The Great Streets Initiative
The City of Burlington recently launched a transformational design and construction project for downtown Burlington. Dubbed “Burlington Great Streets,” the initiative builds upon five years of community planning, including the adoption of Street Design Guidelines, the Downtown Tax Increment Financing Plan, and planBTV Downtown & Waterfront –in which the citizens of Burlington voiced their support for the new vision of downtown.
What is the “Burlington Great Streets Initiative?”
The Great Streets Initiative is a culmination of many years of planning and project development, including the public vote in March of 2015 to use
the City’s downtown “TIF district” to make new investments in the downtown’s public infra-structure, to ensure that Burlington residents have a downtown that is a vibrant, walkable and sustainable urban center.
Through this initiative, we’ll advance several key projects envisioned by planning studies such as Imagine City Hall Park, planBTV Downtown and Waterfront Master Plan, and the Transportation Plan.
The Great Streets Initiative will advance many of these plans’ goals for great streets and attractive public spaces.
Employing these innovative downtown design standards, residents of Burlington will benefit from meticulously crafted streets that boast vitality throughout the year. These thoroughfares are designed to be versatile, accommodating various modes of transportation while seamlessly integrating with the natural charm of Vermont through the incorporation of urban forestry and landscaping. Furthermore, they are engineered to efficiently capture rainwater, thereby mitigating pollutants from entering Lake Champlain and effectively managing storm water runoff.
