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Thursday, December 16, 2021

Posted By on Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 5:53 PM

click to enlarge Weinberger Pushes Zoning Changes to Boost Housing Supply
Derek Brouwer ©️ Seven Days
Mayor Miro Weinberger
Mayor Miro Weinberger will push for major zoning changes in Burlington's South End and beyond in a bid to ease the housing crisis, he announced Thursday.

Weinberger released a 10-point plan to open areas of the city to builders. The goal is to roughly double the rate of development to enable construction of 1,250 more housing units by 2027.

“Every neighborhood in the city has the potential to welcome many more households than they do today, while becoming even stronger and more appealing places to live than they are today,” Weinberger said at a press conference outside City Hall.

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Thursday, December 2, 2021

Posted By on Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 11:12 AM

click to enlarge Champlain Housing Trust Buys Williston Hotel to Convert Into Apartments
Sasha Goldstein ©️ Seven Days
The former TownePlace Suites in Williston
The Champlain Housing Trust is converting a Marriott hotel in Williston into 72 apartments for formerly homeless and low-income Vermonters.

The housing group purchased the TownePlace Suites on Tuesday for $13.4 million using federal COVID-19 stimulus money and state funds. The 72 studio and one-bedroom apartments are expected to open by next summer.

Affordable housing is a critical need in Chittenden County, where rentals are scarce and prices are high. The National Low Income Housing Coalition said Vermonters need to make more than $23 an hour to afford a typical two-bedroom rental. Renters in Vermont make, on average, about $14 per hour.

The apartments at the former TownePlace Suites — to be renamed Zephyr Place — will rent for $850 to $1,050 a month, including utilities. That’s about 20 percent off the fair market rent for the region, said Chris Donnelly, CHT's community relations director. He expects most to be rented by single people or couples. The complex is off Route 2A, not far from the intersection with Route 2.

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Friday, November 19, 2021

Posted By on Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 4:11 PM

click to enlarge Federal Funding Approved for Bridge to Carry Cyclists, Pedestrians Across I-89
Matthew Roy ©️ Seven Days
A pedestrian heading from Burlington to South Burlington Friday afternoon
Vermont will receive nearly $9.8 million to construct a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists over Interstate 89, state and federal officials announced Friday.

The project will allow pedestrians to bypass the busy Route 2 and I-89 interchange, where they must use crosswalks to navigate heavy traffic on highway ramps. It'll enable easier and safer walking and biking from the University of Vermont campus and medical center to South Burlington's busy business district along the Dorset Street and Williston Road corridors.

South Burlington officials once envisioned using gondolas as a potential solution for safety issues, but opted for the bridge plan instead.

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Monday, November 8, 2021

Posted By on Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 3:50 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Expects $2.2 Billion From Federal Infrastructure Bill
Colin Flanders ©️ Seven Days
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday
A sweeping federal infrastructure package expected to be signed into law this week will send Vermont an estimated $2.2 billion over the next decade, according to the state's congressional delegation.

The windfall represents the biggest infusion of federal funding in Vermont's history, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and is in addition to more than $2 billion headed the state’s way thanks to a pair of federal COVID-19 relief packages passed over the last 18 months.

The latest federal investment, Sanders said in a statement, "will not just repair our roads and bridges, but will help clean up Vermont’s drinking water supply, increase access to affordable, reliable internet service [and] help transition our public transit systems away from fossil fuels."

At a press conference on Monday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) hailed the bill as a historic investment in the nation’s future — one that will create thousands of new jobs in Vermont.

Asked about the hefty price tag, Leahy added, “Consider the alternative. The alternative is to have our waterways, our water supply, roads and bridges deteriorate, and then cost twice as much to fix them up.”

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Posted By on Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 12:25 AM

click to enlarge Burlington School Board Considers Sites for a New High School
Alison Novak ©️ Seven Days
Screenshot of the Burlington school board

Real estate advisers White + Burke presented 16 potential sites for a new Burlington High School to the school board Tuesday night, including the infamous downtown CityPlace pit, the South End farmers market location and what's known as the downtown Gateway Block.


The district is preparing to embark on a massive building project after the discovery of chemicals known as PCBs led officials to close the high school’s Institute Road campus last September. Students learned remotely until the school district signed a 3.5-year lease for the former Macy’s department store building on Cherry Street, for $1.2 million annually. Students started attending classes there in March.

White + Burke project manager Joe Weith described the first phase of the site evaluation as "a very broad search" whose results the board will whittle down in coming weeks.

“It’s a pretty long list that we considered,” Weith said. “We wanted to make sure that we cast a broad net and really took a good look at any sites out there that were large enough that we thought could potentially work.”

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Thursday, July 15, 2021

Posted By on Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 6:56 PM

click to enlarge Redstone to Drop Lawsuits Against CityPlace Burlington Project
Courtesy of Freeman French Freeman
A rendering of CityPlace Burlington on Cherry Street
Updated on Friday, July 16, 2021.

Redstone has dropped its lawsuit against the City of Burlington and has also agreed to drop its lawsuits against the beleaguered CityPlace Burlington project as part of a global settlement between the parties.

