Councilor Hightower’s Update on UVM’s Trinity Campus Project

Dear Ward 1 Neighbors, 

Below is a letter I sent to the Planning Comission in May of 2022. I will give some updates as to what has happened since that letter but wanted to include it for context. 

I met with Richard Case, Wendy Koenig, and Joe Speidel in July of 2022 after my letter. They said the UVM president was unwilling to sign another MOU with the City – I had gotten this information in a memo from the administration but wasn’t technically allowed to share at it was labeled a confidential communication. UVM Administrators (historic as much as present) felt they’ve been asking for this rezoning for years and hadn’t received it and that President Garimella was unwilling to sign another MOU. I told them that I felt we were at an impasse because not coming to the table didn’t seem like a good way forward. 

I talked to the Mayor later that summer and he confirmed the current status and that he did not feel that he could be unsupportive of additional housing on Trinity campus – no matter the conditions – because more housing was more housing and it would be politically unpopular to stop it. I told him not to worry about the political fall of blocking more housing as I thought the Progressives would be happy to do it given the circumstances of that housing. More housing with an even higher number of students doesn’t help Burlington –President Garimella needs to come to the table in good faith and find a real solution with the City given the impact UVM has on our housing stock and the housing stock’s impact on his students, both financially and in quality of life.

However, given the recent election, the Progressives no longer have a block on proposals. Therefore, we need a bipartisan coalition of City Councilors who want to keep UVM accountable. I will work to build that collation and hope that Maea, as a representative of the East District, will join me – or at least commit to not supporting rezoning on Trinity Campus without UVM moving forward with a modern and accountable MOU. A redo of the previous MOU, which did nothing to hold UVM accountable for its current growing population, will not be sufficient. 

Last month, Dec 2022, the Planning Comission approved the rezoning of Trinity campus 4-1. Our lone Ward 1 representative, Alexander Friend, said to make the approval conditional on UVM negotiating an MOU with the council and voted no when that did not pass. Yet, even those who approved it noted that there needed to be real conditions for transparency and accountability around the student body size and encouraged the city council to use their decision as leverage. You can find Seven Day’s summary here: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/burlington-planning-commission-endorses-rezoning-uvms-trinity-campus/Content?oid=37189561

Best, 

Zoraya

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Dear Burlington Planning Commission,

We would like to provide some background to the UVM Trinity Campus discussion on your 5/25 agenda. UVM came to the City last year to discuss rezoning Trinity campus to build new student housing. The council discussed this in executive session in the winter. At this point, we can share that a majority of Councilors made it clear that it was very important to us that this would mean that fewer students would be housed off campus and that UVM commits, in a tangible way, to this concept. This response was reiterated publicly in January when Richard Case, UVM VP of Finance and Administration, presented to the council. To date, UVM has not signaled their willingness to agree to this. They shared a feeling that UVM is already doing more to house students than other comparable institutions, and that therefore Burlington should not, and could not, expect more from UVM. However, the neighbors around UVM and the City Council do expect UVM to be a better partner in finding other housing options for off-campus students.

This is the first opportunity the city has had in years to hold UVM to being a better housing partner. Instead of showing interest in moving forward with stronger partnerships, UVM has retreated. They maintain that they are not planning on increasing enrollment while refusing to commit to saying they won't increase the off-campus student population. At the same time, UVM faculty and staff have shared that UVM is looking to increase their PhD student base and to obtain their Research 1 designation. This means separating undergraduate and graduate students, which almost always means increasing enrollment to cover the costs of the increase in courses.

With this coming to the Planning Commission, we wonder if UVM is ignoring the requests of their neighbors and are forging ahead. So, we are bringing up our request at this stage, again. We ask that you join us in requesting that UVM tangibly commit to a maximum number of off-campus students, both in your discussion on Wednesday and beyond.

Zoraya Hightower, Ward 1 City Councilor (P)

Joe Magee, Ward 3 City Councilor (P)

Sarah Carpenter, Ward 4 City Councilor (D)

Ben Traverse, Ward 5 City Councilor (D)

Jack Hanson, East District City Councilor (P)