Updated at 7:35 p.m.
BURLINGTON — The City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution Monday night intended to create a safer and more welcoming City Hall Park after hearing extensive testimony.
Sponsored by City Council President Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, the 3-page resolution aims to “revive City Hall Park as a more accessible, family-friendly gathering space” by enforcing existing laws “to address criminality and other unwelcoming behaviors.”
This includes keeping the park closed to the public from midnight to 6 a.m. as posted, maintaining a “more consistent presence” of police and public safety personnel, and developing a standardized response to low-level drug issues in the park.
The 9-2 vote — Melo Grant, P-Central, and Marek Broderick, P-Ward 8, voted no — comes six days after a man died after he was allegedly assaulted by a group of teens in the park. Interim Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke identified the victim Tuesday as Burlington resident Scott Kastner, 42.
Burlington residents and leaders have hotly debated the challenges of addressing increasing homelessness and public drug use downtown in recent months. At Monday’s meeting, some business owners claimed they are losing business and staff. Meanwhile, some residents said they find downtown unsafe and unwelcome, while others opposed further criminalizing the unhoused and called for greater compassion and creative solutions.
The resolution is meant to reach that middle ground and is “one step forward in starting to do what we can as a city,” said Progressive Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak who has recently sparred with Gov. Phil Scott on how to improve conditions in the city.
“I oppose this because it’s inadequate to meet the moment that we find ourselves in and it’s harmful to the most vulnerable members of our community in a way that will not solve anything,” Broderick said, citing continued gaps that exist in housing, mental health care treatment and an overburdened criminal justice system.
More than 75 people attended the public hearing that lasted more than an hour.
“City Hall Park has become a major hot spot for lawlessness, drug abuse and other bad behavior,” said Dave Marr, a New North End resident for 50 years. “This has gotten to the point where many are afraid to go to the park, let alone stay and enjoy it.”
He encouraged the city to “enforce our rules and start cleaning up our city.”
Some business owners said the ongoing safety issues and the Main Street construction project have been detrimental to attracting staff and customers downtown.
Sheri Campbell, a salon operator downtown, said she lost 80% of her staff in the last 12 months. Leslie Wells, who owns restaurants downtown, said business is down 30%. Mad River Distillers founder John Egan said since 2024 they’ve been losing staff at the corner store downtown “because they felt unsafe.” All of them urged the council to pass the resolution.
Others pushed back on the language used in the resolution and the assumption that those who are unhoused or battle substance abuse or mental health disorders are the reason downtown is deemed unsafe.
At a time when the Trump administration is limiting access to Medicaid, food stamps and “encouraging the criminalization of homelessness everywhere,” downtown resident Sam Bliss said he is sad to hear his neighbors blaming the victims of a housing and affordability crisis.
“On the one hand, I’m hearing folks complaining that the police aren’t doing their jobs, and, on the other hand, also calling for more police at the same time,” said Bliss, who is an organizer of the Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs lunch program that has also faced some debate this year. He asked the city to be “more imaginative than calling for more police” to address the issues downtown.
FaReid Munarsyah, South End resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led community effort that is serving free hot food three nights a week in the park, asked councilors to visit during the Tuesday night dinner.
Ed Baker, a North End resident and former social worker, urged the city to open the long promised overdose prevention center that he said would save lives. Forty-five people have died due to opioid-related deaths through May this year, according to the health department’s data.
After robust discussion, councilors voted to pass the resolution at 9:40 p.m., with one member absent.
Traverse, the council president, said he continues to hear that public safety downtown is a top priority for families, visitors and businesses, especially given recent incidents of violence, substance use and drug trafficking in the park.
“What we have going on in the park is a very troubling mix of not only criminal behavior but evidence of a mental health crisis in our state, substance use disorder crisis in our state and our affordability challenge,” said Shawn Burke, interim chief of the city’s police department.
Despite challenges of enforcing the park ordinance and staffing shortages, Burke shared data showing a majority of the department’s time and resources have been invested in policing the downtown area.
As police continue to work with the city, courts and businesses “to make Burlington as vibrant and safe as humanly possible with the resources that we have,” Burke said he appreciated the resolution but warned there are no quick fixes to these issues.
The council also unanimously passed a companion City Circle ordinance Monday to create a rapid response process for civil and criminal ordinance violations to be processed through a restorative justice system in partnership with the Burlington Community Justice Center.
“People who receive tickets will be referred to the City Circle,” Burlington City Attorney Jessica Brown said at the meeting. “And the hope is that they will engage with the City Circle and address any harm that may have been caused, any accountability and repair harm to the extent possible.”
“I see these efforts as happening in partnership with continued investments in substance use recovery and treatment services, of expanding our available mental health resources, of growing our affordable housing stock,” said Mulvaney-Stanak, who supported the resolution.
The mayor said she plans to review national best practices for resolving the issues of “non-violent illegal and anti-social behavior in public spaces, including new community health based strategies to reduce open illegal drug use,” according to the resolution passed, which calls for a report from the mayor and police by Sept. 29.
