Name: Nov 09, 2023 Community Development and Urban Planning Committee
Uploaded: 2023-11-09T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 h 34 min 12 s
Description: So there are some who are concerned about the environment, are concerned about what's actually going to take place at this site, but there's also those who don't have the same concerns, so.

[0:22] Good evening, and welcome to the community development and urban planning meeting. We thank all of you who have joined us here today, and I am going to call for the role, for the council members that are either here in chambers or virtually. We'll start with Councilman White.

[0:43] Councilman Spidola, President Congo,

[0:52] Councilmember Darby,

[0:58] Councilmember Fields, Brigitte

[1:00] Fields, Councilman

[1:05] Nathan Field,

[1:12] Councilmember Field,

[1:16] Councilmember McCoy, Mayor, thank

[1:21] you. I am Maria Cabrera, Councilwoman at large and I am the chair of the community development

[1:27] and Urban Planning Committee meeting, and it is my pleasure to welcome you here this evening.

[1:31] This will be the last meeting of the year, as we will not have a meeting in December,

[1:37] and we will resume on the second Thursday of January.

[1:41] So today we do have a short agenda.

[1:43] We'll start with the ordinances, and then we have a presentation that we have members

[1:48] here from the community as well as our city departments.

[1:51] So, let's start with ordinance 23-038, an ordinance to approve the Riverside Phase III

[1:59] major subdivision plan and to authorize the city to accept the dedication of new segments

[2:04] of East 25th Street, East 26th Street, Edgemore Avenue, and Rosemond Avenue as a public

[2:12] right-of-way and add them to the official city map.

[2:16] The sponsor of this legislation is Council Member Oliver.

[2:20] She present to speak to this.

[2:24] If not, that's okay.

[2:25] We have Mr. John Kirk who can speak to this from the city.

[2:28] Thank you.

[2:30] Good evening Madam Chair and members of the City Council, colleagues and members of the public.

[2:37] My name is John Kirk and I'm a senior planner with the Department of Land Use and Planning.

[2:41] I'm here this afternoon to present ordinance 23-038.

[2:46] First slide, please.

[2:50] Or next slide, I'm sorry.

[2:52] Thank you.

[2:53] This map illustrates the area of interest

[2:55] with the parcels outlined in red.

[2:58] In June 2023, the Department of Land Use and Planning

[3:00] received a major subdivision application

[3:02] from Vanden Mark and Lynch Incorporated.

[3:05] On behalf of the Wilmington Housing Authority

[3:06] and Kingswood Community Center Incorporated,

[3:09] entitled Riverside Phase III,

[3:10] which proposes to subdivide five parcels of land into seven new parcels and to dedicate one new segment of East 25th Street, three new segments of East 26th Street,

[3:22] one new segment of Rosemond Avenue and one new segment of Edgemore Avenue to the city of Wilmington as public rights of way.

[3:30] At the bottom right, the two odd shaped parcels constitute one non-contiguous parcel that

[3:37] supports the creation of an extended edge more avenue which in turn is crucial to the

[3:42] development of the New Kingswood Community Center.

[3:45] The plan will allow for the circulation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic and for the

[3:50] redevelopment of the Wilmington Housing Authority's 12.9 acre Riverside Public Housing Development

[3:56] site.

[3:56] The balance of the 17.631 acre site consists of the 4.684 acre Kingswood Community Center's

[4:04] baseball fields, which are to be redeveloped as the new Kingswood Community Center in its

[4:09] accessory parking lot.

[4:11] All parcels are situated within the R5A or low density apartment houses zoning district.

[4:17] Next slide, please.

[4:22] This subdivision and street dedication actions will support the next phase of the $700 million

[4:28] $8 phase of Riverside housing, redevelopment project in North East Wilmington.

[4:33] Due to the large area of territory to be subdivided and to receive newly dedicated

[4:38] street segments, curbs and sidewalks built to city standards for legibility, there are

[4:44] two major subdivision sheets.

[4:46] This slide illustrates the western territory of the subdivision bounded by North Claimon

[4:51] Street, East 24th Street, Rosemond Avenue, and East 27th Street.

[4:56] The yellow shaded segments of East 25th Street and East 26th Street are proposed to create

[5:03] a traditional neighborhood street grid and eliminate the existing 1950s era elongated

[5:09] block design that currently exists.

[5:12] The new segment of East 25th Street shown here is 350 feet long by 50 feet wide.

[5:18] The two new segments of East 26th Street shown here are 660 feet long by 70 feet wide.

[5:24] Next slide please.

[5:30] This slide illustrates the eastern territory bounded by Rosemont Avenue, the northern parcel of Kingswood Community Center property, the Amtrak Railway viaduct and East 27th Street.

[5:41] The elevated segments of East 26th Street, Rosemont Avenue and Edgemore Avenue, shown here, are proposed to create a more traditional neighborhood street grid, and more importantly will allow vehicular access to the new Kingswood Community Center's parking lot.

[5:57] The one new segment of East 26th Street shown here is 436 feet long by 80 feet wide.

[6:04] Overall, the three new segments of East 26th Street proposed to be built between North

[6:09] Claymont and the Amtrak railway viaduct right of where 1,086 feet in length.

[6:16] The proposed curving segment of Edgemore Avenue is approximately 168 feet long by 50 feet wide.

[6:22] The proposed segment of Rosemond Avenue to top left is 58 feet long by 50 feet wide.

[6:27] Next slide please.

[6:32] This slide focuses on two important street segments in the roundabout traffic feature proposed at the intersection of East 26th Street and Rosemont Avenue atop right.

[6:42] At the lower right is the terminus of the proposed East 26th Street and the proposed curving segment of Edgemore Avenue that will connect.

[6:50] Edgemore Avenue to the northern ingress egress of the proposed parking lot to serve the New Kingswood Community Center.

[6:55] At upper left is the small segment of Rosemond Avenue that will connect that street to the southern

[7:02] ingress and the ingress of the proposed parking lot to serve the new Kingswood Community Center.

[7:13] And the footprint of the new Kingswood Community Center and that of its supporting parking lot

[7:19] are illustrated here. The variances required to construct the building is illustrated

[7:24] were granted by the zoning board of adjustment to the Kingswood Community Center Inc.

[7:28] I think, or incorporated, I should say, on July 25th, 2023, in case 7.7.23.

[7:35] In conclusion, these plan sheets were circulated to city departments in August of 2023.

[7:40] The Department of Public Works is in support of the plan and the new city street segments.

[7:45] The Fire Marshal's office had no comment, and the city planning commission reviewed

[7:49] the plans and adopted Resolution 423, which recommends the approval of the applicant's request.

[7:55] Thank you, Mr. Kirk. That was very thorough. So from looking at the map here, I guess my first question is, there's going to be a circle, because I see circles are always so much safer than traffic roundabout.

[8:08] Okay, the roundabout there.

[8:12] I mean, it looks very clear to me and progress is definitely being made over there and very excited about that new developed area of the city.

[8:19] Any, are there any questions that the members of the committee have in reference to the presentation by Mr. Kirk?

[8:26] Madam Chair, I have a question.

[8:27] Yes, proceed. Councilman White.

[8:30] Mr. Kirk, the roundabout, is that below Governor Prince at 26?

[8:37] Well, east of, yes.

[8:39] East of.

[8:40] That's what you mean by that?

[8:41] Yes.

[8:41] My directions are as good as yours, I apologize.

[8:44] That's so that'll be the roundabout will be the right off of Governor Prince on the van van der Verk,

[8:55] or is it further up?

[8:57] Well, it's at 26th Street, so it would be further north.

[9:02] Further north?

[9:03] Yeah, it would be 26th and I don't have the map of that.

[9:08] Yeah, right past the Dollar Tree, Dollar General Area.

[9:11] Okay.

[9:12] Who's your response for the improvements?

[9:14] The developer.

[9:17] and but the city will maintain them.

[9:22] I believe so, yes.

[9:26] So are we in terms of maintaining in terms of like plowing and correct?

[9:31] Yes.

[9:36] Thank you.

[9:37] Is that for all streets?

[9:41] Is that all streets in this phase three?

[9:47] Thank you.

[9:48] So I guess they're all considered public right of ways, these streets.

[9:50] But they're built at the developer's cost.

[9:53] Okay.

[9:54] To the city's specs.

[9:54] to the city's standards, including sidewalks and curbing.

[10:00] One last question, was any community groups involved in the conversation?

[10:04] Oh, the Reach Riverside group, which I believe there's somebody on this call, they have been very active.

[10:14] This is the third phase, there's eight total phases.

[10:17] So phase one and two have already been built from 30th Street heading south.

[10:22] So now we're getting to 27th through closer to 25th, and it'll keep filling out in terms of all of the housing.

[10:34] This 1950s era kind of barracks style housing is certainly out of date.

[10:39] It's been vacant and abandoned for several years, mostly demolished.

[10:44] And the new housing that's going up is 21st century state of the art.

[10:49] Thank you, thank you, Matt Chair.

[10:50] Thank you, Councilman White.

[10:52] Are there any other council members online

[10:54] from the committee that have any questions?

[10:56] And I would like to acknowledge

[10:57] that Councilmember Darby is with us.

[11:08] Not seeing any questions from my colleagues.

[11:11] Are there any council members that are not

[11:12] on the committee that might have any questions?

[11:15] Right, no hands up.

[11:17] At this time, anyone from the public

[11:18] that would like to speak or ask any questions

[11:22] may come up and do so.

[11:24] And we'll start with the people present here

[11:26] and then if there's anybody online.

[11:28] Any one that has a question that would like to come up?

[11:32] Is there anyone online that might have a question about this development?

[11:38] You did such a thorough job, John.

[11:40] Nobody has any questions.

[11:42] Thank you.

[11:43] Councilman White.

[11:44] Thank you.

[11:45] So at this time, just a reminder to that only the committee members can make a motion and vote.

[11:52] And can I get a motion to move this ordinance out of committee, ordinance 23-038?

[12:04] So motion.

[12:05] Second.

[12:06] Thank you.

[12:07] It has been properly moved.

[12:09] And second, the ordinance will be voted out of committee.

[12:12] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[12:16] Aye.

[12:17] Any opposed?

[12:19] Motion carried.

[12:21] The next ordinance we have is ordinance 23-042 in ordinance to approve the Liberty Street

[12:30] Properties Major Subdivision Plan and authorize the city to remove a portion of Liberty Street,

[12:36] a portion of Nancy Street, and two unnamed alleys from the official city map and accept the

[12:42] dedication of the new segments of Liberty Street, Lower Elm Street, and Lower Linda Street

[12:47] as public rights of way and then move them to the official city map.

