Supreme Court Clears the Way for Higher Ground to Move to Burton Campus

A plan to relocate the Higher Ground concert venue to the Burton Snowboards campus in Burlington has survived a hard-fought legal challenge from neighbors who worry about the noise and traffic it will bring to the city’s South End.

The Vermont Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected a citizen group’s appeal of an earlier trial court ruling that upheld city and state permits for the project. The decision could finally clear the way for Higher Ground to make the move, more than five years after the project was first proposed.

The high court’s ruling quashes opponents’ main line of attack against the 1,500-person concert venue on Queen City Park Road, near Red Rocks Park. But Citizens for Responsible Zoning — which raised nearly $15,000 through crowdfunding to fight the permits — will keep looking for ways to combat the project.

Doug Goodman, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement that Citizens for Responsible Zoning intends to push back when Higher Ground applies for a separate entertainment permit and liquor license through the city.

“We still have grave concerns about noise and traffic from a 1500-seat venue serving alcohol,” he wrote, “whose patrons will pour out into our residential neighborhoods and get into their cars, trucks and motorcycles after midnight and sometimes after 2 am.”

Last year, a judge in the state’s environmental court ruled that a city zoning permit and Act 250 land-use permit for the project had been properly issued. Judge Mary Miles Teachout did, however, issue new requirements that Burton and Higher Ground use sound monitors and more actively manage event parking.

Citizens for Responsible Zoning, in its appeal, objected to Teachout’s conclusions with respect to alcohol consumption, noise and traffic impacts. In a 23-page decision, Supreme Court justices found that Teachout’s analysis was not unreasonable.

Goodman hopes the Burlington City Council will be more persuadable. “Here, the decision maker is the City Council, which by law has broad discretion to address our concerns,” he wrote.

Higher Ground cofounder Alex Crothers did not immediately return a call for comment.

VTDigger.org first reported the news of the court’s decision.