[S]ome of the most noticeable placards around Montpelier this election day are in favor of or in opposition to a new four-story downtown parking garage.
Montpelierites will vote Tuesday on whether or not to approve a $10.5 million, 30-year bond for the municipal project. The city gained approval in September to set up a Tax Increment Financing district in the downtown core and on Barre Street.
Fred Bashara, owner of Capitol Plaza, will donate land to the city for the parking garage. Bashara is planning to build a Hampton Inn along the river behind his existing hotel but has said he needs additional parking to do so.
The hotel would have a 30-year lease for $300,000 per year for 200 parking permits for hotel guests. Including surface parking spots that are part of the development, the city will have 160 parking spots in total.
While most of the money for the project will come from permits and use fees at the parking garage, the TIF district designation allows the city to pool municipal taxes and 70 percent of the education fund taxes collected on the new hotel for the rest of the funding, said city manager Bill Fraser at a city council meeting last week.
Of the bond funding, $9.2 million will be for the garage while $1.3 million is slated for infrastructure including sidewalks, a bike path, lighting and stormwater upgrades.
Many local business owners and residents support the garage, saying it will provide much-needed parking for customers and visitors.
Eric Bigglestone, the owner of Capitol Stationers who co-signed a letter with 31 other businesses supporting the garage, said “lack of parking” has been a common refrain among customers in the 30 years he’s worked downtown.
“It seems like they have a structure and a plan set forth that’s not going to be disadvantageous to taxpayers,” he said of the city’s proposal.
Claire Benedict, co-owner of Bear Pond Books, said the bond vote is “not just about the garage.” The garage and hotel will promote economic development in downtown Montpelier by providing a chain hotel for visitors to stay at while in town, she said.
“We’re currently losing shoppers, diners, all that business every time people go to Waterbury or Burlington to stay overnight,” said Benedict.
Critics have said that Montpelier should be thinking more creatively about development along its rivers. “This is prime waterfront,” said Deb Sachs, executive director of Net Zero Vermont. “You don’t want to give cars a beautiful view of the river — give people a beautiful view of the river.”
City officials have responded that the proposed future garage site, which is currently a privately owned surface parking lot, will only go into public ownership if Bashara donates the land for the garage.
“This is not our land to play with,” Mayor Anne Watson said at a city council meeting last week.
The city of Montpelier, in conjunction with non-profit Vermont River Conservancy, is moving ahead with plans to build a new park where the North Branch flows into the Winooski across the river from the proposed garage to increase public access to the city’s rivers.
Sachs and others have also questioned whether a concrete parking structure aligns with the city’s net zero goals, such as being carbon neutral by 2030. The winning design from a Montpelier 2030 design competition held by Net Zero Vermont called for parking at the edge of town, with shuttle buses, bikes and streetcars taking people downtown.
“It’s high time that we invest in really good (public) transportation options, ones that are convenient and affordable,” Sachs said.