The city will pursue state funds to offset the cost of remediation of several downtowns lots that it plans to acquire.
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City Council adopted a resolution (AR-167) during its regular meeting on Sept. 9, supporting potential remediation of Irving Street properties through the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund (HDSRF).
There are three parcels (Block 162, Lots 5, 6 and 7) across the two properties at 1646-8 and 1654 Irving St. The properties at the corner of Irving Street and Seminary Avenue are part of a broader redevelopment area that stretches along Hamilton Street and Seminary to Gordon Place.
A redevelopment plan for the northern end of downtown advanced this summer by City Council and the Planning Board includes the parcels, with a plan to create a passive park there.
City Council awarded two contracts totaling $28,750 to Middletown-based T&M Associates in anticipation of acquiring the properties, which the governing body tabled in December. The first contract, for $9,500 in December, was for a “preliminary assessment/geophysical survey,” and another for $19,250 in January for “site investigation, test pit evaluation and submit a site investigation summary report and health and safety plan.”
City Administrator Robert Landolfi said during an interview last week that there had been an auto repair shop on the property some years ago so there are contaminants on the site. Remediation could include a broad array of options, he added, running the gamut from excavation to fill. A timeline for remediation is unclear at this point. The city has been trying to coordinate with the state DEP since April, he said.
A concept plan for a jazz club on the site was in the works but finally abandoned in 2018 after more than a decade of effort, even garnering Planning Board approval in 2007.
A passive park makes sense in the scheme of the overall redevelopment, Landolfi said, and also probably gives the city the best chance at HDSRF funding. “We’ll wait and see how it all plays out.”
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