United States
                    Environmental
                    Protection Agency
                    Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5101)
 EPA 500-F-00-025
 April 2000
 www.epa.gov/brownfields/
  <&EPA  Brownfields Supplemental
                   Assistance
                                                              Kalamazoo,  Ml
 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 awarded the City of Kalamazoo supplemental
assistance for its Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot and additional funding for
assessments at brownfields properties to be used for
greenspace purposes. Kalamazoo (population 81,000)
has 28 state-designated environmental hazardous
waste sites, 49 leaking underground storage tank
sites, and three  Superfund sites.  In addition the
Kalamazoo River has been neglected, with past
industrial waste discharges leaving the river unsightly
and odorous.  Five percent of the city's taxable
property (about 450 acres) are brownfields located in
older neighborhoods where 64 percent of the city's
minority population live. More than 3 0 percent of the
population in these  neighborhoods live below the
poverty level, and the unemploymentrate is 16 percent.

Without adequate resources to address brownfields,
new development has migrated to greenfields—
causing the loss  of jobs, a reduced tax base, and a
strain on local resources due to urban sprawl. Through
its Brownfields Redevelopment Initiative, Kalamazoo
is rebuilding its tax base, addressing the problem of
blighted and contaminated properties, and ensuring
that neighborhood goals andquality-of-life issues are
an integral part of the redevelopment process.
PILOT  SNAPSHOT
   Kalamazoo, Michigan
 Date of Announcement:
 March 2000

 Amount: $150,000
 Greenspace: $50,000

 Profile: The Pilot will target
 more than a dozen priority
 brownfields, most of which
 are  located along  the
 waterfront   or  within
 Renaissance Zones.
Contacts:
City of Kalamazoo
(616)337-8044
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 5
(312)886-1960
     Visit the EPA Region 5 Brownfields web site at:
        http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields/

   For further information, 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/

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OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES

The Pilot will use the supplemental assistance at
priority sites for which cleanup and redevelopment
can improve  environmental and  human health
protection, enhance the tax base, create new jobs in
distressed neighborhoods, and bolster the overall
vitality of the affected neighborhoods.  Most of the
brownfields are city-owned, and many of them are
located along the waterfront or within Renaissance
Zones. The Pilot will continue to work with affected
citizens, informing and involving them in developing
reuse visions for the priority brownfields.

The Pilot will use the greenspace funding to target
waterfront properties that are included  in the city's
Waterfront Redevelopment  Plan, which seeks  to
develop greenways along the entire length of the
Kalamazoo  River to reestablish the community's
connection with the river.  That plan provides for
development of public greenspace, trails, and canoe
launches along portions of the Kalamazoo River
within the city limits.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

• Conduct environmental assessments and/or cleanup
 planning and design at approximately 13 priority
 brownfields;

• Facilitate community involvement and input to the
 brownfield reuse plans;

• Identify other resources to fill financing gaps; and

• Conduct assessments at five waterfront sites  to
 characterize the nature and extent of contamination
 and to design appropriate cleanup plans.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated;
therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
 Brownfields Supplemental Assistance                                                    Kalamazoo, Michigan
 April 2000                                                                         EPA 500-F:-00-025

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