United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
  Solid Waste
  and Emergency
  Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-049
May 1997

                       Regional   Brownfields
                       Assessment  Pilot
                                                         Clearwater,  FL
  Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
                 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. Between 1995 and 1996, EPA funded 76 National and Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields
solutions. EPAis funding morethan 27 Pilots in 1997. The Pilots 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 Region 4 selected the City of Clearwater for
  a Regional Brownfields Pilot.  Clearwater's
  brownfields activities focus on a conglomeration
  of small industrial, commercial, and residential
  entities that were built on the fill of a former lake
  as part of urban redevelopment activities 40 years
  ago.  Large scale business exodus from the area
  now described as the "collective brownfields area"
  (CBA) is contributing to urban decline  and is
  believed to have  stemmed from  difficulties
  businesses  have had in meeting environmental
  regulations mandating property set-asides for
  storm water attenuation.

  The CBA is a State-designated Enterprise Zone.
  Minority populations comprise dominant segments
  of the population in many of the neighborhoods
  surrounding the CBA, and 33 percentof all residents
  live below the poverty level. The area accounts for
  more than 50 percent of the City's crime.

  OBJECTIVES

  Clearwater's Brownfields Program is working to
  reverse the trend of seven years of property value
  decline, eliminate the functional obsolescence of
  buildings and land, and clean up the low level
  PILOT SNAPSHOT
   Clearwater, Florida
  Date of Award:
  September 1996

  Amount: $100,000

  Site Profile: The Pilot
  targets a former lake, filled
  in for urban development,
  that now hosts an
  industrial, commercial,
  and mixed use area that
  has suffered from
  business exodus due to
  storm water attenuation
  regulations.
Contacts:

Alan Ferri
Clearwater Department of
Economic Development
(813)462-6882
   Barbara Dick
   U.S. EPA-Region 4
   (404) 562-8923
   dick.barbara@
   epamail.epa.gov
        Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
        http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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contamination. By conducting site characterizations,
offering economic redevelopment initiatives,  and
solving water quality problems, the City of Clearwater
hopes to address the lingering environmental justice
issues in the area.  Local community groups and the
City will  work together to  invite a diversity of
prospective investors, plan for business expansion
and create solid job opportunities  for unemployed
and low-to-moderate income residents.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Coordinated discussions between St. Petersburg
 Junior College and the grocery store company which
 has agreed to recruit minorities from the local North
 Greenwood neighborhood; and

• Appointed a  municipal Community  Task Team
 which meets with members of the North Greenwood
 Neighborhood to  exchange  information  and
 representthe economic and environmental interests
 of that neighborhood.

The Pilot is:

• Conducting the first site assessment at a former car
 dealership and automobile repair shop. Clearwater
 Neighborhood Housing Services  (CNHS) will
 purchase the site and develop it into a 48,000 square
 foot grocery store with 8,000 square feet of retail
 space. It is expected that the supermarket will add
 200 jobs;

• Working to develop a Risk Assessment Working
 Group made up of experts (Florida Departments of
 Environmental Protection and Health, the University
 of  Florida, and  Florida State  University,  the
 Governor's Council on Risk Assessment) to ensure
 that public health and safety issues are adequately
 represented in brownfieldsredevelopmentprojects;
• Establishing arevolving loan fund for site assessment
 at properties targeted for redevelopment; and

• Managing  investor  liability  by employing the
 University of Southern Florida to prepare a flow-of-
 ownership plan for the CBA that will include an
 innovative  approach to  encourage businesses to
 move  into the CBA, property transfer/liability
 protection, and residential support.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Clearwater Pilot has  been a
catalyst for related activities including the following.

• The Clearwater City Commission will allocate $5
 million from a county-wide capital improvements
 sales tax to enhance brownfields efforts. Funding
 from the sales tax will be available for environmental
 assessment and remediation work in October 1997.

• Building cooperative agreements with organizations
 such as the Private Industry Council, to involve
 local businesses and community  residents in
 decision-making.
 Regional Brownfields Assessment Pilot
 May 1997
                              Clearwater, Florida
                              EPA 500-F-97-049

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