United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5101)
   EPA 500-F-97-034
   May 1997
                       National   Brownfields
                      Assessment  Pilot
                                                    Sacramento,  CA
  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 selected the City of Sacramento for a Brownfields
Pilot.  Sacramento, a city of 370,000 people, has
experienced growth in the past decade that far outpaces
that of other California cities of similar size.
Nevertheless, significant amounts of land  within
Sacramento's developed urban areas remain
underutilized because of contamination. Sacramento
is home to at  least two brownfields that are former
railyards listed as California State Superfund sites.
Sacramento's recent  growth has bypassed these
brownfields  properties and is  leading  to the
development of prime agricultural land in surrounding
areas.

OBJECTIVES

The Sacramento Pilot focuses on developing strategies
for brownfields redevelopment that involve the
community in making land use decisions to guide the
approach to cleanup.  The Pilot is also working to
forge new relationships among various local and
State governmental agencies to improve the efficiency
of the post-cleanup process.  The lessons learned
from this Pilot will be documented to provide guidance
that will be shared nationally with local governments
on how to facilitate cleanup and redevelopment, and
how to initiate similar dialogues in other areas.
 PILOT SNAPSHOT
                    Date of Award:
                    September 1995

                    Amount: $200,000

                    Site Profile: The Pilot
                    targets four major
                    brownfields sites — two
                    are railyards and two are
                    former military bases.
 Sacramento, California
Contacts:

Wendy Saunders
City of Sacramento
(916)264-8196
Thomas Mix
U.S. EPA-Region 9
(415)744-2378
mix.tom@epamail.epa.gov
       Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
       http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:

• Developed a draft final Environmental Oversight
 Program (EOP) manual that details conditions related
 to hazardous materials that must be satisfied at each
 step of the City's land use permitting process, and
 provides protocols for construction activities given
 the brownfields site's prior contamination;

• Established, in conjunction with  the  California
 Department of Toxics  Substances Control,  an
 Environmental Oversight Authority thatwill oversee
 all aspects of brownfields redevelopment activities
 to ensure that the requirements of the EOP  are
 satisfied; and

• Prepared a draft guideline  for brownfields
 redevelopment that describes issues faced by local
 governments when considering redevelopment
 of a major brownfields site, the way those issues
 were addressed by the City, and  other possible
 solutions.  The guidelines include maintaining
 local control over land use, enforcing institutional
 controls, addressing  liability  concerns, and
 protecting public health throughout the
 development process.

The Pilot is:

• Developing acooperative process among the Federal
 or State cleanup agencies, the local government,
 and the community that incorporates local land use
 objectives at the  commencement of the cleanup
 planning process;  and

• Preparinga"redevelopmentguideline"thatdescribes
 issues faced by local governments when considering
 redevelopment  of a  major brownfields site,  the
 solutions chosen by Sacramento, and other possible
 solutions.
Experience with the Sacramento Pilot has been the
catalyst for related activities including the following.

• Facilitating  new  approaches  to  cleanup and
 intergovernmental cooperation among local, State,
 and Federal  agencies to lead the cleanup and
 redevelopment of the 240-acre  Southern Pacific
 Railyard and 100-acre Union Pacific Railyard sites.
 Thirty-seven acres of the Southern Pacific property
 have already been cleaned up and the first building
 is under construction.

• Creating a streamlined process for post-remediation
 redevelopmentthatincorporatesthe enforcement of
 institutional control in the City's regular land use
 permitting process, including amendments  to the
 City's mapping, zoning, and  building permit
 ordinances and conditions.
 National Brownfields Assessment Pilot
 May 1997
                            Sacramento, California
                              EPA 500-F-97-034

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