Artist rendering of the new Burlington Town Center as seen from Cherry and Pine streets.
Vermont Business Magazine Devonwood Investors LLC, owner and developer of the Burlington Town Center, unveiled last week updated project sketch plans for the Burlington Town Center redevelopment project that respond to several suggestions received from the public and City’s Conservation Board, Design Advisory Board, and Development Review Board over the summer. The updated plans also meet all requirements of the Downtown Mixed-Use Core Overlay zoning amendments passed by the Burlington City Council on September 29, 2016.
The revisions reduce the mass of the upper portions of the project; add housing to the lower façades on Cherry and Bank Streets to keep the maximum amount of apartments allowed under the state’s Priority Housing Project program and to further screen parking; and eliminate altogether an underground corridor to make all retail and services street accessible – all while preserving the substantial public benefits, including housing, street connectivity, and new revenue, this project will provide.
Devonwood has shared these updated plans now to illustrate improvements in the redevelopment brought about by the recently-passed City Council zoning amendment. City residents have been asked to vote on November 8th on ballot measures to affirm the zoning amendment passed by City Council and to approve the use of Tax Increment Financing to fund new, City-owned streets and sidewalk infrastructure adjacent to the redevelopment project.
“We are proposing to recreate a community that was taken away more than 40 years ago by restoring significant housing downtown, and we’ll complement this new community with a more relevant and diverse array of shops and services,” said Don Sinex, principal of Devonwood. “What now is an aging, rusting, underutilized site will become a place where people can once again live, work, and enjoy a connected, vibrant downtown Burlington.”
The redevelopment of the Burlington Town Center will eliminate an out-of-date suburban mall and bring in its place new housing, new streets, new jobs, increased revenue, and greater opportunity to the heart of the downtown. Cherry Street will become welcoming for pedestrians from Church Street toward the waterfront to Battery Street, accomplishing a long-sought City goal of expanding connections between the iconic Church Street Marketplace and beautiful Lake Champlain. Newly-restored blocks at St. Paul and Pine Streets will incorporate Great Streets designs, and will allow easier flow of pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. New services, such as an early childhood education center and community space, and revitalized retail will serve both onsite residents and visitors. The project will meet the State of Vermont’s Priority Housing Project requirements to provide significant affordable housing in a downtown, mixed-use setting, and will also incorporate state-of-the-art stormwater handling, LEED Gold environmentally-responsible construction, and renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, serving as a lead partner in Burlington’s District Energy initiative.
“We are very excited to bring significant housing and new vitality to downtown Burlington through this project,” said Sinex. “Burlington is a beautiful, welcoming, and livable city – and the old-style suburban mall that now sits at its very center does not do it justice. I am proud that our project will fulfill the City’s long-held goals to restore streets, return residents to the heart of the downtown, and better connect Church Street to the lakefront. I look forward to delivering a new Burlington Town Center that truly serves Burlington residents and visitors.”
Details of the updated project plans released today include:
- Eliminating in the new project the partially underground, interior corridor that exists in the current mall, so that the last vestiges of the old, suburban-style mall will be abolished and all new retail and services will be accessed only from public streets.
- Providing 274 apartments in a lighter, improved space arrangement that reduces the mass of the upper stories of the buildings and also fronts Bank Street and Cherry Street on the lower levels to further buffer the above-ground parking garage from the streets.
- Providing 20% of the housing – 55 units – as permanently inclusionary apartments under the City’s zoning regulations, and mixing market and inclusionary units throughout the residential spaces to promote community and equity.
- Preserving the lower Church Street façade height that currently exists and eliminating the previously-proposed Phase 2 building set back from Church Street, while creating an entrance that better connects the interior of the Burlington Town Center redevelopment to pedestrian activity on Church Street.
- Incorporating highly-prescriptive urban design standards as required by the new zoning, with greater use of brick, façade articulation, and window/façade treatments in keeping with surrounding buildings; and reducing the upper floor massing so that the maximum 160 feet height of occupied space extends over only 16% of the total project footprint.
- Using screening on the roof to shield mechanicals, as required by the new zoning.
- Utilizing Burlington’s Great Streets design standards in all public sidewalk and street improvements.
If City voters approve the new Downtown Mixed-Use Core Overlay zoning and the Tax Increment Financing for the public streets and sidewalks in the November vote, the project’s next steps will be through the City permitting process. The project’s design will be refined further in that process, and the project’s impacts will be assessed by the Development Review Board. If permitting proceeds apace, the Burlington Town Center redevelopment will break ground in the first half of 2017.
Above: View looking south on St. Paul Street at new Transit Center. Below: Proposed BTC redevelopment in downtown context.
Source: Burlington Town Center 10.19.2016. To see the updated project sketches, visit www.newbtvtownctr.com. To learn more about the redevelopment project and view all documents related to it, visit the City of Burlington’s project website at www.burlingtonvt.gov/CEDO/BTV-Mall-Redevelopment-Process. To follow the redevelopment on Facebook, check out: www.facebook.com/NewBTVTownCtr