MORAN PLANT REDEVELOPMENT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: What is the Moran Center at Waterfront Park Proposal?

The proposal includes public observation decks, café and restaurant, bathrooms, glycol method outdoor ice rink [not weather dependent] in winter, children’s spray area in summer, redesigned and newly rebuilt skateboard park, site-designed park area (new lighting, lawn maintenance, appropriate furniture), renovated bike path, integrated transportation plan, with overall public management by the Parks and Recreation Department.

It also could include a world-class indoor ice and rock climbing family adventure facility, restaurant and café, children’s museum and expanded community sailing center. Year-round, public access to the building and all activities within the building are targeted at public enjoyment and enrichment.

Q: What is the estimated cost of tearing the building down and building a park?

This estimate does not include a new facility for the Community Sailing Center.

The City believes that this scenario would not qualify for significant federal funding and the costs would likely be born by the citizens of Burlington. It creates an ongoing operations and maintenance costs for the Parks and Recreation Department without a source of revenue. Conversion to a park would not generate new tax revenue.

The detailed  demolition estimate and a letter from Recycle North are available on line.

Q: Will the Moran Center be open to the public?

The Moran Center would be open to the public with opportunities for both fee-based and free access. It is necessary to have a generation of funds from the fee-based activities to subsidize the free and low cost activities and maintain the civic spaces.

Q: How could this benefit Burlington?

The proposal could utilize private resources to help create a revenue-generating public asset. The anticipated economic benefit to the City could far exceed new tax revenues with 500 construction jobs, 80 permanent jobs, and estimated $2 million in sales with a $6 million ripple effect to the local economy. The preliminary figures estimate the return on investment to the City is $2.60 to each dollar invested.

Q: What tax revenues could the project generate and how could they be used?

The project would generate significant property, gross receipts and sales tax revenue. The City could consider using a portion these revenues to finance some of its costs associated with the project. This could enable the City to move forward on this project without impacting individual property taxes. After the improvements are paid off, these revenues would go to the general fund.

Q: How could the community benefit?

The proposal would expand amenities offered at Waterfront Park with new lawn/ open green area in summer and skating in the winter. It would improve public access to the building and Lake Champlain shoreline with year-round activities on the waterfront. It would also reuse an historic asset and retain the embedded energy in the buildings materials along with avoiding cost and waste associated with demolition.

Q: How much could the total proposal cost and how much of that cost would the City pay?

The proposed tenants would pay about $13.5 million of the projected $21 million total cost. The City would only pay a portion ($7.3 million) of that cost. The City will seek variety of sources for its share, including federal sources. The identification of these sources are preliminary, but are based upon a recent history of opportunities in funding for the past several years.

Q: Will it cost to the City to operate the Moran Center?

The projected operation and maintenance expenses for the proposed facility and expanded park lands would not be covered with City tax dollars. The operating budget would come from Common Area Maintenance fees paid by the tenants. The project would pay for the operating expenses of the Moran Center and Park.

Q: How will the City and its investment be protected?

If there is an affirmative vote, the City and the partners would enter into legal agreements that would detail the relationships, guarantee performance and ensure that the City and its investments are protected.

Q: Could the building be green, sustainable and energy conscious?

The Moran Center would strive to be a green and sustainable building that is LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, certified. It would use green roof technologies, renewable energy and energy conservation measures. The building would be configured to accept other technologies in the future as they emerge.

Q: How can creating an ice climbing wall be energy conscious?

The Ice Factor is utterly committed to best practice environmental projects. Their design and operations were recognized as the Best Environmental Project in Europe in 2006 receiving the prestigious Green Apple Award.

They estimate the ice wall feature will require similar or less energy than a small retail shop. They are also very interested in using Vermont’s winter air to aid in the creation of the ice wall even further decreasing energy requirement for this feature.

Q: What happens if I vote yes to the concept on the March 2008 advisory ballot?

The vote will not commit voters to spending bond monies, but would task the City with coming up with a specific plan and budget for redevelopment. A series of agreements between the City and potential tenants with specific timelines and benchmarks would be executed to protect the City's interests and keep the project moving forward. No construction would take place until a solid financial plan is in place and legal commitments obtained.

Q: Who would own and manage the building?

The City would own the building and adjacent land. Parks and Recreation would manage the building and site. They have extensive experience in managing private businesses that operate on public property. They have the expertise and systems in place to operate and maintain the building and grounds.

Q: Why these uses?

The proposed mix of uses for Moran could provide a broad range of services to meet a variety of community needs and interests. These uses could create year-round, public access to the building. The uses could create a variety of recreation and education opportunities and amenities to the people of Burlington in a public facility that ensures access and enjoyment of Lake Champlain.

Q: Why these tenants?

The Mayor and City Council identified these uses based on community input and decision factors for redevelopment. The Moran Users Group (MUG) consists of organizations that could occupy the building based on the concept: Community Sailing Center, Green Mountain Children’s Museum and Ice Factor Burlington.

Q: What happens if a tenant fails?

The City would have newly renovated building and grounds. The core of the building would be constructed to accommodate potential changes in future use, and the City would lease the space to another appropriate tenant.

Q: Are there environmental hazards related to the building and site?

The hazardous conditions are typical for a former electric generating plant. The City has received cost estimates for the Corrective Action Plan based on this concept of reuse. That cost estimate is $175,000. The full Environmental Site Assessment reports are available online at www.cedoburlington.org or call CEDO at 865-7144 to request information.

Q: How would people get there?

People would be able to access the area by foot, bicycle, boat, skateboards, public transit and cars. Q: Would there be more traffic? Yes, right now there is not much activity on the north end of our waterfront. Traffic analysis for this proposal shows there would be some increase in traffic, but not as much as was predicted with the YMCA proposal. The City would work with the future tenants to reduce the impacts of automobiles.

