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Montpelier resilience group outlines Rivers Edge master plan, floodplain projects and infrastructure priorities
Summary
The Foundation for a Resilient Montpelier told the House Government Institutions Committee it will lead a Rivers Edge master plan, seek coordinated action with state agencies and FEMA, and pursue projects including dam removal, targeted rubble removal and an 11-acre floodplain restoration to reduce downtown flood risk.
John Kopycinski, executive director of the Foundation for a Resilient Montpelier, told the House Government Institutions Committee that the city needs a comprehensive, multi-year approach to flood recovery and resilience.
"We will be carrying forward the resilience work that the commission was doing," Kopycinski said, describing the recent merger of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience with the local Montpelier Foundation to create a permanent 501(c)(3) to manage recovery and grant-making efforts.
Kopycinski announced the foundation’s intention to develop a Rivers Edge master plan, funded in part by a municipal planning grant and additional local funds, to guide riverfront redevelopment and flood-mitigation projects in 2026–2027. He urged coordination across jurisdictions — including the state’s buildings agency and the Capital Complex Commission — and said negotiators working with FEMA will be central to decisions about the State House campus and adjacent properties.
Committee members pressed Kopycinski on specific interventions. He described a local engineering approach used after the 1992 ice-jam floods that pipes warmer wastewater effluent upstream to maintain a melt channel and said expanding that approach is under consideration for ice-jam mitigation. On dredging, he warned that broad-scale dredging can accelerate downstream erosion and instead recommended targeted removal where rubble and debris collect under bridges, citing rubble beneath the Bailey Bridge as an example.
The foundation plans a series of on-the-ground projects, Kopycinski said, including removal of the Bailey dam structure near Shaw’s Bridge to release upstream silt (which carries phosphorus) and localized flood benefits, and restoration of about 11 acres of floodplain at Five Home Farm Way. That floodplain restoration would require moving roughly 1,500 dump-truck loads of material to allow the river to spread and slow in high flows.
Kopycinski also raised opportunities tied to the old AOT garage site, recommending deconstruction and returning that parcel to floodplain if the garage can be relocated to higher ground. Committee members and Kopycinski discussed logistics for removed soil — weighing costs of trucking, potential reuse sites such as nearby Randall Meadows/Waterbury, and the complexity of using rail sidings.
Why it matters: downtown vitality and the capital complex are interdependent in Montpelier, Kopycinski said, and resilience choices (where to restore floodplain, whether to remove structures, how to manage river channels) will shape both economic recovery and public safety.
The committee did not take formal action. Members thanked Kopycinski for the briefing and indicated they will follow up with state agencies and staff to further investigate project options.
