Ward 5 NPA

Neighborhood Planning Assembly Draft Minutes NPA: Ward (choose one) 5 Date of Assembly :_6/19/25__ Start Time: (Commence): __6:45PM___ Location: DPW building, 645 Pine St. Finish Time: (Adjourn): __8:36PM___ Note taker: Cathay Foley Please forward these official minutes to: smelinn@burlingtonvt.gov Steering Committee Members in Attendance: Jason Van Driesche, Cathy Foley, Faried Munarsyah, Jak Tiano, Primrose VanWolvelear Discussion Topics ● Open Space Plan presentation and discussion Actions Taken / Decisions Made ● Baird Park Comprehensive Plan None Kickoff Meeting ● Barge Canal Alternatives presentation by Friends of the Barge Canal Agenda Items and Actions: 6:45 PM Community Dinner ● Dinner was served by the People’s Kithen and consisted of tacos and salad. 7:02PM Welcome & Public Forum ● Jason started the meeting welcoming everyone ● Signup sheet goes around: everyone who signed in is added to a spreadsheet to be emailed a few days before NPA meetings to let them know it’s coming up ● Praise for People’s Kitchen - give them money!!! ● ward5npa_btv@googlegroups.com is our email ● Public forum opens ○ Faried: Reminded the NPA that the people's kitchen serves food every Friday, Sunday and Tuesdays from 10:30 PM until midnight in City Hall Park. They are also looking for donations of sleeping bags And blankets as donations to help, keep unhoused individuals warm during months. They accept PayPal and Venmo for donations and their phone number is 802-491-3491.  ○ Greg Stefanski: Spoke about the six new folding benches for Callahan Park that can be converted into three picnic tables. The materials are scheduled to arrive the week of June 25th and will be put together by two groups of volunteers. The first group will meet on July 1 at 10:30 AM at Callahan Park to cut the boards to lengths and prep them with sealer. A second group will be scheduled to finish the project hopefully before July 4. Andy Simon mentioned the benches were paid for by the Pennies for Parks program. ○ Melo Grant: (City Counselor Ward 2 &3) Reminded everybody that the Juneteenth celebration will be in City Hall Park on Saturday, June 21 from 2 PM to 10 PM. There will be multiple events throughout the day. She also mentioned there will be a community connections event from 2 to 4 PM that day with herself and Counselor Buddy Singh from the South End. She also mentioned the BTV cleanup crew that goes around the city cleaning up trash and drug paraphernalia. To report areas that need to be picked up they should use “See Click Fix" on the Burlington city webpage. People reporting should attach a picture of the location so the cleanup crew will know where to find the debris and the information can also be used to create a heat map of where needles are found throughout the city. She then went on to talk about the Burlington police have implemented a new strategic recruiting plan. That plan can be found on the last Police Commissioners meeting notes. ○ There was an online comment/question asking if the path between Callahan Park and Birchcliff parkway would be paved at some point in the future to allow better access. The main issue was ownership of that property and that had previously been owned by the Birchcliff Home Owners Association and there would have to be some pro bono legal work done to get that track transferred over to the city of Burlington before any kind of renovations could be done. ● Open Space Plan: Presentation and Discussion ○ Presented by Sophie Sauve from the Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department. ○ Detail of the plan can befound at: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/288/Burlingtons-Open-Space-Plan ○ The survey on the site can be completed until June 27, 2025 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZLBFSQ6 ○ To date there have been 7 outreach events around the city since last fall. ○ Next step is Phase 3 to Create the Future Roadmap ○ Burlington's Open Space Plan is intended to take an interdisciplinary approach to documenting the City’s open spaces, updating open space goals, and identifying specific resource targets and timelines through a robust community-focused engagement process. ○ Open Space consists of natural areas, urban agriculture, parklands, greenbelts, rain gardens and pocket parks.  ○ This Open Space Plan update will build on and expand the previous ones by: ■ Connecting it with other city plans, like the Urban Forestry Plan. ■ Working across City departments to make sure the plan is visionary and feasible. ■ Partnering with private owners to expand stewardship to more than City-owned land. ■ Finding more ways to not just conserve open space but expand it as well. ○ The full presentation can be seen at: https://burlingtonvt.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7688/20250121_BOSP_EngB oards ● Baird Park Comprehensive Plan Kickoff ○ Due to the NPA meeting starting late due to a logistics problem opening the meeting, this presentation will be rescheduled to a later date. ○ The plan is still being worked on by two UVM interns ○ Parks Foundation is raising additional funds ○ Most funds will be dedicated for a playground but the completed plan may change that. ● Barge Canal Alternative Plan ○ The Friends of the Barge Canal (Ruby Perry) made a short presentation via a slide show with their vision of an alternative plan for the site instead of the housing project proposed for the Pine Street ○ Andy Simon made comments on why the Barge Canal should be protected. ○ The full outline for this alternative plan can be viewed on their website at the following link: https://www.pinestreetbargecanal.org/updates/jurw436fhjt2qdbilq23dzaszwty3 d ○ The Friends of the Barge Canal continue to have discussions with developers and other local leaders and stakeholders. ○ There was a brief discussion/question-answer session. 8:36 PM Adjourn