City of Lowell issued the following announcement on Dec. 29.
Situated at 1602 North Main Street Lowell, NC is a retired dye plant that has not been in operation since 2004. This property has been an eyesore to the community since the former dye plant shut its doors.
This 17.02 acre site boasts over 850 feet of frontage along the South Fork River and has over 25 abandoned structures from the previous dye plant. Residential neighborhoods are the predominant adjacent land uses, as well as Gaston County’s Poston Park to the north.
On December 14, 2021 the Lowell City Council unanimously voted to receive donation of the property to pursue a brownfield redevelopment of the site.
The architecture firm, Creech and Associates was selected in the August of 2021 to perform the conceptual master plan for this site. This process involved a high-level rendering of what amenities and layout of the site could look like. The planned redevelopment of this site would include: a new location for the City’s Public Works Facility and many recreational amenities such as:
-Connection to the Carolina Thread Trail
-Outdoor classrooms
-Multiple playgrounds
-Amphitheater
-Fishing pier
-Kayak launch
-Banquet hall
-Picnic shelters
-Volleyball courts
-Walking paths
-Obstacle courses, and more!
Steps forward will include citizen input on the amenities that may be offered at this site, a brownfield steering committee, and developing a plan to phase the project.
The City of Lowell has been working with a third-party environmental consultant, Mid-Atlantic Associates, for over 3 years to identify all environmental issues present on the site. The City has also utilized over 50 historical environmental reports from the property owner to determine the risk associated with this property. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) has been very active remediating the site over the past several years. The City of Lowell applied for a Brownfield Agreement with NCDEQ in order to bring this property back to life for a different use. The City of Lowell subsequently received a Letter of Eligibility (LOE) into the Brownfield program on November 16, 2021.
A "brownfields site" is an abandoned, idled or underused property where the threat of environmental contamination has hindered its redevelopment. The Brownfields Program is the state's effort to break this barrier to the redevelopment of these sites. Mid-Atlantic is an industry leader in Brownfield redevelopment. More than 500 sites around North Carolina have gone through with this process to redevelop these same types of properties. You have likely been to a brownfield site before and did not know. The US National Whitewater Center and the Bank of America Stadium are two local instances where brownfield sites were remediated and repurposed. Other regional examples include the Rocky Mount Event Center, Camden Center (Charlotte), Guilford Mills (Greensboro), Conover Station, Smith Property (Shelby), and many more.
More updates on this site to come.
Original source can be found here.
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