Q: What about parking?

This proposed mix of uses has parking requirements that vary by use seasonally, by day of the week and time of day. Not every car would stay parked at the facility for the entire day.

The Community Sailing Center, Fishing Pier and Skate Park have their highest use in the summer months. The Ice Factor projects peak use in December and the Green Mountain Children’s Museum projects peak use in February. The Water Department use is fairly consistent year round, but is used only Monday through Friday from 8AM- 4PM thus making these spaces available on weekends and evenings for activities in the Moran Center.

Q: How can the impact of automobiles be minimized?

Every effort would be made to reduce the impacts of automobiles. The parking now is mostly informal, haphazard and scattered. A low-rise, two story, parking structure would concentrate the impact of cars on the site while providing easy access to and from Lake Street.

Q: Does this have implications for the Urban Reserve (North 40)? Will citizens have an opportunity to decide how it will be used later?

The proposed Moran Center would not prohibit future action or inaction relating to the Urban Reserve. It would provide an improved gateway to the Urban Reserve with restrooms, better lighting, an upgraded bike path, improved intersections, parking, and amenities.

The Moran is located in the Interim Development Area, it is not a part of the Urban Reserve (North 40). There will be a wide public debate and process about the future use of Urban Reserve (North 40). The community will discuss the future of the Urban Reserve at length before any decisions are made.

Q: What is the impact on the skateboard park?

The configuration and elements of the skateboard park are outdated. As part of the Moran Center project, the Skate Park would be relocated just to the north of the current site, expanded and rebuilt. Parks and Recreation will work collaboratively with the skating community on the design for the new skateboard park.

Q: What is the impact on the Bike path?

This project would improve and widen the bike path with upgrades to crossings, using landscape to filter storm water along the edges of the bike path, and provide bike storage facilities.

Q: Would there be seasonal impacts?

Currently the waterfront is not well used in the harsher seasons (fall/ winter/ mud). This proposal would have activities that can be enjoyed year round along with amenities like indoor restrooms, shelter, heat and ice skating.

Q: What happens with Depot Street?

The citizen advisory group recommended Depot Street be improved and serve primarily as a pedestrian/bicycle access route to the waterfront with vehicular access limited solely to emergency, maintenance, and possibly public transit vehicles along with special events like the Independence Day fireworks.

The City has federal transportation funds to engage the community in a design process for Depot Street that would consider the redevelopment of Moran if approved by voters in March 4, 2008.

Q: Is it historic?

The Moran Plant is considered historic. The Historic Assessment Report addresses reuse and redevelopment as well as the requirements for demolition of the historic building. The full report is available online.

Q: How is this different from the YMCA proposal?

This proposal has a different mix of tenants, includes recreational components of a different nature, reuses the building, and generates gross receipts and property tax income to support the City’s general fund. It divides the financial burden for development amongst the tenants and the City, and provides income streams for capital payback and operations.

Q: How did we get to this point?

In 2005, the City Council began a participatory process with the citizens of Burlington to determine the future of the Moran Plant and site. There were tours of the Moran plant, ideas shared and discussed its future. The City received over 600 “Idea Cards”. In the Fall of 2005, the City had three public forums with over 150 people to discuss the ideas and a survey was mailed to every City household. Over 1300 households returned surveys. City Councilors received the results of the survey and public comments. They discussed the top ranked ideas and other factors then created the Waterfront Advisory Survey: Moran Plant ballot. After the open house in September 2006, the Mayor developed redevelopment principals and this concept based on comments and the decision factors that were important to the community to determine the future of the Moran.

Q: Did the City listen to voters?

In March 2006, City Councilors created the Waterfront Advisory Survey: Moran Plant Ballot. This survey was to discern the strength of various opinions or issues involving the disposition of the Moran Plant and site.

Yes, 86% did say they liked a Waterfront Park. This proposal is consistent with the existing Waterfront Park, which includes multiple types of public facilities in it such as open space, the bike path, boat house, festival site, Skate Park and docks. The Parks Department already oversees several for-profit entities that operate within Waterfront Park, including Splash Café, Spirit of Ethan Allen and various festivals.

While 55% of respondents felt the building should be removed, afar greater majority - 66% of the nearly 10,000 people, who responded to the Waterfront Advisory Survey: Moran Plant Ballot, indicated that the use should dictate if the building was torn down or reused. The City interpreted the results as reuse was better than removal.

Q: Who is in charge of the Moran Plant future use?

The Mayor and City Council directed this public process through their Parks Arts & Culture Committee. The full City Council receives updates and reports for debate and discussion. CEDO provides staff and administrative support at the direction of the Mayor and City Council.

Q: How can I get specific information about the Moran Plant and the public process?

A detailed description of the building, the site, full reports and the public process can be found online at www.cedoburlington.org or by calling CEDO at 865-7144 to request information by mail.

Q: Haven’t there been other ideas?

There have been many ideas for the re-use of the Moran Plant like a Renaissance Center for Science and the Arts, ECHO Center, Discovery Children’s Museum, a Baseball Stadium, Brewery and Concert Hall, UVM’s Fleming Museum, a City recreation center and YMCA proposal for a community recreation center. None of these ideas were able to happen for a wide variety of reasons.

Q: Is building structurally sound particularly the foundation?

Moran has a heavily reinforced concrete slab foundation with industrial load bearing ability in excess of today's standards. There have been no signs of major foundation distress reported by the various engineers, architects and estimators that have inspected the building. The proposed redevelopment would involve backfilling the entire basement of Moran with clean fill and reinforced structural concrete. This would effectively separate the lake from the building, and create a reinforced ground-level slab foundation.

Page last updated April 07, 2008