Renew America Success Stories

Sustainable Burlington

Description

During the 1980s and early 1990s, when many cities experienced sharp downturns in federal funding, the economic and social conditions of many cities deteriorated.  With fewer dollars, many communities saw declines in economic development, human services and affordable housing.  Local governments were forced to take up the slack, and in some cases, the needs of the citizens could simply not be adequately met.

The story has been different in Burlington, however.  For several decades, an activist municipal government has been working toward generating new sources of public revenue, creating and retaining jobs, encouraging appropriate development, regulating growth, reducing energy consumption, providing affordable housing and removing barriers to equal opportunity for minorities and women.  Although "sustainable development" is a relatively new term, Burlington has been pursuing the principles of sustainable development for a long time.

Very recently, the city decided to document their progress and their programs in a report.  "Creating a Sustainable City: the Case of Burlington, Vermont" describes the more than 40 programs, projects and initiatives begun in Burlington over the last two decades designed to create a community that is both environmentally and economically sustainable.  From micro-enterprise efforts, small business loans and training programs for the disadvantaged, to waterfront revitalization plans, efforts to protect Lake Champlain and a unique plan to capture and use the waste heat generated from an electric power plant, Burlington's efforts provide a model  for other communities interested in pursuing a comprehensive sustainable development plan.

The Burlington initiative relies on a recognition that economic and environmental health are intertwined, and that efforts to protect the environment ultimately produce economic gains. In working toward this goal, the Burlington initiative has fostered alliances among businesses, environmentalists, governments and nonprofits to promote participation from all interested parties and to help ensure success.  Participants in the Burlington initiative have also recognized that many sustainable development projects yield their benefits over the long-term and may not necessarily create an obvious advantage at the outset. By relying on these two principles, Burlington has pursued initiatives in economic development, environmental protection and community development.

Program Highlights

Burlington Principles of Sustainable Development

•  Encouraging economic self-sufficiency through local ownership and maximum use of local resources.  In the typical American community, 70 to 80 cents of every dollar immediately leave the local economy. At the same time, a whole host of products—from building materials to food—are shipped in from great distances. This far-flung, "absentee" economy wastes energy, steps on local customs and businesses and misses the unique strengths of local people and products. Reducing the outflow of money allows dollars to circulate locally, thereby creating jobs and encouraging interaction among neighbors.

• Equalizing the benefits and burdens of growth. Too often, growth brings more wealth to the well-to-do, while leaving the by-products and burdens of growth in the hands of lower income groups. Growth should help people across the spectrum of income levels and neighborhoods.  Burlington is committed to economic growth that enriches all of its citizens.

 
• Leveraging and recycling scarce public funds.  Community development funds can be scarce.  Programs that ensure that public funds are cycled through the local economy more than once multiply their benefit. For example, small business revolving loans, when repaid, are available for other start-up, local businesses.

• Protecting and preserving fragile environmental resources.  This principle is at the heart of sustainable development since, in the long run, ongoing economic growth is dependent on environmental health. Programs that ensure that natural resources are treated as the basic building blocks of any economy, and programs that protect parks, paths and greenways are central to this principle.

• Ensuring full participation by populations normally excluded from the political and economic mainstream. The poor, women and ethnic minorities have traditionally not benefited from economic growth and have been sidelined or excluded from whole categories of work and political participation. A sustainable community is built with the voices of all its citizens.

• Nurturing a robust "third sector" of private, non-profit organizations capable of working in concert with government to deliver essential goods and services.  History has shown that local governments alone cannot solve the problems facing urban communities, but that partnerships among public sector, private sector and "third sector" parties are necessary.  Third sector organizations are privately owned and controlled, but exist to meet public or social needs.  Such organizations play significant roles in producing and preserving affordable housing, creating jobs and acquiring and holding land for the public good.

Burlington has launched more than 40 programs in the areas of economic development, environmental protection and community development within their sustainable development initiative.  Descriptions of several of the programs appear below:

Economic Development

Riverside Eco.Park.  The Riverside Eco.Park facility will capture the by-product of generating electricity—heat—and make it available for nearby technologies. This heat is currently available from the McNeil Station, which generates electricity using bio-mass fuel technologies including wood chips and other organic solids (as well as natural gas as needed). The proposed park will link this low-grade heat to a variety of biological and farming applications. The most intriguing of these applications may be biological technologies called "living machines." These ecologically engineered systems combine fish-farming tanks, hydroponic produce and other greenhouse opportunities while, at the same time, purifying organic liquid wastes. This type of system opens new avenues for commercial urban food production. Similarly, the Eco.Park can support "Urban Farm" greenhouses that will thrive on the available low-grade, inexpensive heat.

Micro-Enterprise Program.  The Micro-Enterprise Program (MEP) provides loans, technical advice and referrals to businesses with fewer than five employees and gross annual revenues of less than $300,000. The MEP puts a special emphasis on assisting business owners and potential business owners who are women, people of color and others who have traditionally been excluded from business ownership.

Step-Up For Women. A free 13-week training program for qualified participants, this course teaches low and moderate income women trade skills such as construction, weatherization, heavy equipment operation, plumbing and welding. Approximately 30 women complete the program each year with an 80% placement rate for graduates.
 

