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SOUTH BURLINGTON — After weeks of back-and-forth between city officials and executives at Beta Technologies, the electric aircraft maker can now apply to add back parking spaces it initially included in the design of its planned 40-acre campus next to Burlington International Airport.

Thanks to a set of new zoning rules unanimously approved by the City Council at a Monday night meeting, Beta can now ask the city’s Development Review Board to approve more than 200 parking spots that, because of now-amended zoning rules, the board previously declined to authorize. 

As of now, the company has a permit to put 41 parking spots next to its planned 344,000-square-foot manufacturing facility — a number Beta proposed as a compromise after the 317 spaces it originally sought were rejected. 

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Even though they supported the reduction in parking to get their permit approved, Beta executives have made clear they eventually want to ask for the spaces back. Monday’s zoning changes clear a path for the company to do that. 

Before, the company was required by a zoning rule to locate parking for their campus next to or behind a building. Beta executives protested that rule, saying a parking lot could not go behind the manufacturing facility, since the company needed to roll finished aircraft from the building directly onto the airport’s taxiway.

If the company were to comply with those zoning regulations, it would need to construct a building in front of the parking lots while it also erected the manufacturing facility. That complication, Beta warned, might spur the company to move its manufacturing facility — and with it an estimated 500 jobs — elsewhere. 

In response to Beta’s concerns, councilors carved out an exemption in their land use regulations: Buildings that exist at least partially in the airport’s secure area, as part of Beta’s planned facility would, do not need to follow the parking requirement. 

But when City Councilor Matt Cota asked city zoning staff whether the rule change exempted Beta from constructing the extra building in front of its parking lots, their response fell short of a firm yes.

“The change here indicates that if a building is part of the security ‘fence,’ then parking for that domain can be in front of the building,” said Paul Conner, the city’s director of planning and zoning. “I think that's as far as I can say without going into the very specifics of something that is still potentially live with the (Development Review Board).”

While its manufacturing facility has been approved, Beta still needs an administrative permit to begin construction, Conner told VTDigger. The company has yet to apply for that permit, he said. 

In addition to the parking change, Monday night’s zoning amendment also required new developments to allot a certain amount of open space as part of their layout, based on the number of residential units or square footage.

The push to accommodate Beta’s expansion through a city zoning change was accompanied by a similar effort at the state level. Thomas Chittenden, a South Burlington city councilor and Democratic state senator, introduced an amendment to the state’s annual transportation budget that would have stripped cities and towns of the ability to regulate parking next to airports such as Burlington International Airport. 

While the House has since removed Chittenden’s amendment from the bill, the proposal sparked outcry among some in South Burlington, who saw the measure as an intrusion into local affairs, and argued that it could diminish the city’s oversight of any future expansion of the airport. 

Chittenden’s support for his own amendment wavered as information raced through the Statehouse last week. After Beta received its permit to build the manufacturing facility, he told VTDigger it was not necessary. But when Beta executives and Gov. Phil Scott’s administration told him they preferred a state-level solution to a city zoning change, Chittenden said, he followed their lead. 

“I’m not embarrassed by it,” the senator said Monday night of his changes in stance. “It’s a transparent process and I was taking in lots of different information.”

Eventually, Beta Chief Operating Officer Blain Newton endorsed the local solution. On April 29, Newton co-wrote a letter with South Burlington City Manager Jessie Baker to Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, saying that the company would only support tacking Chittenden’s amendment back onto the bill if the city’s zoning changes did not pass.

In a statement issued after Monday’s vote, a Beta spokesperson said the company was reviewing the zoning change “to understand its implications on the viability and timeline of our project.”

“Our concern continues to be timing given how quickly we need to move to meet our deadlines and whether the (Development Review Board) will act in accordance with the City Manager and the City Council’s stated intent tonight,” Beta spokesperson Jake Goldman said. 

Baker, meanwhile, cast the interplay between Beta and South Burlington officials over the past month as a positive sign for the community.

“To me, this is really a success story in the City of South Burlington,” Baker said. “A cutting-edge company that’s at the forefront of the climate change discussion wants to expand in our city. When we found that there were local hurdles to enabling them to build as they intended, we were able to work quickly to address both their permitting concerns and the regulatory concerns through a local solution.”

But while Baker saw the Monday night vote as a conclusion to the parking saga, the attempt to clear a path for Beta in Montpelier drew fiery criticism from City Councilor Meaghan Emery.

The recently reelected professor at the University of Vermont took partial credit for pressuring House lawmakers to ditch Chittenden’s amendment, and interrupted the council’s discussion multiple times to accuse her colleague of being dishonest.

Emery’s interjections provoked stern warnings, and eventually a pound of the gavel, from Council Chair Helen Riehle.

“Please don’t interrupt him,” Riehle admonished Emery. “It’s just rude.”

Riehle, a former state senator, defended Chittenden’s reversals, describing them as natural in a process where elected leaders are given evolving information.

“That’s what that whole world is about,” she said. 

While Cota and City Councilor Tim Barritt mostly stayed out of the fray, Cota suggested that the city hire a lobbyist when issues that affect South Burlington appear before the Legislature in future sessions. 

“We are lucky that we have so many good advocates and so much knowledge of what happens in Montpelier,” Cota said. “But sometimes you need a professional.”

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Burlington reporter Jack Lyons is a 2021 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He majored in theology with a minor in journalism, ethics and democracy. Jack previously interned at the Boston Globe, the Berkshire Eagle and WDEV radio in Waterbury. He also freelanced for VTDigger while studying remotely during the pandemic in 2020.

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