A new proposed design for Burlington’s City Hall Park is making the rounds of committee and board meetings. City officials want input for upcoming renovations.
A citizens’ group is meanwhile promoting a competing vision for the downtown green space.
City officials say a full renovation is needed. The central fountain is choked with leaves, grass has thinned and walkways have deteriorated. “Grass seed isn’t the solution. Because we’ve tried that over the years ,” said Jesse Bridges, Burlington’s director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. “It needs a reboot.”
The city’s conceptual plan, designed by the Burlington-based Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture, has been five years in the making. The design includes an informal performance area and an interactive fountain for children to play in. The plan includes widened pathways and open green space.
The central fountain would be removed and additional trees would be planted. The city is scheduled to break ground in 2018.
The park, alongside Burlington City Hall, must accommodate heavy traffic during weekly farmers markets in the warmer months, political speeches and protests, and musical events and social gatherings.
Meanwhile, a group has gathered to promote its own design. On Wednesday, members of Keep City Hall Park Historic also presented their plan to the city council’s Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee. The layout features meandering paths, a bathroom, a full-time maintenance employee to keep up and supervise the park, and “lots of flowers,” said Carolyn Bates, a member of the group. “You want to have people say: ‘Wait, I wanna go there, I like the quiet, I like the beauty,’” she told attendees.
The city’s design process was jumpstarted by a four-month public engagement process in 2011. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Burlington City Arts conducted surveys, held meetings, and put on artistic and musical events to gauge interest. Studies found that tree health was poor, and compacted soils led to erosion and increased stormwater runoff.
The city has received some heated comments and angry emails over the course of the public comment period, said Bridges.
“The themes are pretty consistent in terms of how people are looking at the needs there,” he added. “I see it much more as a conversation.”
The city will gather feedback generated at eight meetings scheduled between December 6 and 21, Bridges said.
Bridges and other city officials said they will consider ideas raised by the group’s counterproposal.
“The current design may need to be amended to make it a better park with a design that respects its history,” said Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger. People have raised interesting questions, he said.
“We came up with a conceptual design. Now we’re trying to revise that into the real on-the-ground thing,” Bridges said. “You tweak as you move forward.”
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we can pick
1) a park with grass
2) a weekly farmer’s market in the park
cant have both sry
I do hope the comments on the Great Streets website (including the Park design) will become public, so we can see each other’s thoughts on the subject. Mr. Infinity is correct in that using the Park for the Market or for large musical events will be bad for the grass. Some think that fewer trees in general would be good for the grass, but I disagree – we just need trees that don’t create what is called “killing shade” – one of the reasons Elm trees became so popular. We need more trees, but ones that let everything else grow. Here’s hoping.
Thanks for the article. Could you please edit to provide a link to where we can see higher resolution designs and leave the city feedback?
Ive commented on the Great Streets feedback page and hope others who support the arts will, too: I’d like very much for the city to replace the public bulletin boards that were once in the park but removed to install the large metal sculpture. Hundreds, or thousands, of musicians and other creative people had an important resource taken from them. Public bulletin boards help the city reflect to citizens and visitors how vibrant we are as a cultural destination, and the work of advertising this costs the city nothing when artists are doing the poster printing and postering. More than one public bulletin board should be returned to the periphery of the park where the public will see them. The traditional variety of bulletin board that can be stapled-to would be best since thats what our community is used to and has the tools for. Posting this comment here to encourage others to make their way to the Great Streets comment page, support this wish, and make their own hopes known: http://greatstreetsbtv.com/feedback/
Looking at where this park is located, the majority of the pedestrian traffic is on the diagonals, people cutting through from the corner of Main/St Paul northbound to Church St, or from College/St Paul southbound to Church/Main (or vice versa on those diagonals. Based on that, I don’t see how meandering paths are going to work unless fences or prickly bushes force walkers to stay on those paths. For someone who is looking to hang out and enjoy the park, meandering paths might be ok.
I like the Parks & Rec design better, but I’d like to see the fountain stay. The quote “choked with leaves” indicates to me that appropriate maintenance isn’t being done, so get on with it!
Joe – “pedestrian traffic” is correct, but there is no diagram to show people enjoying the park – only how people pass through it. I prefer we address the park itself – because, though people can be too busy to linger, the park is made for those who do – it is not an obstruction to those who are going from one street to another. If the block was not a park, everyone would have to walk around it. I don’t accept that the park’s main purpose is to get people from one side to the other. Being able to enter or exit onto any adjacent street is a convenience, not a primary park function.
Do people think that being able to get through the park quickly is the park’s primary function?