LYNN — The city of Lynn has applied for more than $560,000 in grant funding, which would go toward making two flood-prone areas more resilient to climate change.
City Planner Aaron Clausen said he has submitted separate grant requests for the Strawberry Brook system and Lynn Harbor shoreline.
Strawberry Brook was identified as a high need area through a vulnerability assessment that was completed after the city was designated a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) community last year.
“I think both of these areas we’ve been talking about, we are seeing vulnerabilities from climate (change) now,” said Clausen. “We’re impacted now. We recognize it’s going to get worse and we have to address that.”
The five areas selected through that assessment have been identified as being most affected by top climate change hazards such as coastal storm surge, inland flooding events, high winds, and winter storms, Clausen said.
Lynn Harbor was identified through a coastal resilience study, completed several years ago, that focused on vulnerabilities along the shoreline.
Strawberry Brook is the city’s main focus through the MVP grant program, which is administered through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and provides support to Massachusetts cities and towns to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects.
Last week, Clausen said he applied for a $350,000 grant through the MVP program, which is aimed at implementing part of the city’s Strawberry Brook flood mitigation plan.
The plan was developed with a $112,500 grant the city received through the MVP program in February.
The Strawberry Brook system runs underground through Flax Pond along Boston Street, and continues underground at Barry Park and General Electric before depositing into the Saugus River.
Clausen said the grant would enable the city to implement three recommendations from the plan.
One project would build on the natural storage of Cedar Brook so that more water would be stored in the pond during major storm events, rather than draining into the system and causing more flooding.
“The Cedar Pond program will elicit some immediate impact,” said Clausen. “By having that detention system in the pond, you can have between 4.6-9 million gallons of water stored in the pond and then drained into the watershed during a storm event. (That) will lay the groundwork for future projects.”
Two other projects target Boston Street, Barry Park and the GE athletic association fields.
The “Boston Street Green Street” project would look at the entire street in terms of how bioretention cells, or landscaped depressions, can be implemented to capture stormwater runoff and absorb it into the ground, Clausen said.
Another aspect of the plan includes planting trees, which would help beautify the neighborhood, Clausen said.
Barry Park and the GE fields are also being targeted for Green Street interventions, Clausen said. The focus for those areas, which is where the Strawberry Brook system empties into the Saugus River, is on how the park can be used as a retention system, he said.
That three-step look is all aimed at reducing flooding in the Strawberry Brook system, Clausen said.
“It’s also intended to mitigate flood impacts,” said Clausen. “It’s not going to fix the problem itself. This is a step in that direction and an iterative improvement.”
The city has also submitted a $211,000 grant for the Lynn Harbor shoreline through the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Coastal Resilience Grant Program, Clausen said.
The grant would enable city officials to develop an assessment that would focus on making a certain stretch of land near the landfill more resistant to climate change, Clausen said.
Restoring that shoreline is part of the city’s vision for increased public access along the waterfront, as outlined in the Lynn Waterfront Open Space Master Plan, Clausen said.
“We’re seeing shoreline erosion along Lynn Harbor throughout,” said Clausen. “That’s happening now. That’s only going to get worse. We need to make sure we’re protecting our shoreline.”
