Court green-lights Champlain Parkway

The long-delayed Champlain Parkway in Burlington this week edged closer to construction — despite its potential to increase traffic congestion — following a ruling this week by the Vermont Environmental Court.

The court's decision to allow an Act 250 permit can be appealed.

Either way, motor commuters to the Queen City have months to mull the persistence of stop-and-go traffic along Pine Street. The Champlain Parkway's intent is to ease traffic from Interstate 189 to downtown.

Judge Thomas Walsh's order, issued late Wednesday, supports the city's claim that the parkway, long called the Southern Connector, would improve driving conditions in much of the South End.

EARLIER: Pros and Cons weighed for Parkway

Notably, Walsh's order also supports key arguments made by parkway challenger Fortieth Burlington LLC, owners of the Innovation Center on Lakeside Avenue.

Walsh wrote that Fortieth "credibly argues that the Parkway will result in unreasonable congestion and unsafe conditions" in the area where the newer motorway joins Pine Street.

Although Walsh ruled the court can not deny the project an Act 250 permit solely because of its potential to worsen driving conditions, the judge imposed conditions — in this case, a series of monitoring measures to take place after construction is complete.

The judge also directed both parties "to work in good faith to resolve any traffic congestion and safety issues."

Burlington attorney Carl Lisman, who represents Fortieth, told the Burlington Free Press Thursday afternoon that his client is considering an appeal to the court's ruling.

Walsh turned down Fortieth's proposal for re-aligning the parkway to form a four-way intersection, rather than one with five entrances that includes the driveway of the Innovation Center.

City officials, meanwhile, will continue to work toward the project's stormwater permits and rights-of-way.

Thursday afternoon, Mayor Miro Weinberger released an upbeat statement on Judge Walsh's ruling:

"The City is very pleased with the Court's decision that the Champlain Parkway complies with Act 250 and that we are now another step closer to its construction The Parkway is a long-planned transportation infrastructure project that will support the dynamic growth in Burlington's South End and Downtown," Weinberger wrote.

He added: "The Court's requirement to monitor the intersection of the Parkway and Lakeside Avenue is reasonable and consistent with the City's intent to optimize the operation of that key intersection. My Administration will continue to work aggressively to get the long-delayed Parkway built."

Contact Joel Banner Baird at 660-1843 or joelbaird@FreePressMedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/vtgoingup.

Champlain Parkway timeline

Most of the northward progress of the Champlain Parkway has taken place on the drawing board:

• Back in the freer-spending early 1960s, a throughway (the "Burlington Beltline") was proposed along the city's western edge — one that would zip motorists north from Interstate 189 in South Burlington to the Circ Highway (Vermont 289) in Colchester, and loop them back to Interstate 89 at Williston.

• By the early 1970s, economic and environmental constraints result in a scaled-back Southern Connector that would follow Pine Street north from I-189, and then veer west to join the southern end of Battery Street.

• Environmental concerns heighten in the late 1970s with a more detailed appreciation for the pollution of wetlands around the Pine Street Barge Canal. Construction within the new Superfund site is ultimately deemed unsafe.

• Throughout the 1980s, the city considers alternative routes. Lakeside Avenue and Pine Street emerge as the most suitable conduits for traffic heading downtown.

• As planning continued in the 1990s, newer versions of the road, which would travel through residential areas, become known as the "Champlain Parkway."

• At the turn of the 21st century, designs for downtown sections of the Parkway show the number of lanes reduced from four to two.

Burlington's downtown — specifically, Main Street — is designated as the roadway's terminus.

Concerns are raised over the added traffic's impact on the historically significant (and economically precarious) King and Maple streets neighborhood.

• April 27, 2012, the District 4 Environmental Commission grants Act 250 approval to the project, with the exception of stormwater permits. Within a month, four legal challenges had been filed.

Among them:

Maple Street resident Allen Hunt objected to the impact traffic might have on a historic and largely low-income neighborhood. Upgrades to the plan's pedestrian access resulted;

Vermont Railway contested some of the parkway's rights-of-way across some of the area's older rail spurs; and

Charles M. Bayer Jr., a principal at Fortieth Burlington LLC, claims that the plan will create congestion at Lakeside Avenue and Pine Street.

• February 2014: The last unsettled appeal to the parkway's Act 250 permit, filed by Fortieth Burlington LLC, takes place in Vermont Environmental Court.

• July 30, 2014: Judge Thomas Walsh rules that concerns over safety and congestion may not, by law, be grounds for denying a permit.

• Ongoing: separate studies of a new route that would divert some downtown traffic from Pine Street, through what is now an eastern section of the rail yard, to Battery Street.

— Source: City of Burlington