[12:52] The sponsor is Councilmember Harley.

[12:55] Councilmember Harley, here to speak to this.

[12:58] Hi, Madame Chair, I welcome the Councilmember Harley.

[13:02] If someone is on the line from the administration, I would like to defer to them first and then

[13:10] I will share my remarks.

[13:13] Is there anyone here from the city from public works that would speak to this ordinance dash 23-042 John

[13:23] Okay, Mr. Kirk will speak to this as well. Thank you

[13:27] So I go ahead. Yes, I may proceed. Good evening. My name is John Kirk and I'm a senior planner with the Department of Land use and planning

[13:33] I'm here this afternoon to present ordinance 23-042. Next slide, please

[13:40] This aerial image illustrates the area of interest

[13:43] In September 2023, the Department of Landies and Planning received a major subdivision

[13:48] application from four site associates on behalf of owners, Rae Bowl Venture Group

[13:52] 14 entitled Liberty Street Properties.

[13:56] The plans proposed to subdivide 14 parcels into six new parcels to remove two unnamed

[14:02] alleys, to remove one block of Nancy Street, and to remove one block of Liberty Street, and

[14:08] to dedicate segments of Liberty, Lower Elm, and Lower Lyndon Street to the city as public

[14:13] rights of way. Note the Wilmington skate park situated in the lower left corner of the slide as

[14:19] well as the mostly vacant conditions of the site. Next slide please.

[14:26] This subdivision

[14:27] involves one mostly vacant 2.7 acre site, founded by Lower Elm Street, the Amtrak Railway

[14:33] Viaduct, Lower Linden Street as well as the northbound exit ramp of Interstate 95 and Maryland Avenue,

[14:40] and currently consists of two separate city blocks.

[14:44] The site was re-zoned from M1 or late manufacturing

[14:46] to C2 or secondary business centers

[14:49] zoning district in December, 2022

[14:53] and city planning commission Resolution 9-22.

[14:57] City Council passed ordinance 22-

[15:05] Next slide please.

[15:09] The plan proposes to subdivide the site into parcels 1 through 6, illustrated here in red outlines and blue numbering. Note that only one existing building on the site is contained, I'm sorry, note that the only existing building on the site is contained in parcel 1, a vacant four-story industrial building at 200 Maryland Avenue that will be renovated into 19 apartments as part

[15:32] of this project. Next slide please.

[15:38] This slide illustrates the developer's plan to build

[15:40] four segments of 24 foot wide, two-way private streets, as well as curbs and sidewalks constructed

[15:46] to city standards, to serve the renovated apartment building, a two-story, 80-space parking

[15:54] garage and a four-story 111 unit hotel. These private streets will connect the existing and

[16:00] proposed buildings to each other,

[16:02] to Maryland Avenue,

[16:03] and to Lower Elm and Lower Linden Street.

[16:05] Therefore facilitating improved circulation patterns

[16:08] for this development,

[16:09] as well as the adjacent Wilmington State Park.

[16:12] Next slide please.

[16:16] This slide illustrates the streets

[16:17] to be removed, shaded and blue.

[16:20] The 10 foot wide by 315 foot long segment

[16:22] of Nancy Street is also referred to as an alley,

[16:25] and no longer physically exists,

[16:27] except for its northern curb cut along Lower Elm Street.

[16:30] Street. The streetbed is grown over with grass and curving is not evident. The pair of

[16:36] unnamed three foot wide alleys shown in blue running perpendicular to

[16:44] Liberty Street

[16:44] and to Nancy Street also do not physically exist. The 40 foot wide by 315 foot long segment

[16:51] of Liberty Street to be removed from the official city map exists in poor condition with dilapidated

[16:57] portions of sidewalk existing only on the east side of the streets and curbs do not exist.

[17:03] Next slide, please.

[17:05] Oh, I'm sorry.

[17:06] I'm sorry.

[17:07] Say on that slide.

[17:08] My fault.

[17:09] Thank you.

[17:11] The new segments of streets to be dedicated are shaded and red.

[17:14] Basically, a new U-shaped segment of Liberty Street proposed that 50 feet wide and 314.6 feet long

[17:22] situated directly adjacent to the Amtrak railway right away.

[17:25] and when include an approximately 2,562 square foot extension of lower Elm Street and an approximately 433 square foot extension of lower Linden Street facilitate vehicular turning and traffic flow.

[17:41] A new segment of lower Elm Street totaling approximately 415 square feet is proposed to be dedicated near the northern end of the accident or existing Liberty Street which will be removed.

[17:52] moved, and that will facilitate the crosswalk of one of the private two way streets.

[17:58] Through relocated Liberty Street, the portion of Lower Lyndon Street and two portions of Lower Elm Street

[18:04] described above, will be dedicated to the city of Wellington as public rights of way.

[18:09] These segments, as well as the 24 foot wide private streets that's shown on the preliminary plan,

[18:15] will be built to city standards and will connect the hotel, park and garage, and

[18:19] and renovated apartment building with lower Elm Street,

[18:23] lower Lyndon Street, and Maryland Avenue.

[18:25] Also noteworthy in this plan are the 63 total

[18:28] head and parking spaces created.

[18:30] 39 of those parking spaces are proposed to be constructed

[18:35] within the owner's private streets

[18:37] and will be private parking spaces

[18:39] to serve the apartment building in hotel.

[18:42] 24 new public parking spaces situated along

[18:45] the relocated Liberty Street and lower Lyndon Street

[18:48] We can greatly benefit the users of Wellington Skate Park in the surrounding area.

[18:55] In conclusion, this plan was circulated to City Departments in October 2023.

[19:00] The Department of Public Works is in support of the plan.

[19:03] In the new City Street segments, the Fire Marshalls Office had no comment in the City Plan Commission,

[19:09] reviewed the plans and adopted Resolution 723, which recommends the approval of the applicants request.

[19:15] Thank you.

[19:16] Thank you very much, Mr. Kirk.

[19:18] At this time, is there anyone from the Committee on City Council that has any questions of Mr. Kirk?

[19:24] I wanted to have remarks, but I wanted him to speak for me.

[19:28] I'm sorry, is that okay, Charlie?

[19:30] Go ahead, Madam.

[19:31] I mean, go ahead, Councilwoman Harley, you go first and then we'll entertain questions.

[19:35] Thank you.

[19:36] Okay, thank you.

[19:37] I want to thank John for that thorough explanation in terms of the purpose of why this legislation is being

[19:45] presented. I really am excited about this area and how the hotel and the

[19:56] apartments is definitely going to enhance and add not only a better aesthetically

[20:05] making that area look better for those that are not quite sure where it is.

[20:11] is pretty much like a long-mirling avenue near the I-95 underpass and there has been

[20:19] a lot of businesses that have been not operating in a long time and to bring these projects

[20:29] to that area is definitely going to be not only an uplift to the community but more importantly

[20:35] and what I'm excited about are the jobs that it's going to bring, especially for the hotel and,

[20:43] of course, new players in the game as it relates to just, you know, hotels and just new options.

[20:53] So I'm very excited about it. And to my understanding, so are some of the residents in that area.

[21:02] And I say some because I haven't heard from everyone, of course, but I have not heard any opposition from any of the residents in that area, so I just wanted to share again after the committee heard the four outline and explanation of what this legislation is all about. Thank you.

[21:22] Thank you, Councilmember Harley.

[21:25] Yeah, I would say that I too am very excited, there's been a lot of changes in that area

[21:28] from a lot of the abandoned factories and homes and just dilapidated areas and to see how

[21:35] everything is connecting to the neighborhoods and certainly, as Councilmember Harley mentioned,

[21:41] the economic development and employment opportunities, walking distance where people can actually walk

[21:48] to work for a neighborhood on the west side that could really use that influx in the economy.

[21:56] So it's good to see that we are continuing to grow and we're developing in different areas

[22:01] and extending into the community in a positive way. Any other questions from our councilmembers?

[22:07] Councilmember White? No, ma'am sure. Okay. Councilmember McCoy.

[22:13] Councilmember McCulley. Thank you.

[22:16] So I did see that I've been contacted about previous information when it came to how

[22:26] we were zoning that space. I did see that we're doing something with the street, but my

[22:33] only issue is the fact that there is not very many residents over in that area. That area

[22:39] is actually fairly making I would like to say but there's just one small street

[22:45] that has had lots of issues and especially with people who are out there

[22:51] over in that area and I just wanted to make certain that I got a chance to make

[22:55] them aware as well and what was going on. I don't know whether or not anyone has

[23:00] been reached out to that is actually they are my constituents all of this is happening

[23:05] and across the street from them, which is actually

[23:07] counsel my Harley's district,

[23:09] but it would affect the six districts' revenues.

[23:14] There's no other, I don't believe there's actually anyone

[23:17] from the fourth district living over in the area.

[23:20] You were both correct.

[23:22] There isn't really anything within that space.

[23:26] I think they knocked down,

[23:27] we used to be like a old nightclub or something

[23:31] like many, many years ago.

[23:33] But I just wanted to make certain

[23:34] and I got a chance to, that we were able to bring that information to that one row of homes

[23:40] that are like fairly nestled underneath the 95 overpass across from the skate park.

[23:47] So I just wanted to make sure that I put that information out there because even though

[23:51] I've had conversations about the zoning, the zoning change, I had this conversation at all.

[24:00] Thank you, Councilmember McCoy, and now that you brought up that street, I have a friend

[24:06] who lives on that street and owns several properties, and there was some challenges that they

[24:11] had during the construction of 95, the renovation of 95, where environmentally they kept saying

[24:18] that they had it secure, they had it secure, and it wasn't. There was dust and dirt falling

[24:23] all over the place. People are breathing that in, so the one thing that we have to keep

[24:27] Keep in mind is that these contractors and the people doing the work that they are following

[24:32] all the environmental guidelines when they're doing this construction, even if there isn't

[24:37] a lot of residential homes, there are, and as it is, folks are already breathing in the admissions

[24:42] from 95, they don't need any more environmental hazards added to their neighborhood.

[24:47] Even if it's just a small neighborhood, every life matters, every breath matters.

[24:54] Councilmember Field, you may proceed with your questions.

[24:58] Councilmember Field is present. Does anyone else from City Council have any questions or comments?

[25:06] Okay, not hearing any. Can I get a motion to move this ordinance out of committee?

[25:11] Can I have the last remarks before you go? Yes, Councilmember Harley.

[25:18] Yes, so I also wanted to add that the owner of Raebold, I think that's the name.

