Beta’s 40-acre campus awaits final approval

BY COREY MCDONALD VTDigger

Beta Technologies’ proposed 40-acre technology and manufacturing campus could get final approval this month, two years after it was first submitted to the South Burlington’s development review board.

The campus created a stir this time last year, after an issue over a land use condition regarding parking lots left the project in limbo and prompted outcry from residents and politicos such as Gov. Phil Scott.

Now, after a land use amendment allowing for the proposed parking lot was approved by the city council last year, Beta’s master plan and site plan for the site south of the airport seems likely to wrap up with the city’s development review board this month, officials said, giving a green light to the sprawling campus that is critical to the company’s production goals.

“We’ve designed our manufacturing and final assembly facility, and the broader campus, to be a place that advances our business and promotes the values of this community,” a company spokesperson said. “We look forward to getting the facility finished and online, so we can begin manufacturing our electric aircraft and bring more jobs to the community.

“We are nearly there, and we’re really appreciative of the town’s flexibility to convene a special meeting to work through a few final items and keep the project on track,” they said.

If approved, more than 40 acres of brownfield property — known as “South 40” — at the southernmost end of the Burlington International Airport could be redeveloped into a manufacturing campus for final assembly of Beta’s electric aircraft. It would include a manufacturing facility, general aviation hangar, training and cultural center, a mixed office and retail building and a child care facility.

Beta, which was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in a hangar near the airport’s main terminal, first proposed the campus in May 2021. CEO Kyle Clark said at the time that the plant would be able to produce more than 250 aircraft annually and could bring in hundreds of new jobs.

The initial hangup over parking prompted outcry from South Burlington residents, local developers and Gov. Phil Scott, who, at the time, called the project “too important for Vermont” and said he would ask state legislators to step in if the parking lot requirements were not waived.

“This is not just about jobs for Chittenden County; this will have a ripple effect across the state,” the governor said at the time, adding Beta could potentially move its facility to Plattsburgh.

The South Burlington City Council, in May last year, passed an amendment providing an exemption to limits on placement of parking areas. Beta then resubmitted its original plans, including the more than 200 parking spaces.

In July, the company signed a 75-year lease agreement with the airport.

This article originally appeared in South Burlington’s The Other Paper.

In her first trip to Vermont since her husband assumed the presidency, first lady Jill Biden visited Beta Technologies in Burlington on Wednesday, April 5, where she and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona touted the White House’s efforts to fund workforce development and technical education.

As she walked into the aerospace developer’s hangar, located next to Burlington International Airport, Biden shouted a cheery “hello!” to the Beta employees and interns, students, Vermont lawmakers and press awaiting her inside. When she realized that dozens of Beta employees were eagerly watching from the other side of a window separating their offices from the hangar, she beamed up at them, waving with two hands.

Flanked by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch,

D-Vt., U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., Jane Sanders (whose husband, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was unable to attend) and Democratic mayor of Burlington Miro Weinberger, Biden and Cardona listened as Beta interns and technical students from the Northeast Kingdom described their hands-on work, as well as the technical training and dual enrollment courses they have tak- en along the way.

As one Beta intern, Colton Poulin, described his work on Beta’s aircrafts to Biden, the first lady peered inside the plane beside her.

“For most people, a high school diploma alone isn’t enough to find a great career, but they don’t often need a four-year degree to pursue their passions either,” Biden said in a speech at the hangar. “And as this technology brings changes to so many industries, these kinds of learning paths are more important than ever.”

Biden and Cardona also met North Country Career Center students who are learning how to repair electric vehicles and traveled to Burlington for the event.

Burlington was the pair’s second stop of the day, having visited Portland, Maine earlier as part of a White House tour touting the Biden administration’s workforce development efforts.