Williston Observer 12-6-18

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DECEMBER 6, 2018

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GlobalFoundries selling Williston campus By Jason Starr Observer staff

GlobalFoundries is seeking a buyer for 440 acres on the Williston side of the Winooski River, including about 450,000 square feet of office space it currently leases to tenants like IBM, People’s United Bank and General Dynamics. The computer chip manufacturer’s primary operations, housed on the other side of the river in Es-

sex, will be unaffected, company spokesman Jason Gorss said. “The campus is unique in that it contains more acreage and building space than are needed to support its core mission,” said Gorss. “We have decided to sell the Williston campus to right-size the site by reducing the cost to carry underutilized property.” Williston’s grand list values the property at $24.7 million, contrib-

uting roughly $466,000 in property taxes to town in 2018. Frank Cioffi of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation — a key facilitator of the plant’s 1950s opening under its original owner, IBM — views the sale as an economic opportunity for the region. The site is set up with natural gas, electricity, water and wastewater, roads and parking, and telecommunications infrastructure. It is also

set up as a secure campus, with a security checkpoint off Redmond Road. “There is no other site like this in Vermont,” Cioffi said. “There are a lot of assets there. It lends itself to being a very interesting development and redevelopment opportunity.” Gorss echoed that sentiment. “The Williston campus is one of the largest developable parcels

left available in Chittenden County that has utilities and services immediately ready for development,” he said. “The sale is part of our continued initiative to maintain cost-competitiveness in the global semiconductor industry, as well as an effort to introduce into the regional economy a substantial parcel of land that provides the opportunity for new economic see GLOBALFOUNDRIES page 2

A bridge to … somewhere? Town preps for legal dispute with church over path funding By Jason Starr Observer staff

In 2016, the Town of Williston built a million dollar bridge over the Allen Brook to provide a crossing for pedestrians and cyclists along Route 2A. But the property owner on the bridge’s south side — the Essex Alliance Church — promptly installed a locked metal gate, effectively closing the bridge and turning back Taft Corners-bound bikers and pedestrians. Headquartered in Essex, the church has harbored plans to build a new campus on the south side of the Allen Brook since 2006. Documents in the Williston Planning and Zoning office show an 80,000-square-foot church, soccer and baseball fields, eight residential condominiums and 20 acres of open space. In a series of Development Review Board applications, most recently amended in 2015, church officials and town planners have negotiated the scope of a paved rec path that would connect the bridge through the church campus to the sidewalks of Taft Corners. The connection would be the missing

link for a dedicated bike/pedestrian route between Essex Junction and Taft Corners, also serving the Williston neighborhoods along Route 2A. “There are a lot of people in Williston who are very close to Taft Corners, but there is not a great walking or biking route because of this heavily trafficked state highway they would have to use to get there,” Williston Planning and Zoning Director Matt Boulanger said. “The (connection) is extremely valuable and means the path doesn’t end at the end of the bridge we built.” The church removed the gate blocking the south end of the bridge this fall, revealing a quarter mile of new paved path it constructed over the summer. The new section connects the bridge with Beaudry Lane, on the northern edge of the church’s mostly pristine 52 acres. But the path falls short of linking up with the sidewalks of Taft Corners, instead depositing bikers and pedestrians onto Route 2A at the intersection with Beaudry Lane. Financial responsibility for the section is also under dispute. In September, Town Manager Rick McGuire received a $41,000 bill f rom the Essex Alliance Church. The development approvals do not specify who will pay for

the path. “There was no written agreement between the two parties on who was going to pay for what, and no verbal agreement,” McGuire said. After a closed-door meeting with the selectboard Nov. 20, the board took no action to settle the bill. “If the issue is not resolved, it is likely to end up with some form of litigation,” McGuire wrote in a memo to the board. Calls and emails to Pastor Scott Slocum of Essex Alliance Church were not returned. Boulanger hypothesized that the church undertook construction of the quarter mile of path this year to show “substantial progress” on its proposal and prevent expiration of the permit. In 2014, the church publicly announced the expectation of an anonymous $18 million gift to help build the Williston campus, but a year later, Pastor Slocum told the Observer that he was unsure when the donation would be finalized. “We know that God’s timing does not always line up with our human plans, so we plan to continue to grow and thrive in Essex, and when it’s God’s time for us to move to Williston, we’ll be ready,” the church website reads.

OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR

A bridge over the Allen Brook was recently connected through Essex Alliance Church property with a rec path, but the church and town officials dispute who is responsible for the cost of the path.

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