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Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund
Pilot
Southern Windsor County Regional
Planning Commission, VT
BACKGROUND
The Southern Windsor County region includes ten towns
in southeastern Vermont with a total population of 25,000.
The region borders the Connecticut River on the east, and
includes most of the Black River watershed. For much of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the region dominated
the precision machine tool manufacturing industry, earning
itthe nickname Precision Valley. Otherimportantindustries
included textile, paper, and lumber mills and munitions
manufacturing. After World War II, the machine tool
industry began to decline. Between 1980 and 1990, the
number of manufacturing jobs dropped 40 percent and
every town in the region experienced a decrease in per
capita income. These old manufacturing towns have been
left with high unemployment rates, abandoned buildings,
and environmental contamination from a century of
industrial activity.
The Southern Windsor County region has faced the
challenge of redeveloping the area's many large, vacant
industrial properties that are located next to residential
neighborhoods. The Southern Windsor County Regional
Planning Commission (SWCRPC) has worked with
member towns and local development corporations to
encourage redevelopment of these brownfields. During
the past three years, SWCRPC has completed five Phase
I, four Phase II, and one Phase III environmental site
assessments with its Brownfields Assessment Pilot and
Brownfields Supplemental Assessment grants. A
sustainable source of funds to finance cleanup is needed
so the region can effectively encourage the redevelopment
of priority brownfield sites.
BCRLF OBJECTIVES
SWCRPC' s goal is to leverage private and public funds to
redevelop brownfield sites, create jobs, and revitalize
neighborhoods. The target areas for these funds are
downtowns or village centers that continue to be priority
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Announcement:
May 2002
Amount: $1,000,000
BCRLF Target Area:
Southern Windsor County
Windsor County, VT
Contacts:
Southern Windsor County
Regional Planning
Commission
(802)674-9201
Region 1 Brownfields
Coordinator
(617)918-1210
Visit the E PA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/
Forfurther information, including specific Pilotcontacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields
areas for growth, particularly in towns that have struggled
since the decline in the machine tools industry. Based on
environmental assessments to date, three sites have been
identified as candidates for initial loans.
SWCRPC will use the BCRLF Pilot to provide the
resources and incentives for developers to purchase and
redevelop brownfield sites. The Pilot may serve as the sole
source of financing for cleanup of such sites or may serve
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to leverage other public or private funding in a
comprehensive redevelopment package.
FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS
The Southern Regional County Regional Planning
Commission is the cooperative agreement recipient and
will serve as the lead agency. A site manager and fund
manager will be selected soon.
LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES
SWCRPC will support efforts by loan recipients to obtain
additional financing for cleanup of brownfields through the
Vermont Community Development Program and through
other sources of grants and loans for redevelopment,
including the Vermont Economic Development Authority,
the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and
revolving loan funds for community development activities
available through individual communities in the region.
Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all
CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds.
Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-022
and Emergency May 2002
Response (5101) www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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