IN
THIS ISSUE:
2004
Call for Entries: National Award for Smart Growth Achievement
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is pleased
to announce that applications are now being accepted for the
3rd Annual National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This
competition is open to local or state governments and other
public sector entities that have successfully created smart
growth.
Smart growth is development that serves the economy, the
community, and the environment. Smart growth development approaches
have clear environmental benefits including improved air and
water quality, greater preservation of critical habitat and
open space, and more cleanup and reuse of brownfield sites.
Applications will be accepted in five categories: 1) Built
Projects; 2) Policies and Regulations; 3) Community Outreach
and Education; 4) Small Communities; and 5) Overall Excellence
in Smart Growth.
Interested parties from urban, suburban, and rural areas
are encouraged to submit applications for smart growth activities
undertaken within the last five years. Successful applicants
will incorporate smart growth principles to create places
that respect community culture and the environment, foster
economic development, and promote a better quality of life
for this and future generations.
Applications are due on June 1, 2004. Up to five winners
will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in November
2004. For more details about the National Award for Smart
Growth Achievement, including an application packet, visit:
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm.
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New DNR Grants
to Help Clean Up Brownfields for Public Use
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently awarded
11 grants totaling $1 million to 10 local communities in Wisconsin
to help clean up contaminated properties for public use. The
agency’s Green Space and Public Facilities Grant Program
is one of the first of its kind in the nation aimed at helping
communities add public spaces and public buildings to urban
areas through brownfields cleanup and reuse.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) works cooperatively
with local governments on development issues as part of Governor
Doyle’s “Grow Wisconsin” strategy. Wisconsin’s
nationally recognized brownfields initiative demonstrates
that good environmental stewardship can be compatible with
growing Wisconsin’s economy. These 11 projects will
have a positive impact on local communities. The projects
will result in neighborhood improvements that will attract
new homeowners and businesses. National studies have shown
that the proximity of residential housing to open spaces or
parks increases property values.
Grant recipients were required to match state funding with
20% to 50% of their own dollars, for a total statewide match
of $500,000. The 11 projects have pledged over $3 million
in local investments; private investment stimulated by these
redevelopment projects may lead to millions more in local
improvements. The grants will lead to the reuse of nearly
200 acres of property.
The local governments receiving the first Green Space and
Public Facilities Grants are:
- Delavan: Ann Street Railroad Corridor Redevelopment,
$200,000
- Milwaukee: Menomonee River Valley West End Redevelopment,
$200,000
- Oshkosh: Riverside Park, $200,000
- Milwaukee: Garden Park, $125,000
- Kenosha: Bain Elementary School & Kenosha School
of Language, $84,585
- Madison: Isthmus Park, $87,745
- Fond du Lac: Park and Trail, $50,000
- Town of Geneva: Township Park, $25,449
- City of West Allis: Athletic Fields, $18,221
- Eau Claire: Phoenix Park, $5,000
- Waukesha: Hoover Park Recreational Area, $4,000
More information is available on DNR’s Remediation
and Redevelopment Program web site at http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/rr/financial/index.htm
or contact Michael Prager at (608) 261-4927 or michael.prager@dnr.state.wi.us.
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Boston’s
Hope Project Cleans Up 22 Properties
The face of one of Boston’s neighborhoods is forever
changed. Where trash and weeds once littered the ground, landscaped
yards and beautiful apartments stand. The neighborhood that
was once home to 23 abandoned or demolished buildings is now
home to young children, their new foster families, and their
new “grandparents.” This revolutionary intergenerational
neighborhood is called Boston’s Hope and its $31 million
transformation was made possible in part by a US EPA Targeted
Brownfields Assessment grant, a federal brownfields tax deduction
program, and a partnership between the Home of Little Wanderers,
a social service agency for families and children, and the
Boston Aging Concerns Young & Old United, Inc. (BAC-YOU),
an organization that finds housing for a growing number of
homeless seniors.
The properties that make up the new Boston Hope neighborhood
are spread across the northern section of Franklin Field in
Dorchester. Historically, the properties were residential
buildings built between 1967 and 1985. The properties were
abandoned and destroyed when the city of Boston acquired them
in the 1990s. Only a single-family dwelling at 219 Harvard
Street, built circa 1900, was left, boarded up and charred
following an earlier interior fire. The undeveloped plots
were purchased from the city by BAC-YOU in 1999 following
an environmental site assessment on all the properties.
The site assessment was made possible due to a US EPA Targeted
Brownfields Assessment grant of $105,000. With this grant,
the city and BAC-YOU were able to afford the costly task of
evaluating environmental contamination within the site and
determining what the cost of cleanup would be. The US EPA
site assessment activities, completed in December 2001, revealed
over 90,000 sq. ft. of unutilized property contained an above-ground
storage tank, soil contamination including the presence of
lead, and multiple sites with solid wastes including tires,
abandoned cars, and other trash. Armed with the site assessment
information, the city and BAC-YOU began the site cleanup.
