The City of Burlington has a plan for a new access point to the waterfront that is getting a lot of support from Mayor Weinberger and others.
"A new consensus about the future of this part of Burlington," Mayor Weinberger said.
The Railyard Enterprise Project would connect Pine Street and Battery Street at the intersection of Kilburn Street It would cut right through the train tracks and bring a different type of traffic to the area.
"There's a lot to like in the new project and a lot of the people were hopeful the city and state would go in this direction," Mayor Weinberger said.
The plan is still in a conceptual stage and has to be approved by the city council. 80% of funding would come from a federal grant, ten percent would be from Burlington and 10% from the state of Vermont. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has helped negotiate the funding plan but the it still has to be approved by the Vermont state legislature in January. The city also needs to nail down a deal with Vermont Railway, who owns the railyard.
"There's no way to have an agreement today we have to start the process," Mayor Weinberger said.
Battery Street currently dead ends at the railyard. City officials hope connecting it with Pine Street would help expand the city southward.
"As it is now we're sort of out of the way," Maglianero Café manager Madelyn Feldman said.
The Maglianero Café is located right in the railyard. Feldman believes more passerbies will result from connecting Pine Street and Battery Street which would bring more business.
"It would be very positive for us business wise and bring a lot of attention to the café," Feldman said.