[25:26] If he and I also had a great conversation in terms of the community and how he could

[25:34] give back and how you know the company can give back to the community.

[25:38] And I wanted to say that he definitely have made an effort to partner with one of our

[25:46] great organizations over in Councilmember McCoy's district in terms of wanting to give

[25:54] back to the community so he is already supported in that particular district and he also shared with me

[26:04] that if there were some community initiatives that we are working on within the fourth district

[26:11] to please let him know and I did make contact with him about some suggestions as some of my communities

[26:19] and the fourth district that came out with and he has been very open so I really wanted it to be

[26:24] on record but they're not just coming in asking for support but they're coming in asking and being

[26:31] willing to be a partner within the community as well and to council member McCoy if we need to

[26:39] have any kind of community meetings together jointly going forward to make sure if you get any kind of

[26:46] So, any kind of complaints or any reasons for us to meet, to bring the residents together

[26:55] and to make sure that their complaints or issues or interests as well are heard.

[27:02] I will be willing to do that with you as well.

[27:04] Thank you.

[27:05] Thank you, Councilmember Hardley.

[27:07] At this point is there a motion to move this ordinance 23-042 out of committee?

[27:14] Okay. Can I get a second again. All right. It has been properly moved and second. The

[27:25] ordinance is voted out of committee. All of those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any

[27:31] opposed? Okay. So this will be held before for City Council. John, do you know that's

[27:39] the. You're welcome. Thank you for coming. Will that be heard at the next meeting in December?

[27:45] December. December just a reminder that our council meetings will be the first and

[27:51] the second Thursday in December so this will be on there in the agenda at that time.

[27:57] Thank you.

[27:58] Have a good time.

[28:00] Okay.

[28:00] So that concludes the legislative part of this meeting and now we have members of the community

[28:09] that are part of the, I guess, the Rodney Reservoir working group and neighbors from the

[28:16] Cool Springs area, Tilton Park, and that neighborhood that would like to make a presentation

[28:22] on what they foresee that they would like to see happen with the Rodney Reservoir.

[28:27] So at this point, at the time, I would like to bring up Jamila David Davie and anyone else

[28:34] that would like to join her, you're more than welcome to come up and sit where the microphones

[28:38] The phones are that where there's any questions or if you'd like to add to the presentation and then we will have I think the city is also going to come and give us some information as well on some of the plans and what's been done to date.

[28:51] Okay, thank you so much.

[28:52] Thank you.

[28:53] Are we ready with the presentation?

[28:56] Great, looks like we are.

[28:57] Ms. Davie, you may go proceed.

[28:59] Thank you for coming for being here today.

[29:01] It was late notice, but I know that the group

[29:03] has been working very hard on this,

[29:05] and you wanted an opportunity to reach

[29:07] other council members, and the general public,

[29:10] just to see what's going on.

[29:11] So I'm glad the opportunity was open

[29:13] for you to come and join us this evening.

[29:16] Thank you so much, Council Member Cabrera,

[29:17] for inviting us, and thank you

[29:18] to all the members of Council for having us today,

[29:22] and for your engagement on this issue,

[29:23] and thank you to community members that are here,

[29:26] and members of the city that work for the city as well.

[29:30] I'm Jimi LeDabie, I'm a resident of the west side.

[29:32] I live in the little Italy neighborhood,

[29:34] a couple of blocks from the Rodney Reservoir.

[29:36] I'm a gardener at the site,

[29:37] and I'm here to represent green for the greater good.

[29:41] Could we have the next slide, please?

[29:43] And green for the greater good is a group of neighbors

[29:45] and other stakeholders who live around the Rodney Reservoir

[29:48] who are committed to keeping the site public safe and green,

[29:53] and we've been working together to create

[29:55] A future scenario where all residents can enjoy its use can go to the next slide.

[30:00] All right, please.

[30:02] And so we can start by getting acquainted with the site here. It is a 3.7 acre site in the middle of one of the densest places in Delaware. It's zoned open space. It's at the meeting point of two watersheds. It is the highest point on the west side. Maybe the highest point in Wilmington until Rockford was incorporated. And it's the meeting point of little Italy hilltop and the cool spring neighborhoods.

[30:29] And let's see the next slide, please.

[30:32] Here you go.

[30:32] You can see we're looking kind of north, west, west,

[30:37] and north, you can see that Anthony's up there

[30:39] is oriented north.

[30:41] We have the reservoir with the community gardens

[30:43] on the right side.

[30:44] We are looking toward Clayton Street.

[30:45] You can see St. Francis Hospital, St. Anthony's.

[30:48] You can see the Antonian.

[30:49] You can see that the dense urban neighborhood.

[30:54] And just get a sense of where we are.

[30:55] Let's look to the next slide, please.

[30:58] And what's underneath it?

[30:59] So what is the site?

[31:00] It is a 7.5 million gallon tank, the concrete tank,

[31:04] reinforced with rebar.

[31:07] And at this huge piece of public infrastructure

[31:09] that was buried at the site in 1916.

[31:14] And we can go to the next slide, please.

[31:16] And from the beginning, this site wasn't just infrastructure.

[31:19] It was always infrastructure and green space and a public park.

[31:23] It is some of Wilmington's earliest park land, and it's never been privately developed.

[31:29] Before the tank went in, there were open basins, and there was a famous baseball diamond

[31:33] there for a while.

[31:35] When they went ahead and put in the tank in 1916, they had the foresight to build a roller

[31:41] slash ice skating rink on top.

[31:43] You can see that there in 1919, this observation tower was put in, and you could see for four

[31:49] States, you know, and it had the, there's all kinds of events that took place up there

[31:54] by the 20s.

[31:55] It was a football place, and so the professional football leagues were playing up there,

[32:00] including like the Lillington Chestbrook's.

[32:02] And this is an article right here, notice that it says 6,000 persons up here for this throng,

[32:07] this throng at this band concert at the top of the Rodney Reservoir.

[32:11] And there were all these dances, things and concerts.

[32:13] It was really popular, and you can just see how central this site was to the community.

[32:19] And that tower would be part of this Cold War era, Housewives Observer Corps as well.

[32:25] There's all this wonderful history at the site.

[32:28] Could we go to the next slide, please?

[32:31] And when you talk to neighbors, you know, they have all kinds of memories of the place.

[32:36] We hear we heard some again last night at the working group meeting, people sledding, having

[32:42] having PE up there.

[32:44] A lot of people,

[32:46] hierarchies here, play football,

[32:48] or other organized sports who lived in the neighborhood.

[32:53] And, you know, we all hear from neighbors

[32:55] who used to scale that tower as well for fun.

[32:57] In the 80s, there were football,

[32:59] I mean, sorry, basketball courts up there,

[33:02] and a gazebo.

[33:03] But then it was fun stuff in 2003, 2004

[33:05] for safety concerns.

[33:07] And we hear about like a lot of parks in Wilmington,

[33:09] and maybe had some safety challenges at that time.

[33:12] The city announced that they would improve the site

[33:14] and reopen it for public events,

[33:15] but that never happened.

[33:16] It was kind of dismantled,

[33:17] and things were taken elsewhere.

[33:19] You can go to the next slide, please.

[33:22] And so it wasn't until 2010

[33:24] that the community started to get access to the site again.

[33:27] So a group of neighbors and folks

[33:29] at Western Neighborhood House and other partners

[33:33] got permission to begin to guard

[33:34] and on just a small portion of the site.

[33:37] And they hauled all the soil in to create this raised bed garden that became one of the largest community garden in the city.

[33:49] You can see there at the top left, that's the Bucket Brigade, that's how the soil comes in each year.

[33:54] And down below are volunteers that founded the garden there, built all those beds.

[34:00] And it also became the birthplace of Westside grows together, which we know now is a long phrase,

[34:10] but comprehensive community strategy vehicle that was really about residents driven projects.

[34:19] And there's been a lot of that that's been successful on the Westside with the parks in particular.

[34:24] And green for the greater good is kind of wanting to continue that tradition.

[34:29] and can we go to the next slide, please.

[34:32] So in the years, the garden has become, you know,

[34:34] a hub of like neighborhood activity.

[34:36] There's been, you know, a variety of events up there.

[34:38] And in the last year, something we're really proud of

[34:40] was making the connection with Lewis Dooling,

[34:43] which elementary and healthy foods for healthy kids

[34:45] to implement a school gardening program there.

[34:48] So that K through five kids would garden,

[34:52] and you can see them harvesting their radishes

[34:54] and their lettuce here last season.

[34:56] several I think Councilmember Spidola and Councilmember Fields were there

[35:01] with us at the ribbon cutting to celebrate with them. They're learning about

[35:06] science and where food comes from and I was just at the Healthy Foods for Healthy

[35:09] Kids at 15-year anniversary gala and it's a really exciting program there and a

[35:14] lot of schools are trying to get into all of them. And we're excited about this type

[35:18] of program at the Rodney Reservoir. Expanding this opportunity for

[35:23] and the outdoor classroom opportunities.

[35:25] And we have started talking to people like

[35:27] Wilmington Head Start, which are nearby

[35:28] and enrichment programs with senior authorities.

[35:32] And there's a lot of potential for that.

[35:34] Another program that we started this last summer

[35:36] that Councilmember Berger-Berock came to

[35:38] was our free farm stand, where we have been like

[35:41] reaching out into our community to invite folks

[35:44] into this space to experience it,

[35:45] know that it belongs to the community

[35:47] and that there's an opportunity to shape the future there.

[35:50] And to give away vegetables and allow people to explore

[35:52] or allow them to explore the place

[35:54] and experience its kind of its specialness.

[36:00] And that's another thing that we really like to expand.

[36:03] We go to the next slide.

[36:05] So again, we can take a look at the place,

[36:07] look at the space there,

[36:08] and the center is the asphalt top,

[36:11] where that roller rink slash ice skating rink was,

[36:15] and right underneath there is the tank.

[36:18] At the right of the screen,

[36:20] that little square is where there used to be like a ban shell and on the left of the screen is

[36:25] the community garden. Again, now we're looking toward downtown. You can see that it's a dense

[36:28] neighborhood. You can see how many houses are circling it there. And if we go to the next slide,

[36:38] we're kind of looking out over the garden a little bit from up the hill. You can see there's all

[36:42] these vistas and you have this experience up there of being outside of the city. You could take

[36:49] in these amazing views it's become even though it's like grown wild up there it's unplanned

[36:54] there are there it is become a wildlife habitat we have hawks and foxes and all kinds of birds

[36:59] and you you hear them up there and it is kind of a magical place that we all enjoy it's next slide please

[37:08] so last May we got news that the city of Bloomington had asked for 1.7 million dollars from the

[37:15] a bond bill committee to demolish the infrastructure

[37:17] at the Rodney Reservoir site with a vision of development

[37:21] and they did not consult the community about this

[37:25] and this is the language in the bond bill

[37:29] that requires, that says that

[37:32] companies of planning, community engagement must occur

[37:35] prior to any projects beginning at the site.

