Phil Dodd
The Northern Border Regional Commission announced Dec. 8 it had awarded the city of Montpelier a nearly $3 million grant to use for reconstruction of the access road to the Country Club Road property and installing water and sewer lines to the property in order to serve housing that the city wants to see built on the site.
The Commission also awarded $100,000 to the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission (CVRPC) to conduct a feasibility study for redeveloping the Federal Building at 87 State Street in Montpelier, the former location of the post office.
The CVRPC grant will help support a $288,000 study that “will explore flood-resilient, mixed-use redevelopment options that include housing, parking, and commercial space,” according to a Commission press release.
The federal building study is being led by the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience and will involve hiring consultants with expertise in subjects such as architecture and real estate, according to Christian Meyer, executive director of the regional planning commission. As part of the study, the Montpelier commission will seek public input on the design and use of the building, he said.
The grant for the Country Club Road project is only part of the money needed to rebuild the road, install new pipes from the roundabout to the property, build a new pump station, and elevate U.S. Route 2 by nearly three feet where it meets the access road.
To fully fund the project, the city is hoping to secure an additional $8 million from a second round of state flood grant funding that will begin this winter. The state has $14.4 million left to award out of $67.9 million from the federal government for flood grants.
Montpelier submitted four grant requests in the first round, but all were rejected. Recommendations for the second round will be made by a state board on April 2.
The Northern Border Regional Commission grants that were awarded to Montpelier and the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission are part of a total $37.2 million in fall awards to 59 communities throughout the organization’s member states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.
