United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5101) EPA500-F-99-069 May 1999 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ >>EPA Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot East Palo Alto, California 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. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans forthe environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs 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 East Palo Alto, California, an urban community of 25,000 located in the San Francisco Bay area, has the highestlevelofunemploymentandpoverty,andlowest median income in San Mateo County. The East Palo Alto BCRLF will focus on the entire City, with emphasis on the Ravenswood Industrial Park. The Ravenswood Industrial Park, a region of approximately 130 acres in an historicallymixed agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential area, contains significantcontamination. East Palo Alto is a Brownfields Assessment Pilot and Brownfields Showcase Community. The City also established one of the first Brownfields JobTraining programs in 1997. BCRLF OBJECTIVES The obj ectives of the B CRLF proj ect in East Palo Alto are: • Returning environmentally contaminated land to an economic assets, providing jobs and tax revenues for the community; • Providing cleanup funding needed to facilitate redevelopment of the Ravenswood Industrial Area and other brownfields located throughout the City; PILOT SNAPSHOT East Palo Alto, California Date of Announcement: May 25,1999 Amount: $500,000 BCRLF Target Area: East Palo Alto and the Ravenswood Industrial Park, a facility of 130 contaminated acres. Contacts: East Palo Alto Redevelopment Agency (650) 853-3100 Region 9, Brownfields Coordinator (415) 744-2237 Visit the EPA Region 9 Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/index.htm For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- • UsingtheBCRLFtocreatively leverage othercleanup and redevelopment funds to revitalize the City and protect public health and the environment; • Usingthe BCRLF to build the City's internal financing capacity to achieve East Palo Alto's vision of long term economic and environmental self-sufficiency; and • Creating a national model for other small, urban communities struggling to overcome the economic and environmental challenges of brownfields redevelopment and economic revitalization generally. FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS The Redevelopment Agency of the City will serve as the lead agency and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board will serve as the site manager. Lenders for Community Development, a multi-bank community development corporation which pools funds from 21 northern California banks and lends money to small businesses and developers of affordable housing, will serve as fund manager. The $500,000 BCRLF award will be used to fund 2 to 5 loans ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 in the initial round. While loans as small as $50,000 will be available, the City expects most loans to be greaterthan $ 100,000. LEVERAGING The City will continue its strong existing partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies, community organizations and the private sector. The Redevelopment Agency will continue to combine the assistance it will receive from the BCRLF with on- going assistance from US Department of Housing and Urban Development and US Department of Commerce Economic Development Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, US Department of Transportation, and other sources. Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds. Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot East Palo Alto, California May 1999 EPA 500-F-99-069 ------- |