Model City's "Model" Residents
Help With Revitalization
M
Eastward Ho!, FL
odel City's prospects are looking up as residents, businesses,
and government agencies team up and take measure of the area's
brownfields—a first step towards revitalization. Model City (also known
as Liberty City) is a distressed Miami-Bade County neighborhood that
has suffered from a social and economic downturn for a number of years,
including experiencing severe civil unrest in the early 1980s. So when the
Eastward Ho! Brownfields Partnership (of which Model City is a part)
received the Showcase Community designation in 1998, area residents
and businesses eagerly partnered with federal, state, and local agencies in
an effort to turn their neighborhood around.
Showcase Communities are selected by the Brownfields National
Partnership to demonstrate that through cooperation, federal, state, local,
and private efforts can be concentrated around brownfields to restore
these sites, stimulate economic development, and revitalize communities.
Showcase Communities serve as models for broad-based cooperative
efforts to support locally based initiatives. Showcases receive up to
$400,000 from EPA for both environmental assessments and to support
the loan of a federal employee to the Showcase for up to three years.
Showcase Communities receive additional financial and technical support
from the Partnership's more than 20 federal partners, depending on the
community need and program eligibility.
One of the Showcase Community benefits that Model City has taken
advantage of is the opportunity to partner with and obtain support from
different public agencies. Since the Showcase Community award, more
than 60 community meetings have been held to help select an assessment
and inventory target area and recruit volunteers. In June 2000, a team of
approximately 20 area residents and business people—working with
representatives of EPA, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, the Miami-Bade County Department of Environmental
Resources Management, the Miami-Bade County Community Action
Agency, Florida Memorial College, the City of Opa-Locka Brownfields
Task Force, students from Florida International University, the Miami/
Miami Bade County Weed and Seed Program, the Miami Police Force,
and staff from other local and regional agencies—conducted initial
environmental assessments and created an inventory of 110 acres
consisting of 263 parcels of land within Model City. The assessment
project has already provided insight into the lack of employment
opportunities in the area and provided a starting point for area businesses
and residents to begin to plan and make choices about future economic
continued rr
JUST THE FACTS:
• More than 100 acres along the
Miami River have been identified as
having potential for mixed-use or
residential reuse potential.
• Since the Showcase Community
award, more than 60 community
meetings have been held to help
select an assessment and inventory
target area and recruit volunteers.
• A team of approximately 20 area
residents and business people—
working with federal, state, and local
representatives—conducted
assessments and created a site
inventory.
This project has already
provided insight into the lack
of employment opportunities
in the area and provided a
starting point for area
businesses and residents to
begin to plan and make
choices about future
economic development
needs for their community.
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CONTACTS:
For more information on EPA's Showcase
Communities, contact Tony Raia of OSWER's
Office of Brownfields Cleanup and
Redevelopment at (202) 566-2758
Or visit EPA's Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
development needs for their community. In addition, many of the assessed sites were determined to
have little to no contamination, which eased fears regarding health hazards and cleanup requirements
throughout the community.
The Showcase Community partnership is now working with Miami-Bade County and EPA Regional
staff to characterize the inventoried sites based on their degree of contamination, their proximity
to major infrastructure, and their reuse potential. Work to analyze the assessment data
and determine which sites will need more detailed environmental assessments was
finished in 2000. This analysis was used in part to determine where to conduct
additional assessments to support the city's Homeownership Zone Initiative,
which will provide home ownership and economic development opportunities
for residents of a low-income minority area within Miami. With the aid of
the Showcase Community, the city has performed environmental
assessments to support this Initiative. The project includes the eventual
development of 400 to 500 new homes with green space, a community
center, a new postal facility, a health care facility, and revitalization of the
area's commercial corridor. The city is in the process of acquiring the
necessary land, and the Initiative's planning stage is nearly complete.
Implementation is scheduled in summer 2002.
The collaboration among residents, local officals, and federal agencies is helping
to rejuvenate other areas in Southeast Florida as well. In the Miami-Bade region of
the Showcase Community, more than 100 acres along the Miami River have been identified
as having potential for mixed-use and residential reuses. Showcase Community staff have also worked
with local government officials and other stakeholders to develop processes for systematic brownfields
site inventories. Also in the Miami-Bade region, a Brownfields Oversight Committee comprising
brownfields stakeholders makes community involvement an integral part of brownfields restoration.
This Committee meets once a month, and all meetings are open to the public, advertised through public
notices, and locally televised. The Eastward Ho! Showcase Community also assisted the City of Fort
Lauderdale in applying for and receiving its own Brownfields Assessment Bemonstration Pilot, and
helped the City of Fort Myers to develop a brownfields public outreach program.
Showcase Community partnerships in Southeast Florida have provided a framework for regional
decision-making covering all potential brownfields sites, and are continually working to identify and
secure funding for the assessment and cleanup of brownfields. The National Institute of Environmental
Health Services (NIEHS) awarded Clark University $200,000 to conduct job training activities in the
Showcase Community target area, as part of NIEHS' Minority Worker Training Program. The
Governor's Office of Trade, Tourism, and Economic Bevelopment provided a $200,000 grant to the
Eastward Ho! Brownfields Partnership, to spur site restoration efforts. And the Florida Bepartment of
Community Affairs contributed $75,000 toward the same purposes. In total, brownfields revitalization
projects within Southeast Florida have leveraged more than $180 million from the public and private
sectors.
There have been other noteworthy brownfields accomplishments outside of Showcase Community
efforts in Southeast Florida. For example, in the City of Opa-Locka, a former brownfields property was
converted into a new gymnasium—a project funded by a grant from the U.S. Bepartment of Housing
and Urban Bevelopment and the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities Program. A
Brownfields Toolbox/Information Guide, which is a comprehensive database containing names,
addresses and telephone numbers of individuals and organizations involved in brownfields restoration,
has also been developed.
Brownfields Success Story
Eastward Ho!, FL
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-02-157
December 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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