The agreement says the city will pay Redstone $400,000 in tax-increment financing funds for an easement to build a road underneath the company’s building at 100 Bank Street, which is adjacent to the CityPlace site. The easement, for 4,000 square feet of Redstone’s property, will allow the city to reconnect a portion of Pine Street that was lost to the former mall.

The city also agreed to provide Redstone with up to 200 parking spaces in city-owned garages, at the city’s prevailing rate, for at least five years. The settlement is the result of two mediation sessions between the city, CityPlace team and Redstone.

“I initiated and led this mediation because it was clear that Redstone and the developers of CityPlace were on a path of serious and deepening disagreement that threatened to delay or terminate the long-anticipated, transformative downtown project,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement Friday. “I am grateful that the two sides set aside their differences and worked hard to get to this agreement that will do so much good for the community.”

The agreement still must be approved by both the Burlington City Council and, because TIF funds are involved, the Vermont Economic Progress Council.

Once final, the agreement will resolve Redstone's four legal challenges against the project, the first of which was filed last summer. That civil suit claimed that the 2018 teardown of the former mall damaged 100 Bank Street, and that Redstone had to "accept less in rent than it otherwise would" because of the gaping pit left behind.
In May, Redstone appealed CityPlace's zoning permit to the Vermont Superior Court's Environmental Division, claiming that the developers failed to analyze the project's impact on traffic and stormwater. Redstone also argued that the city should have reviewed the project under former zoning regulations that would have required additional parking spaces.

In June, Redstone ramped up its opposition with two additional lawsuits, including one in U.S. District Court, that named the CityPlace team, city planning staff and members of the volunteer Development Review Board. Redstone argued that the project permit violated its property rights by allowing Pine Street to be rebuilt underneath its Bank Street building.

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Friday, July 9, 2021

Posted By on Fri, Jul 9, 2021 at 5:13 PM

click to enlarge Southern Vermont's Jamaica Cottage Shop Sold to New Hampshire Company
Courtesy Domenic Mangano
Domenic Mangano
Jamaica Cottage Shop, a Londonderry company that produces sheds and small homes, was sold Friday  to a homebuilding company in Claremont, N.H.

The business and its 90 employees will stay in Londonderry, said Domenic Mangano, who founded the Cottage Shop in 1995. The purchaser is Bill Silverstein, owner of WHS Homes, which produces homes under an array of brands.

Mangano declined to say how much he sold the company for. But he said the employees probably won’t see much difference in the work they are doing. They were told of the impending sale two weeks ago, said one employee who asked that his name not be used in the story.

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Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Posted By on Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 4:15 PM

click to enlarge State Officials, Advocates Prep for the End of the Eviction Moratorium
File: Kim Scafuro
The end is near for the eviction moratorium that has been in place since the start of the pandemic.

On July 15, Vermont courts will allow pending eviction actions to go forward, meaning tenants can be ordered out for nonpayment of rent or for other reasons.

Some tenants, in cases where a court had already ruled in favor of the landlord, could be told to leave 14 days after Vermont's state of emergency ends, said Grace Pazdan, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid. With COVID-19 infection rates low, and with 80 percent of Vermont's eligible population at least partly vaccinated, the state of emergency is due to expire Tuesday at midnight.

A national eviction moratorium, established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is due to end June 30.

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Thursday, June 10, 2021

Posted By on Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 10:54 PM

click to enlarge Redstone Files Two More Suits Against CityPlace Burlington Project
File: James Buck
CityPlace Burlington construction site
Updated on June 11, 2021.

Redstone ramped up its opposition to the CityPlace Burlington project this week with two new lawsuits that challenge the project's legal standing.

The Burlington development firm filed cases in Vermont Superior Court’s civil division and in U.S. District Court. The filings name not only Redstone's rival developers as defendants but also city planning staff and members of the volunteer Development Review Board.

The federal suit claims that the city violated Redstone’s property rights because the project permit allows a new road to be built underneath its building at 100 Bank Street, which is adjacent to the CityPlace site.

The filing also claims that the Development Review Board could not objectively assess CityPlace’s development plan because the city would financially benefit from its approval.

“The City of Burlington cannot be a judge in its own case,” Matthew Byrne, the attorney representing Redstone partners Erik Hoekstra and Larry Williams, wrote in the filing.

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Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Posted By on Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 1:05 PM

click to enlarge New Haven Finds New Home for Historic Train Depot
Caleb Kenna
New Haven Train Depot
New Haven officials have found a new home for their historic train depot, bringing an end to months of discussion over whether the 170-year-old building would face a wrecking ball in the name of progress.

The brick depot has been in jeopardy since Amtrak deemed it to be a safety risk— it sits less than 12 feet from the track — and determined that it must be removed ahead of the long-awaited resumption of passenger rail service between Burlington and Rutland. That route is expected to restart by early next year and will send passenger trains past the station at speeds of up to 59 miles per hour.

The state learned of Amtrak's position on the matter several years ago but only informed New Haven of the predicament this January, setting off a mad dash to determine whether the historic building could be saved.

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