[37:38] When the next slide please.

[37:40] And once our community heard about this,

[37:41] we started organizing immediately.

[37:43] This picture is taken from Memorial Day last year in 2022, you know, 50 or more neighbors

[37:49] showed up and talked about their attachment to the space, their desire to keep it public

[37:54] and green.

[37:56] That started a big conversation.

[37:58] We started talking about our opportunities to reopen it to the public and this real commitment

[38:03] to having a resident driven vision for this site and green for the greater good emerged from

[38:08] this, you know, these first few meetings we've been meeting every Saturday since, with

[38:12] just a couple of exceptions and trying to carry that forward.

[38:16] Can we go to the next slide, please?

[38:19] And since then, we have been engaged in a lot of advocacy.

[38:22] We work to get that language in the bond bill.

[38:25] We advocated for environmental testing.

[38:27] We advocated for the working group that's just got started.

[38:30] We started reaching out to partners for support and expertise

[38:33] and to ask them to imagine how they could use the site,

[38:36] to deliver it to the community, to make sure

[38:39] the people who need access to the green space the most

[38:41] We'd be getting up there, whether it's through outdoor classrooms or youth development,

[38:45] for urban ag, and we wrote a grant to get funding for a community design process from

[38:50] DENRAC, and we were successful with that, and we started learning a lot.

[38:56] Some of us, some of us already do some of this stuff, but a lot of us, me, I was learning

[38:59] a lot about the importance of access to nature for like child development, about the benefits

[39:05] of urban greening for communities, and about environmental justice issues, and along the

[39:10] way we met, we got connected with Professor Anna Wick and Dr. Nina David in the living lab research

[39:18] group at the Biden School Administration, and they wrote a grant to the Women's and Partnership

[39:23] to help us conduct a community design charat with members of the community and partners so that

[39:28] we could begin to think through and imagine what this future green space at the Rodney Reservoir

[39:35] could look like. We've been advocating for many months and we wanted a visual and this

[39:43] was so much more than that. So we came together with for this multi-day, multi-session event.

[39:51] Could we go to the next slide please? Here are some highlights. At the first session we

[39:55] looked at, you know, we engaged with aerial photos of the site and learned about the site

[40:01] conditions and concepts and you know gave feedback at the next session young

[40:06] sophomores from University of Delaware created designs for the community to get

[40:11] further feedback on based on the input from the last session could we go the

[40:15] next slide please. And then at the end of it we had a couple of concept designs that

[40:19] represent the community's vision at that incubation stage just kind of put

[40:24] together without really living under the constraints of real life of what the

[40:27] technical issues of the site are what things cost, that kind of thing, and these concepts

[40:32] had in common, this desire for sculpted and forms to have like an immersive experience

[40:38] of a place, an experience of being in there and retained elements of elevation, particularly

[40:43] around the pump house, or the gate house, and this is a list of some of the features that

[40:47] people dreamed up.

[40:49] First of all, we started with universal access, everyone should be able to access all the

[40:52] points of the site, more community gardening.

[40:55] There was a validation of this idea that we need access to nature and urban kids, urban

[40:59] families, residents need access to nature, the opportunities to combine a bunch of

[41:06] features from public art to recreation, native habitat, green infrastructure, and demonstrating

[41:11] that kind of thing.

[41:12] Next slide, please.

[41:15] And so out of it, we had this vision for a nature and community-focused park that had this

[41:20] opportunity to deliver on goals that are in the comprehensive plan for 2028 for Wilmington

[41:26] and in the resilient Wilmington report.

[41:28] And right now we have this opportunity with the working group that's gotten going

[41:32] to use a robust community planning process to work with professional landscape architects

[41:37] to create this amazing park that can meet our communities need to access nature and improve

[41:43] our environment, addressing like heat, like heat island effect, and address stormwater runoff,

[41:50] those kinds of things. Next slide, please. And so we have the Rodney Reservoir working group

[41:55] that got started. We have been advocating for it for over a year. We're so excited when it got

[41:59] going in July. We faced some constraints of time and budget, and also this lack of commitment,

[42:08] formal commitment on the part of the city to make a good faith effort to build the park that we

[42:12] design. We hear that and a lack of funding in place for it but nonetheless you know we

[42:18] with city workers and community members we have come together around a commitment to like

[42:25] create a design for a park that's following out of that vision of the of the charrette and we had

[42:29] a really positive RFP process. We put together an RFP. We had an amazing site visit with over a

[42:34] dozen landscape architects coming out and then through the meeting with landscape architects we heard

[42:41] You know, they were amazed at this site, saw this amazing opportunity for place making at the site and an opportunity to build on the history of the site and they were amazed at our community engagement. Next slide, please.

[42:54] Our problem is is that the city is moving forward with this plan to demolish without completing the design process and with the plan to create this flattened lot that doesn't have any of the features we are looking for in it. Next slide, please.

[43:08] We did hear the other day, we might get to keep the pump house, that was something we heard

[43:11] as soon as last night, and this is the city's plan, four months of demolition with concrete

[43:16] munchers, bury the rubble on site and grade the site, and this is kind of some of the dust

[43:20] and debris we'll see next slide, please.

[43:24] And we're concerned that the city didn't initially have any plans to do environmental testing,

[43:30] But we as a community, you know, advocated for it and here are some of the most recent

[43:38] results have found unacceptable cancer risk under a resident's scenario and non-cancer

[43:43] risk to children in a resident's scenario.

[43:45] We're concerned that the city hasn't yet done any modeling to test for the actual demolition

[43:51] scenario when hazardous substances would be released.

[43:54] We've been seeing a release of hazardous substances through the disturbance of soil in the

[44:00] So, are we asking City Council to help out and to prioritize our health?

[44:06] There are a couple of opportunities right here.

[44:08] We can have a site-specific contaminating materials plan that would allow us to identify

[44:12] the materials and have a plan for that.

[44:16] We can use these as planning tools and Denmark strongly recommended that the City follow the

[44:21] HISCA guideline process, and we're asking City Council to go ahead and support that and

[44:28] and to go ahead and move that forward.

[44:31] And what this means is that we, in our mind,

[44:34] this fits into the comprehensive planning framework

[44:37] that the bond bill committee had for us.

[44:39] And this is approaching site work strategically

[44:41] from the next slide here.

[44:42] We have an opportunity.

[44:43] We learned about this from the firms and our presentations

[44:48] that there are ways to do site work strategically.

[44:52] And so we want to build on that.

[44:55] So we are looking for a comprehensive plan

[44:57] to complete the design for the...

[45:02] We want to move forward on the vision out of the charette and build this nature and community focus park and we want to build. So if we do design and integrate it with construction, we can build on historic features of the site, including the elevation and grade change that people love so much. We can save money by integrating these steps. We can reduce the carbon footprint of the project and even tell the story of sustainable development.

[45:26] And we can minimize our community's risk of being exposed to hazardous substances.

[45:33] So we want to finish this design process, identify funding.

[45:39] Also, we need the design to attract the funding.

[45:42] And another thing, the last thing I'll say is that our issue with the city's current plan is that it leads the site in limbo.

[45:47] We know that we're hearing that the mayor has said we're not developing for now.

[45:51] But if you have a flat in site that's ready for development, that's what we know is going to happen.

[45:55] We know that there are plans out there that already exists to develop this site in a way that isn't green space

[46:01] And our community wants an awesome park and it deserves it and I really appreciate the opportunity to

[46:09] present. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Miss Davies

[46:13] If you like you could sit there because I know that there might be some questions

[46:18] I'm going to start with my council members if you have any questions and reference to the presentation very very

[46:25] nicely done. I love the enthusiasm and as someone who loves green spaces, it's a beautiful

[46:32] vision. So let's see how we can work together to make that happen. Of course, I want

[46:37] to hear, you know, also from the city on what the plans are moving forward so that the community

[46:43] feels that the communication is there. As we know that the working group was put together

[46:47] with different members of the community, including the city, and I believe council member

[46:52] or feels maybe on that? No? Okay, so are there any council members on that?

[46:56] No, elected officials on the May. Okay, all right.

[46:59] Well, either way, you will keep us abreast of this.

[47:01] Are there any questions right now that my councilmembers would like to?

[47:04] Not at this time, I'm sure.

[47:07] Councilmember Harley?

[47:10] Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

[47:12] I also want to say that that presentation was very thorough,

[47:17] and it definitely gave those that didn't know

[47:22] So what this is all about, what it's about and the only thing that I would say is that

[47:29] I am interested in hearing what the plans are going forward since we know that our current

[47:36] mayor has announced that he will not be running this time next year, you know, he will not

[47:42] be the mayor.

[47:42] So I think it is important that the community knows exactly what is going on.

[47:48] and again thank you to the presenter and that's all I have Madam Chair.

[47:53] Thank you. Councilmember Darby?

[47:59] Yes. My question, great presentation, very

[48:02] thorough community involvement of it. My question is how can we support you?

[48:08] Like what needs to, like what are you looking for from us in regards to the plan

[48:16] and that you have, what do you want to see

[48:18] from a council people?

[48:20] Thank you, Council member Darby.

[48:22] A great question.

[48:23] We would love to see a resolution.

[48:25] First of all, we think it would be a great step,

[48:27] a resolution that would call for the environmental testing

[48:29] that we asked for and the, sorry, the environmental protocols,

[48:32] the framework, you know, the HISCA guidelines.

[48:35] We have the strong recommendation from Denmark already,

[48:39] you know, in their memo to us on the site,

[48:41] on the, you can see it on the city's website.

[48:44] So we'd like to see that.

[48:45] We'd like to have that site-specific contamination management plan.

[48:51] And then we'd like to see a resolution about the commitment to build this park

[48:56] that the community design process is going to roll out.

[49:00] That's the next thing.

[49:01] And then finally, what we've been asking for all along is we are looking for

[49:06] a commitment to complete this as an comprehensively planned way.

[49:11] So we start from design that all site work be guided by design and that we allow the design process to play out so that we have specs that the contractors can bid for so that they are actually bidding all our RFP asked our landscape architects to think about addressing the safety of the tank through design.

