John Franco said the 761 parking spaces planned in an above-ground garage aren’t sufficient to support a project that is to include 130,000 square feet of retail, 230,000 square feet of office space, 272 apartments and a preschool at the site of the current Burlington Town Center mall.
The proposed $225 million redevelopment has secured necessary city approvals. Its developer, Don Sinex, owner of the current Town Center mall, announced this week that he’s found an investor that will allow him to finance the construction.
The new building would have three towers in a one-block area from Pine to St. Paul streets and Cherry to Bank streets and would reach 14 stories, making it the tallest structure in Vermont.
Sinex said he would begin demolition and construction in the “coming weeks” as soon as the cash infusion from a New York real estate investment firm is finalized.
Franco and his clients are appealing the project’s regulatory approval in environmental court and asking the court to stay construction. An attorney for Sinex said he’s confident the legal challenge won’t pass muster with a judge.
Franco said the proposed parking garage is inadequate because Sinex plans to tear down the existing 567-space Town Center garage. That facility constitutes 20 percent of the “public off-street parking supply” downtown, according to the city’s downtown parking and transportation management plan.
The garage being built will exceed the minimum parking requirement for the downtown parking district by 26 spaces, according to the Development Review Board’s written approval of the project.
The city’s development ordinance states that the downtown parking district “further reduces (parking) requirements from the baseline standards,” because it includes “an array of public parking” and more transit options, and parking is shared across land users.
The minimal net gain in parking for the massive new project is “going to choke off downtown Burlington,” Franco said.
“The city let them get away with murder. I consider this to be urban planning malpractice,” he added.
Franco said he will raise the parking issue in an early May filing where he plans to ask a judge in the Environmental Division of Chittenden County Superior Court to prevent Sinex from starting demolition.
Brian Dunkiel, an attorney representing Sinex, said the Town Center redevelopment has been approved by the City Council, voters and the Development Review Board. He said he’s confident it will be approved by the environmental court.
The intent of new downtown zoning that city voters approved in November is to create “a more walkable, connected, dense, compact, mixed use and diverse urban center” with “reduced reliance on automobiles,” according to its purpose section.
“If the substance of their lawsuit is to demand more parking spaces, that appears to be in direct conflict with the ordinance,” Dunkiel said.
