| Town Meeting has authorized a request to the Legislature intended to allow the taking of the South Street Superfund site for redevelopment.
On a strong voice vote Monday night, Town Meeting members approved the request which if approved on Beacon Hill will create an Economic Development and Industrial Corporation. Run by a board appointed by selectmen, the EDIC would have power to take the Superfund land for back taxes. According to town officials, the property owners have not paid taxes for more than a decade and owe Walpole $1.6 million.
As a legally distinct entity from the town, the EDIC would shelter Walpole from any lawsuits arising from the contaminated property.
As outlined to Town Meeting by Town Administrator Michael Boynton, the hope is that the Legislature would authorize the EDIC by July, allowing the new board to develop a plan for the land over the summer, present it at public meetings in September and submit it for approval to the October Town Meeting. Unlike the proposed redevelopment authority turned down by Town Meeting last year, the EDIC and its eminent domain power would be limited to the Superfund site.
At Town Meeting, Walpole Health Director Robin Chapell read a letter in support of an EDIC from the company that might have to cover cleanup costs. Covidien, formerly Tyco Healthcare, is the sole remaining potentially responsible party as a result of a long-ago acquisition of the property by a predecessor company.
In the letter, Covidien says that an EDIC would allow the town to work more effectively in helping guide the creation and implementation of a cleanup plan. According to previous statements by town officials, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also backs an EDIC as preferable to unfruitful attempts to work with the existing ownership.
Creation of the EDIC would come just as the EPA is completing work on a list of alternative cleanup plans, to be presented at a public meeting and then a public hearing this summer. In the fall, the EPA will announce its decision, which, it says in its April project update, it expects "will be implemented by potentially responsible parties under supervision by EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection through a legally enforceable agreement."
As set forth in general state law, an EDIC cannot act -- to start a taking process, for instance -- until its plan for a site has been approved by Town Meeting. The taking process could require more than a year and further coordination on timing with the EPA, which has been involved with the site for 20 years. In a previous meeting, town officials indicated that with EDIC in motion, the town can expect a higher level of cleanup.
Paul Millette, vice chairman of the town's economic development committee which sponsored the EDIC, told Town Meeting that the EDIC would foreclose on the site in the coming winter, but the owners would have a year to pay off the bill and reclaim the property. There's a 2004 town plan (large .pdf file) for reuse of the property, he noted. Selectmen also have mentioned the site as a potential location for a police station.
Articles which would have involved the EDIC in the Route 1A salvage area were not brought up Monday night. They are "not viable at this time," Boynton said. At a selectmen's meeting last month, it was noted the town has no financial leverage at the 1A sites and the primary owner is not interested.
-- Tom Glynn
Here's a link to an April WalpoleNews story about warrant articles for an Economic Development and Industrial Commission for the South Street Superfund site and the Route 1A salvage area. Here's an April letter from the economic development committee.
Here's the EPA's South Street Superfund page. |
