Choosing "Greenspace" as a
Brownfields Reuse
EPA's Brownfields Program 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. Abrownfield is a property,
the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous
substance, pollutant, or contaminant. EPA's Brownfields Program provides financial and technical assistance for brownfield
revitalization, including grants for environmental assessment, cleanup, and job training.
Returning Brownfields to Natural and
Recreational Open Land is an Emerging Trend
EPA is helping local communities transform brownfields across the nation
into prized greenspaces through technical assistance and Brownfields
grants. EPA recognizes that establishing and restoring greenspace is an
important and viable reuse for brownfields. Greenspace can include parks,
playgrounds, trails, community gardens, natural habitats, and recreational
open land. While redevelopment of brownfields for commercial, residential,
and industrial uses can be essential to a community's economic revitalization,
redevelopment into greenspace can provide aesthetic, recreational, and
quality-of-life advantages that surpass economic benefits.
With effective planning, brownfields can be converted to greenspace
without compromising the need to protect human health and the
environment. Of the 669 EPA Brownfield Pilots to date, many Pilots
have redeveloped their properties for natural open space or recreational
purposes or are working to include greenspace components into their
long-range goals. Successful greenspace projects now serve as models
for other communities interested in incorporating greenspace into their
brownfields redevelopment plans.
Incorporating Natural Space into Site Designs
One example is the Northampton County, Virginia Brownfields Pilot, which
partnered with the town of Cape Charles to revitalize a former town
dump into a nationally renowned Sustainable Technology Park. The 200-
acre eco-park includes environmentally friendly manufacturing facilities
adjacent to natural habitat, pedestrian walkways, and trails. Approximately
one-half of the eco-park site was retained or restored as natural habitat,
including a 30-acre Coastal Dune Natural Area Preserve and 60 additional
acres of open space.
Not far from the eco-park, the Brownfields Pilot is now working to turn
property surrounding the Northampton County landfill into a new Seaside
continued ^
Former wastewater treatment plant transformed
into greenspace in Denver, Colorado.
JUST THE FACTS:
• While economic development is an
essential component of EPA's
Brownfields Program, creation and
restoration of greenspace can provide
recreational options, improve
aesthetics, or simply provide the open
space that many communities need
to enhance their quality of life.
• Greenspace can include parks,
playgrounds, trails, community
gardens, natural habitats, and
recreational open land.
• With effective planning, brownfields
can be converted to greenspace
without compromising the need to
protect human health and the
environment from a site's former
uses.
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Park that will feature the two-county Seaside Heritage Trail. This trail will include more than 12,000 feet of paths,
with interpretive signage introducing visitors to the four major habitats on site: a freshwater pond, grasslands, a
maritime forest, and saline seaside marshes of the Atlantic Ocean. On the coast and protected by barrier islands, the
Seaside Park will provide much-needed recreational and social opportunities within its core area, and ecotourism
opportunities on its more remote locations. Working with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation,
Northampton County's plans for the Seaside Park include ball fields, a horseshoe pit, volleyball courts, and other sport
facilities. The park's developers will also partner with the local school system to provide "outdoor classrooms" for
students to learn about their regional habitat. Currently, the park is planned to open in 2005.
Recreational Reuses that Benefit the Local Community
The St. Louis County, Missouri Brownfields Pilot partnered with the
City of Wellston to bring much-needed greenspace and recreational
facilities to families in the growing community. A former parking lot
was chosen to be the site of the new Wellston Neighborhood Park.
When complete, the 2.5-acre park will feature a new ball field, a
playground area, a basketball court, a concession stand and restrooms,
and walking paths. The park will be located in a neighborhood where
Habitat for Humanity of St. Louis and a local developer have built 37
new homes, with plans to construct an additional thirteen. EPA
Brownfields Assessment Pilot funds played a role in preparing these
sites for eventual use by Habitat for Humanity of St. Louis.
Brownfields redevelopment
plays a crucial role in
preserving undeveloped
"greenfields" and reducing
associated environmental
impacts related to urban
sprawl. An estimated 4.5
acres of greenfields are
preserved for every one acre
of brownfields redeveloped.
