u o Supplemental Assistance City of Clearwater, FL BACKGROUND EPA awarded the City of Clearwater supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Clearwater (population 109,000) is located on the western shore of Tampa Bay on Florida's Gulf Coast. The city' s brownfields activities focus on a conglomeration of small industrial, commercial, and residential properties that were built on the fill of former wetlands as part of urbanredevelopment activities40years ago. Alarge-scale exodus of businesses away from an area now known as the Clearwater Brownfields Area (CBA) has contributed to urban decline. The 1,800-acre CBA, which contains 222 brownfields, is located in a state-designated Enterprise Zone. Thirty-three percent of residents in the surrounding neighborhoods live below the poverty level, and the area accounts for more than 60 percent of the city's crime. The original Clearwater Pilot began assessment and outreach activities in the CBA, including development of a strategic environmental justice plan. Additional funding is needed to continue efforts to revitalize this critical area in the heart of the city. Supplemental funding will be used to assess a 3.5-acre automotive salvage yard and a former printing press operation near the Town Pond/City Center Park Project. Funds also will be used for redevelopment planning for a site that is proposed for reuse as a 10,000- square-foot office complex. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES Clearwater is working to eliminate potential health and safety hazards by cleaning up CBA sites and returning them to productive reuse for the benefit of the city and its citizens. The city already has used Pilot funds to assess over 22 properties in the CBA. Clearwater will use the supplemental assistance to continue conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments and developing Quality Assurance Project Plans at high priority sites. The city has identified an auto salvage yard, a former printing PILOT SNAPSHOT „.. ,„. . „ . , City of Clearwater, Florida J Date of Announcement: May 2002 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The Pilot targets potentially contaminated propertieswithinthe1,800-acre Clearwater Brownfields Area (CBA) located in the heartof the city for assessment and ' . . . redevelopment planning. Contacts: Clearwater City Manager's Office (757)562-4048 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA Region 4 (404)562-8661 Visit the E PA Region 4 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/index.htm Forfurtherinformation,includingspecific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields press, and a site marked for redevelopment as an office complex as the target sites for these additional assessments. Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Developing reuse plans for selected sites in the CBA; • Performing Phase I and II assessments on targeted sites; ------- • Preparing site-specific Quality Assurance ProjectPlans and health and safety plans for targeted sites; and • Conducting outreach and community involvement activities. Thecooperativeagreementforthis Pilot hasnotyetbeen negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-088 and Emergency May 2002 Response (5105) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- |