The city of Rochester has agreed to drop its lawsuit seeking control of a key property in the former Vacuum Oil complex along the Genesee River.
The contaminated, defunct industrial site is an imposing blight on the riverway and the Plymouth-Exchange Neighborhood south of downtown.
City officials agreed to discontinue the lawsuit as part of a settlement with the property’s owner, Exxon Mobil. In return, the company agreed to enroll 5 Flint St., and its distinctive warehouse building, in the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. The state program provides tax credits to firms that clean up industrial sites where pollution, or the perception of it, has hampered redevelopment.
The settlement ensures that cleanup work that has been stalled for years proceeds so that the property can be developed…