BCAT News

The following is a Letter to the Editor:

In Response to Selectman Runyan:

Mr. Runyan is wrong about other housing agencies in Burlington having a seat at the table at the Housing Partnership meeting of January 23, 2019. In fact, it is unclear who was at the table, because now, more than two years later, there are no minutes for that meeting. What is clear is that Jim Doherty, a member of the group and a paid town employee at that time, wrote a letter endorsing the placement of a 24-unit, four-story apartment building in a single-family zoned neighborhood.

Mr. Runyan also evades the point that, when the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, or Town Meeting discusses a building project, all of the neighbors in the affected area are invited to come to the meeting to voice their opinions. It is considered common curtesy that when our local government makes vital decisions like this, they do it in consultation with the residents affected. The Board of Selectmen did not talk to the neighbors. Instead, the neighbors finally got notice after many decisions were made, at the last moment, when they had to scramble to hire a lawyer.

What the BOS did was legal, but not fair.

It is a shame Mr. Runyan has injected politics into this issue. As the Chair of the Town Meeting’s Land Use Committee, I have spent the last eight years working to add new housing for seniors without disrupting our single-family neighborhoods. Both I and the other Town Meeting members on the Committee are unhappy with the process used by Mr. Runyan and the other Selectmen. We believe we can provide housing for seniors and protect our neighborhoods. In contrast, Mr. Runyan seems to want to give the Board of Selectmen the right to insert large apartment complexes into any neighborhood with vacant lots.

Monte L. Pearson

mlpearson@rcn.com