BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A new study from researchers at the University of Vermont raises renewed concerns about the risk of landslides along Riverside Avenue in Burlington.
Ishmata Pradhan says her family just signed the papers and plan to open their second location of Namaste Kitchen on Riverside Avenue. “We are a family-owned small business,” Pradhan said.
This comes just days after a new study by UVM researchers that finds much of the land along the street is at risk of a landslide.
“We are very shocked to hear that ‘cause we were so excited when we bought the restaurant,” Pradhan said.
“I wish we put it out earlier,” said Bella Bennett, who along with Paul Bierman authored the study.
“It seems like for things like landsliding — where there is a known hazard here — there should be a way to communicate for people who are buying property,” said, Bierman, who for years has sounded the alarm about the risks of the area. He says it’s just a matter of time before the unstable slope gives way. “It’s really not stable and that’s the tough part here.”
“We need to read the landscape,” added Bennett. “We have seen landslides essentially down the whole corridor.”
The study points to landslides happening after large rainfall events, with evidence of 20 landslides in 70 years. So why the risk here? It’s not just the steep hillside over the Winooski River, but also that the area was built on junk. “There’s some material here that’s geologic. There’s rocks, there’s some sand, but there’s also a lot of garbage,” Bennett said.
“This material is informally dumped in off of dump trucks. It’s not been compacted, it’s not been engineered,” Bierman said.
They say there’s no predicting when the next landslide will be but they do believe the city and state should move with some urgency to buy out properties in the highest-risk areas and work to shore up the hillside. “Remove the parking lots, remove the businesses, and then create an intentional forestation strategy along the slope to basically increase what we call root cohesion, which is the amount the roots hold the landscape together,” Bennett said.
The report has left the Pradhan family business wondering about their future. “To hear what could potentially be happening now, it feels we are kind of putting our business at risk. And since it’s only been a week since we have even started, I am very worried,” Pradhan said.
The city of Burlington notes that most of the properties at risk are privately owned but that they are working to tap into state funds to buy out one home as weel as considering a buyout for a second property. The city is also awaiting the results of a state geological inspection currently underway.