Marijuana Policy Project

The Burlington City Council tonight, with five of its members in their final two months of service, faces a long, busy agenda.

It will scrutinize the final “short form” ballot wording of charter changes for the March 3 city election and hold public hearings on each issue:

• To increase the annual borrowing limit for the School Department from $750,000 to $2 million.

• To authorize the appointment of a registered nurse rather than a nurse practitioner to the Board of Health and making clear that the board is “subject” to the council’s direction.

• To change local election rules to allow voters to be added to the checklist at the “last allowable opportunity” under state law and allow the chief administrative officer to appoint an assistant as the “presiding officer” for elections.

The council also will revisit the decriminalization of marijuana. A resolution sponsored by Ed Adrian, D-Ward 1, and Tim Ashe, P-Ward 3, would place an advisory question on the March 3 ballot asking the Legislature and governor to pass legislation “that would replace criminal penalties with a civil fine for adult possession of small amounts of marijuana.”

Other ballot issues:

• Authorization for the School Department to bond for as much as $9.7 million for work at Flynn, Smith and Barnes elementary schools.

• Another ballot question (requiring approval by two-thirds of voters) would authorize bonds up to $45 million for additions to the parking garage and other improvements at Burlington International airport.

• Change the structure of the Electric Department bonds of up to $39.6 million approved by a majority of voters last March as revenue bonds, to general obligation bonds of up to $36.6 million backed by the city. The change, which requires a two-thirds vote for approval March 3, is being proposed, according to the resolution from the city’s Board of Finance, because since last March “there have been drastic changes in the financial and municipal bond markets ... that adversely affect the interest rates and costs for revenue bonds.”

The council also receives a report from a joint committee of three councilors and three planning commissioners on downtown development. The committee recommends revising the requirement in the new zoning ordinance that residential development downtown be limited to 50 percent of a project. The requirements would no longer apply to projects of less than 10,000 square feet; beyond that, while the committee favors nonresidential downtown development and offers height bonuses as an incentive, it recommends “there should be no absolute standard as to the mixture of uses.”

The downtown recommendations move now to the full Planning Commission and subsequently to the full City Council.