Final cleanup costs for the new Boston’s Hope project
total approximately $293,000 to date. Through the Federal
Brownfields Tax Incentive Program, BAC-YOU, the project developer,
will be able to deduct any expenses incurred during the cleanup
from their income taxes. This important program helped the
organization reach the Massachusetts residential cleanup standards
needed to prepare the once contaminated properties for residential
development.
Today, the project is in its final stages of construction
with a planned opening date of Spring 2004. The project will
encompass 41 new and affordable apartments. The apartments
will be home to 30 seniors and 10 families and their foster
children between the ages of 6 and 12. The center will contain
computers, games, and large meeting areas to allow for group
dinners and meetings between foster families and their new
grandparents.
Having the seniors and foster children together offers members
of the revolutionary Boston’s Hope a sense of community
and gives the once neglected children the opportunity to experience
life in an extended family situation, complete with the love
and mentoring of foster grandparents. The Boston’s Hope
neighborhood gives foster children and their willing, but
low-income guardians and foster parents, a new sense of community,
quality and affordable housing, and the opportunity to develop
familial relationships that will last a lifetime. This important
new community opens its doors on June 2, 2004 with a ribbon
cutting ceremony.
For before, during, and after photos, visit http://www.epa.gov/ne/brownfields/success/boston_hope_tba.htm.
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Poudre
River Investigation and Cleanup Begin
In September 2002, a contractor for the City of Fort Collins
assisting with a brownfields pilot study noticed an oily sheen
on the Cache la Poudre River, a river that runs through Fort
Collins, Colorado.
Since that first discovery, EPA’s Office of Brownfields
Cleanup and Redevelopment has studied the 1/8-mile section
of the river where the coal tar was identified along with
19 acres of adjacent commercial and residential property.
Investigation results have not pointed to a definitive source
for the contamination, but analysis of river sediments revealed
that the tar is similar in composition to waste at the nearby
former Poudre Valley Gas Plant. The coal gasification plant,
which operated from 1904 to 1926, converted coal into fuel
for heat and electricity. The Public Service Company of Colorado
(doing business as Xcel Energy) owns a portion of the gas
plant site, and has agreed to fund the estimated $1.5 million
cleanup project.
EPA and Xcel Energy signed an administrative order on consent
to implement the investigation and cleanup of the Poudre River
in January 2004. Through the collaborative efforts of EPA,
Xcel, and the City of Fort Collins, the work began at the
end of January. Investigation and cleanup involves diverting
a portion of the river through pipes to avoid contact with
contaminated sediments and replacing removed sediments. To
help determine the source of contamination, new monitoring
wells will be installed and a trench dug to the bedrock.
Temporary fencing will be in place during the project, and
air and water monitoring will be performed to ensure public
health and safety. EPA expects the work, including re-vegetation,
to be completed by May 2004.
For further information, contact Jennifer Lane, EPA Region
8, at lane.jennifer@epa.gov.
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Former Quarry
to House 5,000 People
Taken from article by A. Papmehl, Toronto Star
Rehabilitating brownfields sites can translate into plenty
of green for municipalities and developers. With land becoming
scarcer, brownfields - or infill sites as they’re often
called – take underutilized, vacant land, clean it up
and recycle it into usable real estate. Revitalizing previously
unwanted land represents a practical way to curb urban sprawl,
spruce up drab parts of the city and increase the tax base
without taxing the municipal infrastructure.
An example of this kind of turnaround is the Cooksville Quarry
development in Mississauga, Ontario. Some 5,000 people will
live in the 650 single-family and semi-detached homes, 350
to 400 stacked townhouses, and 700 units of low-rise apartments.
There is also an elementary school, a 25-acre park, and nearly
10 acres of retail space.
The area, which operated as a brick plant and quarry site
from 1912 to 1991, was one of the largest employers in Cooksville
during its heyday. With half a million feet of derelict buildings,
uneven grading, and steep slopes from quarry extraction, the
site resembled more a scene from the moon than a prime urban
location, says Mitch Fasken, president of Kimshaw Holdings,
Ltd. and past-president of Jannock Properties, Ltd., the project’s
developer.
No fields or forests were bulldozed to make way for this
mixed-use area at the now-closed Cooksville Quarry, located
in Mississauga. After in-depth environmental studies were
carried out, the site was decommissioned and remediated using
various techniques. Some soils were recycled, but others were
disposed of at an off-site location.
Due, in part, to it’s convenient location, the development
has sold out quickly. The Huron Park Community Centre is just
around the corner, and the library and city hall are a five-minute
drive up the street.
To learn more about this project, visit http://www.aboutremediation.com
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