As part of examining the challenges and opportunities facing Vermont’s Capital City, The Bridge put together a list of past and current city projects, some taking decades to come to fruition, and others approved by voters that died on the vine anyway. The list that follows is incomplete, but it includes some of the more high-profile examples of what Montpelier has tried to achieve, with both successes and failures.

Confluence Park: Costs Kept Rising

Behind Christ Church, west of where the North Branch River meets the Winooski, a quarter acre of brownfield testifies to funding shortfalls and changing priorities in a post-flood world. What many hoped would become Confluence Park was never built.

A riverfront park in that spot was a decades-old idea in 2018, when the Vermont River Conservancy proposed studying it. Advocates dreamed of fishing, kayaking, picnics, concerts, art shows, yoga classes. They projected a large return on investment. At the time, the nearby transit center and bike path bridge were taking shape and a hotel, parking garage, and dam removals downtown appeared promising, too. A 2018 cost estimate ranged from $500,000 to $1 million. 

But those estimates rose and rose again. By 2022, they totaled $2 million. The next year, a now-$3 million price tag included plans for structural fixes, removal of contaminated soil, landscaping, and infrastructure. Still, the city council pressed on as the Conservancy and the Montpelier parks department aimed to raise $1.8 million. 

By spring 2024, the Conservancy had $1.5 million in hand, plus $600,000 approved in a 2021 bond vote. Fundraising continued, and the Conservancy floated a groundbreaking by the following summer. 

But in late summer, the city council stopped the project, citing budget concerns amid recent flooding. Detractors over the years also worried about dangerous river currents, parking, access from State Street, and upkeep, among other concerns.  

Both before and after Confluence Park’s cancellation, residents have complained to police and city officials about unhoused people at the site, some of them evictees from the state’s motel voucher program. Last summer, the city made headlines when it ordered an encampment removed from what definitely isn’t a park. 

— Jenny Blair

Parking Garage: Lost to Litigants

Also behind Christ Church, Montpelier once had plans to build a 345-space city parking garage. That project fell apart as a result of a legal challenge and the pandemic. 

The Bashara family obtained permits to build a new 81-room Hampton Inn hotel behind its existing Capital Plaza hotel and a 200-space parking garage. When the Basharas concluded they could not afford to build the garage, the city of Montpelier stepped in, developing plans for one that would have served hotel guests as well as Montpelier shoppers and workers. 

In November 2018, voters approved a $10.5 million bond for the project, by a 57% to 43% margin.

But two months later, 18 residents appealed the garage’s permit to the Environmental Court over issues such as traffic, water quality, historic preservation, and compliance with the city’s master plan. The court found that only three of the residents had standing to sue, but their attorney later said he was prepared to take an appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court. 

A trial was scheduled to begin in August 2021, but in April 2021 the Hampton Inn pulled the plug on the project because of what then-City Manager Bill Fraser said were “litigation delays as well as COVID-related economic concerns.” Then-mayor Anne Watson called the decision “an unfortunate missed opportunity for our downtown.”

Fraser said the city would still have to use the bond to pay $1.25 million in project costs, including payments to lawyers, architects, and engineers, a cost rolled into taxpayer bills to this day. The Basharas ended up selling the Capital Plaza hotel just before the July 2023 flood.

— Phil Dodd

Sabin’s Pasture: Still No Housing After 25 Years

Crisscrossed by paths, rippling with grasses and birdsong, Sabin’s Pasture’s roughly hundred acres of hilly meadows and woods along Barre Street have hosted wildlife, cattle, skiers, hikers, birders, winter sledding, and dog walkers over the years, though it is posted now. 

Bought by the Aja/Zorzi family in 1943 and today owned by the Zorzis and landowner Alan Goldman, the parcel sat at the center of a controversy when the Zorzis tried to develop it about 15 years ago. But public conversations about siting new housing, a park, even a school there, all within walking distance of downtown, date to at least 2001.

Nothing has been built, though, despite changing ownership, zoning and rezoning, officials’ ideas and proposals, and the owners’ recurrent interest in developing it. 

