Burton Snowboard Vermont property chain-link fence raising questions

By Ted Cohen

A massive building and parking lot in northern Vermont that became a failed redevelopment effort as a concert venue is now shrouded in virtual secrecy - figuratively and literally.

Burton Corp., the famous snowboard outfit that owns the property in Burlington’s south end, originally planned to turn part of it over to concert promoter Higher Ground.

But a lawsuit by neighbors fearing noise and traffic eventually led Burton officials two years ago to pull the plug on the controversial project - even though they had prevailed in the court fight.

The same neighbors who declared victory then are now debating on Reddit over what comes next to the partly-vacant expanse.

“On the Burlington property database the permits from March show a conversion from storage to a ‘health club,’ and the latest zoning permit calls for new signage, doors, and interior construction,” a Reddit account assigned to “Audreyarr” says.

“I think it’s gonna be hot tubs and salt baths, like they were trying to do close by on Pine Street,” said another poster going by the handle “Weak_Temperature.”

“We could have had Higher Ground and instead we are getting a health club?” Wrong_Spirit_5008 asked on Reddit. “Thanks a lot old people in Queen City Park for freaking out about music that you couldn’t hear anyway.”

The property, where earth-moving equipment was recently moved into the parking lot, is now encircled by a rented chain-link fence barring public access.

“We are upgrading the storm water management infrastructure and rebuilding most of the parking lots at both addresses,” said site manager Mike Fialko-Casey, referring to the company's properties along Queen City Park Road.

“All the documentation is publicly available” on the city's website, Fialko-Casey added.

An arm of the city's website includes the tax-assessor’s page, which shows a recent permit application for a “change of use from storage to indoor recreation (health club).”

“The change in use from storage to health club is related to the arrival of Talent skate park six years ago,” Fialko-Casey said.

The health-club conversion may be logical based on a second recently-scuttled plan by Higher Ground to partner on the aforementioned Pine Street bathhouse.

While the future of the property remains shrouded in mystery, a prominent member of the neighborhood opposition that sank the concert hall isn't worried about health clubs or saunas

“We don't care what goes in there as long as it's not a concert venue,” Doug Goodman told Vermont Daily Chronicle.

Higher Ground had planned up to 120 concerts a year, prompting neighbors’ fears of their small lakeside enclave being overwhelmed.

The area in question is linked by a tiny one-lane bridge that connects the neighborhood to a busy thoroughfare known as Shelburne Road aka Route 7.

The Vermont Supreme Court had actually sided with Burton two years ago in a legal challenge brought by neighbors opposing the concert plan, but the company pulled out of the project days later.

Higher Ground officials at the time lamented the “significant loss of time and resources” that it had invested in the proposal.

“We are deeply disheartened that Burton has decided to change direction in their plans for the building,” Higher Ground officials said then.

Burton, which never explained why it suddenly quit the project, previously said it wanted to convert an underused warehouse at its global headquarters into an entertainment hub anchored by a 1,500-person music venue managed by Higher Ground.