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.

Maps of the Champlain Parkway

Here is a link to a 6.5 MB pdf file of a recent (but not quite current) design for the Champlain Parkway.  We're posting this version because the newer versions are engineering drawings that are pretty difficult to interpret if you aren't an engineer.  The images are a bit fuzzy, as they were created based on digital photos of the big posterboards that DPW uses at meetings.  (DPW was unable to locate the original digital files of these posterboards, so we had to take pictures of them to get them online.)  Thanks to Jon Shenton for stitching the images together and making them presentable.
Click here to see the map

Report on First Meeting of Citizens' Committee

At the two community meetings that we (Jason Van Driesche of Local Motion, Roy Feldman of SEABA, and Elisa Nelson of the Ward 5 NPA) organized in mid-March, a large number of people offered to serve on the Citizens' Committee on the Champlain Parkway.  It took a lot of head-scratching to figure out who to ask to be on the committee, as we wanted it to be broadly representative but not too large.  Here is what we came up with:

• Will Flender (Flynn/Home area resident and Burlington Walk-Bike Council member) 
• Rick Norcross (Maple/King area resident and South End business owner) 
• Basil Vansuch (Ward 5 NPA steering committee member and Flynn/Home area resident) 
• Brian Waxler (with Pomerleau Real Estate, which owns many commercial properties in the South End) 
• Liz Segal (owner of The Lamp Shop on Pine Street) 
• Jon Shenton (Five Sisters resident and graphic designer) 
• Louise Stoll (Southwind resident and former assistant secretary of transportation under Bill Clinton) 
• Kate and Ella (fifth-grade students at Champlain Elementary, working as a team) 
• Jason Van Driesche (Five Sisters resident and Local Motion staff) 
• Roy Feldman (South End resident and SEABA director) 

The committee met for the first time last week.  Our discussion focused mainly on process -- that is, how we would approach the task of developing recommendations over the next few months.  We also reviewed the recommendations that came out of the two community meetings and began to organize and prioritize them.  Our next meeting will be with the folks at Burlington Public Works, with the goal of asking a lot of questions and developing a clearer understanding of where the project is at.

Within a month or two, we should have something that will be ready for community review.  At that point, we'll need lots of feedback and guidance from other South End residents and business owners as to whether we're on the right track.  Stay tuned for updates!  And contact Jason at jason@localmotion.org with any ideas or questions.  

What happens next?

Now that we've held two community meetings to provide guidance for the Citizens' Committee on the Champlain Parkway, we're ready to get to work! Here's what will happen over the next three or four months:

We build the committee.  Now that both meetings are done, we’ll sit down and take a look at the names of all the folks who offered to serve on the committee.  From those names, we’ll do our best to identify seven or eight people who, taken together, represent the full range of needs and interests related to this project.  We will then contact those folks and ask them to serve, and we’ll also contact everyone else who volunteered to thank them for being willing.

Report from first two community meetings

The community meetings on March 15 and 16 were a big success!  The first meeting -- focused on residents' concerns -- attracted about 15 or 20 people, and we spent an hour and a half identifying community needs that should be taken into account in the final design, should the project be built.  Some of the needs and ideas included:

• Safe crossings for pedestrians at all intersections
• Continuous sidewalks and bike paths along the entire length of the project (including upper Pine Street)
• Good lighting and attractive landscaping throughout
• Measures to minimize infiltration of truck noise into neighborhoods
• Careful integration of public transit stops and facilities

Here's a link to some TV coverage from WCAX from the first meeting.

The second meeting -- focused on local business issues -- brought up many of the same ideas and needs.  In particular, there was strong support among business owners for a highly pedestrian-friendly design along Pine Street.  In addition, business owners focused on the following:

• Careful phasing and management of construction so as to minimize impacts on business revenues
• Improvement of parking along Pine Street

What is the Citizens' Committee?

The Champlain Parkway (aka the Southern Connector) has been an ongoing issue for Burlington's South End for over 40 years.  After all these years, it is anyone's guess as to whether it will ever be built.  However, the project recently reached a major milestone with regard to approvals from the Federal government and is probably as close as it has ever been to becoming a reality.  The bottom line is, we as a community do not want to be caught unprepared if it does in fact get built this time around.  

To this end, three Burlington organizations -- the South End Arts and Business Association (SEABA), the Ward 5 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA), and Local Motion -- are working together to convene a "Citizens Committee on the Champlain Parkway."  This informal group will meet over the next few months to review the plan for the Connector with three questions in mind:

·         How can the project be made to protect and restore neighborhood quality of life throughout the South End?

·         How can the project be made to enhance the local business climate and increase commercial property values along Pine Street and surrounding commercial areas?

·         How can the project be made to improve safety and create a more attractive environment throughout the immediate project corridor for people on foot, on bike, and in wheelchairs?