Moran Plant Redevelopment

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Burlington, Vermont

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Your Ideas and Comments: July 6, 2005

Thank you to all who have submitted ideas for the future of Moran!!

Renovate to allow space for LCCSC, museum emphasizing Burlington�s waterfront/maritime heritage-joint venture between city and LCMM? Maintain sculpture garden, add playground. New community garden on grounds, depending on soil quality and security considerations�proximity to skate park may pose a problem there.

Take the plant down.

The Lake Champlain Sailing Center has used the Moran Plant for 10 years, but the site is not suitable or efficient for its programs. My idea: Tear the Moran Plant down, clean up the surrounding pollution/debris. Rebuild the Sailing Center on the site and keep the surrounding area green with a park, gardens, picnic area, benches, horse-shoe pitch or croquet lawn area. No commercial development on Public Land. Jay Vos

I think we should tear down the Moran Plant, and put in its place a green area for planting, picnics and recreation. We should clean up the waste first.

Maritime Museum, Lakeside Caf�, Sailing Center�Combo

Museum and/or performance space. Something that takes advantage of this fabulous spot, the history and the beauty. P.S.: Bring back Waterfront Video! We miss it! Idea for No. 40�Botanical gardens tied in somehow. Please less parking�less cars!

Keep the building; that old building kept us warm and well lit: it has served us well; it is a part of our heritage (should be on some historical list; it should be rehabbed, remodeled, redesigned and redeemed and reborn. Call it Phoenix House and serve all ages physically (athletically) recreationally (you get the pic).

Leave the interior open. Let the structure be what it wants to be. Keep the ambient temperature of the large space cool in winter and build a warm sculptural �village that will be kept warm� within the large space. Uses: Maritime Museum, performance space, marriages, dances, etc. More than you can imagine!

Lake Maritime Museum. Large room for the public all year round, free of charge to use, with bathrooms, fireplace, food. Sailing school and handicap sail must stay here. Add lots of windows. Plug up basement for additional space. Have a tower to use year round 360 degree view. All new uses to be year round. �Mobile� room for multi-use-concert, party, theater, dancing.

YMCA!

Find a non-profit with experience running recreational centers who are willing to pay for renovation to the site, and have them create a multi-use recreation center.

Gallery/museum or Gallereum: A combination of local, regional, national and international art. Have a theater for theater and movie presentation. Have a couple decks and patios for outside projects and picnic seating, Let people bring their own lunch, but also have a cafeteria style eatery providing food grown and raised in Vermont. The location is GREAT. Walking distance from downtown, bike path, and the ferry. The lake draws as many people as the mountains. A percent of the sales from art and food go back to the Gallereum. Admission is by donation. Thanks for the opportunity. John S. Ballway.

Thank you for the opportunity to tour and comment. Even though I�m preservation-minded, I�d like to see the building razed. In its place, I�d like to see new space for the sailing center, more open public land for picnics and winter recreation. Anything that will bring locals to the waterfront and tourists.

I feel the building should be dismantled and demolished at the cost of $500,000. If it were to be left up, restored and occupied; aesthetically, it would still look like a monster, out of place with the other more modern structures in the near vicinity. Furthermore, instead of thinking about building structures, how about figuring ways to bring more affordable middle class housing into the area between Church Street and the Waterfront. You hardly see any people sitting on their front porch outside their home in downtown Burlington. You have only high rise buildings (hotels, office buildings, townhouse). Only tourists walk the streets. Very few residents walking around in the evening!

Make whatever it is a model of energy efficiency/renewable energy�solar panels, etc. Could it be totally energy independent/self-sufficient? Why not the site of a public swimming facility (indoor/outdoor pool, handicapped accessible as proposed by Parks and Rec). Open studio space like the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia.

I believe that the Moran Plant should be torn down and replaced by Green Space. I feel that this is really necessary because of all the coal and ash and hazardous materials dumped in and around the plant.

Boys & Girls Club should be built at Moran (club on Oak St. is crowded). A Boys & Girls Club keeps kids off the streets, keeps them away from drugs and other problems and will reduce crime. Also, have free drug and alcohol counseling available.

Do nothing until all the necessary needs of the city have been taken care of such as all streets repaired, sidewalks replaced and maintained. Taxes reduced and all new ideas for spending, etc., put on hold until a real need to spend money on the waterfront occurs.

Our Burlington Champlain Lakefront is a gift to this beautiful city. Now that the YMCA take-over of the Moran plant had been defeated, maybe it�s time to remove the old Moran structure and build a Concert Hall that will give access to all people. Think of Sydney, Australia�s opera house. Burlington could have a similar facility and image! Rita Danielski

Tear the building down. Leave open space so you can enjoy the lake. Have picnic areas and places to relax, read, enjoy others company, etc.

Tear the Moran Plant down. Don�t rent land for nothing. Dorilda Meunier.

My suggestion: The Moran Plant should be used for housing the poor and the very poor. (Similar to Lake Champlain Housing�s Mill Run, 220 Riverside Ave. Maybe LCHV could run the Moran.) Susan Ballway

Sell it and use the money to repair our city streets!

Take it down! Don�t have any great idea but I wouldn�t mind just having it left in lawn for a while! Perhaps our future generations would come up with some great use for the land. We shouldn�t develop the whole waterfront.

Burlington needs more housing�not for the rich or the tourists or the college kids�but decent low cost housing for families. Kids need a better start than they usually get here now. If you can build decent low cost innovation family apartments near a good shop, a security center, a laundry, a garage�whatever�if you can do this well enough, other states will see how progressive we are�hopefully we can be the blueprint for other states to follow. You alone can turn what we need into what we have. Thank about it �you could be a real solution to a real problem.

Page last updated July 6, 2005

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