City Moves Forward With Downtown Revitalization

The Attleboro City Council took four votes this week to move along the process of eventually transforming 2.6 acres on Wall St. into a park.

The votes, all unanimous, essentially transferred the Wall St. property currently being used to store Department of Public Works equipment to the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority.

The purpose of the exchange is to allow for the ARA to apply for grants needed clean the property of contamination. Because the city is a responsible party, it cannot be charged with its clean-up.

Councilman Richard Conti emphasized that the contamination is from a municipal dump at the location in years past.

"The current use of DPW has not contributed to the condition of this land," he said, adding that the dump was in place prior to adequate standards for disposal of waste.

For the time-being, the land will be leased to the DPW by the ARA. Eventually, the DPW will move to easterly side of John Williams St. in a land swap deal with the Army. The Council voted this week to allow Mayor Kevin Dumas to accept that land.

The council also voted to change the use of the property in part to allow the staging of some equipment as an 80 unit condominium is built across the street.

The ARA will transfer the land back to the city prior to creating a park.