Essex Junction staff outline updates: train station upgrades, pocket park, hotel and housing-planning developments

At the June 9 special meeting, Essex Junction planning staff briefed the Development Review Board on a package of development updates affecting the village center and surrounding areas.

Planning staff said the Amtrak platform accessibility project remains a federal undertaking on its own timeline and will include a platform upgrade; separately, the city has a roughly $3,000,000 station-upgrade project focused on shelter space and aesthetic improvements around the Amtrak station. “Given that the building is owned by the railroad, not by the city of Essex Junction, and they’ve been clear that this project cannot make direct adjustments of the building,” planning staff said, noting that a large portion of the consultant budget will be used to extend shelter/roofing and that streetscape improvements depend on remaining funds.

On the proposed pocket park, staff reported they presented the board’s findings to Chris Ewan, the city project manager, and that David Burton, the landscape architect, is incorporating the board’s recommended changes; no public timeline has been set. Staff said the Lincoln Hall project is close to finishing and the Brownell Library reroofing is scheduled to begin in early July and take about two weeks.

Staff also updated the board on the new hotel building (to be part of Hilton’s Spark brand). The city issued a temporary certificate of occupancy while several site-plan items — primarily landscaping and life-safety signoffs — remain outstanding. Staff said they are finalizing a letter that will list outstanding site-plan requirements the hotel must address before receiving a full certificate of occupancy.

Regional planning and housing topics were also discussed. Staff summarized recent work by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) on a draft future land-use map and housing targets, and said the city is opting into Act 250 tier 1b eligibility for certain priority housing projects; planning commission and city council comments emphasized concerns about parking management, wastewater capacity, school capacity, and market conditions.

Connect the Junction, the transit-oriented development master plan, is expected to be finalized soon; staff said the consultants and city will present a distilled public outreach package rather than a full technical report to encourage public engagement, with targeted outreach to business owners and students planned for specific topics such as building height and zoning consolidation.

Finally, staff said a retailer — Tractor Supply Company — is being considered as a potential tenant for a former Big Lots site, but no application has been filed with the city; the location sits in the design-review overlay district, which will require exterior changes to come before the board when an application arrives.

Staff did not provide specific dates for public forums on most of these projects, but said a public input period for the station improvements should arrive later this summer or early fall once consultants present a full design package.