[49:34] So how can we minimize our carbon footprint?

[49:37] How can we get this great park that we want, how can we do it sustainably, and how can we minimize the community's exposure to risk factors from, you know, the munching of silica holding concrete.

[49:53] So those are the three things.

[49:54] We want to have a, you know, this environmental management plan.

[50:00] We want to have a commitment to build a park that we design.

[50:02] And then I'm kind of going in reverse order.

[50:04] But we want to have the design drive the site work.

[50:08] And we think that we could accomplish that in a resolution.

[50:14] Okay, thank you.

[50:15] Thank you.

[50:16] Thank you.

[50:16] Any other council members?

[50:20] Okay.

[50:21] So at this time, I'm sorry.

[50:23] Yes, Council Member Dr. Colleen.

[50:25] You may proceed.

[50:26] Down for a second.

[50:27] Because most of the questions that I had, I wanted to ask,

[50:31] Council Member Darby did, I just wanted to make,

[50:35] and I just, I'm sorry, this is Council Member Colleen.

[50:37] I just wanted to be certain about when the concept,

[50:41] I think the design plans, I heard it was plural.

[50:45] Had anyone actually come up with truly what they wanted

[50:49] to see, like anything specific, that they wanted to,

[50:53] to be able to partner up, I guess, with the City to make certain that this is what,

[50:57] this is the way we like to, like for you to focus, or is it still more like you wanted

[51:02] to have more conversations that kind of like, you know, figure out what would be the best

[51:07] way to go for it?

[51:08] I just wanted to get that last portion clarified.

[51:13] Thank you, Mayor Perci.

[51:14] Thank you, Council Member McCoy.

[51:15] So are you asking about the design process itself, or about the process for designing the site

[51:22] Or about the comprehensive planning of how the city is going to go about doing the work at the site?

[51:28] No actually it wasn't me to the design of the site because I do realize that how important it is in order to find out

[51:34] What's going on with that tank underneath the hill?

[51:38] Make sure that it isn't any issues that we call from to the community

[51:42] Then of course how they were going to take it apart. I know those things are actually

[51:47] There was a project you're definitely working on.

[51:50] It was the last portion.

[51:51] How can the city be more, you know, are you,

[51:55] are you going to be presenting something to the city?

[51:56] Like this is what we want.

[51:57] Are you going to be trying to work with the city?

[51:59] Why don't you get to that portion?

[52:01] Work with the city.

[52:01] Like this is what we think should happen

[52:04] and have it give and take on what would be

[52:06] the best for that area.

[52:07] Okay, wonderful.

[52:08] Thank you, Council Member McCoy.

[52:10] So like we said, we had a charade last summer

[52:14] the creative division, and then this summer, sorry, earlier in June, and then July, we got

[52:19] going with this Rodney Roosevelt working group. So I probably did omit saying that at the end

[52:25] of that request for proposal process, we, you know, the city did hire a landscape architect,

[52:31] and we had our first meeting with them last night. There's going to be additional community design

[52:36] events that will allow, you know, more to, you know, try to get more members of the community involved,

[52:41] more partner organizations involved to design that future.

[52:46] A frustration that we've had through the working group is that we have presented these ideas

[52:52] about the importance from the very beginning that we've been asking this for over a year

[52:56] in our advocacy that we begin with design and begin construction afterwards.

[53:01] And we have been told just plain no that it's not negotiable, that the place is being demolished

[53:09] in January.

[53:10] We did get the caveat.

[53:13] We can move the dirt around, if you get the design done, maybe we can move the dirt around.

[53:17] Last night we heard for the first time that you might be able to keep the pump house.

[53:21] Mayor Przicki said, you know, if there's something really inspiring, maybe I'll be moved.

[53:27] And we are frustrated by that because we think that the city should be responsive to the community's interests.

[53:36] And that should be, we've been asking for a resident driven process.

[53:39] the whole time. And that's been a frustration for us. So we had been asking, we had some

[53:46] landscape architects that told us, you know, spoke, started speaking about how they

[53:51] could, you know, approach, not demolition, but deconstruction. That's what you do in 2023.

[53:57] Like that's, you know, to save on carbon, to save the community's exposure. We just heard

[54:02] in that last presentation how important it is to follow all the environmental protocols and

[54:05] keep the communities like exposure to dust and contaminants, you know, the priority, we're

[54:13] wondering why that's not a priority at our site. The city wasn't going to do any environmental

[54:17] testing, like we're the ones, are these neighbors right here that?

[54:21] Yes, you can. Yes.

[54:23] Thank you. Hi.

[54:24] Hi.

[54:24] This is Christian Willar from the community.

[54:26] Yeah, my name's Christian Willar.

[54:27] I'm really closely with green for the great, I mean, volunteer with green for the greater

[54:31] good. And councilwoman McCoy, the answer to your question is, is that the community

[54:35] community, and the city currently are working on a collaborative community design process

[54:41] for this park, the future Rodney reservoir park, and the city, Mayor Bersiggy, set up

[54:47] a working group. There's city members on it. There's community members on it. We went

[54:51] through an RFP process. We hired a landscape architect, and that landscape architect kicked

[54:58] off their community design process last night. And so what the community, what green for

[55:04] the greater good is asking is for that community design process to finish and to get tons of

[55:10] people involved, create an awesome design with tons of resident engagement that's based

[55:16] on an understanding of the conditions of the site, and that we use that plan to drive

[55:22] any site work that's needed, that we don't do demolition until that design is done, and

[55:27] that we identify funding to build the park before we demolish the Rodney Reservoir.

[55:35] I would like to bring the members from the city if you could come and speak to this because we're having the dialogue but we haven't heard from what the city is doing and I'm glad to hear that last night that meeting the engagement was there it sounds like we have a path forward.

[55:53] So, Vince, are you speaking or Commissioner Starky, whomever would like to come up?

[55:59] We got three seats, microphones and you know, because I want us to have a thoughtful discussion

[56:04] while we're here.

[56:05] I don't have any other presentations.

[56:06] I don't want to drag the meeting out, but these are questions and concerns that the community

[56:11] has.

[56:12] We want them answered and we also want the city to, you know, represent your plans and what

[56:17] you're doing as well.

[56:18] We don't want it.

[56:19] The city is going under the bus.

[56:20] All right. Vince Grove, Jim, the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Works.

[56:24] With me, I have-

[56:25] Lynn Claus.

[56:26] I also work in Public Works and I'm also a co-chair for the Advisory Committee for the

[56:32] Ronnie Reservoir.

[56:33] Thank you.

[56:35] I'll just start out with a general overview.

[56:37] So, the 1-7 is a proposal that I had put together when we put in for the FYI-22 state

[56:43] bond bill.

[56:44] So, we presented that, the administration to state and got the funding for demo of the site.

[56:52] I've been with public works, as most of you know, for quite a while.

[56:56] We had to fence that site off because the roof of the structure is unsafe to allow anyone to work on.

[57:03] We have a report and little provide the information on our website page that we set off of the main city website that has all of the reports,

[57:11] reports, the geotech reports, consult and reports, soil testering reports, and so on.

[57:17] As it relates to the site itself, the mayor and the administration have committed to

[57:23] keeping, to making this an open green space, so any talk of future development and so on and so forth is unfounded.

[57:31] The mayor is committed to the members of the Greenford Greater Good Group and to the Rodney Reservoir Advisory Committee to keep this.

[57:41] as a green open space to be enjoyed by the public.

[57:46] So let's, I'm going to clear that up right here.

[57:48] Thank you.

[57:48] As far as testing, we do have engaged with DENREC to do our due diligence.

[57:54] This is not the first construction project we've worked on.

[57:58] We had extensive soil testing more so than probably any other project that I've worked on.

[58:05] Well, we're demoing entire sites.

[58:07] 31 separate samples were taken and analyzed the page, the reports are available on the city's website.

[58:16] Thousands of pages of analytical documents we brought in a consultant, Verandis,

[58:21] who is an expert with environmental issues and had them manage all the tests that we've done.

[58:28] It's a spestus testing on the gate house and the walls of the tank where the gate house is located.

[58:34] needed, no asbestos as found was found on the sites.

[58:38] We ran the soil testing mod all through a risk assessment tool that Denrek has.

[58:45] The only thing that we found that was of concern was a naturally occurring cobalt.

[58:50] In order for that to be an issue, and we ran this with Denrek twice because after the initial

[58:57] run was provided, they changed the parameters and wanted us to run it with additional exposure

[59:04] time for the various groups. So, we actually used a very conservative methodology.

[59:10] The only thing that came out above the DENREC levels is for the naturally occurring

[59:15] cold bolt would be in a residential scenario. So, that would be if we were building

[59:20] homes there, someone would have to be on site 350 days a year for 26 years in order to

[59:27] have an exposure to the cold bolt that is above the current DENREC levels.

[59:33] Again, all that information and reports that we have provided, and we have worked closely with

[59:40] dinner at home, had several calls with them.

[59:42] We've submitted a report they have come back to us and approved our contaminant materials

[59:49] management plan for the site, have cleared us to start on demo for the site.

[59:55] We've been cleared with a dust control plan that was also submitted out of an abundance

[1:00:00] So there will be wet down water on site during the process. So the way we envision the, and our consultants and engineers have drawn the plans up for this project, we will be making entrance off of H street. Once we uncover the walls of the tank, since we cannot go on top of it, because it is unsafe, we will be taking additional samples of concrete and testing that for a spestus out of an abundance of caution. We don't feel we're going to find anything there, but we agreed with DENREC that we would

[1:00:29] to do that, then once that would be cleared, we would be making entrance into the tank off

[1:00:35] of eight street, the walls, the berms around the other three sides of the tank would be

[1:00:41] remaining for noise attenuation. And again, as I said, we would be having a wet-down

[1:00:46] wood in there, we'd be essentially going through, working our way through the site and collapsing

[1:00:51] all the concrete, removing any rebar, removing any lead pipe that's on the site, which most

[1:00:57] to the piping is going to be at the other end where it runs into the gate house and that's

[1:01:01] not in the area of the tank. We were going to be disturbing. However, we will remediate

[1:01:05] all that and remove all those materials and recycle or dispose of them properly.

[1:01:13] Once the tank in the munching of the concrete is completed, that essentially is fill in the void.

[1:01:20] That is the 7.5 million gallon water tank. Then the plan then calls for

[1:01:25] So utilizing the soils around the berms on each side of the three sides of the reservoir and pushing that over for site cover.

[1:01:33] Additionally, there may end up being additional soils that we have to bring in.

