Ward 8 NPA

Ward 8 Neighborhood Planning Assembly April 23, 2026 | 6:15 - 7:40pm | City Hall, Sharon Bushor Conference Room Recording & transcript available on Town Meeting TV → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS_B8xZlWx0 FACILITATOR: Tom Carroll | NOTETAKER: Amy Malinowski STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Tom Carroll, Amy Malinowski 6:15pm Welcome and food Pizza (vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options) 6:35pm Opening start time ●​ Tom calls meeting to order ●​ Introductions: Tom Carroll, Ambrose, Amy Malinowski, Cam Laychak, Gail Shampnois, Anne Brena, Stephen Chisa, City Councilor Marek Broderick, Mary Cox, Barbara Turnbull (with CEDO), Charlie Giannoni (with Town Meeting TV) ●​ Announcements: ○​ Vermont International Film Festival | Made Here Film Festival | April 23-26| link ○​ Queen City Contra Dance | April 24 6:45 - 10:00pm | 305 Flynn Avenue | link ○​ Peace and Justice Center | “Libraries: The History and Future of a Rad Idea with Jessamyn West” | April 25 4-6pm | link ○​ Silent Book Club | April 27 6:00 - 8:00pm at Bar Renee | link ○​ Local Motion | EZ Breezy x Free Bike & Gear Repair Day | April 28 5:30 - 6:30pm | link ○​ Peace and Justice Center | BTV Clean-up Crew | April 30 7:30 am - 10:00 am at the top of church street | link ○​ planBTV 2050 Community Open House | 1 Main Street | April 30 3:30 - 8:00pm | link ○​ Rock Point Commons | Reading Rock Point 2026: A 5-Part Naturalist Class | May 2026 - January 2027 | link ○​ May Day | May 1 5:00 - 7:00pm | March and Rally in Williston ○​ GreenUp Day | May 2 ○​ Mothership Monthly Film Fest Screening | May 2 8:00pm | Spiral House Collective ○​ Burlington Farmer’s Market | May 9 9:00am - 2:00pm | link ○​ Rock Point Commons | Wildflowers and Wild Views! | May 9 noon | link ○​ The Makery | Woven Mending | May 18 6:00 - 8:00pm | link ○​ Local Motion | Bike Ferry Opening Day | May 22 | link ○​ Vermont City Marathon | May 24 | link ○​ Spring Move Out Program @ lower Buell Street | May 21 11 - 2:00pm | link ○​ Spring Move Out Program @ lower Loomis Street | May 14 11 - 2:00pm | link 6:45pm Speak Out ●​ Mary: Spoke as a member of the Police Commission and shared that the commission has discussed prioritizing facilitating greater community engament–especially at the NPAs. Encouraged folks to attend the next Police Commission meeting on Tuesday, April 28 at 6:00pm in Contois Auditorium. Interested in coordinating with our NPA for a future agenda item–especially to share more about the ICAT training. ●​ Amy: Did a rapid research dive into ways that other municipalities are experimenting with how to give residents more opportunities to weigh in on the city budget. Three ways she learned about are: ○​ Make the budget more transparent. (example in LA) ○​ Get targeted feedback on the city budget. (example in Hartford, CT) ○​ Give residents total control over a slice of the city budget and support a multi-month "participatory budgeting” process. For example, Cambridge, MA gave residents control of $1,032,000 and 10,000 residents voted and voting was open to all residents 12 yrs+. In another example, NYC gave residents control of $3.9 million and 93,000 residents voted and voting was open to all residents 11yrs+. 6:55pm Updates from City Council Marek Broderick  ●​ Applications for boards and commission are live and there are a lot of vacancies. Applications may be submitted to the Clerk/Treasurer’s Office, 149 Church Street, 2nd Floor, Burlington, VT 05401, Attn: Lori with the deadline date for submission being Wednesday, May 20, 2026, no later than 4:30 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact Lori at (802) 865-7136 or via email lolberg@burlingtonvt.gov or contact Marek mbroderick@burlingtonvt.gov ●​ Budget season is upon us. There are public forums at each of the budget sessions that residents can attend and comment on. Those sessions are: April 29 at 5:30pm, April 30 at 6:00pm, May 4 at 5:30pm, May 7 at 5:30pm in Sharon Bushor Room in City Hall or online. ●​ On May 20th, Councilors Broderick, Schachter, and Neubieser will be meeting with the University of Vermont regarding negotiations generally such as the MOU, fee for service and pilot payment in lieu of taxes, etc. If folks have thoughts or questions they would like brought up at that meeting, please reach out to Marek. ●​ Discussion: ○​ Cam: What are your goals when talking about the MOU in this discussion? ○​ Stephen: Is the current budget deficit resolved or is that resolved in the coming months during these meetings? ○​ Amy: I would like to see collaboration around potentially finding a free and available space on campus or near campus for our NPA given that so many of our residents are students. (This kicked off a broader discussion about ward 8 meeting locations. There was an expression of concern about meeting on campus rather than a city location. The idea of recombining with Ward 1 was also floated. It was shared that the ward 1 meeting is pretty crowded already and historically wasn’t well represented on the steering committee. It was also expressed that it was worthwhile to try to find a better location that could better accommodate students while also being a good compromise for residents.) ○​ Charlie: Very very few people from ward 8 are on boards and commissions. In your application, write that you are a resident of ward 8 in big bold capital letters. ○​ Mary: Expressed that it would be very exciting and tremendous to have students joining the city boards and councils. 