Sally Willard’s Town Meeting Participation

I was encouraged to run for Town Meeting by Betty Bullock, a friend, neighbor and fellow small business owner. After being elected in 1998 to Town Meeting, I was assigned to the Capital Budget Committee where I served five years, with three years as the Chair.

While on the Capital Budget Committee, Harold DuLong, a Burlington native, encouraged me to consider the Land Use Committee. I was appointed to the Land Use Committee (LUC) in 2003 and served as Chair from September 2007 through September 2013. As committee Chair, I was responsible for setting the agenda, organizing and conducting meetings. I was responsible for the committee’s reports and presentations to Town Meeting.

During my tenure as LUC chair, the committee evolved from only responding to zoning articles to a committee that proactively anticipated the future needs of the community. We saw that a majority of Town Meeting Members (TMMs) had begun to view the Planned Development District (PDD) as a menace to Burlington’s non-commercial residents. In 2011, with encouragement and assistance from the Planning Board and Planning department staff, the LUC re-wrote Article 12 of the Zoning Bylaw. We believed the PDD is a good zoning vehicle for multi-use commercial sites and that the bylaw only needed better definition. The re-written bylaw was on the January 2012 Warrant. It was passed with a vote of 67 in favor and 2 opposed.

In addition to Article 12 of the ZBL, the Committee proposed and Town Meeting passed a General Bylaw article concerning Outdoor Lighting (Article XIII Section 6.0) in September 2013.

As Chair of the LUC, I moderated the discussion and interviewed proponents and opponents of many projects.

In May 2013, I submitted a warrant article asking Town Meeting to support a resolution for “a Constitutional Amendment to stipulate that Corporations are not people and do not enjoy the first amendment rights of people.” The warrant article passed with a vote of 49 for and 30 against.

In 2015 I was elected Town Moderator and held that post for 2 years. I was reelected to Town Meeting in 2018.