force. o​ Zoe Richards from the Conservation Commission spoke onNature Based Climate Solutions. Specifically spoke about conservation and reforestation projects being done. Natural systems are the only way we can remove carbons out of the air. Emphasized that nature-based solutions are ways that can have almost an immediate effect and do it more cost effectively. o​ Lena G. led a general group discussion with the following questions: ▪​ How does climate change impact our daily lives? Asked participants to speak to the people next to them about this question. Then the group discussed some of the conversations. ▪​ What can we do as a city to prioritize climate action? 8:34 PM​ Adjourn ​