'Ignored and not addressed': Local entities speak out ahead of final N. Winooski Ave. parking vote

Lilly St. Angelo, Burlington Free Press
·4 min read

Burlington's Public Works Commission will make the final decision Wednesday night on whether to remove 40 on-street parking spots and add bike lanes on a portion of North Winooski Avenue, and businesses and non-profits are making a final attempt to change their minds.

The decision will carry out a resolution City Council passed in March 2020 to create bike lanes on the street and take away parking, but the Commission has the last vote in the matter ahead of the state's repaving of the street this summer.

Major non-profits that serve Chittenden County including Community Health Centers of Burlington, Champlain Housing Trust and Feeding Chittenden, have all spoken out against the loss of parking during the public engagement process as well as small businesses on the street. The city, however, recommends the addition of bike lanes and loss of parking to reduce car usage, pollution and to connect the north and south ends of the city with a bike lane.

What will be decided this week

The Public Works Commission will decide on the elimination of 40 spaces on the east side of North Winooski Avenue and the designation of the remaining spaces as various types of time-limited spaces, loading zones or as unmanaged parking, which is free with no time limits, the designation of nearly all the street's current parking.

Out of the 63 remaining parking spots on the west side of the street from Union Street to Riverside Avenue, 44 will be time-limited if the commission passes what the Department of Public Works recommends. This creates parking turnover, which the city argues is helpful for businesses on the street that need short-term parking for customers and clients, but does not create space for long-term parking, a chief concern of businesses, residents and non-profits in the area.

The city has said 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, said Chapin Spencer, director of Public Works, at a Jan. 18 Public Works Commission meeting. These lots would also fail to solve the issue of long-term parking.

"There's very little appetite among business owners to explore long-term parking," Spencer said on Jan. 18, explaining that most of the off-street lots are full at some point in the day but some were open to providing night and weekend parking.

"They really don't care what we think'

The stretch of North Winooski Avenue from Union Street to Riverside Avenue is densely populated by not only residents and small businesses but also by many non-profits including Vermont Legal Aid, Outright Vermont, Feeding Chittenden, the Community Health Center, Sanga Studio, the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance's Richard Kemp Center and Pathways Vermont. Champlain Housing Trust also owns several properties along the street.

Anna McMahon, communications manager for Feeding Chittenden, said via email the organization supports bike infrastructure but is concerned about how the loss of parking will impact their clients with mobility issues.

"Less parking spaces increases the barriers to accessing charitable food organizations, and we want to lift up marginalized voices and make sure their needs are also being considered in this proposal." the organization's statement said.

A diagram shows the changes to North Winooski Avenue from Union street to Archibald Street that will be voted on Wednesday. Businesses and non-profits on the street oppose the loss of parking.
A diagram shows the changes to North Winooski Avenue from Union street to Archibald Street that will be voted on Wednesday. Businesses and non-profits on the street oppose the loss of parking.

Shawn Dolan, co-owner of Dolan's Auto Inc., said he had been to several meetings about the changes, expressed his concerns and was offered bus passes but ultimately felt unheard and not helped. Dolan commutes from far outside of Burlington and needs parking for his own vehicle during the day.

"They don't really care what we think," he said. "They're really ruining this whole section."

Michael Monte, CEO of the Champlain Housing Trust, sent a strongly-worded letter to the Public Works Commission on Monday asking them to delay the decision until the Department of Public Works "successfully" helps businesses, residents and service-providers reduce parking demand and mitigates negative effects of the parking loss that will effect the community's most vulnerable.

A diagram shows the changes to North Winooski Avenue from Archibald Street to Riverside Avenue that will be voted on Wednesday. Businesses and non-profits on the street oppose the loss of parking.
A diagram shows the changes to North Winooski Avenue from Archibald Street to Riverside Avenue that will be voted on Wednesday. Businesses and non-profits on the street oppose the loss of parking.

Monte wrote that non-profits and businesses have shared serious worries about the loss of parking with the city since the beginning of the planning process in 2019 and 2020. He also pointed out that the city-appointed stakeholder committee had deemed the Parking Management Plan insufficient to meeting the needs of North Winooski Avenue businesses, organizations and residents, yet the decision moved forward anyway.

"Our concerns about the ill effects this will have on the neighborhood have been ignored and not addressed thus far," Monte said.

The Public Works Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 15 in the Main Conference Room at 645 Pine St., Burlington. Tune into the meeting virtually by clicking this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83495330508.

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: Will N. Winooski Ave. lose 39% of parking?