Lynn officials seek funding for harbor dredging feasibility study

LYNN – With an eye on opening greater access to the waterfront via the actual water, city officials are seeking funding to reopen an old channel in Lynn Harbor.”It would allow marinas and businesses to develop along the bulkhead,” explained Community Development Director James Marsh.The idea is to create a channel that would link the Economic Development Industrial Corporation pier at the end of Blossom Street extension with the mouth of the Saugus River just off Point of Pines in Revere. As it stands today, the waterfront along the bulkhead is too shallow for most boats to traverse even at high tide. The project would result in a continuous loop into and out of the harbor and give future waterfront businesses direct access to the harbor and beyond, Marsh explained. Currently, vessels come into and out of Lynn Harbor via a channel that runs the length of the Nahant Causeway and ends at the EDIC pier. Adding the extension to the river would make for a more convenient and shorter route particularly for vessels coming from southwest.The project is part of the city’s Waterfront Master Plan that was adopted in 2007. Marsh said they have been working with the Army Corps of Engineers since 2010. Initially the Army Corps gave the city $100,000 for a hydrographic survey of the area and an economic viability analysis, and the result proved that a complete feasibility study was warranted.Marsh said it will cost $440,000 to complete the feasibility study, and 50 percent of it must be paid for locally by the city.”(State Sen.) Tom McGee is working hard on getting us the $220,000 local match,” he added. “If we can identify the 50 percent ($220,000) then the Feds will match it with $220,000.”The dredging is just one more step in making the waterfront more attractive to developers, Marsh said.EDIC Executive Director James Cowdell said the ferry project wouldn’t necessarily benefit from the dredging but the waterfront would.When the power lines were moved in 2010 to make way for development, people anticipated a windfall of change ,but the reality is it’s coming slowly. But it is happening, Cowdell said.Kettle Cuisine built a new factory behind the Clock Tower building, the Lynn Ferry project is proceeding on schedule and, perhaps most importantly, Cowdell pointed out, taxes have increased significantly on the properties most affected by the removal of the power lines.In 2012, the owners of the property known as South Harbor paid $759,000 in property taxes, but in 2013, they paid a whopping $1.8 million, and Cowdell said that is not the only change.The dredging project, which Marsh feels confident will happen, will be another step in further increasing property values because it will open it up to even more development possibilities, Cowdell said.”We’ve done the initial appraisal, that is the first of four steps. After that we go into the design and construction phase where there is an 80 percent federal/20 percent local match,” Marsh said in regards to the dredging project. “It will cost $7 million or $8 million to actually get it done then the Army Corps of Engineers will maintain it.”