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Ogdensburg City Council, Growth Fund looking to develop formerly polluted waterfront lots

Posted 4/16/14

By JIMMY LAWTON OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg City Council has formalized an agreement with the Ogdensburg Growth Fund to develop formerly polluted lands along the waterfront. On Monday, the council …

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Ogdensburg City Council, Growth Fund looking to develop formerly polluted waterfront lots

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg City Council has formalized an agreement with the Ogdensburg Growth Fund to develop formerly polluted lands along the waterfront.

On Monday, the council approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Growth Fund that establishes a partnership to develop properties in Brownfield Opportunity Areas.

Although the MoU is a show of mutual interest and an agreement to work together, it is not a binding contract.

BOAs include properties like the former Diamond National and Shade Roller sites that were once polluted, but have since been cleaned up.

Planning Director Andrea Smith said the MoU sets the stage for the Growth Fund to hire consultants and to seek grants and begin development of conceptual plans created over the past two years.

As an economic development corporation, Smith said the Growth Fund has better access to funding than the city would have on its own.

Down the road, Smith said she believes it will allow the Growth Fund to continue a relationship with Vita Nuova, a consulting firm that has been involved in the city’s waterfront development plans for the past few years.

She said the city has exhausted much of its BOA development funding, but the Growth Fund has set aside money for that very purpose.

Smith said the development of an “active senior living community,” as well as other areas.

“That would be the keystone piece of development, but there would be other areas included in the project as well,” Smith said.