u o Supplemental Assistance City of Somerville, MA BACKGROUND EPA awarded the City of Somerville supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Somerville, just three miles north of Boston, is the most densely populated city in Massachusetts, with approximately 76,000 inhabitants living in a 4.2 square mile area. Approximately 17 percent of the landin the city is used for commercial and industrial purposes. The high residential density leaves the city alow percentage of open space to provide for the recreational needs of its citizens. In addition, the pattern of land use in the city has left many brownfields interspersed among residential neighborhoods. The goal of Somerville's brownfields project is to improve the quality of life for its citizens, create new jobs, and contribute to the commercial tax base. The original Pilot offered environmental site testing services to private developers to facilitate economic end uses for brownfields sites. Of the sites targeted, one has been transformed into 97 units of assisted living space for low income seniors, and three are in various stages of environmental testing and redevelopment planning. Another three contiguous parcels of land, considered a single site, have been identified for reuse as a day-care facility; however, the city cannot complete work on these three sites without additional funding. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES The city will use supplemental assistance to expand on the original Pilot, which took a private-sector oriented approach focusing on economic reuses, to include residential and open space brownfields redevelopment projects. The supplemental assistance will be used to conduct assessments at the site of a proposed day-care facility and three additional sites. The city expects to support a residential development of between three and ten housing units at one site, commercial development creating between ten and twenty jobs at another site, PILOT SNAPSHOT City of Somerville, Massachusetts Date of Announcement: May 2002 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The supplemental assistance will be used toexpand brownfields redevelopment projects to include residential, recreational, and other non- commercial activities. Contacts: Somerville Office of Housing and Community Development (617)625-2500ext.2500 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA Region 1 (617)918-1209 Visit the E PA Region 1 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/ Forfurther information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields and an acre of open space at a third site. Supplemental funds also will be used to complete a major upgrade to the city' s inventory of known brownfields. Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Updating the city wide inventory of brownfields sites; • Conducting environmental site testing andredevelopment planning on four selected sites; and ------- • Conducting outreach and community involvement activities. The cooperative agreement forthis Pilot has notyet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-080 and Emergency May 2002 Response (5105) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- |