LYNN — The city will use a $2.2 million dollar grant from the state infrastructure funding program MassWorks to allow Lynnway drivers to turn left onto the Blossom Street Extension, the first step toward the city’s long-term goal of redeveloping the Lynnway waterfront.
The project, slated to start in the Spring, will allow southbound pedestrians and drivers to turn left onto the Blossom Street Extension toward the ferry terminal. Community Development Director James Marsh said that the project will pave the way for waterfront development, allowing the public access to the development sites.
“Not only as you go out and take a left towards Lynn Shore Drive, towards the marinas and the basketball courts and all that stuff, but eventually, our master plan calls for public access to the right, all the way down to the new developments that are happening,” Marsh said.
Marsh cited the popularity and frequent public usage of the Charles River in Boston as an example of the city’s ideal usage of the waterfront. He said that in order for redevelopment to be of use, the city will have to make the area more accessible to the public.
“Once you get to a certain point, you decide that it’s not worth circling back to utilize that to get to that destination.This will make it much easier to utilize the ferry terminal and the waterfront,” Marsh said. “The Charles wouldn’t be nearly as utilized as it is without the pedestrian access across Storrow Drive. Storrow Drive has a fence; this is our own fence, the Lynnway.”
Although a significant portion of the land between the Lynnway and the harbor remains vacant, Executive Director of Lynn’s Economic Development and Infrastructure Corporation (EDIC) Jim Cowdell said that the city’s development of currently abandoned or underused Lynnway properties, citing two different $100 million projects slated for the Spring. One at 811 Lynnway, and the other at the former Mass Merchandise site at 810 Lynnway.
“There’s major development happening along the waterfront with four other projects in the pipeline that will be happening over the next 12 to 24 months,” Cowdell said.
Cowdell said that the projects will mainly be zoned for mix uses. Referencing the $7.5 million ferry terminal at the end of the Blossom Street Extension, Cowdell said that the terminal currently docks a 200-passenger deep sea fishing vessel, but that within a year, the city plans on utilizing the space as a ferry port carrying commuters from Lynn to Boston.
“That’s going to, in the very near future, become a very active area, which is why that left-hand turn becomes very important for people that will be going down,” Cowdell said. “We’re shooting for next year, with all of the MBTA issues in Lynn. We’re hoping that the commuter ferry begins commuting passengers to and from Boston next year. That’s our goal.”
Cowdell said that the Lynnway is full of “mistakes” in its conception and planning. He said that the large-scale developments around the corner excite him.
“When you look at the Lynnway, it was mistake after mistake. Right on the ocean, you have a Walmart, you have fast food restaurants, you have a bunch of used car dealerships,” Cowdell said. “We came up with a master waterfront plan to change the vision, and now you’re seeing development starting to happen. So it’s an exciting time, and it’s long overdue.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected]