Post Date: 04/01/2019 4:00 PM

The overlapping plans are the result of two year-long studies focused on the revitalization of the Northeast Neighborhood/Brandywine Riverfront

Mayor Mike Purzycki encourages citizens interested in learning more about the 12th Street Connector Plan and the related EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Plan to attend a Public Open House that will be held on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will include formal presentations at both 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. The event will be at the Wilmington HOPE Commission’s Achievement Center, located at 38 Vandever Avenue in Wilmington. It is free and open to the public. Interested community members are encouraged to attend. Consultants will be on hand to present the draft plans and answer questions.

“This collaborative effort, which is designed to bring about positive changes to the Northeast and Brandywine Riverfront areas, is moving from the planning stages into the design and construction phases,” said Mayor Purzycki. “This is an excellent chance for the community to learn about new transportation ideas and redevelopment opportunities in northeast Wilmington. This type of overall development could be a game changer for this area of the City and become another part of our neighborhood revitalization plans.”

The 12th Street Connector Plan

Over the past year, the Wilmington Area Metropolitan Council (WILMAPCO), in collaboration with the City of Wilmington, the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), and the Delaware Transit Corporation (DART) – a partnership collectively known as Wilmington Initiatives – studied the 12th Street corridor, an important link within Northeast Wilmington, with the support of the consulting firm of Johnson, Mirmiran, and Thompson, Inc. (JMT). The purpose of the study was to create a reimagined corridor utilizing new transportation patterns that generate economic growth and provide more efficient and multi-modal connections for people to access the area, as well as improving corridor aesthetics and environmental sustainability with beautification and green infrastructure.

The EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Plan

The EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Plan was supported by a nearly $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address the potential re-use of contaminated, underutilized, and vacant brownfield sites in the northeast area of the City. The study, part of an effort to bring improvements and reinvestment to the neighborhood, also identified specific opportunities for growth and revitalization along the Brandywine River. The two city-owned waterfront sites at the center of this undertaking are the former Diamond State Salvage property and the Wilmington Maintenance Yard, both located along the Brandywine River, between the 16th Street Bridge and Northeast (Governor Printz) Boulevard.

The EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Plan was prepared by Stromberg/Garrigan & Associates, Inc. (SGA) and was guided by previous planning efforts for the area along with input received at a public workshop held in May 2018. That input was then consolidated into an implementation-focused strategy plan, which SGA will present on Wednesday.

The two interconnected draft plans include recommended conceptual reuse strategies that merge together new roadway alignments and other transportation improvements to better connect people with community resources, waterfront open space, and potential new development on vacant properties.

For more information on the EPA Brownfields Area-Wide Plan, contact Matthew Harris, Project Director, The City of Wilmington, DE Department of Planning and Development: mharris@wilmingtonde.gov. For more information on the 12th Street Connector Plan, contact Dave Gula of WILMAPCO at dgula@wilmapco.org.

Visit the project website to download the Draft 12th Street Connector Plan for public review: www.wilmapco.org/12thstreetconnector

For more details about the E.P.A. Brownfields Area-Wide Plan and to see the draft report, visit: http://bit.ly/BrownfieldsPlanningGrantReport

Visit the Facebook event at www.facebook.com/events/2316841155226597/