United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-98-262
November 1998
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
&EPA
Brownfields Showcase
Community
Portland, OR
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
Brownfields are abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is
complicated by real or perceived contamination. In May 1997, Vice President Gore announced a Brownfields National Partnership
to bring together the resources of more than 15 Federal agencies to address local cleanup and reuse issues in a more
coordinated manner. This multi-agency partnership has pledged support to 16 "Brownfields Showcase Communities"—models
demonstrating the benefits of collaborative activity on brownfields. The designated Brownfields Showcase Communities are
distributed across the country and vary by size, resources, and community type. A wide range of support will be leveraged,
depending on the particular needs of each Showcase Community.
BACKGROUND
The Brownfields National Partnership has selected
the City of Portland as a Brownfields Showcase
Community. Portland has a population of 503,000,
and is Oregon's oldest and largest shipping and com-
mercial center. The city is pursuing a development
strategy that combines aggressive business recruit-
ment and job creation with long-term growth man-
agement and environ-
mental protection.
This includes investi-
gation of 484 known
contaminated sites
and another 600 with
suspected or threat-
ened contamination.
quality, preservation of open spaces, and new jobs
and housing. The city's federally-designated
Enterprise Community (EC)—the location of many
brownfields in close proximity to schools, churches,
neighborhoods, and community centers—has also
been the target of extensive outreach by the city. In
order to replicate the successes it has achieved in
other parts of the city, Portland plans to focus more
of its efforts in the EC.
Community Profile
Portland, Oregon
Portland has a history
of commitment to
brownfields
redevelopment, and has
already established strong local, state, and federal
partnerships to accomplish its goals. Recent
brownfields efforts have stimulated an increase in
mixed-use development in the city, while preventing
urban sprawl. Redevelopment efforts along the
waterfront have contributed to improved water
Portland's "2040
Growth Strategy" is a
plan conceived in antici-
pation of a population
increase of 500,000 for
the metropolitan area by
the year 2015 and the
resulting pressures on
the city's urban growth
boundary and surround-
ing greenfields. The
strategy addresses the
prevention of sprawl by steering growth patterns to
fit within the city's overall goals of redevelopment
and economic improvement as well as improving
water quality, eliminating contaminated pathway ex-
posure, and protecting habitat and greenfield proper-
ties.
Portland has more than 1,000
brownfields properties dispersed
throughout the city. Since 1994,
publicand private partnerships have
cleaned up and recycled hundreds of
acres of contaminated propertyand
created thousands of jobs, while
promoting brownfields
redevelopment, pollution prevention,
andgreenspace protection.
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CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Portland is the recipient of a Brownfields Assess-
ment Demonstration Pilot grant from the Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA), and has lever-
aged those funds to provide increased awareness
and interest in brownfields issues and redevelop-
ment opportunities. Pilot activities include develop-
ment of an Internet web site (http://
www.brownfield.org) for outreach and creation of
Brownfields Roundtable workshops. Highlights of
Portland's brownfields redevelopment program in-
clude:
• Partnering with the Departments of Housing and
Urban Development and Transportation on the
current Central City Streetcar Project, an urban
rail-based transit system, which has already helped
to leverage support for two other planned
redevelopment projects;
• Partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Port of Portland
to investigate contaminated sediment along a
stretch of the Willamette River adjacent to the EC;
• Redeveloping the South Waterfront
Redevelopment Area—former home to a power
station, lumber mills, and scrap yards—into a
commercial, office, and residential site with future
plans for a greenway trail;
• Converting a former power station into the Oregon
Museum of Science and Industry; and
• Converting a former automotive fueling center into
the Rose Garden Arena, home to the Portland
Trailblazers basketball team.
SHOWCASE COMMUNITY OBJECTIVES AND
PLANNED ACTIVITIES
Portland is continuing to proceed with innovation. The
Portland Showcase Community project will build upon
the city's established successes and recognition to
serve as a model of cooperative partnerships, job
creation, enhancement of environmental quality, and
creation of a livable community. The city is focusing
resources on showcase projects that demonstrate a
high potential for restoration and reuse of land, in
North/Northeast Portland neighborhoods and the En-
terprise Community, central city waterfront commer-
cial redevelopment areas and the city's industrial
waterfront. A new project funded by EPA, "One
Call for Brownfields," will make use of the utility
excavation notification system to ensure that
brownfields controls are maintained and enforced.
Portland will use its Showcase Community resources
to leverage investments from public and private
sources to further its mission of creating a Livable
Showcase Community that can build a model of
sustainability through brownfields renewal.
Contacts
Portland Office of
Transportation
City of Portland
(503)823-7052
Portland Development
Corporation
(503)823-3248
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 10
(206)553-6523
For more information on the Brownfields Showcase Communities,
visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/showcase.htm
Brownfields Showcase Community
November 1998
Portland, Oregon
EPA 500-F-98-262
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