WINDSOR — Plans for a new park and recreational amenities in downtown Windsor could get a boost from a state program that provides matching funds for community projects. 

Windsor Railyard Recreation, a nonprofit organization led by businessman Terry McDonnell, is trying to raise $20,000 by June 30 in order to receive $40,000 from the Better Places Program, which is administered by the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development. 

The roughly 3-acre property on Depot Avenue, which includes the popular Windsor Exchange, is located on the east side of the train tracks, close to where a new apartment building is going up near the Windsor Diner.

It is owned by the town and the initial projects on the site — a skate park, pickleball courts, a dog park and walking paths — will be funded by Windsor Railyard Recreation. It will cost around $900,000 to build, McDonnell said, and the goal is to raise money through grants and donations. As of Friday, the campaign had raised around $3,000 toward its goal.

“I just think it gets into the theme of a downtown revitalization and it's very similar, I hope it's similar to White River Junction in the sense of residents having more reasons to shop downtown, exercise downtown, live downtown,” said McDonnell, who owns Artisans Park off Route 5 in Windsor. “I just think our downtown needs projects like this, and housing and businesses to thrive.”

The town obtained the park property last July from Bob Haight, by forgiving around $50,000 on a $75,000 loan from the Windsor Revolving Loan Fund the town had granted Haight to purchase the property around a decade ago. Haight, an architect and Windsor’s former zoning administrator, kept roughly an acre of land on the west side of the train tracks where he has a workshop. 

“Before us spending the money to clean it up, you have to figure out what you're going to do with it and Terry has been a strong advocate of getting kids outside and off their phones,” Marsh said. “Now we're looking at a million dollar project that will be a community park.”

The park, to be named Railyard Recreation, can only come into being if the town receives federal funding to clean up property, which is classified as a brownfield site. There are contaminates in the soil that need to be removed or covered up before the land can be developed.

At the railyard, exhaust from vehicles and trains have settled into the soil, as well as lead, said Thomas Kennedy, director of community development at the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, which is organizing the brownfield cleanup.

“This is a fairly simple brownfield project because you don’t have (...) substances that are very toxic and so the cleanup for something like this is basically soil removal and replacing the soil with new soil,” Kennedy said. He estimated it would cost around $500,000 to remediate the site and take around six weeks to complete.

“I think it will take this year and next year,” McDonnell said. “By the summer of 2025, we should have our pieces in place.”

While a 3-acre, relatively flat plot of land near a downtown might seem like a good place for housing, that isn’t the case. In addition to being a brownfield, the property also is in the Connecticut River floodplain which makes it more challenging to build on.

“The combination of the two make it very difficult, very difficult, to do anything else with it, which is why I think this is such a good idea,” McDonnell said. 

Since the skate park and other features are considered “nonpermanent,” organizers do not have to follow the same regulations as they would if they were trying to build a permanent structure such as an apartment building.

“Given climate change and everything else, we’re trying to get people not to put structures in the floodplains,” Kennedy said.

But there is new housing being built nearby. Earlier this month, the Windsor and Windham Housing Trust started construction on a three-story building near the Windsor Diner, which will include 25 one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for households that make up to 80% of Windsor’s area medium income. Called Central & Main, the building is expected to complete by next spring.

For more information about Railyard Recreation, visit patronicity.com/project/railyard_recreation#!/. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.