Walk the trails of Lynn Harbor Park today, and you’ll find sweeping harbor views, nearly two miles of waterfront paths, neighbors gathering at the amphitheater, and families enjoying a public space that feels deeply connected to the community.
For decades, however, the site told a very different story.
Before becoming a park, the approximately 30-acre waterfront property was shaped by industrial use, including a manufactured gas plant and later a municipal landfill. Environmental impacts, aging infrastructure, and complex regulations made the site difficult to access and even harder to reimagine.
Still, the challenges revealed an opportunity.
As Lynn looked to the future of its waterfront, community leaders, planners, regulators, and project partners shared a clear goal: reconnect residents with the harbor and turn an underutilized property into a public asset. With elevated views of Lynn Harbor, Nahant, and the Boston skyline, the site had the potential to become a signature waterfront destination if its environmental and engineering challenges could be resolved.
Those challenges were significant.
The property included a former landfill that required repair and capping, sat next to sensitive coastal resource areas, and involved regulatory considerations related to wetlands, filled tidelands, hazardous waste sites, Designated Port Area requirements, and Environmental Justice concerns. Advancing the project required careful planning, environmental review, and coordination with multiple agencies and stakeholders.
Epsilon helped guide the project team through this complex permitting process by identifying wetland resource areas, establishing Chapter 91 jurisdictional boundaries, and securing key environmental approvals. These included an Order of Resource Area Determination, an Order of Conditions under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, support for the project’s Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review, and a Chapter 91 License. Each milestone brought the site closer to becoming a place the public could use and enjoy.
The result is Lynn Harbor Park.
Phase 1, opened in 2025, introduced approximately 20 acres of public open space with walking trails, harbor overlooks, pickleball and basketball courts, and an outdoor amphitheater. Land that was once inaccessible now invites residents and visitors to experience the waterfront in a new way.
The project’s benefits extend well beyond recreation. The redevelopment repaired and stabilized a former landfill, strengthened shoreline resilience, restored public access to the harbor, and helped support broader waterfront revitalization. An innovative beneficial reuse program also allowed material from infrastructure and environmental projects across Massachusetts to support construction while reducing reliance on traditional public funding.
In many ways, Lynn Harbor Park reflects a broader shift across New England’s waterfront communities, where former environmental liabilities are being reimagined as places that deliver ecological, economic, and social value.
In 2026, the project received the James D.P. Farrell Award for Brownfields Remediation Project of the Year from the Environmental Business Council of New England. The award recognized both the site’s environmental restoration and the vision required to see new possibilities in a property long defined by its past.
Today, many visitors walking the trails may never realize a landfill once occupied the ground beneath them. That may be the clearest sign of the project’s success. What was once a barrier between Lynn and its waterfront is now a gateway—reconnecting the community to the harbor and showing how thoughtful environmental planning, permitting, and redevelopment can turn even the most challenging sites into lasting public assets.
About the Expert
Dwight Dunk, LPD, PWS, BCES is a Principal with over 35 years of experience. He has applied his ecological and policy expertise to projects nationwide servicing federal, state, local, and private-sector clients. Dr. Dunk’s scientific expertise is in the fields of freshwater and coastal wetland ecology; while his permitting and policy expertise focuses on developing and implementing strategies to secure approvals for National Environmental Policy Act documents and state-level equivalents, as well as federal, state, and local environmental approvals.