Norwich - A consulting group hired to determine the top environmentally contaminated sites in the city that should be studied, cleaned and redeveloped has chosen nine prominent properties throughout the city.

Ken Buckland of The Cecil Group asked a group of about 30 Greeneville and Taftville residents Wednesday if the group "got it right."

"There's not a lot of surprises here," Alderman Mark Bettencourt said. The list includes the former Capehart Mill in Greeneville, the Ponemah Mill in Taftville, the vacant and decaying Trinacria Mill on East Main Street and the city's former landfill on Hollyhock Island on the Yantic River. It also includes the Shipping Street area along the Thames River - long considered a top priority for redevelopment.

Two mills on Chestnut Street, one privately owned and one the city recently acquired for back taxes, also made the list of potential priority sites.

The Cecil Group is working with the city Redevelopment Agency to write a citywide brownfields assessment plan and will use it to apply for federal brownfields assessment and cleanup grants.

Norwich has 133 properties that could be classified as brownfields - vacant or underutilized, sitting on at least 1 acre of land, with good road access and good potential for private, taxable development. Buckland said the group hopes to narrow the list of nine to three top-priority sites.

Within about a half hour, the audience concurred that the Ponemah Mill, the Shipping Street area and the Chestnut Street mills downtown should be the top priorities. Residents also asked that the two railroads - Central New England and Providence & Worcester - that cross through the city be included in the study.

The Cecil Group will post an online survey for Norwich residents and will hold a second meeting at 6 p.m. on June 14 at the central fire station, at 10 N. Thames St.

Greeneville resident Mike Smith said he thought the Shipping Street district should be the top priority, but he also expressed skepticism about the city's ability to attract new developers given the city's rising taxes and newly enacted utility rate hikes.

RDA Chairwoman Marge Blizard said the Shipping Street area provides "a unique opportunity," because it is one of the few sites along the Thames River with direct riverfront access not barred by railroad tracks. The Central New England tracks cross through the district farther back from the river.

Mayor Peter Nystrom said the Capehart Mill had great potential and the city still has an interested developer - POKO Partners LLC - but the arson fires that destroyed much of the already decaying mill eliminated federal historic tax credits as a funding source for the proposed mixed-use housing and commercial development.

Bettencourt, a Taftville resident, said the Ponemah Mill in Taftville would be his top priority because of the potential redevelopment and the progress to date. Nystrom agreed. Onekey LLC has done much of the environmental remediation and started renovations for a 300-unit apartment complex, but the project was stalled by the poor economy.

c.bessette@theday.com