Cabot-Koppers Superfund

The idea for this location — first floated a little over a year ago — has seen its share of controversy in reaching this point, but on Tuesday, the commissioners were all in.

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On the street adjacent, the sounds of the trencher digging can be clearly heard, while smoke and cement smells are potent.

The scorned smell that wafts from Cabot-Koppers Superfund site on Northwest 23rd Avenue in Gainesville is from the excavation of the odorous pine tar still in the ground where charcoal facilities used to be on the Cabot Corp.’s 50-acre portion of the site.

The Alachua County Commission and the Gainesville City Commission held a joint meeting Monday to discuss potential development ideas for the Cabot-Koppers Superfund site and the Eighth Avenue and Waldo corridor, but no plans were approved.

A University of Florida class project is playing a part in helping an east-side Gainesville community decide how it might best improve the Cabot-Koppers property.

Residents voiced their opinions for future plans in the Northwest Urban Core neighborhood in an open forum at Stephen Foster Elementary on Wednesday. They expressed their concerns and representatives from GRU, Parks and Recreation, and more spoke about the neighborhood's future development possibilities.

A house on Northwest 37th Avenue was set to be demolished by Habitat for Humanity before it was discovered that the residence was infested with mold. With the demolition looming, neighborhood residents have concerns over health issues associated with mold.

The Cabot-Koppers wood treatment plant became an EPA Superfund site in 1983 after dioxins contaminated the soil and underground aquifer. Now that cleanup of residential property was completed in November, the residents look toward the future.

Beazer East, Inc., a wood treatment company responsible for potentially-cancerous soil contamination in a neighborhood of the Gainesville area, began soil remediation at their pilot property at 436 NW 30th Ave. on Monday.