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Norwich – With local funding secured, engineering and environmental studies are underway on land in Occum proposed for a second Norwich business park, and proponents of the project are hoping to have access roads designed and a plan partial manager by next summer.
The Norwich Community Development Corp. has a $ 3.55 million purchase agreement on former farm and woodland land north and south of Interstate 395 near Exit 18.
The Board of Public Utilities Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to fund $ 75,000 to extend the purchase option until June 30, 2022.
A second and final option contained in the purchase contract will likely be needed until Dec. 15, 2022 before NCDC decides whether or not to buy the property, said NCDC chairman Kevin Brown.
The extension approved on Tuesday brings NPU’s total commitment in the early stages of what officials are calling Business Park North to $ 575,000 for purchase options and prior studies. NPU will use the money earmarked for economic development for the expansion, said the resolution approved by the committee.
On September 7, city council approved a bond of $ 740,000 to conduct technical and environmental studies to design a dedicated access road project to the property at exit 18 of I-395. Some of the money was also used to hire a Washington, DC law firm to explore possible federal funding to develop the business park, possibly through the Economic Development Agency or the new $ 1 trillion federal infrastructure bill. Brown said officials are currently in talks about possible EDA funding.
“Everything has been turned on now,” Brown said Thursday of the ongoing work on the property. Surveyors and engineers hired by NCDC using the city link began to cross the property for the necessary studies.
By next June, the NCDC may be ready to present the road works design and a partial development master plan to the public, Brown said.
The $ 3.55 million purchase agreement with current owners, Byron Brook Country Club LLC and M&A Holdings LLC, covers 17 plots, including the former Tarryk and Doolittle Farms, where plans for a golf resort luxury products failed a decade ago.
The property has a total of 348 acres, but initial studies found that around 185 acres are developable, with 10 to 15 acres of sloping land for solar power structures and 6.6 acres for roads.
The city’s existing business park has 355 acres.
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