In her annual State of the City address on Monday, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak vowed to work in the year ahead on issues of affordability, highlighting plans to encourage new housing and change the city’s property tax system. While acknowledging the challenges facing the city amid an other multimillion budget gap, as well as pervasive public safety and affordability issues, the Progressive mayor said the city is moving in the right direction. She struck a tone of optimism, saying the city is at a “generational” moment in which investments in the future will start to bear fruit. Using a voter-approved bond, work has begun to improve the city’s wastewater systems. The new high school is set to open in the fall. And frustrating, long-running construction projects on the Champlain Parkway and Main Street will be completed this summer — a proclamation that earned robust cheers from the crowd. Under her leadership, Mulvaney-Stanak proclaimed that Burlington was creating “a model of pragmatic progressive governing that is creating real momentum for our city.” Early in her speech, the mayor called for the city council to put aside their differences. She said co-governance with the council, which has been at times bitterly divided between its Democrat majority and Progressive minority, will be essential to building on this momentum. “We can turn away from the division of the past two years and make a fresh start. If this is possible anywhere — it is here in Burlington,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “Let’s commit to governing together.” She praised Interim Police Chief Shawn Burke for his work improving public safety in the city. She pointed to record levels of foot patrols by officers, the introduction of a “situation table” used to help people connect with services, increased investment in critical Howard Center programs, and the partnership between the city, Gov. Phil Scott and Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George to use an “accountability court” to reduce court backlogs for recidivist offenders. “We know enforcement alone doesn’t create safety,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “Our approach addresses both immediate needs and root causes, so we can reduce harm, improve accountability and prevent crises before they happen.” Much of the focus of her speech was on the future. The city’s climate advisory council, she said, will soon bring forward initiatives to improve monitoring of the cyanobacteria that closes Burlington’s beaches each year, new cooling alternatives for when the beaches close and transparency in the city’s progress toward its climate goals. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak with city department heads seated behind her Credit: Luke Awtry Housing strategy will be a major focus of the coming year as well. Her administration’s cost-saving efforts to merge the Community and Economic Development Office and the city’s planning office last year also made it more efficient, she said. Mulvaney-Stanak wants to continue to use inclusionary zoning and the city’s Housing Trust Fund to build more affordable housing. She also wants to use the “neighborhood code” former mayor Miro Weinberger helped approve to encourage the construction of multi-unit housing, and build up the public side of public-private development partnerships. “We will explore how we might use public-private partnerships to thoughtfully develop housing on certain city-owned land to meet community needs,” she said. One such effort is called the South End Coordinated Redevelopment Project, and will transform a parking lot near the Hula coworking campus into new housing. Mulvaney-Stanak said her administration would identify underused properties throughout the city that might be ripe for zoning changes that could encourage development. She vowed to create the new position of “housing shepherd,” who will help guide new construction to completion. And she promised to work productively with the University of Vermont and its new president Marlene Tromp, citing Tromp’s efforts at her former job to construct new student housing in cooperation with the city of Boise, Idaho. All of these efforts could help Burlington reach its goal of 7,000 new units of housing by 2050, the mayor said. Mulvaney-Stanak also acknowledged the challenges with the budget, as spending is far outpacing revenues for a third straight year. She said her administration is hashing out the spending plan earlier this year and that she learned from the painful, last-minute layoffs that marked last year’s budget cycle. But, she said, her approach is paying off as a “majority of residents saw lower municipal tax bills in fiscal year 2026.” She concluded by calling for support for a “tax fairness proposal” that could shift the property tax burden from lower-income people to wealthier residents. A study committee is expected to create a report ahead of a possible vote this November on a change to the city’s charter. “Meeting the affordability needs of our residents requires coalition governing — working together across perspectives to deliver solutions that are fair, practical and provide immediate relief as soon as possible to our residents who so badly need it,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. Prior to the speech, Mulvaney-Stanak swore-in councilors who won reelection on Town Meeting Day: Sarah Carpenter (D-Ward 4), Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5), Becca Brown McNight (D-Ward 6), Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7), Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2), Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8) and Carter Neubieser (P-Ward 1). Also taking the oath of office was Laura Sánchez-Parkinson (P-Ward 3), who became the city’s first Latina councilor after winning an uncontested race in March. Following the mayor’s calls for them to govern together, the council immediately returned to their divided ways. Bergman nominated Neubieser for council president, who included several veiled barbs at the way Traverse has conducted business as president. Traverse shrugged it off and accepted the nomination from Councilor Buddy Singh (D-South District) to retain the role. The body voted along party lines, 7-5, to return Traverse as council president. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, left, and City Councilor Laura Sánchez-Parkinson Credit: Luke Awtry The post Burlington Mayor Touts City’s ‘Momentum’ for Year Ahead appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less