In 2002, amid what was already a housing crisis in Montpelier, Burlington developer Stuart Chase, Ltd., proposed building hundreds of homes, including multistory buildings. Many locals didn’t like the idea. Activists fought back, zoning was changed, and the builder retreated. 

In 2007, the Trust for Public Land announced it had agreed to buy the parcel from the Aja and Zorzi families. At that time Sabin’s Pasture was valued at about $1.5 million. The goal was to develop a conservation plan, with most of the parcel becoming a park and the lower portion developed. But plans ended amid the 2008 global financial crisis. 

Over the years, zoning changed to allow more housing, amid criticism from both neighbors and owners. Following one 2017 zoning change that would have affected the parcel’s development value, the Aja/Zorzi family paused negotiating with the city about development. Talks resumed by early 2020. Soon after, Goldman bought half the parcel.  

In 2019, Montpelier received approval for a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district that included Sabin’s Pasture. The city considered building a new road to serve the parcel, which it hoped would interest a developer in adding 225 units of housing. Envisioned as complete by 2024, the projects would have brought nearly $29 million to Montpelier’s grand list. 

In 2023, Goldman told The Bridge he and Zorzi were ready to build, but  Fraser had asked them to wait until the city created a new TIF covering both Sabin’s Pasture and the adjoining parcel on Country Club Road.

In 2024, the city applied to expand its growth center in a way that would have allowed the new road to Sabin’s Pasture. The state approved it, but, in a whiplash reversal after Stephen Whitaker complained about process, revoked it again. Last year, Goldman told the city council he still wanted to develop the property, and this year, Planning Director Mike Miller met with the owners. But what’s next for Sabin’s Pasture remains unclear. 

— Jenny Blair

Projects Completed and In Process

The Siboinebi Recreation Path: Still Expanding

Although the bike path, running east/west along the banks of the Winooski River, has been open to walkers and cyclists for decades, regular users have increasing concerns about the deterioration of the pavement in several sections.

Development of the path, which now provides walkers and cyclists a mostly off-the-streets route across the city, has occurred in stages, beginning in the 1970s when the first segment opened between the former state Liquor Control Warehouse on Green Mountain Drive and Junction Road just beyond the I-89 overpass.

Over the years it expanded further, all the way to Granite Street. In 2019, the most recent expansion extended the path from the eastern end of Barre Street along the Old Country Club Road to Gallison Hill Road. The path’s official name is Siboinebi (pronounced see-bo-WEE-neh-bee), which means “River Water” in Abenaki. It is also part of the Cross Vermont Trail, which runs across the mid-section of the state, roughly parallel to U.S. Route 2.

Although the segment of the path between Junction/Dog River roads and Bailey Avenue was repaved in 2019, during at least one winter season, the city plowed the path with fully loaded dump trucks. The weight of the trucks appears to have damaged the substrate of the path, leading to cracking of the surface pavement and deterioration as water infiltrated through the cracks, expanding the damage during freeze/thaw cycles in subsequent winters. 

Lighter-weight sidewalk plows have been used on the path in recent years, but the cracks, especially near Montpelier High School, have widened enough to be dangerous for cyclists on narrow-rimmed road bikes,  roller-bladers, or roller skiers.

A call to Public Works Director Kurt Motyka, indicated that the department may not be aware of the hazard.

Montpelier’s Department of Public Works recently issued a bid request for constructing a bicycle lane along Barre Street from Main Street to the alley that provides access to the path between Stone Cutters Way and the Winooski River has been scheduled for this spring, Deputy Director Zach Blodgett said. The project will cost between $200,000 and $500,000 according to engineering estimates, and will permanently eliminate several parking spaces along Barre Street. The deadline for bids is April 8. Specifications of the bid require completion of the project by Aug. 15, 2026.

— J. Gregory Gerdel

Transit Center: Decades in the Making

Before its ribbon-cutting in October 2019, the Montpelier Transit Center was already two decades in the making. First proposed in 1998 by the Montpelier Conservation Commission, the project — initially referred to as the Carr Lot Transit Center and later named the One Taylor Street Project — promised a bus hub, information center, development space, park, and bike path extension in exchange for $20 million in state and federal funds. 

