Over the next year it is rumored that several more major parcels will be coming in for either new site plan approvals or zoning changes requesting Planned Development Districts. There are significant differences between the two requests. A site plan approval would essentially be new construction on a site with a specific zoning designation and as long at the project fit within the parameters of that designation then the property owner would have a right to whatever size and use the project was eligible for under that zone.
A Planned Development District is another matter. Under that designation the size and mixed uses would be whatever the developer asked for and received approval for by a two thirds vote of town meeting. The most recent example was the May town meeting decision to approve a change to Northwest Park. The park had approximately 2.1 million square feet under its current zoning but with the approved change those development rights went to approximately 3.3 million square feet.
A 1.2 million square feet increase of office and retail would be a significant amount of development for any community our size to absorb but to tell you the truth that is only the tip of the ice berg. Let's for a moment add up the other approvals that have been made over recent years that remain on the books but have not yet begun construction.
In no particular order there is the following;
Wall Street 300,000 sq. Feet
Sun Network Drive 400,000
Oracle 400,000
Wheeler Road 300,000
Northwest 1,200,000
The Ma/Com application in process now if approved would add another 560,000 square feet ( more than double what they have by right) to this list of approved but not started total of development rights.
With all of these approvals and counting the nearly 1 million square feet added over the last five or six years you expect that the assessed value of this commercial property has dramatically increased the total value of that class of real estate in town. If you thought that then you would be sorely disappointed. In fact according to these figures from the Assessor's Office, http://www.burlington.org/AssessorsDepartment_files/CL-RATE.pdf the current value of $1,361,394,435 is well below the 2002 value of $1,473,890,731. The net effect of this decline as well as the enormous increase in residential assessed values have resulted in the average residential tax payer footing a nearly 50% increase in the taxes on their home over this period.
What has been the benefit of this rush to increase development rights in the town? If you thought that significant infrastructure improvements were included as a quid pro quo then again you are disappointed. Not only has nothing been done to improve or even inspect the main sewer trunk, not one thing has been contributed to increase the production, storage or distribution of the water supply.
The town should be slowing down a bit on enormous PDD approvals in order to determine how we are going to absorb a nearly 30% increase to our existing commercial space. Just because someone wants a huge increase in his development rights does not mean that he is entitled to them nor does it automatically mean it is beneficial to the finances of the town if it has the effect of devaluing other properties as a result of new competition.
We may be at a point of diminishing returns in our commercial space. Approving and building more and more space with out a demonstrable way to absorb it into the market may in fact reduce our values and real estate tax income as the past five years have already proven.
The most recent water ban fiasco also points out how tenuous our infrastructure situation is. The enormous increase in restaurants and potential liquor license approvals will only exacerbate that problem.