[1:01:37] But the overall look of the site, once the demolition would be completed and construction completed with it,

[1:01:44] essentially, you would be able to walk on to the site straight onto it from 8th Street.

[1:01:49] So that would be prevent or prohibit, you know, would aid an ADA compliant access to the future site.

[1:01:56] If you're any of you're familiar with it now, there's a high slopes that you saw in the presentations.

[1:02:02] So there is no way to access the site without going up series of steps to get into the property.

[1:02:09] The grade would be a 1% grade towards Knight Street.

[1:02:12] So, again, you'd be able to walk on or roll a wheelchair on from the 8th Street side of the property.

[1:02:20] We envision fencing and the existing brick pillars around the site all remaining and

[1:02:27] the areas to the north of the gate house where that sidewalk goes through now, the garden areas.

[1:02:35] because we don't envision touching any of that area that would remain as a state.

[1:02:43] We did say we would work with the landscape architect and if they were able to provide us with a site map,

[1:02:50] we would be able to leave the soil as they have a plan.

[1:02:59] Deposit as needed so we will work with that.

[1:03:02] As Lynn has mentioned, we've engaged the services of a landscape architect

[1:03:07] through an RFP process that was administered by the advisory committee.

[1:03:13] While they're in process of being put under contract and they've been given instructions

[1:03:17] to come up with preliminary designs for what the future of the site would look like.

[1:03:21] From the Water Department standpoint, which is why we put in for the money to demolish

[1:03:25] us because it is no longer safe and no longer feasible to put it in service, as a finished

[1:03:30] water storage reservoir, we're looking to make the site safe.

[1:03:34] At that point, the water department will have no physical nexus to the site,

[1:03:38] and we would be turning the site over to the Department of Parks and Recreation.

[1:03:42] Thank you for that thorough explanation.

[1:03:45] Really quick, because I know one of the things I heard from the community is height.

[1:03:50] I know the ADA accessibility is something that I brought up, so that was taken into concern.

[1:03:54] But would they still have some of that height that kind of lends to the uniqueness of that site?

[1:03:58] On the, they're so neat with the landscape type.

[1:04:02] We selected one of the architects is like an expert in grading.

[1:04:07] And so, you know, they're very excited about the elevation

[1:04:10] and keeping the elevation but also being ADA accessible

[1:04:13] at the same time.

[1:04:14] So that would be part of our design process.

[1:04:16] So since last night was the first meeting

[1:04:18] that you had with the work and group and the architect.

[1:04:21] Is this the same work as well?

[1:04:22] I should step back.

[1:04:23] The working group has been working for months.

[1:04:26] The mayor and certain representatives have appointed folks to the committee, and they

[1:04:33] have had multiple.

[1:04:36] But like the architect.

[1:04:37] The market was the first.

[1:04:38] That was the first time.

[1:04:39] That's what I mean.

[1:04:40] That's what I mean.

[1:04:41] Yeah.

[1:04:41] I know you guys.

[1:04:41] Yes.

[1:04:42] I remember when this first started.

[1:04:44] Yeah.

[1:04:44] The friend Kevin Malloy was the one who brought it to the attention of the community that this was

[1:04:47] happening.

[1:04:49] So last night was basically the first meeting really talking to the architect.

[1:04:52] And this is the architect that the work was working with.

[1:04:56] So then it sounds to me like a lot of the fears that the community has had and brought forward into the attention

[1:05:02] that you're working together to address them.

[1:05:06] You have an architect, you have a plan moving forward.

[1:05:10] Some of the concerns that I've heard is also before the demolition starts,

[1:05:14] can we agree on a design or is that continue to be a work in progress?

[1:05:19] What's the flexibility to do that?

[1:05:21] We've been, originally the mayor had asked us to have a design concept in mid-November.

[1:05:28] We've been pushing it back and the city has been willing to allow us to push back that

[1:05:35] due date for a landscape design just because, you know, with people's schedules, it's been

[1:05:39] hard to get everybody to meet and to select the landscape architect and that whole process.

[1:05:44] So I think right now we're looking to have a landscape design in place by sometime like

[1:05:50] mid beginning of February. That's what was on the schedule.

[1:05:54] However, what is the timeline? Is the demolition starting right on the

[1:05:57] dot in January? Or we say that we're going to be going out to bid here within

[1:06:01] probably the next week or two. Then that starts an entire process as you know

[1:06:06] with some of these construction contracts. That's, you know, there's a lot of

[1:06:10] a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through to.

[1:06:13] But conceivably, same time we probably won't even be starting to do any of the

[1:06:17] work until the spring, which gives you more time to really adopt a concept, a design that

[1:06:24] between, you know, the community and everyone can kind of feel comfortable with. I mean,

[1:06:28] that sounds good to me and I know that the community is going to have some questions and that,

[1:06:34] you know, we compromise and we work together. That's a good thing. Let me see if I have any

[1:06:37] questions from Councilmembers. I do want to open it up to the public. Councilmember McCoy and

[1:06:43] And then we'll, let me start loud on here.

[1:06:44] That's when we're going to go with Councilor.

[1:06:46] Thank you.

[1:06:46] Okay.

[1:06:48] So I had like two questions, basically.

[1:06:51] So you actually gave a lot of information.

[1:06:54] I'm just trying to make sure that I had, I got as much as I could.

[1:06:58] I just wanted to know, it seems though you talked about a lot of, some tests they had

[1:07:03] already been done.

[1:07:03] And there was like minimal contamination.

[1:07:06] I just wanted to know whether or not I had those reports to be shared with, with the group.

[1:07:10] Can you, if you want, we can bring up the City Wilmington's website.

[1:07:15] We have a page directly for the Rodney Reservoir, and it contains all of the testing information.

[1:07:22] And it also has, we've had our contractors, the testing engineer and our construction

[1:07:32] air put together.

[1:07:34] There's been a lot of questions, environmental questions, just questions about the demolition.

[1:07:38] And we've had them answer as many questions that have been brought to us, also they put

[1:07:45] together a memo on what the actual soil testing is and put it in layman's term on how to

[1:07:54] how would they determine like what the soils being used for is it being used for people

[1:08:01] who live there 365 days a year is it somebody who's gardening is it just people who are using

[1:08:06] it for recreational purposes. So, Denmark has different requirements based on what the

[1:08:12] soil is going to be used for. That is on the environmental section. It's under the

[1:08:20] environmental. I mean, you can look through it. There's a lot of information and there's

[1:08:23] a lot of history on there. Does that answer your question, Council Member McCoy?

[1:08:28] Yes, so I was stating. I said I had a second question. Am I? Yeah, the first

[1:08:35] PDF is the

[1:08:37] layman's term for the soil testing and how they determine

[1:08:41] what's required based on the use.

[1:08:50] Sherwin and Kerber, are you able to hear me? Yes, I can hear you.

[1:08:54] All day, I'm such that I had to follow and never got any information back.

[1:08:57] So the second question I had was

[1:08:59] So I've actually already known that there was, you know, of course the reservoir was being

[1:09:06] been safer quite some time. I don't know whether or not you're aware, but I've actually

[1:09:09] participated in quite a few of those dirt days, working for West Side Groves, so lugging

[1:09:14] that stuff down the hill. But I would like to know what was the significant change in the reservoirs

[1:09:20] from then till now that we decided that we needed to take care of this at this very moment?

[1:09:25] The

[1:09:28] problem, Council Member McCoy, is with the roof, the concrete between the support

[1:09:33] beams is not structurally sound.

[1:09:36] We had a structural engineer go in and take a look at that and take boardings of it

[1:09:41] back in 2006 and prepare a report.

[1:09:44] That is why we had to fence the area off and cannot allow anybody to walk on it because if

[1:09:48] you were walking between the beams, you could fall right through into the reservoir.

[1:09:53] It's no longer, concrete is no longer consolidated.

[1:09:57] Okay.

[1:09:57] All right.

[1:09:59] Thank you for answering those questions.

[1:10:00] Val, one of my biggest concerns.

[1:10:02] Thank you, Councilor McCoy.

[1:10:03] Councilman White.

[1:10:05] Yes, Madam Chair.

[1:10:06] I've got a series of questions.

[1:10:07] First of all, I know Vince, but what's your role with the department?

[1:10:11] I do a lot of things with them, but of course, I do a project management.

[1:10:16] I help manage the paving.

[1:10:19] And your name again, please?

[1:10:20] Lin.

[1:10:22] Klaus.

[1:10:22] K-L-O-U-S.

[1:10:25] What's the current height of the property?

[1:10:28] The height.

[1:10:28] I think it's about 245 feet above sea level.

[1:10:32] What's the proposed height after demolition?

[1:10:35] I think that's going to be the top.

[1:10:36] The proposed plan is on that section of the website.

[1:10:41] Thank you.

[1:10:41] The WITN had up there.

[1:10:43] We had a perspective in drawing in there, but essentially the grade would be street level

[1:10:49] on the age street side.

[1:10:50] And then that would take for up at a one-degree slope towards 9th Street, the grade

[1:10:57] around the sidewalk where the sidewalk cuts through the northern end of the property

[1:11:02] would remain unchanged.

[1:11:03] So there would still be steps and so forth on the 9th Street entrances into the park.

[1:11:08] Would that increase runoff or decrease runoff?

[1:11:11] There's going to be a 1 percent slope.

[1:11:14] So it's 1 percent, it's going to be a very minimal slope.

[1:11:16] So, the water, the stormwater falling on the site would remain on the, on the pervious

[1:11:22] surfaces.

[1:11:23] Just to mention, though, the landscape architect, that's not the plan.

[1:11:27] I don't think anybody in the community wants.

[1:11:29] So, we're going to be working with the landscape architect who will most likely change

[1:11:34] that.

[1:11:34] Thank you.

[1:11:35] What's the property currently because of the, it's, it's, it's open space.

[1:11:39] Open space.

[1:11:44] And let me ask you a question, back to Chair's comments, what, what do you think

[1:11:50] What's the disconnect between what you're saying and what the community is saying, why is what's the disconnect?

[1:11:56] Can I also just thanks on the co-chair of the committee, and I want to represent everybody on the committee, and not everybody on the committee has the same concerns.

[1:12:05] So there are some who are concerned about the environment, are concerned about what's actually going to take place at this site, but there's also those who don't have the same concerns, so.

[1:12:15] What are the concerns that they have?

[1:12:16] I don't, I mean, just from what their concerns are, I think that's, I don't understand.

[1:12:23] You said something about that.

[1:12:23] I was going to say not everybody has the same concerns that were presented tonight.

