Shared Use Path along Pine Street

Great news:  Burlington Public Works has told us that they will be able to include a shared-use path along the west side of Pine Street from the DPW building all the way to Kilburn Street (by Curtis Lumber)!  The path will be 8 to 10 feet wide for its entire length, and they're working on making it a consistent 10 feet.  It will also be separated from the street by at least a 3 foot wide greenbelt.  This will give cyclists who are not comfortable riding on Pine Street a separated path all the way from Curtis Lumber to Queen City Park Road.

Thanks to Carol Weston, the DPW engineer in charge of the project, and Nicole Losch, DPW's bike-ped planner, for their hard work on this project.  They are operating within some pretty tight constraints, and it took some real creativity and dedication to make this happen.  Send them a quick note of thanks at cweston@ci.burlington.vt.us and at nlosch@ci.burlington.vt.us.  And stay tuned!  We'll post an update with design details as soon as they are available.

Upcoming Parkway-Related Meetings

The city is sponsoring a series of four "public information" meetings about the Champlain Parkway project.  Two of the meetings have already passed as of the date of this post.  Two are still upcoming.  Please attend at least one meeting if you can.  Don't worry if the topic of the meeting you can attend is different from the issues you are  concerned about.  The city will take comments on any related topic at any meeting.

One VERY IMPORTANT thing:  we have heard from the city's consultants for this project that the reason the design does not yet include the things that the Citizens' Committee is recommending -- more crosswalks, a continuous shared use path, and so on -- is because no one has pushed the city to include them.  The consultants can't put these things in themselves, but would like to see the project evolve to include them.  Therefore, public pressure is essential to getting more South End-friendly features incorporated into the design.  Please make your voice heard!

Here are the four meetings -- first two already past, third and fourth upcoming:

 Mobility Issues: Project Performance for Automobiles, Bicycles, and Pedestrians

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 6:30 PM, Champlain Elementary School, 800 Pine Street.

Neighborhood and Community Issues

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 6:30 PM, Contois Auditorium, City Hall.

Economic Development

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 6:30 PM, Water Treatment Plant Conference Room, 234 Penny Lane (at the south end of Lake Street).

Environmental Issues

THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 6:30 PM, Burlington Electric Department, 585 Pine Street.

For more info, see the city's press release at http://www.ci.burlington.vt.us/docs/2012.pdf

Specific Things to Ask the City For

The "Top Seven" recommendations (in the previous post) are intentionally fairly general.  Their purpose is to indicate an overall direction that the committee would like to see the Champlain Parkway design process take as it moves towards possible construction.  Some of them are completely self-explanatory.  Others could use a few "talking points" in order to ensure that the message is heard.  To that end, here is some background and a few specifics related to the top three recommendations.

Committee Releases Top 7 Recommendations

The Citizens' Committee on the Champlain Parkway met three times this spring to develop recommendations for making the Parkway design work for everyone -- neighbors, businesses, and cyclists/pedestrians alike.  At each meeting, we combined and prioritized suggestions made at the two community meetings that launched the process.  At our last meeting on May 17, we came up with a list of seven top recommendations that, if incorporated into the design, will make the Parkway work better for the South End as a whole.