Sound Senior Staff Writer

NORTH BRANFORD - The cost to take down an empty town building, creating a clean slate for a future Town Center mixed-use development, may get a boost from a state grant.

Periodically, the state offers municipal brownfield grants and a new application round for those grants recently opened, said Town Manager Michael Paulhus.

“We’re going to pursue a grant for environmental remediation,” Paulhus said. “We’re trying to find out if we would be eligible, with a few more phone calls; and then we would put together a strong application.”

If the project is eligible, it may be the first time North Branford, as a town, has applied for a brownfield clean-up grant from the state, Paulhus said. The hope is that the grant would assist with the cost of building demolition, as the demo requires the removal of material that could include containments such as lead and asbestos. Brownfields are sites where environmental impacts from previous development compromise future site use.

The tear-down of the former Community Center building at 1599 Foxon Road would help create a clean slate for future mixed-use development of the parcel, which also includes the former Wall Field. Ideas about what residents would like to see developed on the town-owned land were generated two years ago through town-wide charrettes. Ideally, the town hopes to sell the land to a private developer who will use the charrette results as a guide to revitalize the site as a new Town Center focal point.