After 40 years of off-and-on consideration, the construction of the Champlain Parkway in Burlington may yet move forward.
Last week, the Vermont Environmental Court approved an Act 250 permit to complete the road meant to lessen traffic between I-189 and downtown Burlington. The road would run from Lakeside Avenue in Burlington’s South End to Pine Street.
Parkway challenger Fortieth Burlington LLC, owners of the Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue, argued that the Parkway will cause traffic congestion at the intersection of the Parkway and Pine Street. The company appealed the permit two years ago.
In his decision last week, Judge Thomas Walsh noted that although traffic concerns are valid, they cannot form the basis for denying the permit. Walsh mandated a traffic monitoring system after the project is built.
According to the Burlington Free Press, Carl Lisman, the attorney representing Fortieth Burlington LLC, said his client may appeal the decision.
The city is now working to obtain the necessary rights of way and other permits.
“The Parkway is a long-planned transportation infrastructure project that will support the dynamic growth in Burlington’s South End and Downtown,” Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement following the decision. “The Court’s requirement to monitor the intersection of the Parkway and Lakeside Avenue is reasonable and consistent with the City’s intent to optimize the operation of that key intersection. My Administration will continue to work aggressively to get the long-delayed Parkway built.”
The project was initially proposed in 1965, as part of the Burlington Belt Line, according to the Parkway website.
The city considered the project several times during the 1970s and ’80s, but plans were hindered the route’s proximity to the Pine Street Barge Canal, which had been contaminated by oil. At various points in the late ’90s, the Burlington City Council considered environmental impacts of alternative routes and in 2010, the city and the Federal Highway Administration approved the current route.
