EPA grant for Irving lots

Several years ago Boreal Development purchased two neighboring lots in the Irving neighborhood of Duluth. These lots are contaminated with debris, arsenic, and benzo(a)pyrene equivalent, and appear to have been the site of neighborhood dumping over the years. These will also be the site of our next net zero energy housing development, but before we can build there, we need to remediate the contamination. We applied for a Brownfield Cleanup grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year, and it was approved! Here is more information about the grant.

When we submitted the grant application, we incorporated public input from a session that we held on November 7, 2024. Several people from the neighborhood joined us and shared input on what they hoped to see for new housing in the neighborhood. Overall, they felt like housing was a good use of the lots. They also want the housing to be affordable, and they want it to look similar to existing housing in the neighborhood.

We had hoped to complete the remediation work in summer 2025, but the approval process for the EPA grant was slower than we expected, and now we expect to complete the work next summer. The remediation process will ensure that the contaminants, including debris, arsenic, and benzo(a)pyrene equivalent, are removed from the soil, making it safe for residential use. We will also take advantage of the excavation of the lot to run utilities, reducing costs of the housing development.

We expect to build a Spring House and a Sapling House on the neighboring lots. You can see plans for the Spring House on our housing plans page. Here is a rough plan for the two lots:

Details of this project will continue to be refined. We will have more opportunities for community members to provide input as well. The federal government shut-down means that our community input process is delayed, but we will share more information as soon as we can. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, please call or send us a comment via our contact page.