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Date: 11/21/2017
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The city’s Office of Community Development is preparing its application for brownfield cleanup grant funding through the Environmental Protection Agency in order to make the former Standard Plating property suitable for development.
“The West Springfield Redevelopment Authority has been working on a request for proposals for potential developers once the site is sufficiently clean and ready,” Community Development Block Grant Coordinator Sarah Szczebak, noting the land is zoned for commercial development.
Though West Springfield has already done significant work to improve the city-owned property, groundwater and other contamination remains and must be addressed before it can be sold.
“We realized with its current levels of contamination, an Activity and Use Limitation would be required,” Szczebak explained, “So technically, you could develop the site right now, but it’s just not feasible because it would require so much additional funding. Just the cost of developing the site would be a lot even if it was clean and chances are no developer is going to have $200,000 extra lying around.”
Grants are anticipated to be awarded in May or June 2018 with contracts out the following October. The grant period is three years, but Szczebak said she believes with good weather the work would only take a few months, at which point the Redevelopment Authority could put the property out to bid.
Currently an empty lot, the 26,659-square-foot parcel located at 974 Main St., near the corner of Main and Bridge streets, was a gas station, auto body shop and an automotive repair shop before becoming a plating factory around 1950. In the 1970s it became Standard Plating and remained as such until 2011 when the June tornado and October snowstorm caused significant damage.
“The building was damaged and the former owner just abandoned the site and the business,” Szczebak explained.
In 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection cited the former property owner, who started doing some work, but eventually again abandoned the property
“I can’t speak for him, but I think he realized the scope of the project and that he wouldn’t be able to do that, so at some point he fell out of compliance,” Szczebak said.
The town became involved at that point and eventually took ownership of the site in 2016. Shortly thereafter the dilapidated building was taken down and the city began the cleanup process with federal disaster recovery money distributed by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.
The city was originally granted $750,000 and then received an amendment for a total of $850,810.
Upon removal of the building, the city discovered additional contamination that would have to be remediated.
“There’s only so much you can tell when the building is standing,” she said.
Issues on the site that need to be addressed include groundwater contamination, a small amount of petroleum contaminated soil, metal contaminants and treated contaminated concrete, which is currently buried on the site.
“That’s after removing 1,700 tons of contaminants and pumping 40,000 of contaminated groundwater,” Szczebak said.
She noted the contaminants are not spreading off the site and no one is at risk of contamination.
The applications are limited to $200,000 per site, but because the Standard Plating land is already divided onto two parcels, the city is seeking $400,000. If awarded the grants, the town would be required to match $40,000 per lot, or a total of $80,000.
“That funding should be sufficient to get the site cleaned up to the Massachusetts DEP cleanup standards,” Szczebak explained.
The Redevelopment Authority has sought feedback on what residents and abutters would prefer to see or not see on the property.
“They don’t want anything where parking cars is the primary use,” Szczebak said. “Nothing with a drive thru, no bars or that sort of thing.”