EDIC/Lynn
Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn, Massachusetts
 
       
 
 

Lynn Council preps for eminent domain action on waterfront

December 14, 2009
By David Liscio/The Daily Item

The City Council is preparing to take by eminent domain five tracts of land along the Lynnway as a step toward developing the waterfront once the electrical transmission towers are removed.

Council President Timothy Phelan has informed Lynn Economic Development and Industrial Corp. Executive Director James Cowdell that the council will go on record Tuesday in support of the land taking.

 

aerial shot of power lines and their current location and where they wll be moved to

ITEM PHOTO
The yellow lines indicate the current position of the Lynnway power lines in question, while the red lines illustrate the proposed new placement locations.

“As you know, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued all applicable permits for the relocation of the power lines on Lynn's waterfront. The statutory time period to appeal issuance of these permits has expired,” Phelan told Cowdell in a Dec. 11 letter, adding that no appeal was filed.

Phelan said he will ask the council to request the EDIC begin eminent domain proceedings for the following properties: Dean's Foods, 626-680 Lynnway; Electrical Mutual, 715 Lynnway; Donald Algeni, 847-853 Lynnway; Car Realty LLC, 720 and 730 Lynnway and on Harding Street; and Irwin Nebelkoph & Paul Varadian, trustees of South Harbor, Lot 7 off the Lynnway.

“This action will be another major step in correcting the decisions of our forefathers and realistically developing Lynn's underutilized waterfront,” Phelan said.

The DPU in October gave National Grid and Lynn officials permission to relocate power lines along the Lynnway that currently impede development. The permits were the last major obstacle preventing the relocation of the steel towers to the other side of the Lynnway, according to James Marsh, director of the city Department of Community Development.
The DPU approval was contained in a 40-page decision in which the agency recognized that the relocation project would allow for nearly 6 million square feet of mixed-use development along the waterfront.

Construction is expected to generate millions of dollars in taxable revenue, Marsh said.


Back to News

Economic Development & Industrial Corporation
Lynn City Hall ~ Room 307  .  3 City Hall Square, Lynn MA 01901
Phone: 781.581.9399  .  Fax: 781.581.9731  . 
Email: info@ediclynn.org