[1:12:27] There's a lot of people in the community that are, don't share the same environmental concerns.

[1:12:34] Don't have the same desires, what the park is going to be.

[1:12:38] So, you're saying that there's some people on this working group that does not have concerns regarding environmental risk?

[1:12:44] That's correct.

[1:12:47] But they're not.

[1:12:48] I think what would lead to that to say, they don't think that additional testing and

[1:12:53] additional work as it relates to, to site-specific, you know, contaminated material

[1:13:00] management plans are necessary because we've met with them.

[1:13:03] We've, we've shown them the same reports that are posted on the website and they understand

[1:13:07] that the regulating authority, in this case, Denreck, is saying it's, it's safe to move

[1:13:12] before with what we wanted to do. That was the whole point of testing and submitting to

[1:13:16] DENRAC.

[1:13:17] And that plan has been, was shared with the community.

[1:13:22] It's all in the documentation that's posted on our website, yes.

[1:13:27] So I guess was the plan shared with the community, only via the website or was there any meetings?

[1:13:34] There's, there's a public committee meeting, so we've had, well, Linza, the co-chair of

[1:13:40] the committee, I don't have the total number of meetings.

[1:13:42] I'm not on the committee, but they have had many more.

[1:13:44] This is the working group.

[1:13:45] It's the working group, yes.

[1:13:46] Thank you from there.

[1:13:51] So there's meetings, minutes of these public meetings, right?

[1:13:56] They are open to the public.

[1:13:57] They're open to the public.

[1:13:58] Are there minutes?

[1:13:59] Yes.

[1:14:00] So can you, oh, excuse me.

[1:14:03] The public, you really can't speak out.

[1:14:05] You've got to be called and you'll have a moment to speak.

[1:14:07] So are there minutes or they're not minutes?

[1:14:11] There have been minutes and we also taped so can you can you provide counsel with a copy of this minutes?

[1:14:18] Thank you

[1:14:23] Normally wow, I can't say normally

[1:14:26] What

[1:14:29] Steps

[1:14:32] and it seems to come up a lot

[1:14:34] Will the city take or has taken the minimize damage to

[1:14:38] other

[1:14:39] Properties adjacent properties i.e. basements and that kind of thing

[1:14:43] I mean, we'll typically do like precond surveys, videotape, and so forth, and document the

[1:14:48] existing condition. There's not, I mean, there's going to be munchers on the property.

[1:14:54] There's not going to be a lot of, you know, there'll be some, you know, breaking of concrete

[1:14:58] within there and munching...

[1:15:00] We're doing it in the concrete, but not in the street itself. It's good. But vibrations, normally people really do vibrations, right? So, we'll typically on a lot of our street projects, whether they be for, whether we're digging for water sewer mains, would have you, we'll do pre-con instruction. That's, that becomes part of the scope of the contractor. He's responsible. He would go through and take pre-construction surveys, videotape of the foundations of the property and so forth, prior to, and then we have a claim list to come up that that would be their responsibility to manage.

[1:15:29] And just working through this, what light pollution measures will be incorporated

[1:15:38] in this site, if any, will the site be lit?

[1:15:41] The site is lit currently, and there's plans to maintain some level of lighting

[1:15:46] up there in the future that would be cognizant upon what the final design plans look

[1:15:52] like, but there are lights up there now.

[1:15:54] And so do you feel as though what the community's requesting is unrealistic?

[1:15:59] I've not seen a formal plan at this point.

[1:16:01] There's a lot of ideas.

[1:16:03] We, you know, the mayor and the administration have agreed to work with, towards a goal

[1:16:07] with the community to develop, you know, to develop the site.

[1:16:12] My goal is to make sure it's safe before we move off it.

[1:16:16] We built the tank.

[1:16:17] We ran the tank since 1917 until we shut it down in the late 90s.

[1:16:22] And we're just trying to make sure the site's left in an appropriate condition to turn over to parks.

[1:16:28] Thank you, ma'am, Chair and a more question.

[1:16:30] Thank you.

[1:16:31] Are there any other council members online that have any questions before I open it up to the public?

[1:16:39] At this point, anyone from the public that would have any questions or comments that you'd like to come up?

[1:16:46] Anyone?

[1:16:47] If you could please speak into the mic and state your name.

[1:16:51] I'm Anita Delago. I live at 1,500 West A Street directly across from the reservoir and listening to everything tonight.

[1:17:00] My comments are really brief. I just want to know for myself and I do know for the community and all of my neighbors, not just all my street but the surrounding community.

[1:17:11] I do believe it's important to have, once the demo's date is determined, that the community

[1:17:20] knows what's coming next.

[1:17:22] There's an agreed upon plan in writing that states, this is what's coming next.

[1:17:28] I can put up with a lot, but if I know something good is coming after that.

[1:17:34] And right now, I don't feel like we have that.

[1:17:37] We don't have anything saying what comes next that's going to be a part and I know we have a, you know, landscape designers, you know, we have all of that in place.

[1:17:48] We need to get more down on paper and in writing to ensure that the community knows what comes next because just this week we've had street work done that's made a mess.

[1:17:59] Okay, I can deal with that but when you go up there for four months, people want to know what's coming afterwards.

[1:18:05] words. What's coming after that demo? Because then at least they can rest assured there's

[1:18:12] something good coming out of it. And that's really what I have to say. Thank you so much.

[1:18:16] Thank you for coming. Thank you for speaking. I mean, it sounds to me from what I'm hearing.

[1:18:20] This is a work in progress. This is not, there is no final footprint. The whole point of

[1:18:26] getting that working group together was when the community said, this is what we want,

[1:18:31] when they heard the demolition was coming, the city halted, the plans to demolish weren't

[1:18:37] immediate, and the working group was formed.

[1:18:41] Last night is the first meeting with the land scape architect, of course, there's other

[1:18:46] moving pieces with this, so it sounds to me that before we even start the demolition, there's

[1:18:51] going to be more time and more meetings for the working group, which is representative

[1:18:55] of many different members of the community, not just the people that are here.

[1:18:59] I appreciate the presentation that was made and the vision, because I think overall, the community wants to see green space.

[1:19:07] And what I've heard is that this is going to be kept as green space.

[1:19:11] So now we're going to talk about the particulars, because I was very excited about the things that I saw on paper.

[1:19:16] And I do hope that many of those things do get incorporated.

[1:19:19] But to me, it sounds like in good faith, the city is working with the community, there is a working group.

[1:19:25] and there aren't any definitive plans right now.

[1:19:28] We don't even have a date of demolition.

[1:19:30] We know that the bids have to go out.

[1:19:32] There's a plan in place for the environmental issues

[1:19:35] that could come up, so I'm glad to hear that.

[1:19:39] At this point, if there's any other comments

[1:19:41] or questions from the community,

[1:19:43] would you like to come up, please?

[1:19:48] Good evening.

[1:19:49] I wanted to thank you, Councilwoman Cabrera,

[1:19:52] for inviting Green for the greater good to present tonight.

[1:19:55] I'm April Collins.

[1:19:56] I live at 1512 West 8th Street, I'm a gardener there, I'm a member of the green for the greater good, I'm a member of the working group, the Rani Reservoir Working Group.

[1:20:08] My ask this evening is for City Council support to allow for the comprehensive planning and the community engagement and the design to come before any demolition starts.

[1:20:20] I just think it should be one cohesive design for the space to make it safe, keep it green and open it to the public.

[1:20:28] This should be done in a way that will preserve the historical and cultural significance of the site.

[1:20:34] Rushing forward to demolish the reservoir without knowing the final design will cost more money and resources for the city in the end.

[1:20:42] And so we should combine the design and the deconstruction to save money and build on the historical impact of the site.

[1:20:52] So as we said, the city and the working group did hire a landscape architect.

[1:20:56] We met with them last night and they are going to do community engagement and come up with this great design for the future of the park and we're so excited to start that.

[1:21:05] We just, we are concerned they're not anticipating getting their final design until the end of February.

[1:21:12] and demolition is scheduled to start in January.

[1:21:15] So we are hoping that maybe the city that we can work together to combine those states into one.

[1:21:21] So thank you.

[1:21:23] Thank you for your comments.

[1:21:24] And thank you for being one of our wonderful nurses.

[1:21:28] I mean, Council Member Cabral, I'd like to just one thing.

[1:21:31] One of the things that we heard loud and clear from the mayor was we did not want to be doing demolition in the summer.

[1:21:37] When a lot of people were outside, we were trying to do this in such a way where we would

[1:21:40] We have this complete, we're talking about four months of the demo to try to do it in a, you know, through the winter months when there's not a lot of outside activity going on.

[1:21:49] I mean, I know it's disruptive. Any time we're working, whether it be water main work, sewer main work, it becomes disruptive to the neighborhood so to speak to the one resident's concern.

[1:21:58] When we get done, you're going to have a freshly paved street and new water mains and hydrants out there.

[1:22:05] Great. Thank you. Thank you for this comment.

[1:22:07] I need to state your name, please.

[1:22:09] Oh, hi, my name's Christian Willauer.

[1:22:11] You know, I really thank again Councilwoman Cabrera and all the Council members who are

[1:22:15] here tonight.

[1:22:16] I know that you have been, had a super busy week.

[1:22:18] I have nothing but respect for Council members for every, all the serious decisions you make.

[1:22:24] So this is going to be just following up on what's been said.

[1:22:28] I just want to clarify that there has been, and this is a concern of mine.

[1:22:33] I'm a resident.

[1:22:33] And then I live about a block and a half from this site.

[1:22:37] It's a huge place.

[1:22:39] I mean, make no mistake.

[1:22:41] This is a four acre site.

[1:22:43] This is like a solid block.

[1:22:45] And it's built of reinforced concrete with rebar.

[1:22:49] And it is going to be a giant, giant project, four months.

[1:22:54] Like, most demolition doesn't take four months.

[1:22:56] So we're talking about a very large demolition,

[1:22:58] talking about a very large site.

[1:23:00] And we're talking about a very dense urban neighborhood.

[1:23:02] So I just wanted to say people have said that there's there's very little contamination.

[1:23:07] Actually, there's quite a bit of contamination.

[1:23:09] And the reason there's a lot of contamination is because it was built in 1916

[1:23:13] before there was a lot of environmental concerns.

[1:23:16] And there's a lot of random things up there that were put into that site that

[1:23:20] I don't think we even really know everything.

[1:23:22] So when Denrick did do testing, they found a bunch of things

[1:23:26] and I gave everybody, you can look at your packet.

