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/

-------