Former Ogilvie Foods site ready for redevelopment
Dec. 8—WATERTOWN — City officials can now start planning the redevelopment of the former Ogilvie Foods plant site on the city's east side for single-family homes after an extensive environmental cleanup.
Senior city planner Jennifer L. Voss said the city will most likely seek a developer to develop the site for single-family homes along North Pleasant Street and California Avenue.
"The city could sell the parcel or redevelop the site ourselves," she said. "But I don't see the city doing it. The city would probably sell it for redevelopment."
Earlier this week, the City Council signed off on the city fulfilling a state Department of Environmental Conservation requirement to place an environmental easement on the center portion of the former food plant to prevent it from redevelopment for residential use. Instead, it can be used as open green space or for parkland, she said.
The site went through a series of environmental remediation that took several years.
In the past, the city envisioned about four single-family homes built on each of the two streets.
In 2015, the city paid $293,694 to Bach Environmental Inc. to clean the site, which contained the cement foundation, rocks, pavement and overgrown weeds.
The Clayton firm removed soil that contained petroleum and the remnants of the foundation.
The remnants closest to the two streets were removed, leaving the remaining foundation in the middle of the property. A 10,000-gallon underground tank that once held heating oil was removed in past cleanup efforts.
The plant's buildings were demolished in 2003.
