The City of Wilmington is wrapping up a series of environmental assessments at brownfield sites in the Third District and they are now looking for community feedback on how to transform the areas.
The city is using a $300,000 federal grant to evaluate two sites – the former Diamond State Salvage Property and the former Wiley Cork Manufacturing site, and then develop site redevelopment plans and identify infrastructure improvements needed to revitalize the Northeast neighborhood.
A brownfield is an area with a known or perceived environmental issue that is keeping that property from being redeveloped.
A Thursday open house presented progress on environmental assessments and outreach efforts, as well as what’s next.
Sean Garrigan with the consulting firm Stromberg/Garrigan and Associates says the sites are already in good shape.
“This is a great story to tell in terms of how this money has removed this perception, this stigma, that these sites need a lot of cleanup, they don’t," Garrigan says.
Garrigan says the plans for these vacant lots will address some crucial needs.
“Hopefully repurposing the former Wiley Cork site as more affordable, residential, mixed-income housing, primarily townhomes," Garrigan says. "And then the Diamond State Salvage site, what we heard from the community is they wanted access to the Brandywine, they wanted recreation, mostly passive, natural trails, that kind of stuff.”
The Diamond State investigation recommends further delineation of elevated arsenic on one piece of the property, and an environmental covenant on the Wiley Cork property still needs to be lifted before plans can begin.
