The Tanner Street Initiative surfaced when the need arose to examine the future of one of the most contaminated sites in New England - the Silresim Superfund Site. Formerly home to the Silresim Chemical Corporation, this site of just over four acres on Tanner Street has been under government control since the company declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in 1977, leaving behind over 30,000 drums of chemicals.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been on-site treating the groundwater, and awarded the City of Lowell with a grant to study possible short and long term uses of the Superfund Site. It was then determined by the City that a study of Silresim would not be effective without including the impact this site has had on an entire district, thus creating the Tanner Street Initiative.

The City formed a Community Advisory Board to help guide the planning process in determining the future of the area. The EPA grant allowed the City to hire Stoss Landscape Urbanism of Boston, MA, to complete a reuse and redevelopment study for the district, the results of which are detailed on this site.

The district is viewed as having tremendous development potential with excellent highway access to the regional transportation network, located off of the Lowell Connector at the confluence of Route 495 and Route 3.

Please see the following documents for more information on plans for the Tanner Stret Initiative:

• Tanner Street Initiative Website
• TSI Plan Part I - Site Overview
• TSI Plan Part II - Site Recovery
• TSI Plan Part III - Case Studies
• TSI Plan Part IV - Remediation & Appendix

Viewing some of these documents may require Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher.

Primary Contact:
Pardis Saffari, Neighborhood Planner
Division of Planning and Development
Phone: 978-446-7200