Burlington commission votes to remove parking spaces, add bike lanes on N. Winooski Ave.

The northernmost part of North Winooski Avenue will look a bit different after this summer following a vote Wednesday that decided the fate of the road's on-street parking.

The Public Works Commission voted unanimously to eliminate 40 parking spaces on the east side of the street to make way for two-way bike lanes from Riverside Avenue to Union Street. The decision came after three years of planning, studies and feedback from community members, including strong concern over the loss of parking for organizations and businesses along the corridor. The relining will happen after the street is repaved this summer.

Community members and commissioners had time to speak their minds Wednesday. Some saw bike lanes as worth the loss of some parking spaces. Others saw the decision as hurting local non-profits and businesses.

Conflicting perspectives on parking

The main disagreements stem from different views about possible solutions to the loss of parking.

Parking studies show that privately owned off-street lots could potentially mitigate the loss of on-street parking, but the city has yet to enter into an agreement with a lot owner despite extensive outreach and a proposal to manage lots for owners in exchange for 20% of profits.

Michael Monte, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust, said Wednesday evening that most of the businesses and organizations with lots won't partner with the city because they don't have the capacity to share their lots with the public.

"When you eliminate this parking, what you're doing, it's really a hope and a prayer for the future," Monte said. "....I think you're trying to do good here but you've got no plan to do it."

Commissioner Solveig Overby said she saw a lack of cooperation as the issue.

"We don't have a shortage of parking spots but we do have a shortage of equity in its actual availability," Overby said. "In the process of trying to communicate with the large parking lot owners, I discovered a lack of interest in working with us to find solutions. To me, I was surprised and concerned."

Commissioner Daniel Munteanu spoke about the importance of the commission forming relationships with the businesses and organizations on the street as neighbors, not just as commissioners, but admitted that the process was difficult because of past harm.

"People's lack of trust in the city's processes and feeling unlistened to is certainly getting in the way of that a little bit," Munteanu said.

Monte argued that the parking loss will negatively effect the most vulnerable including low-income people and people of color, but the city's parking management plan says that according to U.S. Census Data, people of color and low-income people are more likely to use other types of transportation than cars. The plan, however, points out the challenges that would be faced by people who commute in from rural areas, residents and the employees and patients at the Community Health Center who are already pressed for parking.

Bike lanes and parking space discussions since 2017

The discussion of bike lanes on Winooski Avenue dates back to 2017 when the planBTV Walk Bike Master Plan was published. The north-south corridor was identified as an ideal street for cyclists because of the number of businesses and services along it and its connectivity from the south to the north end of the city and it's eventual connection, via Riverside Avenue, to the Winooski Bridge.

Since then, South Winooski Avenue has been repainted to include bike lanes and less parking, but North Winooski Avenue has yet to be touched. Only the portion of North Winooski between Pearl Street and North Union Street currently has a one-way bike lane.

With the state's upcoming repaving of the street, discussions have accelerated in past two years to put bike lanes on the rest of Winooski Avenue. The city has done online and in-person outreach throughout the process:

• March 2020: City Council passes a resolution in support of adding two-way bike lanes on North Winooski Avenue from Pearl Street to Riverside Avenue with the resulting loss of parking. The resolution also required the Department of Public works to produce a Parking Management Plan to decide how to regulate the remaining parking and meet parking needs.

• March 2021: A stakeholder committee made up of three city councilors and four community members representing residents and business owners begins meeting about the changes to North Winooski Avenue.

• October 2021: Designs of each block are drafted.

• February 2022: Department of Public Works recommends a phased approach − remove parking only in the section north of North Union/Decatur Street. Stakeholder committee passes a motion that the parking management plan presented to them Feb. 17 does not meet the needs of residents businesses and service providers on North Winooski Ave.

• March 2022: City Council votes 8-4 on a resolution in favor of the loss of 40 parking spots and the striping of two-way bike lanes on North Winooski Avenue from North Union Street to Riverside Avenue with requirements that businesses and organizations be offered funding for transportation demand management, that the city would fund Green Mountain Transit's City Loop so riders would not have to pay and that the Department of Public Works work with entities on the street to identify off-street parking options before parking is taken away.

• This past year: City offers transportation demand management grants and other support for small businesses, canvases neighborhood twice, secures six off-street parking spots for Community Health Centers of Burlington, attempts to form agreements with private lot owners.

Contact Urban Change Reporter Lilly St. Angelo at lstangelo@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @lilly_st_ang.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington parking: N. Winooski Avenue to lose 40 spaces