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RECIPE INSIDE! OCTOBER 14, 2021
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
Autumnal glory
The maple tree next to the Williston Federated Church on North Williston Road outdid itself this year with this stunning show of colors. COURTESY PHOTO BY LEE KROHN
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Expansion of Route 2 industrial park approved Hotel-to-housing plan also gets nod BY JASON STARR Observer staff The primary western entrance to Williston will be transformed under a plan to build three commercial/industrial buildings totaling 103,000 square feet along Route 2 near the South Burlington border. The Williston Development Review Board gave the plan preliminary approval Tuesday. The buildings would go up next to the U-Haul facility that is under construction, part of a nine-lot industrially zoned subdivision created in 2018 on the former Robear family farm. The three buildings would sit on about 9 acres of currently forested land. The U-Haul facility and a Morway’s Storage business have already been approved in the subdivision. Patrick O’Brien of GPA LLC, the applicant on the project, said no uses or tenants have yet been identified for the buildings. The application will need a second, final approval from the Development Review
Board in order to move to construction. Board members encouraged O’Brien to be aware that the buildings will be among the first things people see when entering Williston eastbound on Route 2. “This is changing the character of what’s coming into Williston dramatically,” board chair Peter Kelley told O’Brien. “It is an important project. Please take due care with it.” O’Brien recognizes the visibility of the proposal. “We want it to be a really nice looking building,” he said, “one that is attractive to all the people who live in Williston, who are visiting Williston and who will be doing business there.” Also Tuesday, the board gave final approval to a plan to convert the TownePlace Suites hotel on Zephyr Road into homeless transition and low-income housing. The apartments, totaling 71 studio and one-bedroom units, will be owned and managed by the Champlain Housing Trust. About half will be kept perpetually affordable at 80 percent of Chittenden County’s median see ROUTE 2 page 12
State finalizes plans to move police barracks
The State of Vermont seeks Williston Development Review Board approval to build a new state police barracks on a forested 51acre parcel off St. George Road. The project is on the board’s Oct. 26 agenda. It would move the barracks from their current location on the northeast corner of the Exit 12 Interstate 89 interchange to the southwest corner. The facil-
ity would consist of two buildings where St. George Road descends into Williston. A new turning lane and access road to the facility are planned. In addition to the state police barracks, the main building will also house a 911 call center, the Northern Vermont Drug Task Force, the Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcement division and
the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. A separate storage garage will house the units’ vehicles. The facility will be open around the clock and will need constant security lighting, Cpt. Michael Manley wrote in a letter to the town’s planning and zoning department. “Community members need to feel safe arriving to the facility af-
ter hours,” he wrote. “Dispatchers will come and go throughout all hours of the night for shifts. The same applies for the troopers… [T]he facility will operate 24/7 and sustained outdoor lighting is needed for the safety of the troopers, dispatchers and public.” Project manager Zoltan Horvath noted in a September letter to the town that state statute lim-
its the town’s regulatory authority over the project and exempts the state from town permitting fees. If approved, the state plans to begin clearing the site of trees by the end of the year and break ground on the buildings in the spring. Completion is anticipated in the fall of 2023. — Jason Starr
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