An Inside Look at How Burlington Plans Its Biggest Investments
Burlington is getting serious about long-term financial planning. Here's how town administration is reshaping the way Burlington's biggest investments get made.
In the coming months, Burlington will begin another year of work supporting daily life for its 26,000+ residents.
Annual street, sidewalk, and parking lot paving will move forward this summer alongside continued work on Burlington’s water filtration system. Overlook Park is undergoing a full renovation, with accessibility improvements expected by year’s end, while upgrades to the Town Common – including a renovated gazebo and improved walkways – are also underway.
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These annual projects are small steps toward keeping the town safe and navigable for residents. But this year, Burlington’s town administration has begun an initiative to bring the town’s biggest financial decisions into a more cohesive, collaborative process.
Assistant Town Administrator Patrick Lawlor said this “unified and integrated capital improvement program” – essentially a shared roadmap for major town investments – has already shown promise, as town departments have met to go through and prioritize each item on the town’s capital improvement wish list. The goal is to build on the interdepartmental collaboration the town has already begun fostering.
Though the budget can be flexible from year to year, said Lawlor, “We’ve identified a target on how much we think we should be spending on capital and marching toward that.” He added that the process sets the expectations with all departments holistically. “This is what we can afford. This is how you can plan and limit unexpected projects or surprises, and that way departments are accountable, and the town knows what’s going on. Everything rolls up to our long-range capital plan.”
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Lawlor said this transparency has already resulted in more collaboration between departments, and town administrators also expect residents to benefit from this new system. The capital planning process has drawn criticism in recent years for inconsistencies in how large expenditures are prioritized. These debates highlighted a larger concern among residents: how the town decides which big projects move forward, and when.
Most recently, many of the residents who spoke out against the $330-million Burlington High School project said it should have taken priority over Fox Hill, which was accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s reimbursement program and approved by Town Meeting with $100,000,000 in funding (around 30% of which is state-reimbursable).
“Everything rolls up to our long-range capital plan.”
- Patrick Lawlor, Assistant Town Administrator
Town Meeting also took exception to an athletic field project that was proposed in 2024, decreasing the total funding allocation and noting the project hadn’t been on the capital plan in years past. The police station tells a more cautionary tale: $46 million in funding was recently approved for a new facility, but only after the existing building had deteriorated beyond repair.
An integrated capital planning process has been in the works for a while. In 2025, Town Meeting approved a bylaw amendment that would require a presentation on the town’s capital plan in January and May before large financial commitments are made by the body. And Lawlor, who joined the town administration last May, has been at work to establish this process and get departments on board.
“There are some small tweaks in the long-range planning approach that hopefully Town Meeting will embrace,” said Lawlor, who will continue working to refine this process as budget season continues through May. Getting to this point has taken years and hasn’t always been easy, but once it’s in place Lawlor and his boss, Town Administrator John Danizio, believe this unified planning process will become an essential pillar of town operations long into the future.
