We’d be remiss if we didn’t take note of the Plan BTV South End draft, a colorful 100-page compendium that invites comments through Oct. 1. The draft of course addresses the need for new housing, a controversial subject in the good old South End.
The report’s cover is a nice touch – nothing phony or public-relationsy about it. it’s a workaday portrait with its sandy footpath and telephone poles, warehousey landscape.
That’s all apt, because the South End is nothing if not “funky.” That’s the recurrent adjective assigned to the neighborhood in this document. Just for kicks, we looked up “funky” in the online Urban Dictionary:
- Different but cool/nice.
- A bad smell.
Plan BTV’s” funky” is presumably of the first definition – akin to the quality Vermonters like to ascribe to their state generally. But no doubt there are irate Burlingtonians who impute the second definition to this draft report and its qualified appeal for housing in the enterprise zone.
Burlington certainly needs plenty more affordable housing, so why shouldn’t a good share of it be located in the mixed-income South End, given that’s a major employment center (6,300 jobs, according to the report)? The big fears seem to be that more housing will drive up land prices beyond the wherewithal of artists and artisans, and that the housing itself will gentrify the neighborhood.
The report calls for new housing outside the enterprise zone, where housing is already permitted, with affordability stipulations.
New housing inside the zone could take the form of artists being allowed to live in their studios (“work-live units”), with affordability stipulations; or affordable housing units designated specifically for certified artists (an interesting idea, but we’re wondering if there’s precedent for targeting affordable housing to a particular segment of the lower-income population). Either way, artists would have to jump through some not-very-funky hoops to qualify.