Montpelier recovery commission urges study of federal building, parking and riverfront reuse after 2023 floods

John Philbinis, executive director of the Montpelier Commission on Recovery and Resilience, briefed the House of Corrections and Institutions Committee on Tuesday about ongoing damage from the August 2023 floods and possible opportunities to reduce future flood risk and revitalize downtown Montpelier.

Philbinis told the committee that four buildings in the Capitol Complex remain “unoccupied, uninhabitable” and that many systems are still on temporary electrical service nearly two years after the flood. He said the commission’s work focuses on emergency response planning, watershed partnerships with neighboring towns and an “adaptive downtown” approach to protect historic buildings that are likely to flood again.

The commission emphasized a specific opportunity: the federal government’s decision to dispose of the former post office at 87 State Street, a roughly 70,000-square-foot building. Philbinis said that parcel — together with privately and state‑owned parking lots nearby — could be the site of a shared parking structure serving the legislature, downtown businesses and Vermont Mutual Insurance, with redevelopment of other lots for housing or commercial uses. “Imagine concentrating that parking in one location,” Philbinis said.

Why it matters: the commission framed the federal building and the adjacent “pit” parking lots as a chance to reduce impervious surface along the river, add flood storage and improve the view toward the State House lawn. The group said those changes could yield both resilience benefits and economic benefits for downtown businesses that have struggled since COVID and the flood.

Commissioners and committee members raised the mechanics of federal property disposal and local financing tools. Philbinis outlined the federal disposal sequence — offers to other federal agencies, negotiated sale to the state or municipality, then public auction through GSA — and warned that GSA sales can be speculative if the state is not prepared to act. Philbinis offered a rough price context: “it’s appraised at something like 4,000,000,” a figure he described as an informal estimate.

The commission also said work is already underway at the local level. Philbinis and other speakers pointed to proposed hazard mitigation projects the city will consider this week, including removal of a dam by the Shaw’s grocery store and a floodplain restoration project behind Agway at a parcel described in the meeting as “5 Home Farm Way.” Those projects, the commission said, contribute to watershed-level flood risk reduction even as state agencies and FEMA finish damage assessments for the Capitol Complex.

Montpelier officials said studies already done — including a 2001 capital district master plan cited by the commission — should serve as starting points for any new analysis rather than repeating prior work. Philbinis said the commission is in conversations about funding a feasibility study through the capital appropriations process, and that language in the capital bill requires state agencies to provide the commission with updates about FEMA interactions or other developments.

Committee members discussed potential financing tools such as a tax-increment financing (TIF) district around the “pit” and the federal parcel to capture future development gains. Ben Doyle, president of Preservation Trust Vermont and a member of the Montpelier City Council, described the downtown’s fragility and urged urgency in pairing local planning with state-level capital investments.

The meeting produced no formal votes. Committee members directed staff to keep the commission and BGS (Buildings & General Services) in conversational contact and suggested convening engineers and planning staff to review the commission’s concepts and prior master plans.

Ending: Philbinis asked the committee to treat the commission as a partner in watershed-level solutions and to support feasibility work that could be ready if and when the federal property becomes available. He said the commission hopes to coordinate local projects that reduce flood levels entering Montpelier while also pursuing options to repurpose asphalt along the river into green stormwater infrastructure and usable public space.