By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- The Boston-based development firm Trinity Financial will begin its community-planning process for the Hamilton Canal District project with a Dec. 5 "listening session" at Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
The session will be held that Wednesday in the auditorium's third-floor veterans wing from 6 to 9 p.m. Trinity officials will hold a series of four similar meetings, which they have dubbed "vision sessions." The next will be held Jan. 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the same location. The other sessions have yet to be scheduled.
"We hope to have the community really feel like they played a part in the ultimate development of the site," said Abby Goldenfarb, Trinity's project manager for the Hamilton Canal District. "We really don't want to develop it in a vacuum. We want to hear people's ideas of what the site should be and hopefully, we'll walk away with better ideas than we originally started with."
The public is invited to attend any of the vision sessions, but community members are asked to first RSVP with Trinity by calling (617) 720-8400.
Goldenfarb said the firm hopes to have the community-meeting process complete by next October. The meetings will be tied to Trinity's Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act review process for the site.
The idea is to unveil a master plan for the district soon both processes are complete.
Goldenfarb said she hopes to have finalized the exact dates and times for the remaining meetings in an advertisement that will run in The Sun on Nov. 25.
Today, the canal district is a nearly 15-acre swath of blighted buildings and vacant lots on the fringe of downtown. It is trisected by the Merrimack, Lower Pawtucket and Hamilton canals. City officials have acquired all of the district land through either negotiated purchase or eminent domain.
City officials are in the midst of negotiating a land-disposition agreement with Trinity that would see the firm buy the land and oversee a massive commercial and residential revitalization of the area.
"We're really comfortable with where we are on the terms of the land disposition with the city," Goldenfarb said yesterday. "We're all on the same page, so we want to get this project moving as soon as possible."
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Saturday, November 17, 2007