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U.S. EPA awards $175,000 to San Francisco’s Neighborhood Parks Council for Brownfields Development

Release Date: 10/18/2010
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815, Cell (213) 798-1404, arcaute.francisco@epa.gov

LOS ANGELES – The Neighborhood Parks Council, of San Francisco, Calif., will receive $175,000 as part of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $4 million in assistance to 23 communities, many in under-served and economically disadvantaged areas, to develop area-wide plans for the reuse of brownfields properties.

EPA is awarding approximately $4 million in total across 23 recipients. Recipients will each receive up to ap­proximately $175,000 in EPA cooperative agreement and/or direct technical assistance. Assistance will help recipients initiate develop­ment of an area-wide plan and identify next steps and resources needed to implement the plan.

"This area-wide approach recognizes that revitalization of the communities impacted by multiple brownfield sites or a large individual site – particularly in distressed communities – requires a strategy for area-wide improvement to attract investment to redevelop brownfields properties,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “The approach also recognizes the importance of identifying and leveraging additional local, state, and federal investment to implement the plans.”

Details on the Neighborhood Parks Council, San Francisco, $175,000 award are as follows:

EPA has selected the Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC) as a Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Pilot Program recipi­ent. NPC will facilitate community involvement in area-wide planning of the Blue Greenway for the revitalization of the brownfield-impacted community of Southeastern San Francisco.

The Blue Greenway is a 13-mile corridor along the city’s Southeastern waterfront, where open spaces will be linked together for new recreational opportunities, nature discovery, and public access to the waterfront. This area was the industrial heart of the city from the 1850s to the mid- 1900s and included heavy industrial uses, sewer treatment facilities, and power generation facilities. The area neigh­borhoods are historically underserved and economically disadvantaged, with a poverty rate of more than 21 percent, and an unemployment rate of more than 19 percent. The project area contains at least 12 brownfields near the Blue Greenway alignment.

The Neighborhood Parks Council has led the effort for a Blue Greenway Project since 2003. The area-wide planning process will leverage existing efforts to identify and reduce threats to human health and the environment, and will facili­tate assessment and cleanup of brownfields in the target area by identifying site-specific reuses for brownfield sites.

The plans will integrate site cleanup and reuse into coordinated strategies to lay the foundation for addressing community needs such as economic development, job creation, housing, recreation, and education and health facilities. Brownfields are properties where the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants may complicate the properties’ expansion, redevelopment, or reuse.

More information on the grant recipients: http://epa.gov/brownfields/areawide_grants.htm