The project faced decades of roadblocks. There were environmental and flooding concerns, leasing tensions with the owner of the Carr lot, and rights-of-way debates. When the council proposed a parking garage to replace the over 100 parking spots being removed by the center, the project ground to another halt on complaints that it would impact historical structures. In addition to a funding gap years after the project’s initiation, the team struggled to negotiate a deal to buy and demolish the M&M Beverage building at a juncture connecting two bike paths on Main Street.

Twenty-one years and $17 million later, the Montpelier Transit Center opened as a full bus terminal and 30-unit residential space, more than half of which are affordable housing units. With the help of state politicians, federal funds, and $3 million from the city of Montpelier alone, a former scrap yard is now a flood-resilient hub for modern transportation first supported by Vermonters nearly 30 years ago.

— Heather Koontz

Rec Center: Surveys, Discussions, and a Defunct Partnership 

Despite years of discussions and multiple community surveys regarding a potential new recreational facility, city officials have yet to set a path forward for the Rec Center project. 

Montpelier started exploring ways to renovate the recreation center on Barre Street after a 2018 survey found a lack of community support for funding a new building.

In August 2021, city officials learned the former Elks Club property was available for sale through a project pitched by local nonprofit Community Sports Hub, originally called “The HUB.” The next month, the city started making moves toward purchasing the former golf course, amid talk of a public-private partnership with the organization for a new sports center. 

The city used $1 million from its recreation reserve fund and a $2 million bond approved by voters in 2022 to purchase the Elks Country Club Road property. Amid the city’s push for the bond, housing became a major focal point for the site. 

By September 2025, the city council voted in favor of certain lease conditions that the Community Sports Hub said it would not be able to meet. That effectively doomed any partnership between the city and the nonprofit. 

“I guess we’re done. I’m so sorry. It’s extremely disappointing,” Nat Winthrop, founder and board chair of the Community Sports Hub, said at a Sept. 24, 2025 city council meeting.

Still, at least some portion of that property is expected to accommodate recreational use. A September 2024 survey showed strong interest in a new recreation facility by more than half of the 789 respondents. 

— Hojun Choi

Country Club Road: Four Years of Planning

After learning the 133-acre former Elks Club golf course might be for sale, the city of Montpelier negotiated a contract to buy the property for $3 million and put a $2 million bond for the purchase before voters, who approved it in March 2022. The city originally wanted to acquire the property as a possible location for a new recreation center ($1 million of the purchase price came from Recreation Department reserves), but the site’s potential for new housing soon dominated discussion.

Public meetings were held and by June 2023, the city council adopted an “actionable plan” for building housing on what is now called the Country Club Road property. The city later tried to get state approval for a growth center designation covering the property, which might have led to creation of a Tax Increment Financing district, but the effort failed. The city now hopes to use the state’s new CHIP program to build infrastructure on the site.

When the state announced availability of federally funded flood grants, the city applied for funding to rebuild the site’s access road and bring larger water and sewer lines there. The state said it only wanted to fund shovel-ready projects, so the city initiated a multi-step process to recruit developers, with an offer to sell part of the $3 million property for $1. Taxpayers will continue to pay off the $2 million bond, and the $1 million in recreation funds will not be repaid by a sale of the property.

A Request for Qualifications was issued; nine developers responded, two of which declined to apply and raised questions about the project’s feasibility. Five of those were chosen to receive a Request for Proposals, and four responded with plans for anywhere from 249 to 340 housing units. A city council subcommittee is now weighing the proposals and will make a recommendation to the full council later this spring.

Meanwhile, in December the city received a $3 million grant toward the access road project and expects to hear soon about its application to the state for $5.2 million for the road project, which is estimated to cost $11 million in total. In case the state grant does not come through, the city has also applied for $5.3 million from the federal BUILD transportation grant program, with a decision on that due in June. The city may need additional funding for a portion of a new pump station.