In Portland, Oregon, EPA's Brownfields Program assisted a community-
led grassroots effort to clean up the site of a former creamery and
convert it into a community park. Eight years after the closing of Senn's Dairy, the community began envisioning
the abandoned property as future greenspace. Working with the Portland Brownfields Showcase Community
awarded by EPA and the Brownfields National Partnership to leverage support, the community launched a
neighborhood effort to construct the park. A private developer donated the environmental assessment and cleanup
work necessary to prepare the site for redevelopment. Local high school students and AmeriCorps volunteers
helped landscape the property, while neighborhood residents assisted with the park's design. Although the park's
development is still in progress, the project is expected to become a model for future open space redevelopment
efforts in the area.
In Bridgeport, Connecticut, the Park City Brownfields Redevelopment
Partnership was awarded an EPA New England Environmental Merit
Award in May 2002, for its work to restore the sites of a former metal
extrusion company and an engraving/printing business for recreational
reuse. One of the largest community-based projects in the country,
this project involved a partnership among Bridgeport's EPA
Brownfields Pilot, the state, the city, and community groups to expand
a six-acre park to ten acres by revitalizing two adjacent brownfields
properties. With few existing recreational options in the impoverished
surrounding neighborhood, the expanded park has significantly enhanced
the community's quality of life.
Volunteers help with landscaping at a new
community park in Portland, Oregon.
continued
Brownfields Success Story
EPA-500-F-03-248
Solid Waste
and Emergency Response (5105)
October 2003
www. epa. gov/brownfields/
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In 2000, the City and County of Denver, Colorado, won a Phoenix Award, which recognizes excellence in brownfields
redevelopment, for their work on the former Northside Wastewater Treatment Plant property. An EPA Brownfields
Pilot grant helped to fund a study of reuse options for the site, which went on to be a model of greenspace creation.
The former wastewater treatment plant was combined with an adjacent, city-owned brownfield that together were
transformed into 65 acres of open space, including a recreational park, wetlands, and natural habitat for wildlife. The
surrounding community is experiencing an economic resurgence that is attributable, in part, to this project's success.
The Providence, Rhode Island Brownfields Pilot followed a fast-growing reuse trend
of creating new greenspace in the form of golf course greens. In the spring of
1999, the Golf Foundation of Rhode Island approached the state regarding
its desire to redevelop the 25-acre Button Hole site, a state-owned
brownfield, into an affordable golf course for nearby residents and
youths. The state accepted this proposal and included the project
in its State of Rhode Island Brownfields Assessment Pilot. A former
gravel pit, the Button Hole site is located in Providence and lies
adjacent to the Woonasquatucket River, a metals recycling plant
with numerous environmental violations, and several multifamily
housing complexes. Because of its proximity to the metals recycling
plant, the site was thought to have environmental contamination.
The Pilot funded $30,000 site assessments that revealed low levels
of lead and arsenic at a small portion of the site. As a result, 10,000
cubic yards of contaminated soil were excavated and encapsulated
onsite in accordance with state regulations. The Pilot assisted the Golf
Foundation in creating the golf course development plan. The course
quickly became tremendously popular with local residents. Garry Waldeck, of the Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management, stated, "these urban recreational areas, including golf courses, provide additional
recreational alternatives and can increase community pride."
Benefiting the Environment and Local Residents
These and additional examples nationwide illustrate that incorporating
greenspace into redevelopment plans can be beneficial not just to the
environment, but to the same communities that these brownfields had
For more information once negatively affected. While economic development is an essential
about EPA's Brownfields Pilots component of EPA's Brownfields Program, creation and restoration
and greenspace reuses, of greenspace can provide recreational options, improve aesthetics,
visit EPA's web page at or simply provide the open space that many communities need to
www.epa.gov/brownfields/ enhance their quality of life.
or call EPA's Office of
Brownfields Cleanup and
Redevelopment at
(202) 566-2777.
Former gravel pit redeveloped into a golf course in
Providence, Rhode Island.
Brownfields Success Story
EPA-500-F-03-248
Solid Waste
and Emergency Response (5105)
October 2003
www. epa. gov/brownfields/
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