PRESS RELEASE

Chicopee Releases Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Willimansett Brownfields Area-Wide Planning and Environmental Assessment Services

CHICOPEE - Today, the City of Chicopee through its Department of Planning & Development has released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Services and Environmental Assessment Services. The project represents an expansion of the City’s Brownfields Program into the Willimansett neighborhood. This expansion is being funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Brownfields Assessment Grant of $300,000 awarded to the City. The RFQ is the first step in a program that is anticipated to advance over a three (3) year project period.

The City’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Brownfields Assessment proposal, as funded by the U.S.EPA, includes completion of a Willimansett-specific Brownfields Area-Wide Plan (AWP) and the completion of multiple Phase I and Phase II Environmental Assessments on prioritized neighborhood Brownfields. The City is currently in its fifth year of implementation of an AWP in the West End of Chicopee Center. AWPs target potential Brownfields sites for assessment and aid in facilitating steps towards redevelopment. Phase I environmental assessments are review historic records of properties and through records try to highlight possible environmental concerns. Phase II environmental assessments of sites follow up on any identified environmental concerns from a Phase I review and advance site inspections and sampling for analysis. 

Chicopee’s motto, Industriae Variae (Varied Industry), is indicative of its greatest strength: a mature economy with a history of diverse industrial activities. Weathering market fluctuations better than single-industry cities, Chicopee has proven adaptive and resilient on the whole. As Chicopee continues to evolve, it must adapt to the 21st-century paradigm shift in urbanization, with an emphasis on sustainability, walkability, and urban infill. The City is committed to advancing investment and redevelopment in its urban-industrial villages like Willimansett. However, the greatest impediments to improving the quality of life for present and future residents in the environmental burdens created by the existence of Brownfields.

The City’s Willimansett Brownfields Program will build on its past and ongoing revitalization efforts that include the assessment and cleanup of numerous sites within other neighborhoods in the City. The City has previously done Brownfields Assessment work in Chicopee Falls and Chicopee Center, as well as an area-wide plan for the West End of Chicopee Center.

“We are excited to move forward with this crucial work in Willimmansett as we continue to expand the Brownfields Program in the City of Chicopee,” said City Planner Lee Pouliot. “This program offers the City an opportunity to prepare Willimansett historical industrial properties for redevelopment and reuse that will meet the neighborhood's contemporary needs,” Pouliot continued.

“I thank our City Council and Planning Department for their efforts in accomplishing a systematic approach to Brownfields redevelopment opportunities in our City. These redevelopment opportunities were made possible due to support from federal and state resources and I look forward to submissions that reflect both the quality and innovation that these unique spaces deserve and that will become civic assets in the years to come,” stated Mayor John L. Vieau.

Proposals are due to the City of Chicopee’s Purchasing Office no later than Thursday, February 4, 2021, at 11:00 AM

For more information and to obtain the RFQ, please contact: 

Brian Salamon, Purchasing Agent

Purchasing Department

Second Floor, City Hall Annex

bsalamon@chicopeema.gov

Phone: (413) 594-1557

Fax: (413) 594-1577

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