Pine Street Coalition May 1 Champlain Parkway Update

 
    Injunction Against Parkway Construction at US District Court
    May 16!

The first US District Court papers and motions since the Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) first filing since June 6, 2019 due by May 16, and the Coalition will file a motion for an immediate injunction on any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  

    Fortieth Burlington Joins in Coalition Lawsuit!

Fortieth Burlington LLC (40th) which owns the major modernized office space in the historic cotton mill, Innovation Center on Lakeside Ave, joins shoulder to shoulder with your Pine Street Coalition (Coalition) in the US District Court Champlain Parkway lawsuit calling for a strong supplemental environmental document process or an entirely new one--the current 2009 document clearly now obsolete and stale.  

The Coalition and 40th immediately seek an injunction against any Parkway construction until litigation ends.  The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major Environmental Impact Statement update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the transportation reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”  That reality includes seriously addressing safety, climate change, racial and low income environmental justice, community economics, and major changes in practically all rules, laws, regulations and practices as well as changes on the ground since the final public hearing on the project almost 16 years ago!  

    Disappointing City Council Action

Certainly we are disappointed—but not discouraged—by the City Council action approving a contract for part of the Parkway from the sole bidder at a cost of $45 million, a figure about 100% higher than budgeted by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. This shows overall construction costs at about twice the $35 million full Parkway construction estimate!  Note the Pine Street Coalition/VT Racial Justice RIGHTway would cut about $8 million in the required tax dollars!  

    The Lawsuit

The aim of the lawsuit is to seek a major 2009 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) update (now based on 2000 Census and traffic data from 2003) or a completely new one so the reality of today can be used rather than that of 2006 when the last public hearing was held—as we say “do it right the first time.”

The stale, obsolete 2009 EIS contains not one sentence on addressing climate change, not a paragraph addressing safety for users, and identifies no issue of racial and low-income equity.  Yet, even after a three year Environmental Justice new rules application the City and VTrans (not a whisker of Parkway change!) utterly failed in application of the rules and ignored unanimous opposition at the one public hearing on the Parkway cutting in two the King Maple community of color, also designated low-income by Gov. Scott.

We all know the basics of the lawsuit

The threat of payback required of the City never made sense as such a requirement still remains discretionary on the part of the Federal Highway Administration—no law absolutely requires it.  That the City Council operated out of fear rather than the best interests and safety of its residents and businesses is troubling.  Much less the issues of racial and low income justice, air quality and climate change, Englesby Brook protection, a newly found endangered species (including the Northern Long Eared bat), and simple waste—all inherently negative in the current harmful Parkway design.

An example of waste is the building of two streets instead of one, Briggs Street and Parkway for an entire block.  Add a sidewalk to a “new” Briggs (now the mud flats), the Parkway and shared use path (mixes 20 mph ebikes and pedestrians including toddlers, those with canes and walkers, etc.)—there are upwards of 125 to 150 feet width of pavement!  This is twice what is needed!  This section is so bizarre Petra Cliffs and perhaps even our City Market Coop have been quietly informed that the City will just put in a driveway across the “new” useless Briggs Street directly onto the Parkway!  Public Works Director Chapin Spencer in the 2016 presentation to the neighborhood where not a word was allowed spoken by the 100 attending could not have been more correct when he said if the project were designed to today it would be different—those words resonate even more today, six years later!

The Flynn Avenue/Briggs Street/Parkway intersection analyzed by the now adjacent City Market Coop also fails with an average vehicle delay almost two minutes (110 seconds) at afternoon peak.  Pine Street Coalition focuses changes on the ground and numerous changed laws and regulations as the basis of its case to call for discarding the current obsolete design. But there is also substantial waste with about 1.75 lane miles of no longer needed roadway and ongoing maintenance costs which would be added to the capital costs of the Parkway.

Unfortunately our Department of Public Works retains little credibility on the Parkway safety or safety on our streets with its decade long record of no serious attention to even one of the City’s twenty high crash intersections on VTrans current list.  All but one of those 20 intersections are signalized and three lie on the edge of the low-income/people of color King Maple neighborhood. With almost one in five of the Vermont high crash intersections on our mostly 25 mph streets, Burlington streets are among the most dangerous in Vermont to walk, bike or travel by car.  About weekly a pedestrian or cyclist is injured along two car occupants.

We can and must do better when spending $130 million now and counting for our South End.  We must “do it right the first time” and install a street, almost a corridor long dedicated pedestrian only sidewalk, and a “bikes only” 2-way bikeway—in short, a roadway we can love!

Informed and focused efforts to alter a major roadway project succeeded early this century in the City supported fight against the Circumferential Highway, and in the Keene, NH citizen battle against a $80 million bypass expansion which was converted to three roundabouts with even better safety and service!

Thank you all for your continued support and counsel!