7:10pm Community Coalition Gail Shampnois, Cam Laychak ●​ Gail is the founding director of the Office of Student and Community Relations. Cam serves on UVM SGA and chairs the Committee on Legislative and Community Affairs. Together, they co-chair the Community Coalition. The Community Coalition was started in 1994 by the then SGA president who, at the time, was concerned about a noise violation ticket increase and, after talking to community members, he realized there was a lot of relationship building and conversations that needed to happen across the community. It is now a monthly meeting open to the public, and consists of students, neighbors, city and university staff, public safety officials, non-profit partners, the Burlington Electric Department, Fair Housing, and more to identify and discuss neighborhood challenges so that they can create opportunities for action in our shared community. ●​ Projects over the years: ○​ Comprehensive off-campus living guide (now on 9th edition) ○​ Street strategy – what would help our neighborhoods be healthier, safer, and more vibrant? They adopted the Isham Street neighborhood as a project and are on that street doing events ~4x a year. They helped with projects like Isham Street Gardening and Other Optimistic Doings (ISGOOD) and saw a significant decrease in police data for noise, vandalism, and burglaries. They also noticed things like students were staying 2 years, instead of 1 because they felt like they were part of the neighborhood. ○​ Community gardening – Landlords have donated land for gardens and there are several gardening projects underway. This supports food security but also teaches students who have never grown a cucumber. Phil and Brian from ISGOOD have said that gardening is relationship building. They go to Gardener’s Supply together and have received grants from the New England Seed Program. ○​ Spring Move Out Program: Students who are moving out can recycle their mattress for a fee as well as sort items they want to rehome into categories and non-profit organizations have been reached out to so folks in need can show up and take items. Moved from “students leave Burlington trashed to… students turn trash to treasure.” It takes a lot of work and coordination to pull off these events. ○​ Neighborhood grants: Folks can reach out about projects in their neighborhoods–this is not paperwork, it’s a conversation about what your needs are and the best way to meet them. There  must be a student and non-student leading the initiative. Loomis Street asked for help with a blockparty and the coalition supported them with tables, games, volunteers, funding for pizza, etc. They also supported the Old East End for their Winterlude events. ●​ Approach to their work: ○​ “Do things with neighborhoods, not for.” For example, Buell Street wanted a community garden and then a landlord donated the land to make it happen but it started with neighbors coming to the coalition. ○​ “Go where people are.” For example, the neighborhood grants program encourages neighbors to come forward with ideas and challenges they care about, and the grants require that a student and non-student are leading the initiative. ○​ “See each other as people, not opinions or positions.” For example, nurturing a community of care and being willing to go off-agenda if something is coming up that needs addressing. ●​ Cam shared that a lot of the problems that students are facing are also problems that are being faced by Burlington residents and that the Community Coalition brings together a wide range of folks and is at the forefront of bringing UVM and the community closer. ●​ Discussion: ○​ Tom: Encouraged explorations of ways to prompt participation from other wards (NPA steering committee members but also neighbors). Spoke to the most recent meeting which was a dialogue between the Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak and President Tromp, and really appreciated the Community Coalition making it happen. ○​ Amy: Expressed that the Community Coalition is a really unique gathering of folks all in one room that feels really special and really appreciates the work of the Community Coalition. ○​ Gail: The university has a new Green, Gold, and Bold strategic plan and Dr. Tromp is really wanting us to think boldly – is there a charge for the coalition to put something forth that is their bold idea? Maybe it could have something to do with more interaction with the NPAs? It’s a new era and new opportunity. ○​ Amy: Could you speak more about the neighborhood grants? ○​ Amy: Could you speak more about the Spring Move Out Program? ○​ Mary: Sweetwaters used to have a coat giveaway to folks in need and when they shut down Sweetwaters, I felt bad that that program was no longer around. Would you maybe consider doing something like that or do you know if someone else is doing something like that? 7:40pm Adjourn adjourn ●​ Tom adjourned the meeting Ward 8 Steering Committee: Contact us! Next meeting: Tom Carroll ward-8-sc@googlegroups.com Thursday, May 28 6:15pm Amy Malinowski Submit a request to present! https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/ 221/NPA-Request-Form