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Brownfields 1999 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Oca/a, FL
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
EPA has selected the City of Ocala for a Brownfields
Pilot. Ocala (population 44,000) is one of the
fastest-growing cities in the United States and occupies
39 square miles of Marion County. In 1900, Ocala was a
center of industry; however, its downtown area currently
has an unemployment rate of 20 percent and a poverty
rate of 49 percent, as business and industry have closed
down or moved out of the city.
As the century progressed, the industries that once made
Ocala prosper gradually moved to the outlying areas
where land was more plentiful, less expensive, and closer
to the interstate highway. Buildings and structures were
left vacant and over time became blighted. The jobs at
operations such as foundries, lumber mills, blacksmith
shops, fertilizer plants, railroad depots, and newspaper
plants moved away and many of the residential
neighborhoods supporting these factories also fell into
decline. In 1998, the city designated a 108-square-block
area of downtown as a Community Redevelopment Area
(CRA) in need of revitalization. There are 400 parcels of
land in the CRA, many with unknown environmental
contamination.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 06/01/1999
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets a 108-square-block area in
downtown Ocala that has been designated a
Community Redevelopment Area.
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 4 Brownfields Team
(404) 562-8792
EPA Region 4 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/region4/waste/bf)
Grant Recipient: City of Ocala,FL
(352) 629-8359
Objectives
Ogdensburg's Brownfields Pilot seeks to stimulate
economic development of areas along the valuable
waterfront through the assessment, cleanup and
redevelopment of potentially contaminated properties.
This will be accomplished by bringing together
cooperative partners at the local, state and federal levels
in a comprehensive effort to address environmental
obstacles to development. The Pilot will also initiate
community involvement mechanisms for cleanup and
redevelopment processes.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
•	Conducting Phase I and II site assessments in the
redevelopment area; and
•	Hiring a Project Coordinator to provide support
to the Pilot and conduct outreach.
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-98-140
May 98

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been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this
fact sheet are subject to change
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-98-140
May 98

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