PILOT SNAPSHOT |
Date of Announcement:
May 1998
Amount: $200,000 |
| Profile: The Pilot targets five major undeveloped
mill properties, four of which are located in Norwich's
Urban Enterprise Zone. |
BACKGROUND
EPA has selected the City of Norwich and the Town of Griswold
for a Brownfields Pilot. Norwich (population 37,319) is located
approximately 15 miles north of New London and 40 miles southeast
of Hartford, at the head of the Thames River. Griswold (population
10,384) lies 32 miles northeast of Norwich. Located within one
of the oldest settled areas in the United States, Norwich and
Griswold have suffered high unemployment and poverty rates in
recent years due to the departure of textile and other major manufacturing
industries during the 1960s and 1970s. To reduce poverty within
distressed neighborhoods, the State of Connecticut designated
Norwich as a Targeted Investment Community and an Urban Enterprise
Zone. Similarly, the state created an Enterprise Corridor Zone
in Griswold to encourage development, and to focus tax incentives
on the town's blighted and abandoned sites. This area of Connecticut
was once one of the nation's leading firearms manufacturing centers,
and home to stove, lock, paper and textile manufacturers serviced
by the Norwich-Worcester Railroad. By 1987, however, manufacturing
jobs in the area had dwindled to only 17% of the area's total
employment.
Many former factories have been torn down or now sit abandoned
in the midst of residential neighborhoods. Several of these properties
now have suspected contamination. The Norwich-Griswold Pilot seeks
to restore at least five of its major, abandoned industrial properties
to productive use-the Greeneville Industrial District, the Falls
Avenue Mills area, the Dahl Oil/Shipping Street Area, the Hopkins
and Allen Firearms Company, and the Triangle Wire Facility. Four
of these properties are located within Norwich's Urban Enterprise
Zone; the fifth, the Triangle Wire Facility, is located in Griswold.
OBJECTIVES
The Pilot will be a cooperative effort on the part of project partners, property
owners, local lenders, and developers. The Pilot will converge
stakeholder efforts on removing uncertainties regarding contamination
and other barriers to redevelopment at the five targeted sites
by conducting environmental site assessments, and outlining strategies
and costs for cleanup and redevelopment. Though the Pilot funds
will focus on site identification and environmental assessments,
the Pilot's efforts will be supplemented by the work of the Pilot's
cooperative partners, including: conducting seminars for property
owners, lenders, and developers; conducting site cleanup; and
promoting and completing redevelopment of the five targeted properties.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
- Ranking the five targeted sites by their economic importance, likelihood of
environmental hazard, and ease of municipal acquisition;
- Completing Phase I, II and III assessments on each of the
targeted sites, and creating site cleanup plans that will be
used in future marketing efforts; and
- Preparing project reports that summarize the results of each
assessment, and providing lists of potential end uses for each
site.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore,
activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
CONTACTS:
Norwich Office of Economic Development
City of Norwich
(860) 823-3744
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 1
(617) 573-9681
Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/index.html
For further information, including specific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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