Moran Plant Redevelopment

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Your Ideas and Comments: July 14, 2005

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

Tear it down�Create a new green space�park with structure and huge slides (like Ethan Allen Park back in the 60s) and swings too. Great place to take kids and picnic. More space for launching boats�Perkins Pier too small�docks for visitors coming to eat or shop. Attract fishing tournaments-not enough on this side of the lake�great way to bring in money for Vermont.

Tear it down and extend the park.

Since the Moran plant is structurally sound, I would like to see a museum created there�a science, natural history, planetarium type museums�that would compliment and not compete with the Leahy Echo Center and attract tourists. It might include an auditorium for experts in the field to five public lecturer and/or for college credit. It could be funded by investors, grants and perhaps our wonderful senators might obtain federal arts money. This would provide tax income for the City. I believe the city should retain ownership of the land or sell it to the Burlington Community Land Trust to protect from future development. Marcia L. Mason, Flynn Ave Co-op

Affordable housing.

These are 3 ideas that could be integrated: 1. . . .related activity�Make Moran Plant water and bike path service center with rentals for bikes, boats, in-line skates, x-country skis, etc. 2. Create transient dock space and add marina, grocery and showers to Moran. Integrate with expanded community sailing and dive center. 3. Build a municipal pool next to Moran with boathouse facilities next to or in Moran. Should be life guarded and provides lessons and swimming events.

Sorry our idea is not new�Tear down and leave open for public use. Mr. & Mrs. David Gaylord

A public park would be nice but not prim and manicured but more natural looking. This city needs more natural areas, it�s lost too much already.

I guess after reading the run-down of high costs and complications of leaving up or tearing down�I am ambivalent about the sensible, possible ($) choices! But�1. Create a much needed playground (big and imaginative) for the small children who do not have much place for child fun/organized play on waterfront! Well-fenced! 2. And/or a large public (Burlington Parks) pool with deep and shallow plus wading area. Inside and outside or all outside with means to adapt to skating (ice) in winter. Jean Forden (voted for the YMCA)

A multi-faceted community center run by volunteers including teens and elders with a really cool modern looking and sounding�1. Roller skating rink. 2. Dance hall. 3. Music practice rooms. 4. Art & crafts room. 5. TV/movie room. 6. Kitchen and dining hall. 7. Function Hall/party room. 8. Workout room. 9. Sauna and steam rooms. 10. Whirlpool. 11. Swimming pool

Tear it down! Stop wasting tax payers money! R.E. Croker.

1. Amphitheatre. 2. Boys & Girls Club (youth center). 3. Nautical Museum (Sailing Center Expansion

Remove the building. Sell the bricks and keep the waterfront open.

Tempus Fugit! Act Now. Demolish and tear down the Moran Plant. Create open space at the water�s edge where people can stroll or sit to read, to talk, to reflect, to gaze at the lake and Adirondacks and the ever-changing view of water, mountains and sky. Let the past and the grotesque go! Plant flowers, bushes, small trees . . .

Multicultural Arts Center�workshop spaces, spaces for community events and classes, low income studio space. Keep building as original as possible (structure). Low rental fees to be accessible to all.

Build Jurassic Park! (We can use the tall building as an aviary for the pterodactyls.)

Sculpture Garden, Amphitheater, Community Art Display. Must utilize the natural setting, YMCA on the edge of lake made no sense. YMCA could be anywhere�wouldn�t have utilized the setting. Other ideas: natural fitness course (really cool one with a mini-rock wall, etc.) Lake access is key�LCSC should stay in some capacity. Simply open, grassy space. Let the public explore the lakeshore. Make a beach. Public access, public use, public space! Thanks for the chance to comment.

Take the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center and expand it. Mr. Clavelle tear down the building and build a community sailing center that serves the community. Give Burlington residents�rich, poor, underprivileged access to the lake. Most people in Burlington cannot access the lake�boats and equipment are prohibitively expensive. Let�s give Burlington a state of the art sailing center that teaches future generations about our biggest resource�Lake Champlain. A Sailing Center that teaches programs on lake ecology and most important sailing to our children.

Tear down the existing structure. Clean up the area to conform with the �waterfront park� theme. Make space accessible to wading in the water. Make space acceptable for sitting in the shade or in the sun.

Be more inviting and friendly to (power) boat visitors�more dock and mooring space. Open, public space with no expensive stores. No buildings above one story. Encourage foot traffic along the bike path�which should be widened for two-way traffic.

The Moran Plant. Waterfront�whether it be lake, river or ocean is something that we cannot create. Once you build on it it is gone forever. Consider tearing down the Moran Plant and returning it to green space. Buildings can be built anywhere. There is only one waterfront.

The Moran Plant already houses a community boat program�it is a wonderful outlet for citizens of modest means to access the water. Why not expand this idea and make it a �poor-man�s� boat house. Rather than dockage for elite travelers, moor the rowboat and kayak rentals there. Provide classes to art schools. The top could be a no-frills snack bar and observation deck. How about a true community pool! Diving, swimming, boating, skiing /surfing, birdwatching . .

Tear it down or paint it with Titanium (a la Frank Gehry�s Guggenheim in Bilbo, Spain--But keep the sailing center! Be sure to retain parkland. [Be sure to] have a viable, vibrant, environmentally/healthy, aesthetic traffic circulation plan in place!

I am less concerned with what to do with the building than with the 2 acres. The potential for making the sailing center as a mecca for tourists and communities and schools/groups is huge! I think this area can be an extension or contiguous with the work/education resources offered by ECHO and Maritime Museum. Keep it water-related with educational resources and mixed use opportunities. Retail, food, sailing, kayaking, water/lake education, green space, park, art, public gatherings, retail, food, extend the boardwalk. Public garden in the 40 acres beyond.

Tear down Moran Plant�build new sailing center, take the rest of the area and make a playground/park and leave tons of green space. Possibly another Marina. Nothing that will cause huge amounts of traffic.

Tear it down. Green space.

Page last updated July 14, 2005

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