w5 PR 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 United States c Environmental anri Fmpflpn™ EPA 500-F-99-061 nil- a ancl Emergency .. Protection Agency Response (5105T) MaV99 Washington, DC 20450 ^ v ' ------- 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 ------- |