— Phil Dodd

District Heat: Displaces Fossil Fuels But Costs are High

Identifiable by its historic chimney stack, Montpelier’s district biomass plant sits alongside the Winooski River, behind the state Department of Motor Vehicles building at 120 State Street. The state-owned heating plant is fueled by wood pellets and heats 21 local buildings, plus the state Capitol Complex. But it originally relied on both wood chips and fossil fuel.

Since expensive upgrades in 2014 that expanded its woodchip capacity, the plant reduced its fossil fuel use. But today it serves the same group of customers it did then, with no new ones signing on.

The project was originally sold to voters based on expectations that the cost of oil would increasingly rise over time, making the biomass plant a cheaper source of energy. A city-wide focus on renewable energy also convinced some.

In addition to reducing reliance on fossil fuels, there are “side benefits” of district heat, Kurt Motyka, director of the Montpelier Department of Public Works (DPW), told The Bridge: no maintenance costs for a furnace; and flood resilience because heat comes as hot water piped underground. There’s “no boiler in the basement that gets damaged,” he said.

But oil prices have not yet risen as anticipated. Motyka noted that “the cost of running the system is generally a little bit more than oil.” The high cost of setting up new connections has also deterred new customers. Today, the plant serves the same 21 buildings (and the Capitol Complex) it did in 2014, at a cost of $689,589 (in FY25), paid with user fees. (The Bridge was unable to get the current operating cost for the plant before press time.)

The 2014 upgrades were funded by $8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy; $7 million from the state of Vermont Capital Budget; $1.2 million from “other sources”; a $1 million grant from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund; and a $2.75 million city bond that passed in 2011. Bond payments are made with user fees, according to Motyka and a city brochure about the project.

Benefits of district heat to the planet may not be straightforward. The city reported in 2015 that after its first year in operation the plant reduced emissions from fuel combustion by as much as 11 tons a year and displaced over 300,000 gallons of oil by sourcing local wood chips. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says burning woodchips is considered renewable energy because it uses organic matter that grows back, but per unit of energy it produces more carbon emissions than coal.

“When biomass is removed from forests and burned for electricity, the result is an increase in carbon dioxide that persists in the atmosphere for decades, even under the best case scenario in which new trees are replanted immediately,” notes a 2020 NRDC article “Forests Aren’t Fuel.” 

Motyka said he regularly seeks grants to fund new connections to the system. Interested new customers should reach out to the city, he said.

— Cassandra Hemenway

East State Street Overhaul: Delayed, but Happening Soon

East State Street, a major thoroughfare stretching from downtown Montpelier to the Greenway Institute, has been deteriorating for some time, and is now in such bad shape that many drivers look for alternate routes. But reconstruction could begin this summer.

In March 2022, Montpelier voters approved a $7.2 million bond to completely rebuild the road, including replacing water and sewer lines. Construction was planned to begin in the summer of 2023, but the work was postponed. The same thing happened in 2024, and again in 2025. One issue has been the 2023 flood and its aftermath. Another has been vacancies in the engineering staff of the city’s Department of Public Works.

Meanwhile, the city council has gone back and forth on whether to add additional sidewalks or a bike path to the road, but decided Feb. 4 to rebuild sidewalks as they are now, with enhanced safety features at a crosswalk. A city survey of the street upset some property owners because it concluded the right-of-way (ROW) was 66 feet, much wider than the typical 49.5-foot right of way on most Montpelier roads. A wider ROW would infringe on their properties, some of them said. The city is currently redoing the survey because of a procedural error (failing to send letters to property owners about the survey) the first time around.

Public Works Director Kurt Motyka puts the odds of the two-year project starting this summer at 90 percent. The cost is estimated at $8 million, he said.

“There will likely be an impact from the oil market, but we also feel our estimate was conservative and includes a contingency,” he said. Public Works has come up with a design that will limit construction to the 49.5 foot ROW, but the project could still encounter a bump in the road. Depending on new survey results, a legal challenge from one or more property owners remains a possibility.

— Phil Dodd