United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-01-046
June 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
&EPA Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot
Emeryville, CA
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other
stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and
sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and
an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded
up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training
pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected
by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental
field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds
to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states,
tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods
to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.
BACKGROUND
EPA selected the City of Emeryville foraBrownfields
Pilot. Historically, heavy industry was the predominant
land use in the city, but the majority of these types of
companies left the area in the 1970s. In 1996, 234
acres in Emeryville were vacant or underused, and
213 acres were known to have soil and groundwater
contamination. Although there is demand for residential
and commercial development, the cost and risk
associated with these brownfields have impeded their
redevelopment. The result for the city was a loss of
$13.3 million in tax revenues and 450 jobs between
1991 and 1996.
Nearly half of the city's citizens are low-income, and
more than half are minorities. Most of the city's poor
live in neighborhoods bordered by brownfields.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of Emeryville's Pilot is to encourage residential
and commercial development by building stakeholder
confidence in a risk management-based model for
brownfields redevelopment. The model will
incorporate an emerging State of California regulatory
policy of using an area-wide rather than a parcel-by-
parcel approach to environmental cleanup.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Award: March 1996
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot removes barriers
to redevelopment and targets
brownfield properties throughout
the city and also addresses the
problemsofcitywide groundwater
contamination.
Emeryville, California
Contacts:
City of Emeryville
Redevelopment Agency
(510)5964350
U.S. EPA-Region 9
(415)744-2237
Visit the EPA Region 9 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/index.html
Forfurtherinformation, including specific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
-------
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:
Convened abroad-based Community Task Force to
serve as a forum for community participation in
decision making related to brownfields
redevelopment, and conducted Task Force meetings
and a community workshop;
Compiled hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater
information for more than 500 properties from
available sources to develop a geographical
information system (GIS) that incorporates
environmental, economic, land use, and zoning
information and a "One-Stop Shop" on the Internet
at http://www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/business/
onestopshop.html;
Established a Technical Advisory Team (TAT)
comprising city staff and consultants. The TAT
meets monthly to focus on discussion of the GIS
model, potential funding, andaproposedamendment
to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for
the One-Stop Shop;
Based on the hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater
information, developed a regional and local
groundwater conceptual modela "picture" of the
city's hydrogeology;
Drafted a regulatory framework for a Mitigation
andRiskManagementPlantoincorporateacitywide
approach to groundwater cleanup. This groundwater
management plan will allow the Emeryville
Redevelopment Agency to monitor groundwater
throughout the city. The plan presents the Pilot's
goals, including facilitation, management of sites,
monitoring groundwater, and management of
groundwater;
Conducted citywide CPT analysis with a matching
grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(US ACE);
Obtained regulatory approval to facilitate brownfields
redevelopment based on a risk management model
enacted through an MOU with the state
Environmental Protection Agency;
Targeted several brownfields properties for
redevelopment; and
Produced a report entitled Emeryville Brownfields
Pilot Project: Status ReportTesting Local
Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies.
The Pilot is:
Assisting various developers with regulatory issues,
providing information through its online One-Stop
Shop;
Leveraging Pilot activities by assisting property
owners and developers in conducting environmental
assessments on properties throughout the city;
Conducting additional groundwater analysis to
confirm results from the USAGE citywide sampling
event; and
Developing greenway and open space plans.
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Experience with the Emeryville Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities, including the following:
The Pilot coordinated the redevelopment of several
brownfields sites.
Catellus Development Corporation constructed 220
units of mixed-income housing ($27 million) on a
four-acre brownfields site, considerably decreasing
the city's housing shortage. One hundred workers
were employed during the construction phase.
The Chiron Corporation, the second largest
biotechnology firm in the country, will construct 12
new buildings over the span of 20 years to house
their biotech firm, creating more than 3,000 jobs
during this time. Chiron completed its first building
inthe fall of 1998. The250,000-square-foot research
and development facility cost approximately $190
million.
The owner of the 10-acre Grove Valve site used the
One-Stop Shop to obtain "No Further Action" status
on the property, which has been developed into
EmeryTech, a retail and distribution facility ($20
million).
The owner of another brownfields property used the
One-Stop Shop to determine assessment and cleanup
strategies for a five-acre site that is now under a
cleanup and abatement order.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot
June 2001
Emeryville, California
EPA 500-F-01-046
-------
The One-Stop Shop assisted regulatory agencies in
determining the cleanup requirements and low risk
associated with previous contamination at the
EmeryStation I Office project ($42 million), which
will generate $600,000 in new property taxes and
create 1,200 new jobs.
Using the Pilot's framework for a risk management
approach to redevelopment, the Pixar Animation
Studio/Office project ($30 million) will create
$800,000 in new property taxes and create 1,200
new jobs.
The risk management approach is also being used in
the redevelopment of the 47-acre South Bayfront
area into Bay Street, a mixed-use project ($50
million) wthat will create 3,200 new jobs.
The risk management approach was also instrumental
in the construction of an IKEA store ($25 million),
which opened in April 2000.
The eLofts redevelopment project ($12 million)
used the One-Stop Shop during an environmental
assessment and has provide 120 units of mixed-use
space.
The projects mentioned above and several others,
including EmeryStation II ($3 0 million), EmeryStation
IV, Woodfin Suites and Courtyard by Marriott
hotels ($55 million), Promenade mixed-use ($15
million), Avalon senior housing ($9 million), Gateway
housing($5.3 million), 1401 Park($7.5 million),and
Hollis Business Center ($25 million), have leveraged
atotal of $644 million in redevelopment/construction
dollars.
Emeryville was awarded a $500,000 EPA
Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund grant
and a $200,000 Supplemental Assistance grant.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Emeryville, California
June 2001 EPA500-F-01-046
------- |