The former Vicksburg Chemical property is one step closer to becoming a golf course and boutique shopping center after the City Board of Mayor and Aldermen adopted a resolution Tuesday declaring the property, currently under the control of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, a redevelopment area.

In December, MDEQ signed an agreement for Silver Tip, a company operated by Colorado-based developer Paul Bunge, to spend $8 million to clean up the abandoned Vicksburg Chemical site.

The property, 480 acres on both sides of Warrenton Road south of the river bridges near Rifle Range Road and U.S. 61 South, has been under MDEQ’s control since Vicksburg Chemical filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

Bunge has said the $8 million cleanup of the site, of which about 20 acres are believed to be contaminated from the former chemical plant, will be directed by a Norwegian company, Arcadis, which has U.S. headquarters in Denver and Baton Rouge.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the resolution was created based on a year-old state law that formed an incentive program for developers to clean up areas the state declares contaminated. Thomas said the program allows redevelopment taxes and fees, such as sales taxes and privilege license fees, to be paid into a fund that will be given back to the developer upon completion of the project, in exchange for funding the site cleanup. She said the city had to adopt the resolution because city taxes, as well as state taxes, will be committed to the fund if the project is completed.

Thomas said the incentive for the city and the state is they don’t have to come up with any money up front for the cleanup.

Trudy Fisher, the attorney for Silver Tip and Harcross Chemical Company, said a tentative closing date of March 17 has been set for the purchase of the property.

&#8220We hope things will move quickly,” Fisher said.

She said cleanup could begin within 30 days of the closing and MDEQ will be overseeing the remediation of the property.

&#8220We’re extremely ecstatic that the property will be cleaned up and developed and we will still have a golf course, not at the taxpayers’ expense,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.