Decades after the project’s inception, the Montpelier Transit Center has finally opened its doors.
First imagined in 1998 by the Montpelier Conservation Commission, the project — dedicated Friday with an official ribbon cutting — has had to overcome budget struggles, environmental issues and regulatory hoops on its way to becoming a reality.
Now, 21 years and $17 million later, the center is up and running, with 30 housing units and a full bus terminal in the heart of the capital city’s downtown where a scrap yard used to be.
“It has been such a long time planning and preparing for this project, I think we’re just excited to have it completed,” City Manager Bill Fraser said in an interview.
Fraser said without a transit center, Montpelier buses had to stop in the middle of busy streets in front of places like the Statehouse, the supermarket or City Hall. With the new center, he said, there’s going to be a lot more organization to that system, so that there can be a centralized place where passengers can gather — alongside a rail line, bike path and potential parking garage.
Green Mountain Transit plans to move the downtown pickup point for three of its city routes — the Capital Shuttle, Montpelier Circulator and Hospital Hill — to the new center, eliminating a stop outside Shaw’s supermarket. Commuter routes to Barre, Burlington Northfield, St. Johnsbury and Waterbury will also move to the center, along with Greyhound buses that currently stop at City Hall.
However, the larger coach buses will not be able to maneuver the tight turn directly outside the center, and will instead stop on the street, rather than under the overhang at the transit center itself.
“That was a planned operational design,” Fraser said. “Too tight of turns in those big buses was not going to work.”
Fraser said GMT hasn’t actually moved its routes to the transit center yet, noting there are certain rules regarding publishing route changes that can’t be rushed. However, he said, the routes are expected to move within the next two or three weeks.
And as far as the housing component of the project goes, Fraser said about 10 of the 30 units have been filled, and the rest of the tenants are expected to move in soon to the building’s six studio units, 18 one-bedrooms, and six two-bedrooms. Nineteen of the units will be affordable housing, and 11 will be market-rate, Fraser said.
“Montpelier, like a lot of places, has a housing shortage,” he said. “So having affordable housing anywhere in the city is a plus. We think the key to a vibrant downtown is having residents that live there, walking and shopping in that area. So these 20 units right in the center of town, we think will be great for the residents and great for the city.”
The project was funded by a number of federal and state grants, including about $5 million from the Federal Highway Administration, $5 million from Housing Vermont, $3 million from the City of Montpelier, $2 million from the Federal Transit Administration, and $1 million from the Vermont Agency of Transportation Surface Transportation Program.
Fraser said despite all of the hold-ups on the front end of the project, once the actual construction started, it stayed on-schedule and on-budget.
“It took a lot of time and a lot of changes and costs leading up to the last year and a half of construction,” he said. “But once it got underway, the project went really smoothly.”
