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/

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• 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

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