On Thursday November 29 at 6 p.m. the city’s Department of Planning and Development will hold a community workshop on the Tanner Street Economic Development Plan.
The meeting will take pace at the LRTA building at 100 Hale St.
In November 2010, the City was awarded a “Brownfields Area-wide Planning Grant” from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to focus on district-wide planning for the urban renewal of the 125-acre Tanner Street area of Lowell’s Sacred Heart neighborhood. Much of the area is zoned for industrial uses, with commercial and residential uses permitted along its periphery.
The Tanner Street District is one of only a few active industrial areas left in the City of Lowell. As currently defined, the area includes properties along both sides of Tanner Street, from Howard to Plain Streets, and is bound by the River Meadow Brook and Lowell Connector Highway to the west and the Boston and Maine Railroad/MBTA tracks and Lincoln Street to the east. With direct access to the Lowell Connector Highway and located within close walking distance to Gallagher Terminal, Lowell’s public transit hub with direct commuter rail access to Boston, the Tanner Street District is uniquely positioned to transform itself into a sought-after industrial corridor.
The heavily underutilized River Meadow Brook, running along the western edge of the district, provides a great opportunity for public recreational use as a district-wide multi-use path, which can connect to Lowell’s larger system of multi-use paths. The potential to establish Tanner Street as a transit-oriented neighborhood for both industrial and residential uses through the targeted redevelopment of underutilized properties is highly innovative and unique.
Contained in the Tanner Street district are several known brownfields sites and one known National Priorities List (Superfund) site (Silresim Chemical Corp.), as determined by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Searchable Sites List. Groundwater contamination from the Silresim Chemical Corp. site is said to extend to nearly 16 acres of property in the Tanner Street area. Soil Contamination extends for nearly 7 acres.
For more information about the upcoming workshop or the project, contact Sarah Brown 978-674-4252 x1446 (sbrown@lowellma.gov) or Craig Thomas 978-674-4252 x1445 (cthomas@lowellma.gov).
More information about the plan can be found at: www.lowellma.gov/depts/dpd/TannerStreet/TSEDP .
Room 50 