A rendering of the new neighborhood submitted to the Burlington Development Review Board. Credit: Courtesy: SD Ireland

With an Act 250 permit in hand, SD Ireland can finally start constructing a 232-apartment complex on Burlington’s Grove Street. 

In a new refinement of the project, SD Ireland is offering to donate six acres to the Winooski Valley Park District. Located along the Winooski River, the land includes wetlands and steep slopes, making it ill-suited for development, but desirable for the Park District.

It’s been nearly three years since the company unveiled plans to build a new neighborhood on the site where it currently operates its concrete production plant. The project consists of 19 apartment buildings, a maintenance building and a club house.

Burlington’s Development Review Board signed off on the proposal last May, after a review that stretched more than a year. The project cleared its final hurdle in August, when the state granted SD Ireland an Act 250 permit. Previously known as the Grove Street Apartments, the project is called Bayberry Apartments in the permit.

The development was scaled back during the review process, in part as a result of concerns raised by neighbors, who worried about traffic and the size of the buildings. Now that the project has been cleared, the developer hired by SD Ireland, Patrick O’Brien, said he hopes to start construction “as soon as we can.”

Describing the parcel that could be donated as “a really interesting property from a natural resource standpoint,” WVPD director Nick Warner said it fits with the organization’s goal of conserving riparian lands. “We are thrilled about this for a whole bunch of reasons.”

Since the six-acre property borders another property already owned by the WVPD — known as the Valley Ridge parcel — it would create 24 contiguous acres of protected land. A new trail, starting at Schmanska Park on Grove Street, would allow access.

Warner emphasized that WVPD hasn’t accepted the donation yet, and he said park district staff will discuss the plans with city officials and nearby residents before making a final decision. WVPD will also need to sign an agreement with Burlington to use a city-owned parking lot near the planned park entrance. Burlington’s Parks and Recreation director, Jesse Bridges and other city officials have expressed their support.

The last time the park district, which manages 1,750 acres across seven cities and towns, expanded its holdings was in 2012, when it acquired the Muddy Brook Wetland Reserve in South Burlington. 

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Alicia Freese was a Seven Days staff writer from 2014 through 2018.

9 replies on “Developer Gets Permit for 232 Burlington Apartments, Offers Parkland”

  1. Unless something is done to the roadways around this project it is going to be a traffic nightmare. The roadway is too small, allows off street parking and would be impossible to widen due to the existing homes being so close to the roadway. The approval of that may units in this area is extremely shortsighted.

  3. The unavoidable traffic nightmare as noted here coupled with Burlington’s sub-standard at best waste water treatment facility, well, I am truly alarmed by the rate at which development is getting approved in Burlington, My suspicious side keeps coming back to a mayor who is a developer.

  4. Lets be honest. Practically every roadway in Burlington is underdeveloped for the amount of traffic that occupies it

  5. With 15 times that our city has dumped untreated sewage into our lake this year, no new additional toliets or sinks should be built in Burlington until we have funded and built an updated waste treatment center(s) that can use ecological means of providing both quality water release. Right now there are very toxic materials going into Lake Champlain.

  6. This housing is being built on a street with no bus service, no bike lanes,and a sidewalk that dead-ends in the middle of nowhere. What’s more, Burlington has quietly shelved plans to re-do the complete disarray at the Riverside/Colchester Ave intersection by the Winooski Bridge. I don’t know how Burlington can realistically bill itself as a walkable/bikeable urban community when it allows for this kind of suburban sprawl with zero new transportation infrastructure.
    ‘Donating’ six acres of undevelopable land to WVPD doesn’t make SD Ireland good corporate citizens, it makes them savvy developers by reducing their property tax burden and passing the cost of maintaining these lands due to increased development along to the taxpayer.
    I am generally pro-infill and think building up Burlington’s tax base is necessary, but this project is just ridiculously short on positives. Enjoy your commute everyone!

  7. I am a neighbor of the project. When SD Ireland and the developer held neighborhood meetings about it last spring they said they would complete and upgrade the sidewalk on Grove st, making it continuous from the Burlington/SB line to Chase Street. If they are still doing this and creating new park land and a trail, I think it starts looking like a pretty good deal. It will add additional density in the city where we need it and close out the open gap of the concrete plant with housing, a much narrower drive and a complete sidewalk network. No matter what, they will remove truck traffic from grove street and the significant noise nussaince of the concrete plant. If we could get the developer to kick in on improving the Riverside/Colchester intersection (which is a nightmare) this would be really good.

    I would love to have the Grove/Chase intersection improved and get a bike lane on Grove st where’s it’s wider, but neither is really feasible. There’s just no space at the intersection and most of the value in the bike lane would come from it continuting on the SB side. Just help us fix the Riverside/Colchester intersection and be done with it!

  8. Such is life under a mayor more interested in his own gains than those of the city he “governs.”

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