A New Haven homeowner is thrilled with the company planning to redevelop an old firearms factory site kept its word to clean up the mess next to his home.
"As you can see, this about 95 percent of it cleaned up," Jesse Hameen II told NBC Connecticut on Tuesday.
Over the years, Hameen grew accustomed to the overgrown bushes next to his house on Munson Street. He regularly would need to use a machete or clippers to trim the plants sticking through the fence onto his property.
"The leaves, the branches," Hameen said. "They just attacked my house, my garage. It was terrible. All of the poison ivy, the weeds that had intertwined like you do basket weaving, it was like basket weaving in the fence."
Double A Development Partners are planning to build a new housing complex on what used to be the Olin Corporation manufacturing plant. Olin purchased the factory at 201 Munson Street from Winchester Repeating Arms in the early 1930s.
As the necessary remediation of contaminated soil begins this summer, the developer followed through on bringing in a landscape to work on the area right next to Hameen’s home.
"I was so surprised and elated," Hameen said.
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"The goal long term, of course, is to try to landscape the site in a way the community, neighborhood finds attractive," said Steve Fontana, New Haven’s Deputy Director of Economic Development.
The developer who purchased the land from Olin is experienced at cleaning up dirty sites, Fontana said.
"We’ve got an expert developer from California who is proposing to build 300 units of housing on the site," Fontana said. "He will clean up the site and the construct the housing over the next year or so."
While the developer works with city planning officials and the Board of Alders on finalizing a design for approval, Hameen said he is looking forward to less yard work around his house.
"They did a great job," he said. "Now I won’t have to use my machete anymore."
