Montpelier's Riverfront

In keeping with one of the core tenets of Montpelier’s latest economic development goals, Confluence River Park leverages the community’s rivers as an economic asset – providing outdoor amenities for people of all abilities, attracting new residents to establish roots in their communities, and drawing visitors (and dollars) to the downtown. Putting this goal into reality, cities across the country – from Denver, CO to Missoula, MT and from Burlington, VT to Franklin, NH – have successfully capitalized on their waterfront location by constructing downtown parks and greenways along their waterfront, ultimately leveraging their waterfront location for economic growth. Similarly, Confluence River Park is an opportunity for Vermont’s capital city to improve the quality of life for residents, attract visitors to the heart of downtown, and gain its rightful place among nationally recognized river cities.

Working towards more equitable access to the outdoors, the park is just a two-minute walk from affordable housing projects (French Block, One Taylor Street), providing open space for these residents.

The park would also serve the growing set of new Montpelier residents who are, or will be, choosing Montpelier as a place to live, in part, because of forward-thinking planning for urban recreational opportunities. Being able to eat lunch at the river edge, launch a kayak or tube, splash with young kids, or cast into the river will be new opportunities for Montpelier residents. 

Case Study: Burlington’s Waterfront

Economic Value:

• 50% of lakefront recreators are out-of-town visitors
• Total visitor spending per day = $45,000

Source: Headwaters Economics, 2010

Project implementation is projected to cost $3 million. The breakdown of these expenses is approximately one-third brownfields mitigation, one-third bank stabilization and flood resilience, and one-third park amenities. Much of the expenses will be paid through charitable donations as well as grant funds from multiple sources.

As of January 2024, $1.5 million has been raised to build the park.

The City of Montpelier passed a bond March 2022 (and reaffirmed March 2023) that would allocate $600,000 towards park construction. The cost to the City of Montpelier, via the committed bond, stands at $600,000. These dollars will be leveraged 5-fold by outside funds.

Built atop an historic floodplain at the confluence of two major rivers, the City of Montpelier is subject to devastating flooding, as witnessed in July 2023. All climate models indicate that Vermont will see increasingly frequent floods. Knowing this particular park site will flood, the site design is engineered for flood resilience, including:

• Replacing the site’s current “industrial rubble” with tiered structural walls that stabilize the slope, add protected pockets of native vegetation, and manage runoff.
• Uses flood-resilient construction materials and methods to harden and stabilize the structures and surfaces.
• Incorporates levels of public access that can be closed off during normal seasonal and moderate to large flooding events.
• Site features like benches using durable materials that will stay in place during floods.

Overall, the engineering and landscape architecture anticipate future flooding at the site – both fluctuating annual water levels and complete inundation – to ensure the park endures over time.

Location: The park was designed in tandem with One Taylor Street and is nearly adjacent to the French Block, two of the city’s biggest housing investments. Research repeatedly indicates that parks and open spaces significantly contribute to residents’ quality of life, and are especially important in proximity to low-income populations who have less access to the outdoors than other populations.

Confluence Park’s location helps to fill this “nature gap” – a concept that identifies the intersection between lack of access to the parks and socioeconomic challenges, and seeks more equitable access to the outdoors by locating accessible parks and recreation amenities in proximity to low-income and marginalized communities. This concept echoes the findings in Montpelier’s 2020 Downtown Master Plan and Montpelier’s 2017/2018 Master Plan (as well as previous city plans), which identify the overall lack of parks and recreation in the city’s urban core.

Design: Antiquated park philosophies implemented in the second half of the 20th century incorporated park design elements to actively deter use by the unhoused, incorporating design elements such as spikes on benches or garish lighting. The message was: the unhoused population is not welcome here.
In contrast, contemporary design philosophies embrace a more equitable concept that parks are for all people. Following this approach, Confluence River Park design elements acknowledge that it’s likely that the current park users will continue to use the park and to ensure additional park users feel safe and welcome to use the space. Proactive design elements include:

• Open sight lines so people can easily see across the site from throughout the park.
• Multiple points of entry and exit from the paths so that people can choose various routes into and out of the park.
• Multiple gathering areas to accommodate multiple people and user groups using the space at the same time.

These efforts seek to ensure that the park is a safe and welcoming place for all people, ultimately converting the current confluence space from an avoided corner dominated by a single user group to a vibrant place enjoyed by broad users across the community.