Council debates new committees for housing and economic development, staff capacity and alternatives
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Summary
Councilors discussed forming committees or planning commission subcommittees to address housing and economic development, weighed volunteer vs. staff-led approaches, and flagged limited staff capacity and the upcoming comprehensive-plan process as a mechanism for deeper work.
Essex Junction councilors debated whether to form new standing committees to pursue housing, economic development and related strategic-plan priorities, or to rely on planning commission subcommittees and community-led, non-municipal organizations.
Councilor Marcus Serta urged creation of forums that bring developers and residents together "so that they can have an appropriate conversation about what housing looks like in the future," saying developers must be at the table because the city will rely on private development for housing supply. He argued a committee structure could sustain volunteer momentum and public involvement for applied projects.
Regina, the city manager, and other councilors cautioned staff capacity is limited. Regina recommended channeling much of the work into the planning commission’s forthcoming comprehensive-plan update, which must be completed in the coming cycle and can include subcommittees to seed content on housing, energy and transportation. "The comprehensive plan work has to be done regardless," Regina said, and subcommittees could include planning commissioners plus outside volunteers to develop actions and priorities.
Councilor Elaine emphasized the need to preserve volunteer momentum by ensuring projects produce near-term results; she urged the council to consider whether the 2025–26 budget should fund additional staff capacity to support volunteer committees and implementation of projects. Other councilors noted prior attempts to start a housing committee had limited volunteer take-up and pointed to nonmunicipal models — such as local economic development organizations — that can operate with more flexibility than public committees constrained by open-meeting rules.
The council heard that the city will receive shared staff capacity via an Economic Mobility and Opportunity special assistant (a program shared among several communities) that could support housing, entrepreneurship or business-support work, but that specific duties and time allocation remain to be defined.
Ending: Councilors agreed to continue discussing the structure and staffing required to pursue housing and economic-development goals during the budget cycle and to use the comprehensive-plan process and subcommittees as initial vehicles while assessing whether additional staff are needed to sustain longer-term committee work.