Give the Barge Canal your Voice
Dear Friend of the Barge Canal,
Last Saturday, we had our 4th annual “GreenUp the Barge Canal”. A soggy but spirited crew did an efficient cleanup. Many committed Friends of the Barge Canal (FBC) were there, but also a good sprinkling of new and curious folks. It was a satisfying morning of clearing trash, alongside some of the residents currently living on the Barge Canal land. Details on our website soon.
But there is more related news that requires your attention and action now!
A housing development plan for the Barge Canal will be launched into the public process at the Ward 5 NPA meeting on Thursday, May 15. The developers, Doug Nedde & Alain Youkel, are looking for community support for the project, and have asked for time on the Ward 5 NPA May agenda. (Hurray for Burlington’s 1982 resolution that created Neighborhood Planning Assemblies!) The Ward 5 NPA will be the first opportunity for us to hear about the proposal, and ask questions. Please come to the meeting (in person or virtual). FBC has been asking questions for 4 years including a petition for the city to develop long term goals for the Barge Canal in light of development plans, critical need for housing, green space and clean water and the increasing pressure of climate change. Here are some questions we have before hearing the developers’ fuller vision:
Why build on the Barge Canal when the monetary cost has repeatedly proven too high?
What will be the impacts on stormwater, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, contaminant migration that is already being managed by the Barge Canal?
What has changed since the 1997 recommendation of the Coordinating Committee to leave it alone?
Why has housing been prohibited on this land for more than 25 years, and what has changed to make it a possibility now?
Are there other non-superfund sites in the neighborhood that might be developed without the necessary paving over of the site and/or removal of contaminated soil to Coventry, VT or elsewhere?
We know that you Friends of the Barge Canal will have some of these questions and many more, and it is important that you show up for this meeting next week. Come for the free community dinner at 6:30 pm and stay for the chance to probe all the aspects of this latest proposal.
This week has been sobering for us to think about our neighbors who have no permanent home to return to. May they stay dry and warm as the rain continues this week. (And thank you to Myers Bagels for keeping us going with donated snacks to fuel our work that rainy day last weekend.)
Please write to us with questions and comments at sosburlington@gmail.com. Hope to see you next Thursday.
Photo by Robin Fawcett