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Friends of Route 7 delay start
date of U.S. 7 construction
A $26-million project to expand and widen a portion of Shelburne Road won court approval in December of 2001 over the objections of owners of businesses along the stretch. Superior Court Judge David Jenkins ruled that state interests outweigh the commercial interests of local merchants, according to a news release from the state Agency of Transportation. Owners of businesses along the 3.1-mile section of Shelburne Road in South Burlington and Shelburne say the road needs work, but they oppose the plan to construct a raised median.
U.S. 7 project opponents can appeal permit
By Matt Sutkoski -- Free Press Staff Writer -- Thursday, June 05, 2003
Opponents of the planned reconstruction of U.S. 7 in South Burlington and Shelburne have the right to appeal the project's stormwater permit, the state Water Resources Board ruled Wednesday.
Injunction stops Monday start date of U.S. 7 construction
The long-awaited construction along U.S. 7 in Shelburne and South Burlington was to have started Monday, but opponents obtained a last-minute injunction Friday to stop the work.
Opponents drop fight over U.S. 7 project
Opponents of a major U.S. 7 reconstruction project in Shelburne and South Burlington are dropping their fight, saying the battle costs too much.
Friends of Route 7 argue the state violates its own stormwater rules by issuing a permit to a project that would allow dirty water to run off Shelburne Road into several already polluted streams and into Lake Champlain.
State transportation officials countered that Friends of Route 7 had no standing as appellants because they were using the stormwater issue as a pretext to force the project's redesign.
The project is along a 3.1-mile stretch of U.S. 7 between Imperial Drive in South Burlington and Webster Road in Shelburne. Crews would install a median between the south and northbound lanes of U.S. 7.
Several businesses along the road have long objected to the proposed median because they fear it would block access to their establishments.
Wednesday, the Water Resources Board said Friends of Route 7 has standing to appeal, just as individuals would have based on their concerns for Lake Champlain's water quality.
Liam Murphy, an attorney for Friends of Route 7, said several members have direct interest in Lake Champlain's water quality.
"I have clients who have businesses on Lake Champlain or live on Lake Champlain and whose property the (U.S. 7) stormwater crosses," Murphy said.
Murphy said his clients won a procedural battle with Wednesday's Water Resources Board ruling. The real test comes this year, Murphy said, when the panel is expected to rule whether the transportation agency needs a new stormwater permit to begin reconstructing U.S. 7.
Work on the project is scheduled to begin this year, though the stormwater appeal could delay the project for another year. The project was proposed in the early 1980s.
By Matt Sutkoski -- Free Press Staff Writer -- Saturday, August 16, 2003
Paragon Construction was set to start work first thing Monday morning installing culverts, water pipes and other features that will become part of the $32 million project. Signs erected along U.S. 7 this week warned motorists that the construction would start.
However, project opponents Friday won an injunction in U.S. District Court in Burlington that has halted the project, said attorney Liam Murphy, who is representing businesses fighting the reconstruction.
The injunction is based on a stormwater permit appeal construction opponents filed earlier this year.
U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions agreed Friday afternoon to the injunction, at least until a hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday, Murphy said.
Vermont Transportation Secretary Patricia McDonald said her agency would ask the court to postpone the hearing until Aug. 28 to give attorneys time to review the appeal.
Construction on U.S. 7 will not start at least until then, McDonald said.
Murphy said he also has filed papers in Chittenden Superior Court and with the Vermont Water Resources Board to stop the construction until appeals are sorted out.
McDonald and Project Manager Richard Ranaldo said they had not seen the court papers Friday and could not comment on them directly. Ranaldo denounced the delay.
"It's unfortunate that this group continues to try to hold the traveling public hostage," Ranaldo said.
The project would cover 3.1 miles along U.S. 7 between Imperial Drive in South Burlington and Webster Road in Shelburne. The work has been planned since the early 1980s, but design changes, appeals by opponents and other events delayed the reconstruction.
The rebuilt road would have four lanes, two in each direction. A grassy median would divide north and southbound lanes. It would have cuts to let motorists make left-hand turns.
Some business owners along the project's route object to the median, saying it would limit access to their shops and offices.