[1:23:28] that in the packet there's a couple of maps

[1:23:31] that just show some of the testing.

[1:23:34] And like a lot of the contamination is because

[1:23:36] they used a lot of coal ash cinders

[1:23:38] and other things as part of the fill.

[1:23:40] In those days, they used a lot of random fill.

[1:23:43] So what they found, you know,

[1:23:46] what Bernatis found was they did testing,

[1:23:50] they found contamination, they ran risk scenarios.

[1:23:53] And this is what they found.

[1:23:54] Regulated substances in shallow soil

[1:23:57] are President at an unacceptable cancer risk under the resident scenario.

[1:24:02] And then they also found regulated substances in shallow and combined, shallow and

[1:24:07] combined shallow and deep-soil are President at an unacceptable non-cancer

[1:24:11] risk under the resident child H.I.

[1:24:14] Scenario.

[1:24:15] And I don't really know what that means, but when I read this, I read unacceptable

[1:24:21] cancer risk to me, that means unacceptable cancer risk.

[1:24:24] And when I read unacceptable non-cancer risk, to me that means unacceptable non-cancer

[1:24:30] risk, I do have children, I am a resident, I think the soil on this site because of the scale

[1:24:36] of the demolition is going to end up in the neighborhood, and I think that we need

[1:24:40] to have like a lot of oversight of this demolition in order to keep it safe.

[1:24:47] So that's why I'm concerned about what is happening.

[1:24:51] Another page of your packet has, what Denrek has required.

[1:24:59] And in my view, we need to ask Denrek to have more oversight.

[1:25:03] They sent, they gave the city a pass.

[1:25:06] They said you can do a generic hazardous management plan.

[1:25:13] I don't think that's enough.

[1:25:14] If you look at the end of your packet, there's two pages at the very end.

[1:25:19] That's the generic management, like hazardous material management plan that the city has to follow.

[1:25:27] It's like nothing.

[1:25:28] I mean, I do community development, and we often have contaminated management plans to deal with hazardous materials on site.

[1:25:38] And it's always thicker than this.

[1:25:40] I mean, this is like very minimal.

[1:25:43] So I don't think that, I think what we're asking is for City Council to take more oversight of this project.

[1:25:53] City Council, you know, this is a water utility-owned site.

[1:25:57] City Council is the board of the water utility.

[1:25:59] And we are going to be presenting you with a resolution that we hope you'll consider and ask, you know,

[1:26:12] have a more serious approach to addressing the contamination and ultimately we

[1:26:18] think that you can create a really great park here with a great design that

[1:26:24] can minimize the exposure of the community like we don't have to create this

[1:26:29] problem like the site you know the site that talks about the roof being in a bad

[1:26:36] condition it was from 2006 like there is no emergency to demolish this site like

[1:26:41] And we can take the time to do this correctly and to keep people safe and to create a great park and we're hoping that Council will bring your, you know, your oversight to this project.

[1:26:55] Thank you very much.

[1:26:56] Thank you.

[1:26:57] I'm looking at the packet.

[1:26:58] I do see here where it says, you know, just the last page of the letter that all those soils at the site do not pose an unacceptable risk under non-residential scenarios.

[1:27:08] as a conservative measure, where Dante's recommends that the following actions be implemented during the following demolition activities of the site,

[1:27:16] soil-disturbing activities of the site should be in accordance with den-rexionary contaminated materials management plan, air monitoring plan.

[1:27:25] Following and regrading and stabilization activities, I mean it looks to me like there was engagement with den-rex, and at this point I will ask you to speak to the

[1:27:34] concerns that were brought up because I understand that I just don't feel that doing nothing is an option.

[1:27:41] To me, it sounds like the due diligence is being done.

[1:27:43] Dunnbreak is involved.

[1:27:44] The community is involved, there's a working group, there's a landscape, people are being heard.

[1:27:49] The city could have just said, we're going to develop homes, we're going to flatten it out.

[1:27:52] We don't care what you say.

[1:27:54] They didn't do that.

[1:27:55] Council members can certainly put our two cents into this.

[1:27:58] Resolutions, things, try to encourage.

[1:28:01] I always remind people, we are the legislative branch and there's the administrative branch.

[1:28:06] To some extent, we can try to get things done through the administration, through legislation,

[1:28:12] through the budget, put a little pressure on there, but we're not the mayor.

[1:28:16] We don't tell the administration what to do.

[1:28:18] This is something they went for.

[1:28:19] They got the money.

[1:28:20] It needs to be done.

[1:28:21] There's a safety concern and the fact that it hasn't been addressed in 2006, I think it's

[1:28:26] actually shameful.

[1:28:27] Should have been addressed way before that.

[1:28:29] Okay, but if you could answer to the concerns that were brought, please.

[1:28:32] Sure, Madam Chair, so there is a meeting that DENREC is scheduling that was requested by the Green for the Greater Good Group.

[1:28:40] We have met with DENREC multiple times and they are willing to meet with them.

[1:28:44] They are willing to meet with the entire committee and explain the test results through their risk model.

[1:28:51] Okay, thank you.

[1:28:52] We also have a Marissa McClinton on the line who would like to make public comment, Mr. Marissa.

[1:28:57] If you're still with us, you may proceed.

[1:28:58] You have three minutes.

[1:29:00] Thank you.

[1:29:01] Hello, everybody.

[1:29:02] Good evening.

[1:29:03] My name is Marissa McClendon.

[1:29:05] I am an environmental justice organizer with the Sierra Club Delaware chapter.

[1:29:09] And I became informed of Green for the Greater Grants efforts during the social change summit where I met Jamila.

[1:29:16] And so I just want to speak to a couple things.

[1:29:19] When we look at climate change as a whole, we see the extreme heat is going to be the most dangerous impact.

[1:29:25] And that's why I really love that the collaboration that's been had around the Ronnie Reservoir

[1:29:30] to keep a green space.

[1:29:31] If there's any way we can get that in writing and get that as something that is permanent

[1:29:37] and cannot be changed whenever there is a new mayor in the next cycle, that would be great.

[1:29:41] That's just one thing to kind of keep in mind.

[1:29:43] And as much as we can get these commitments to have a green space, commitment to delay

[1:29:47] construction, commitment to have a comprehensive planning before the deconstruction.

[1:29:51] on paper and solidified. That is one of the best ways to ensure that community members can feel safe.

[1:30:00] In the fact that their concerns are heard and are not going to be at the whim of whoever is in charge of the project. So just want to say that I love the collaboration. It's been really great to see all the folks from different aspects of the city and of the state come together on this issue. And so I do love that. Just the other point that I want to make is that this has been going on for so long and we have an opportunity to build a green space in the eyes of what residents want.

[1:30:28] And as far as environmental justice goes, that's very rare.

[1:30:31] And so we have an opportunity right now to really envision

[1:30:35] communities that people are empowered to take place in building.

[1:30:39] And that's why I really love all the work that's been done on the,

[1:30:43] on behalf of the Green for the Great of Good and other partners

[1:30:46] to really have this be a community collaboration

[1:30:48] to create the vision for this space.

[1:30:50] Not often do we get to kind of come into our green space

[1:30:54] of the creativity and planning and so I just want to really point out that that is an incredibly

[1:30:59] inspirational thing that I think community is in Delaware just beyond the writing reservoir

[1:31:04] will be able to see as an example moving forward a good community collaboration both with the city

[1:31:09] the state and community and stakeholder so I really love what Greenford the greater good is doing.

[1:31:14] I love the collaboration we love to get everything on paper and thank you all for kind of being here

[1:31:20] and really fighting for green space, it's super important.

[1:31:22] So thank you, have a good evening.

[1:31:24] Thank you, Ms. Marissa.

[1:31:26] I think that that was a, it is exciting to be able

[1:31:29] to be part of designing something

[1:31:31] which we don't always get those opportunities for that

[1:31:33] is you hit the nail on the head with that one.

[1:31:35] Councilman White, please have a question.

[1:31:36] Yeah, just, yeah, just a clarity.

[1:31:38] So then is the, is the, is the conflict you believe?

[1:31:47] Well, first of all, Denmark is allowing you

[1:31:50] to do the remediation. Remediation. That's the site, right?

[1:31:53] Yeah. Well, there's nothing to be remediated at this point.

[1:31:55] They're allowing us to do demo and to test them to do the air quality monitoring while

[1:32:00] we're working. Okay. So there's at this point, there is nothing to be remediated. Okay.

[1:32:05] So what they have had agreed to do is once the final regrade on the site is done, they

[1:32:10] would do surface swills samples to two feet deep and determine if there was any hazard

[1:32:15] remaining at that point. So they're not requiring any soil replacement?

[1:32:20] Not at this point, we would not until the test thing would be done at the end.

[1:32:24] So-

[1:32:24] But even though this report says shallow contamination-

[1:32:28] They're not requiring us to remediate hall-off site and replace soil.

[1:32:32] All right, so the conflict is between what you feel as though that records give me

[1:32:40] information to do in what the community, the working group, or some members of the working group,

[1:32:45] feels like you should do more.

[1:32:46] Is that- That's correct.

[1:32:48] Okay, that's correct.

[1:32:48] Thank you.

[1:32:50] No other questions?

[1:32:52] Are there any other closing comments or questions from my council colleagues?

[1:32:59] Okay.

[1:32:59] Not seeing any.

[1:33:00] I want to thank everyone that engaged.

[1:33:03] I didn't think our meeting would go this long, but I'm glad that we had the dialogue and

[1:33:06] the conversation as we as council members are hearing from different members of the community.

[1:33:11] I think it's important to have the discussion, to hear from all sides, and I'm still,

[1:33:18] you

[1:33:18] together, and that we did hear the voices of the community and that the working group

[1:33:23] was formed, and that their input in the planning is vital, so I think all of you are city

[1:33:31] workers for being here answering these questions. At this time, this concludes the community

[1:33:36] development and urban planning committee meeting. Again, we're reminding you that the next

[1:33:41] committee meeting will take place on the second Thursday in January. And at this time,

[1:33:47] your council member at large Maria Cabrera, I am asking for a motion to close this meeting out.

[1:33:53] Motion, ma'am chair.

[1:33:55] Can I get a second?

[1:33:58] Are there any council members left?

[1:34:00] I need a second.

[1:34:01] Second.

[1:34:02] Thank you. It has been properly moved in a second.

[1:34:04] This concludes the meeting of the community development urban planning.

[1:34:07] Everyone have a wonderful holiday and we will meet again in January.

[1:34:11] Thank you.

Nov 09, 2023 Community Development and Urban Planning Committee

Agenda

Transcript