Transforming Brownfields Industrial
Eye Sores into Recreational and
Open Space
RECREATIONALANDOPEN SPACE REUSES
M
any Brownfields Assessment Pilots target urban,
low-income areas that offer their surrounding communities few
undeveloped, green areas for recreational uses. With few
properties available for reuse in these communities, several
brownfields sites are being targeted for various types of
recreational reuses. These reuses range from pedestrian
walkways and riverfront parks and bike trails to soccer fields and
sports arenas. While all of these reuses provide local residents
with vital recreational options, many also provide new city taxes
and improved local economies. Five EPA Brownfields Assess-
ment Demonstration Pilots are involved in a total of eight projects
to transform brownfields sites into recreational areas. Expecting
to leverage a total of more than $370 million, these Pilots alone
are helping to facilitate the redevelopment of more than 200 acres
of brownfields property.
The Riverside Mills and Lincoln Lace and Braid sites in
Providence, Rhode Island, are located approximately two miles
outside of downtown near socio-economically disadvantaged com-
munities. Both sites have had long histories of textile
manufacturing, and both were destroyed by fires. Currently, they
are owned by the city through tax foreclosures. Through the State
of Rhode Island's Brownfields Assessment Pilot and additional
funding from the U.S. EPA, environmental assessments were per-
formed and the remedial designs and bid specifications were pre-
pared for both sites.
As part of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project, the
State of Rhode Island and the City of Providence are redevelop-
ing these brownfields to create two large neighborhood parks as
part of their planned 4.4-mile linear green park system and 6.6-
mile bike trail reaching from the Providence/Johnston city line to
downtown Providence. The construction for both brownfields sites
is due to start this fall, while the Woonasquatucket River Greenway
Project has already revitalized two existing neighborhood parks
continued ^
JUST THE FACTS:
• Five projects are expecting to leverage
more than $370 million.
• A 1-acre Dallas brownfield site is being
redeveloped into a sports arena.
• A 100-acre brownfield is being developed
into a Softball/baseball complex, a soccer
complex, and 39-acres of undeveloped
land.
7 T
communities few undeveloped,
9
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and the Rhode Island Golf Association has built a nine-hole urban golf course
at the Providence/Johnston town line. Site remediation is scheduled to be
completed by fall 2002, and construction on the bikepath will begin shortly
thereafter.
Construction funding for these projects comes from a variety of
sources, including $1 million from the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) as part of their Neighborhood
Initiatives grant, $ 1 million from the Rhode Island Department of
Transportation for their assistance in remediation, approximately
$650,000 in other state grants to protect the river and create
greenspace, and the rest from the City of Providence bond funds and
other small grants.
CONTACTS:
U.S. EPA
Outreach and Special Projects Staff
(202) 260-4039
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
A similar project is underway in the City of Tallahassee, Florida, where at least
five targeted brownfields properties are being redeveloped into the two-mile Cas-
cades Linear Greenway, which runs through Tallahassee's Gaines Street Corridor. The Corridor
is undergoing a state-funded road widening project that was the catalyst for the Pilot program. In
addition to overseeing the project, the Pilot leveraged $311,000 from the Florida State Legislature
in 1998 for environmental assessments, and is expecting to leverage more than $90 million for
redevelopment. The city also provided more than $550,000 to design and begin construction on
the Greenway. In addition, the Department of Community Affairs provided $203,000 for land-
scaping and park improvements. When complete, the Greenway will include numerous parks
that connect downtown Tallahassee to nearby universities and link a bike trail to beachfront
areas.
Some brownfields are being redeveloped into multi-use
areas with recreational components, such as the City
of Denver's Northside Treatment Plant Redevel-
opment Project. Located in a disadvantaged
area, a majority of the former 100-acre
Northside Treatment Plant site has been re-
developed into a park, urban wildlife area,
and National Guard armory/community cen-
ter.
Denver's Brownfields Pilot provided ap-
proximately $35,000 to the city to conduct a
reuse study that ultimately determined that the
site's existing structures could not be reused as
an operating plant. Parts of the structures were
subsequently demolished using an $800,000 grant from
the U.S. Department of Commerce combined with $500,000
in city funding. The Pilot also participated in community meetings designed to determine the
needs of the local area residents affected by the site. The City of Denver funded $75,000 in
environmental assessments and conducted cleanup and removal activities, costing approximately
$865,000, during late 1996 and early 1998. In 1997, the owner of an adjacent property respon-
continued ^
Brownfields Success Story
Recreational and Open Space Reuses
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-01-345
September 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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sible for airborne contaminants conducted an extensive cleanup effort on the impacted property, includ-
ing the Northside Treatment Plant site. Completed and opened in late 1999, the State of Colorado and
the Colorado National Guard funded the $8 million construction of the 10-acre armory and parking
complex. With $2.1 million in funding from the Colorado Natural Resource Damage Fund and the city,
the 13-acre recreational park was also completed. Opened in the summer of 2000, the park consists of
wetlands, two playing fields, and a walking trail connecting the park to a 50-acre urban wildlife viewing
area. The remaining 25 acres of the former Northside Treatment Plant site will eventually be redevel-
oped into an industrial park.
In Dallas, Texas, through a $230 million public/private partnership
between the city and the Hillwood Development Corporation, an
11-acre portion of the 60-acre Dallas brownfields site has been
redeveloped into a sports arena, the American Airlines Cen-
ter. Led by the city manager, through the Department of Pub-
lic Works, and Hillwood, the project involves many city of-
fices as well as the Brownfields Pilot. The Pilot participated
in discussions involving environmental concerns and issues. As
part of the partnership agreement, Hillwood agreed to conduct
cleanup (at a cost of $ 10 million), while the city agreed to provide
$125 million toward construction of public infrastructure. Assessment,
cleanup, and redevelopment activities at the site have totaled $420 million. Auxiliary development on the
site will be extensive with 8 million square feet of mixed-use development planned for the 60-acre site.
The City of Shreveport, Louisiana, is undertaking several recreational redevelopment projects, one of
which is the redevelopment of 26 acres of the 100-acre Cargill brownfields site into a soccer field
complex. Formerly owned by the Standard Oil Company, the site was used for oil refinery and tank
farm operations during the 1940s and 1950s. After being sold to Cargill in the early 1960s for grain
operations, the site was partially donated and partially sold, through a land and water conservation
grant, to the City of Shreveport in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the city built a Softball/baseball
field complex on 35 acres of the site.
Once the city decided to redevelop an additional 26 acres of the property, the Pilot suggested that the
city conduct assessments on the entire site prior to redevelopment. The Pilot also took an advisory role
to ensure that the project moved through the city's processes and that the local Department of Environ-
mental Quality and Department of Health were consulted. Funded with city bonds, site assessments
($90,000) were completed in mid-1998, cleanup activities ($210,000) were completed in mid-1999,
and redevelopment activities ($ 1.2 million) were completed in late 2000. The site now consists of a 35-
acre softball/baseball complex, a 26-acre soccer complex, and 39 acres of undeveloped wooded land.
Brownfields Success Story
Recreational and Open Space Reuses
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-01-345
September 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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