In the majority
Rifle season
Hinsdale, Lyons elected to Senate leadership
Vermont’s annual deer hunt is underway
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the NOVEMBER 21, 2024
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City Center vision coming together, SB officials say LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
As the state’s second-largest city, South Burlington has for decades had plans for a downtown area ripe with commerce, community and connectivity and data now shows those plans are coming to fruition. The idea for a thriving city center dates back 50 years when South Burlington was officially incorporated as a city in 1971. Those plans for a vibrant downtown began taking shape nearly 10 years later as the term “City Center” would appear in three town plans that followed. But it wasn’t long ago that the heart of City Center, the roughly 100 acres wedged between Dorset and Hinesburg roads most notable for housing the state’s only Target and Trader Joe’s, looked much different than it does today. While the city hit a milestone in 2021 when it cut the ribbon on brand new municipal and other community buildings at 180 Market St., Ilona Blanchard, community development director and an employee of the city for over a decade, remembers that even paving that street was a major accomplishment for the city.
“If you were here 15 years ago, half of Market Street was paved and the other half was a dirt road,” she said, letting out a laugh. “When I came here, we had to borrow a grader from an adjoining community to grade it.” But after what state and local officials recognize as a critical housing shortage, data shows that South Burlington has become one of the largest suppliers of new homes in the state. A recent analysis put together by the Vermont Housing Financing Agency for the Department of Housing and Community Development, known as the “Vermont Housing Needs Assessment 20252029,” outlined staggering statistics for the state of just under 650,000 people. In recent years, the report outlines that the supply of available homes has simply not kept pace with the increased demand to live in Vermont. To accommodate projected growth in households living yearround in Vermont, replace homes that are lost from the housing stock due to disrepair, normalize vacancy rates, and house the homeless, See CITY CENTER on page 13
VOLUME 48, NO. 47
Clubhouse in the city
COURTESY PHOTO
Three youngsters get their faces painted at a recent South Burlington Recreation and Parks Kids Club, which offers free events, discounts on designated programs, giveaways, and more to kids 12 and younger.
Advocates demand safer Shelburne Road for pedestrians, bicyclists LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Advocates are demanding that local and state leaders take immediate action for a safer Shelburne Road for pedestrians and cyclists
following a fatal crash in South Burlington last week. An on-duty Shelburne police sergeant, Kyle Kapitanski, was southbound and headed toward Shelburne when he struck and killed a bicyclist, Sean Hayes, 38,
of Burlington, at Fayette Drive 2:45 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11. (See related story 5) While the Vermont State Police See SHELBURNE ROAD on page 11
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