Burlington Town Meeting Passes Sign Overhaul and Mixed-Use Housing District

BURLINGTON -- January 27, 2025, Burlington Town Meeting overhauled sign rules and created a mixed-use housing overlay in a single session. Members voted to approve Articles 6 and 7, establishing the town's first formal signage districts and a comprehensive town center sign bylaw backed by the Planning Board 7-0, the Land Use Committee 7-0, the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee 6-0, and the Select Board 5-0, with only four members voting against. The Zoning Board of Appeals had voted 0-5 in opposition, with Chair Jeff DeBona citing concerns about pre-existing permit conditions, though Town Counsel confirmed those conditions would survive the new bylaw. Betsy Hughes, the Signage Subcommittee member who led the effort, noted the project grew from a statistic showing roughly 50 percent of ZBA variance requests from 1980 to 2019 involved signs. Town Meeting then approved Article 8, the Middle Housing Overlay District, 59-28, just clearing the two-thirds threshold; the district targets 13 parcels totaling 24 acres on Terry Avenue, Grant Avenue, and the former Mass Glass site, allowing ground-floor commercial with up to two stories of residential at 12 units per acre and a theoretical maximum of 213 housing units.