The U.S. 7 battle has morphed from a fight over access to an environmental dispute. The businesses appealed a stormwater permit to the Vermont Water Resources Board earlier this year.
Murphy said he sought the injunction from the courts to stop construction until the stormwater permit appeal is sorted out. He said his clients have environmental concerns, but Murphy also hoped the stormwater appeal would force the state to rework the project.
"Our hope is if they have to redesign the highway as a result of the stormwater appeal, they will consider redesigning some of the median breaks," Murphy said.
South Burlington City Council Chairman Jim Condos also sharply criticized the appeals. "This is once again a ploy on the part of a few business owners to stop the project due to their own selfish reasons," Condos said.
Motorists would find a safer, more efficient highway once the work is done, Condos said. "In the end, there will be more traffic on the highway which means more potential customers for the businesses," he said.
The Metropolitan Planning Organization, which sets transportation priorities for Chittenden County, is also solidly behind the U.S. 7 work, said Bill Knight, the MPO's director.
"It doesn't take a genius driving down Shelburne Road to know we have a major problem there. We need to get it built," Knight said. "All we're doing is increasing the cost of the project by delaying it."
Contact Matt Sutkoski at 660-1846 or msutkosk@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
By Matt Sutkoski -- Free Press Staff Writer -- Friday, December 12, 2003
The decision by business and property owners along the stretch of U.S. 7 means the work will start unimpeded in the spring, said Rich Ranaldo, the project's manager. A small amount of work on the $32 million project already has started.
The project would create a road with four lanes, two in each direction. A grassy median would divide north- and southbound lanes. It would have cuts to let motorists make left-hand turns. The work is meant to improve traffic flow on congested U.S. 7, one of the busiest stretches of road in the state.
The road can see nearly 22,000 cars a day at the heaviest traffic volume.
Initially, some business owners objected to the median, saying the divide would make their stores and restaurants less accessible. By last summer, the focus of the opposition shifted to concerns that the road reconfiguration would worsen existing stormwater pollution in brooks near the road. The brooks feed into Lake Champlain.
The opponents, calling their group Friends of Route 7, had appealed to the Vermont Water Resources Board a stormwater permit the state transportation agency had obtained for the project.
Lawyers for the group also filed motions in federal court, saying federal highway officials had inadequately reviewed environmental effects from the road work along U.S. 7, also known as Shelburne Road.
"Reluctantly, we are going to withdraw both cases," said Liam Murphy, an attorney for Friends of Route 7. "While in both cases we think we would succeed, we had to withdraw because of the cost."
Stormwater appeals are expensive because they often require hiring lawyers, engineers and other experts to participate in filings, responses and testimony, Murphy said. Such requirements are a burden on citizens' groups, he said.
A member of the group who had opposed the project declined to say how much money Friends of Route 7 paid for the appeals, but he said it was substantial.
"Litigation is not cheap," said David Melincoff of Hospitality Well Done! Inc., which owns Sirloin Saloon on the project's route.
"I just know that the system is set up so that whoever has the most money at the end has a better chance of winning," Melincoff said. "We can't even get our due date in court."
Other members of Friends of Route 7 included members of the Ondovchik/Serrano family, which owns property near the construction site, and Roy L'Esperance of the Chimney Sweep.
The U.S. 7 case is unusually technical and complex, said Water Resources Board Executive Officer Jon Groveman. Other appeals are simpler and can be tackled by regular citizens, though they might have to be accompanied by a lawyer, he said.
"We usually don't see citizen groups challenging these highly technical projects alone. We see environmental groups that are experts and are geared toward raising and addressing these technical issues," Groveman said.
While Murphy said the project violates the state's own stormwater standards, Ranaldo, the project manager disagrees.
"We believe we had a strong case. We complied with federal and state regulation," Ranaldo said. "We have been working on this project, the permitting process for the last 10 years. There have been ample opportunities for folks to raise concerns."
The opposition group said it was not opposed to redesigning Shelburne Road, but found flaws in the proposed design.
A statement issued by the project opponents left the door open for a resumption of appeals. "We are reluctantly preparing to give up the fight, unless Santa Claus comes up with some funds," the statement read.
Contact Matt Sutkoski at 660-1846 or msutkosk@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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