BURLINGTON, Vt. -
After scouring the city they've settled on St. Paul Street.
"We looked at 37 sites in Burlington trying to figure out a new location and after a year of doing that we identified St. Paul Street as the preferred alternative," said Stephen Carlson of CCTA.
CCTA has spent the past nine years looking for a place to build its new $9.6 million indoor bus stop.
"If you've been over to the Cherry Street facility we have, it's woefully inadequate," Carlson said.
"It's too small," said Greta Sinclair, a CCTA passenger. "The state is growing, so it needs a bigger space."
Bus riders and businesses are pleased. They say it not only solves the problem of building a facility with public restrooms and an indoor space for winter weather, but business owners say it will clean up Church Street.
"The bus stop doesn't allow smoking, so when people smoke cigarettes they end up on this corner of Church Street. So, oftentimes that ends up blocking pedestrian traffic," said Brian Wade of the Outdoor Gear Exchange.
The plan will close down St. Paul Street between Pearl and Cherry streets to through traffic, which drivers say is a serious snag. It also threatens what the UVM Historic Preservation Society calls a natural landmark. Six trees in the Dan Kiley park fall on city property and will be removed to build the new transit center, but more than double that number of parking spaces will be eliminated in the process.
"The city is definitely strapped for parking as is, so any time we lose parking it's unfortunate," Wade said.
"I think it's going to be a real hardship for downtown," said Amy Hayes, a Burlington driver. "It will make it more difficult for families to come downtown close to where they want to shop or have dinner."
The project is expected to clear environmental permitting, set to sequester St. Paul Street when construction starts in 2014.
CCTA secured federal funding for this project. They anticipate it will be complete by 2015.
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New transit center means changes in Burlington
