Article published Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Brownfield experts laud work done on 2 Monroe projects
MONROE - A pair of projects that were once abandoned and contaminated industrial sites have received accolades from experts in brownfield redevelopment.
The Mason Run housing development and the River Raisin National Battlefield Park, which are turn-of-the century urban paper mills that were cleaned up, won prestigious national awards at last month’s Brownfields 2009 Conference in New Orleans.
Soil and Materials Engineers Inc. was recognized for the work on the projects. According to the Plymouth firm, the projects were among four selected from dozens that were submitted.
Mason Run is a multiphase new urbanism residential redevelopment. The city began cleaning up the 45-acre site of the former Consolidated Packaging Corp.’s north side plant on Elm Street to reclaim the land years ago. The city was awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the project. The reclaimed land was developed into housing by Crosswinds Communities, of Farmington Hills, Mich.
The River Raisin battlefield, site of a bloody War of 1812 skirmish, was once a paper mill. The city acquired and demolished the former Jefferson Smurfit Corp. plant at the corner of North Dixie Highway and East Elm Avenue in the 1990s.
The EPA also provided millions of dollars in grants to clear contaminated soil from the 35-acre site.The land is part of land to be donated to the federal government for inclusion into a national park.
A law signed by President Obama in March designated the River Raisin battlefield as a unit of the national park system.