Environmental Protection

Waterfront Revitalization.  Like many communities, Burlington had turned its back on the waterfront and placed its most undesirable land uses there.  Then, in 1973, the City Council passed an ordinance that gave land owners 20 years to remove oil tanks and other unsightly structures.  Burlington's mayor developed a vision for the waterfront that was centered on making it a resource for all the citizens of the city.  Burlington built a public boathouse, numerous facilities and walkway improvements, and an eight mile bike path. A promenade was built along the shoreline with swings for people to sit in and gaze out at the boats sailing in the lake and across to the peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. What once had been an abandoned, unkempt waterfront with rusted out oil tanks and overgrown railroad tracks is now filled with people playing frisbee, picnicking and riding their bikes.

The Intervale: Food and Jobs in the Heart of Burlington.  The Intervale is a 700 acre flood plain along the Winooski River just one mile from downtown Burlington, Vermont. The area represents the last prime farmland in the city boundaries. In recent years the Intervale was home to over 200 rusted out cars and mounds of old tires. Today, however, this land has been revitalized and is home to six small incubator farms, a community co-op farm that in 1993 produced 100,000 pounds of vegetables for the City of Burlington and a large-scale composting project.

Burlington Electric Department:  In 1990 voters approved an $11.3 million bond issue to finance a variety of energy savings measures in Burlington. To date more than $4 million has been invested directly in energy efficiency programs and more than 15,000 individual energy efficiency installations have been performed.  The majority of the dollars spent on this program have been distributed to local contractors, bringing growth and reinvestment to the local economy.

Multi-modal transportation:  Burlington's proposed multi-modal transportation center will address one of the problems that face many city public transportation networks: connecting different types of public transportation. By drawing together a proposed commuter rail station with Chittenden County Transit Authority (CCTA) busses, inter-city bus lines, park-and-ride lots for cars, bike paths and easy pedestrian access, the center will make commuting by public transportation easier.

Additional programs: Space to Work for Entrepreneurs, Church Street Marketplace, Step-Up For Women, Old North End Enterprise Community, Urban Design, Urban Reserve, Brownfields Recovery, Pine Street Barge Canal Study, Bio-mass Electrical Power, Chittenden County Lighting Study, College Street Shuttle, Traffic Calming, Bicycles, Household Recycling, Yard Waste, Environmental Depot, Waste Water Treatment Plant, Pesticide Ordinance, Lake Champlain Management Conference, Sister Lakes Project, Inclusionary Zoning, Burlington Community Land Trust, Housing Trust Fund, Opposition to Suburban Sprawl, Neighborhood Planning Assemblies, Community Based Policing, Champlain Initiative, Lake Champlain Science Center, Sister Cities, Municipal Development Plans, Neighborhood Activity Centers, Institutional Core Campus Zoning, Capital Improvement Plan, Climate Protection Campaign, United Nations Biosphere Designation, Landfill Methane Generating Plant, Building Energy Efficiency Guidelines, Main Street Landing, Burlington City Arts

Vital Statistics

• Program Management/Partnerships: Burlington's sustainable development plan has come together through a variety of public and private partnerships.  Partners in the project include Architectural Consulting and Design, the Community and Economic Development Office, Church Street Marketplace, The Intervale Foundation, the Department of Planning and Zoning, the Burlington Electric Department, the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, Public Technology, Inc., the Department of Public Works, the Board of Health, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Burlington Community Land Trust, City Hall, the Burlington Police Department, the United Way of Chittenden County and the Lake Champlain Basin Science Center.
  
  
• Budget: Please contact the program directly for the latest budget information.
  
  
• Community Served: The residents of Burlington, Vermont.
  
  
• Measures of Success:

Energy-efficiency improvements have prevented the release of more than 17,500 tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year. Reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is approaching 300,000 tons over the life of the completed projects.

Energy efficiency programs have resulted in a 5% reduction in electricity rates.

To date, the aggregate value of loans disbursed through the Micro-Enterprise Program exceeds $160,000.

Since 1984, 6 successful community redevelopment initiatives have been undertaken that revitalized old buildings and/or economically depressed areas by "incubating" clusters of small businesses and promoting local economic growth.

The Church Street Marketplace, which occupies a four-block area through the central business district of downtown Burlington, is one of the first auto-restricted, open air shopping and multi-use malls in the United States.

A school-based child and family services program has been started to identify at-risk youth and conduct a prevention and retention program for the students and families.

Burlington has passed zoning regulations and ordinances designed to preserve Burlington's historic past and maintain people's access to the beautiful vistas surrounding the city.

Burlington has set aside a 45-acre portion of waterfront land as the Urban Reserve. The City has cleaned up this degraded industrial area within an overall plan to focus development energies in the downtown core and to leave a significant portion of the "rediscovered" waterfront as a land bank for future generations.

With a $200,000 grant from the federal government, Burlington is implementing a plan to reclaim 17 brownfield sites, making them available for future industrial development and, at the same time, removing ongoing environmental hazards.