NORWICH – The City of Norwich was awarded $180,000 by the New York State Department of State, to develop a Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) Plan. The City entered into a contract with LaBella engineering firm, launching the project this summer. Now, towards the end of the inventory and analysis phase of planning they have begun holding public workshops to gather input from city residents, public officials, and business owners in the study area, the first of which was held on Tuesday, September 29.

The BOA covers a study area of approximately 500 acres within the city. LaBella's senior planner on the project, Jonathan Derworiz, believes this area is well suited for a BOA plan as it has an established utility infrastructure, mixed land uses, and there are a variety of public parks some of which are already in the early stage of renovation. He describes Norwich as “a place to be” having met several families that moved to the city from other places recently.

From LaBella's presented analysis the area includes 1,100 parcels, 94% privately owned and 6% public. Derworiz mentioned that while private ownership could pose a barrier to planning, no plans are made for a property without talking to the owner. Within the study area they grouped properties into four categories, vacant, abandoned, under-utilized, and brownfield. Then they identified strategic sites with strong transformative potential. These sites were presented at the workshop where LaBella's associates asked for feedback from longtime Norwich residents that were present.

While the current list of strategic sites is somewhat long, they hope to narrow it down through conversations like the ones held on Tuesday. The potential sites are: 57-59 Borden Ave., 1-11 Lee Ave., 65 Mitchell St., 19-25 Sheldon St., 110 Main St., 42 Midland Dr., Grand Union plaza, 68-70 Main St., 78-84 Main St., and 38 Birdsall St. Derworiz stated they would be reaching out to these property owners to discuss potential.

In attendance at the workshop was the City of Norwich mayor, Robert Jeffrey, who expressed that the timeline of the BOA plan development pairs nicely with other grant schedules the city hopes to apply for. One purpose of developing this BOA plan is to receive a brownfield designation from the Department of State which would open up more avenues of funding for the City. While Norwich had tried around a decade ago to get the same designation, there were process barriers that prevented it. LaBella planner, Mirren Galway, explained that new state laws removed the pre-nomination process which makes it so the BOA plan is all the city will need to submit to be considered for brownfield designation.

The BOA plan that will be submitted to the state will ultimately include the report of the inventory and analysis of the study area, the strategic sites identified, and actionable recommendations for the entire study area based on community input.

For transparency a public website dedicated to the BOA Plan has been set up, the slides from the workshop should be available there later this week. Visit www.forginganewnorwich.com to find out more information on the project.