\ UJ O / 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 ------- 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/ ------- |