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Brownfields 1999 Revolving Loan Fund Pilot
Fact Sheet
City of Columbus, OH
EPA Brownfields Initiative
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states,
communities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the
expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be
complicated by the presence or potential presence of a
hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On
January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into
law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA
provides financial assistance to eligible applicants
through four competitive grant programs: assessment
grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and
job training grants. Additionally, funding support is
provided to state and tribal response programs through a
separate mechanism.
Background
The City of Columbus, Ohio, with a population over
630,000, has grown significantly in the past two decades.
Development, however, has been gravitating away from
the urban core of the City, resulting in abandoned
buildings and industrial sites, dilapidation of the physical
environment, poverty, unemployment, and crime
disproportionately higher than other areas of the City.
The urban core of the City is a Federally-designated
Empowerment Zone. The poverty rate for the City as a
whole is just over 17 percent, and is over 46 percent in
the Empowerment Zone. The Empowerment Zone has an
unemployment rate that is more than twice that of the
entire City's. Portions of the City also are
state-designated enterprise zones. Columbus is a
Brownfields Assessment Pilot.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 05/25/1999
Amount: $500,000
Profile: The entire City of Columbus, with emphasis
on the urban core and the Empowerment Zone
Contacts
For further information, including specific grant
contacts, additional grant information, brownfields
news and events, and publications and links, visit the
EPA Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/brownfields).
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Team
(312)886-7576
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields)
Grant Recipient: Columbus, OH, City of Department
of Development
(614) 645-1954
Objectives
The objectives of the Columbus BCRLF are to
encourage environmental protection through the
remediation and redevelopment of properties, and to
foster job creation. The BCRLF will provide needed
seed money to finance cleanup activities on identified
brownfield properties throughout Columbus. The
BCRLF will focus on the entire City of Columbus, but
special emphasis will be placed on the urban core and
the Empowerment Zone. The BCRLF will provide
cleanup funding to properties not included in the
Voluntary Action Program. BCRLF funds will be
targeted at smaller business entities who do not
typically have access to cleanup funds.
Activities
Fund Structure and Operations
The Columbus Department of Trade and Development
will serve as lead agency and the City's Department of
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Health will assume site manager responsibilities. Yerke
Mortgage, under contract with the City, will be
designated as fund manager. Three to five loans will be
made in the initial disbursement period. BCRLF loans
will be available in amounts up to $100,000.
Empowerment Zone grant funds and BCRLF loans will
be used as complementary tools to effect cleanup in the
urban core. The City of Columbus will contribute
$45,500 in services as an in-kind contribution. In
addition, 15 percent of the services of the Trade
Development Assistant and 25 percent of the two loan
officers services will be provided on an in-kind basis.
Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with
CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of
funding also apply to BCRLF funds.
The information presented in this fact sheet comes from
the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of
this information. The cooperative agreement for the
grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities
described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
Solid Waste
EPA 500-F-99-061
May 99

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