United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-97-031
May 1997
National Brownfields
Assessment Pilot
Richmond, VA
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 Richmond for a Brownfields
Pilot. Richmond is considered the birthplace of
industrial development in the South. In recent times,
however, its older industrial areas and neighboring
residential communities have experienced private
disinvestment due to environmental risk, among other
factors. The results ofthis disinvestmenthave included
population loss, relatively high percentage of low-
moderate income persons, loss of business and
industry, and vacant and underutilized commercial
and industrial properties.
In January 1993, approximately 5,800 acres of City
land in South Richmond were designated by the
Commonwealth of Virginia as a State Enterprise
Zone. Several other neighborhoods in the East and
North sectors of Richmond also meet the
Commonwealth's "distress criteria" and include
sizable amounts of commercial and industrial
properties.
OBJECTIVES
The City of Richmond Office of Economic
Development (OED) has focused on brownfields
economic redevelopment for several years and has
already generated business interest in using or
developing sites in targeted areas of the City. The
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Richmond, Virginia
Date of Award:
September 1994
Amount: $200,000
Site Profile: The Pilot
targets five sites located
within the 5,800 acres of
commercial and industrial
properties that are
throughout the State
Enterprise Zones
designated in the North
and South sections of the
City.
Contacts:
Edward Miller
Richmond Dept. of
Economic Development
(804) 780-5653
Tom Stolle
U.S. EPA-Region 3
(215)566-3129
stolle.tom@epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfieids
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objective of the Federal support of the City's
Brownfields Pilot project is to serve as a catalyst in
moving the process of reclaiming vacant business
sites forward. The City is initiating its Brownfields
Pilot projcctthrough the '"comprehensive community
and human development" concept espoused by the
Federal Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community
program. The City is seeking to integrate private
business investment and reuse of inner-city sites with
solutions to crime, housing, education, and health.
AND
The Pilot has:
* Identified five brownfields for further study under
the Pilot;
* Reviewed and conducted Phase I and II
environmental site assessments at three sites;
• Entered into negotiations with business users at two
sites; and
* Conducted prc-dcvclopmcnt assessments of specific
sites to:
- Isolate environmental mitigation alternatives and
costs;
- Evaluate commercial and industrial market reuse
options and potential to inform planning for
environmental response;
- Compare brownfields projects to competing
"greenfields"' development options in the local
marketplace to determine the feasibility of
environmental response;
- Determine financial shortfalls and mitigate barriers
toward achieving brownfields redevelopment; and
- Utilize existing and new financial incentives to
stimulate brownfields assessment, cleanup, and
redevelopment.
The Pilot is:
* Developing a site-specific property recycling
strategy in partnership with current/future site owners
and users, government regulator}' agencies, and the
City's development staff;
• Utilizing Richmond's Neighborhood Teams Process.
a citizen empowerment program, to bring host
residential communities into the reuse decision
making process; and
* Developing and implementing a local program
performance evaluation system.
Experience with the Richmond Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities including the following.
* Collaborating with a pharmaceutical company to
make available a 5-acre parcel that is presently
occupied by the City of Richmond's ambulance
authority and emergency 911 services. Once this
site is available, the pharmaceutical company will
be able to expand and consolidate its research facility.
Construction costs are estimated to be $50 million
and will employ approximately 200 construction
workers. At its completion the site will retain 100
jobs and create 300 jobs over the next three years.
The two displaced City service offices will probably
be relocated at one of the other sites being addressed
under the Pilot.
* OED has begun general discussions with EPA's
Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office
and the National Association of Minority Contractors
to discuss opportunities for environmental training
programs for minority businesses located within the
City of Richmond. The aim of these efforts is to
facilitate the use of local minority services to
perform some of the Pilot work.
• OED and J. Sargcant Reynolds Community College
finalized a curriculum for the community
environmental training program for neighborhood
residents of the South Enterprise Zone. The first
workshop was held in May 1996.
* OED was awarded an EPA Environmental Justice
grant in October 1996. This funding will expand the
National Environmental Justice Training Foundation
training program to include the North and East State
Enterprise Zones.
National Brownfields Assessment Pilot
May 1997
Richmond, Virginia
EPA 500-F-97-031
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