Don’t plan on casting from the Burlington fishing pier this summer.
The city will close the public jetty into Lake Champlain as early as next week when construction begins on the 160-slip Burlington Harbor Marina.
The long-planned project will snug in just south of the pier and around the point from the U.S. Coast Guard station on the northern section of the Burlington waterfront. Bulldozers are already in place near the site off Penny Lane, next to the Burlington Water Resources Department and just south of the Moran Plant.
The pier will likely be closed for the entire summer.
“It just wouldn’t be safe. It’s going to be torn up down there,” said Jack Wallace, co-owner and codeveloper of the private marina project.
After consulting with city officials, the developers decided closing the pier for the duration of construction was the best course. Most of the construction will be completed this summer and fall. The marina is set to open next summer and will include a floating operations building with a store, showers and lockers, as well as a new dock.
The pier will reopen once the marina construction is over.
On Thursday, Jen Cepeda was making jewelry with a friend at the foot of the pier. The Colchester resident was unaware of the coming closure.
“Is it really necessary to close it?” she asked. “A lot of people come down here fishing.”
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Lousy news I try to go to the pier at least once a week. Its a beautiful place to relax and let go of stress. Summer is the only time to really enjoy it and you can never take a bad picture there regardless of the weather. Im so disappointed.
“Im so disappointed.”
Think you’re disappointed now? Wait until next summer when the pier reopens and you discover it’s become merely a boundary of a massive parking lot for rich people’s boats. For an idea, go look at the Perkins’ Pier marina. Now double that and “snug” it between the Fishing Pier and CG breakwater, mindful that the Fishing Pier is considerably smaller than Perkins’.
While you’re at Perkins’, look south at what now is scattered moorings and open water. Imagine a marina perhaps 10X the size of the current Perkins’ marina, holding many more, much larger boats, stretching south past the treatment plant and west halfway to the breakwater, far beyond the terminus of Perkins’ Pier. It’s in the works.
Enjoy the harbor while you can still see some of it.
All it takes to be a City Planner is to master the old computer game Sim City. Or so it seems.
Another in a long line of neo-con mayor-developer give-aways to the rich at the expense of everyone who aint.
What do we have here? likely the nicest waterfront spot gone and it will never be the same when it reopens what with the massive out of scale privately owned marina next door
Who wins? once again a private developer who is making money on the Burlington waterfront
I remember when 7 days wrote about this marina a few years ago a lazy piece that didnt mention the terms of the deal.
7 days tell us who this developer is what are his political contributions, what are the terms of his deal? I bet youll never do this the 1% owners of 7 days aren’t interested in pissing off MW .
How is it that he can just ask to have this pier closed? what about the people? what were the terms of the deal for public access during construction? do your job 7 days report this. where are the public hearings on the closure? –
File this one with the give-away of the largest parcel of undeveloped land in the city lake front condos for the rich, an out of scale, mall giveaway, a highway on the waterfront, the F35s, a publicly owned utility sold to an out of state private company when it didnt have to be
MWs neo-con reign has changed the city for the worse and this wont be undone during our lives
I remain interested to see if another long-shot spoiler helps split the vote and give him another term when he runs again –
“We should close this for safety concerns during the construction.”
“No! There is literally no where else we can fish! Not anywhere on this entire lake. Fuck out safety. We NEED fish from near the waste spills. IT IS OUR GOD GIVEN RIGHT!”
You people are predictable and ridiculous.
That’s unfair to the people who fish down there, it’s the only handicap accessible fishing spot in Burlington that I know of, can you think of any place else someone with a scooter could get to, to fish?
This is really disappointing, that was one of the last good spots left in downtown Burlington to enjoy the lake or go fishing. I spent my anniversary last year by that pier, having a picnic on the grass under the trees… The mayor is only interested in getting paid, not in the happiness of the citizens in his town. Sad.