Updated at 7:36 p.m.
A federal judge has placed a temporary restraining order on construction of the Champlain Parkway over concerns that the project does not meet environmental regulations.
The long-embattled project, which under its current design would add a north-south thoroughfare to the grid of Burlington’s South End, was stalled hours after city officials announced Tuesday they would begin cutting down trees along the parkway’s planned route this week.
Opponents to the project, known as the Friends of Pine Street or Pine Street Coalition, requested the restraining order as part of their ongoing lawsuit against the city, state and federal governments.
The coalition alleges that the governments did not properly account for the impact the project would have on the King and Maple neighborhood, which is more racially diverse than most areas of Burlington. Those claims contradict findings approved by the Federal Highway Administration in January.
In a two-page decision, Judge Geoffrey Crawford of U.S. District Court for Vermont granted the coalition’s request, and barred the city from starting work on the parkway until a Friday morning hearing, which the judge scheduled when issuing the order.
Crawford said he halted the project because the tree clearing “represents an immediate and irreparable loss to the moving parties because the forest cannot be replaced.”
The project’s opponents, Crawford wrote, “raise a number of important issues that the City of Burlington and other defendants have not yet had an opportunity to address.”
In particular, Crawford pointed to the testimony of a student at Champlain Elementary School, who asked the judge in a letter filed by the project opponents not to let the city cut down trees or disturb Englesby Brook, which intersects the planned parkway route.
The project’s first phase, which is scheduled to begin construction this summer, connects Home and Lakeside avenues via a new roadway, then joins with Lakeside Avenue and Pine Street until the latter’s intersection with Kilburn Street.
City officials announced in an email Tuesday they had already installed construction signage for the project, and were prepared to clear “trees and stumps” between Home and Lakeside avenues on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement that the city would comply with the judge’s order.
“The City has overcome all past challenges to get to this point — and we see no materially new issues being raised in today’s filing,” spokesperson Dan McLean said. “We remain confident in the environmental benefits of the project, and look forward to presenting the City’s position at the hearing on Friday.”
