All News Releases By Date

EPA Awards $545,000 for the TeleCom City Redevelopment Project North of Boston

Release Date: 07/24/2002
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office, 617-918-1008

BOSTON - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced $545,000 for the TeleCom City redevelopment project north of Boston, including $45,000 to support a Smart Growth and housing initiative on the 207-acre parcel and $500,000 for a Brownfields revolving loan fund. The funds are being awarded to the Mystic Valley Development Commission (MVDC) which is handling the redevelopment project.

The $45,000 grant, among $405,000 awarded nationally under the agency's Smart Growth: Saving Open Space, Revitalizing Brownfields program, will be used to begin design work for 200 to 250 units of new housing being built on eight acres in Everett. The parcel is among 207 acres of former industrial property slated to be redeveloped as part of the TeleCom City project which encompasses Everett, Malden and Medford. Sixty of those 207 acres are being left as open space.

"This Smart Growth grant will help foster closer linkages between new housing, open space preservation and Brownfields redevelopment, all critical components of the TeleCom City project," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office.

"We are very grateful for EPA's continuing generous support for our ambitious project," said Michael McGlynn, mayor of Medford and current chairperson of the MVDC. "These grants will allow TeleCom City to move forward in revitalizing this underutilized area and integrating the development with the vibrant residential neighborhoods surrounding it."

The commission will be holding a design charette with city officials and area residents to solicit public input on the design of the housing project, which will include 10 to 20 percent affordable housing. The commission also will conduct traffic/transportation studies to analyze the traffic that will be created by the project. Information from the design charette and the traffic study will be incorporated into zoning and land use restrictions that will guide development in the area.

EPA also announced an additional $500,000 of supplemental funds to the MVDC for a Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund. The commission has received $1 million of funding to date for the revolving loan fund, with the first $500,000 being approved in 1999. Last fall, the MVDC approved its first loan from the fund – $225,000 for the cleanup of the former Solvent Chemical site in Malden, which is part of the TeleCom City property.