Updated at 8:59 p.m.

After years of stalled talks, the University of Vermont has a tentative new agreement with the City of Burlington to build more student housing if its enrollment continues to grow, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced on Monday.

A draft memorandum of understanding says UVM will build 1.5 beds for every undergraduate enrolled above its fall 2023 enrollment of 11,614. In exchange, the city will modify zoning for three UVM-owned parcels — 280 East Avenue, the Waterman Block on South Prospect Street and Trinity Campus on Colchester Avenue — allowing it to build up to 1,500 new beds, the agreement says.

The deal would expire in 2028 and is subject to a council vote, planned for early next year. But it’s no sure thing: Councilors raised numerous concerns with the proposal at a meeting Monday night.

If approved, the agreement would be the first between the city and school in four years. A previous deal, which required UVM to build one bed per new student, lapsed in 2019, when UVM refused to negotiate a new one. Since then, fall undergrad enrollment has grown by more than 900 students, university data show.
“After a year of discussions and hard work, we now have a plan to up-zone not one parcel, but three separate large UVM-owned lots,” Weinberger said in a statement. “While construction always takes a long time and involves significant uncertainty, this agreement creates a clear path to reducing student housing pressures.”



Notably, the deal doesn’t change UVM’s longstanding policy to house only first-year and sophomore students on campus — meaning that while UVM has agreed to build more housing if it enrolls more students, it hasn’t agreed to house those students all four years. Those additional students could eventually seek off-campus housing, which is already in short supply.

Councilors cited those concerns in February, when UVM requested a zoning change to build 400 undergrad and 120 graduate beds at Trinity Campus. At the time, UVM officials said they didn't want to grow enrollment, but the council ultimately tabled the proposal.

The proposed agreement says UVM aims to enroll about 3,000 first-year students every fall; this year, that number was 2,896, up from 2,636 in 2019. The agreement also says UVM will provide the city with an enrollment report every year. The city zoning change would allow buildings up to 80 feet tall, compared to the 35-foot height limit in place now.

In a statement on Monday, mayoral spokesperson Samantha Sheehan said the agreement would achieve a longstanding city goal to keep enrollment from outpacing new beds. She acknowledged concerns about student overflow into city neighborhoods but pointed to UVM’s plans to build a 540-bed complex near Centennial Woods, the majority of which would be for juniors and seniors, officials have said.

Before Monday's meeting, Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2) told Seven Days he doesn’t think the proposed bed-to-student ratio is aggressive enough. If 100 more students enroll next year, UVM would have to build 100 beds for them, plus 50 others. That isn’t enough to address UVM’s existing housing deficit, which has squeezed students into too-small dorm rooms, Bergman said.

Even more concerning to Bergman: If enrollment stays level, the deal wouldn't require UVM to build any new beds. “It’s not ambitious enough,” he said of the proposal.

Councilor Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5), in an interview before the meeting, said the deal would ideally push UVM to build even more. But he thinks building some housing is better than none — and he recognized this may be all UVM will agree to.



“I’m grateful they’ve come as far as they have,” Traverse said. “I don’t think we should do nothing to expand housing opportunities for students in Burlington.”