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Brownfields 1998 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Winston-Salem, NC
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 selected the City of Winston-Salem for a
Brownfields Pilot. Winston-Salem (population
approximately 165,000) was built on the tobacco and
textile industries. A by-product of this past is the Liberty
Street Corridor, which historically supported such
industrial and commercial operations as tobacco product
manufacturing, automobile-related businesses, and
textile manufacturing. The southern portion of the
corridor includes what was once the business, cultural,
and social hub of the Winston-Salem African-American
community. The Liberty Street area has a population of
22,917, of which 84 percent are minorities, 27 percent
live below the poverty level, and 12 percent are
unemployed. Winston-Salem has invested more than $27
million in housing redevelopment projects in the Liberty
Street corridor; however, the stigma of actual or
perceived environmental contamination at old industrial
facilities has contributed to a reluctance by businesses to
redevelop the area. Past efforts to build an industrial park
were abandoned due to fear of contamination, even
though the corridor is a prime gateway between the Smith
Reynolds Airport and the downtown area.
The Pilot will reinforce existing efforts to redevelop
Liberty Street and capitalize on the state's recently
enacted brownfields law. Recent studies have
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Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 09/01/1998
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets the Liberty Street Corridor,
a former tobacco and textile industrial corridor that
serves as a prime gateway between the Smith
Reynolds Airport and downtown Winston-Salem.
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: Winston-Salem,NC
(336)727-8040
Objectives
The City of Winston-Salem would like to revitalize the
Liberty Street Corridor while retaining its historical
identity. The Pilot strategy centers on compilation of
existing environmental information, Phase I and Phase II
environmental assessments at properties where actual or
perceived contamination is preventing economic
redevelopment, and extensive community involvement.
Current plans for the project area include development
of an Airport Business Park.
Activities
The Pilot has:
•	Conducted numerous outreach activities with
community members and other stakeholders;
•	Created a database of property owners for those
properties fronting Liberty Street and a Liberty
Street site map identifying properties under
consideration for assessment;
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-01-032
Jun 01

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safety, and sense of community for the area. Major
transportation routes intersecting Liberty Street recently
were designated as a corridor for U.S. Interstate 73. This
will facilitate development near the downtown area
rather than in outlying greenfield sites. The Pilot
complements this transportation strategy by targeting
abandoned and idle properties in the Liberty Street
Corridor for cleanup and redevelopment.
•	Met with developers, Fannie Mae representatives,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Smith
Reynolds Airport to discuss partnership
opportunities for the proposed Airport Business
Park in the project area;
•	Met with property owners in the project area to
discuss the possibility of conducting Phase I
assessments, provide information on potential
owner liability, and distribute site access
agreements and letters of explanation;
•	Developed a partnership with the Downtown
Middle School to educate youth to the
importance of brownfields remediation; and
•	Developed a Brownfields web site to educate the
community and other interested individuals
about brownfields.
The Pilot is:
•	Collecting and analyzing available data on
brownfields in the Liberty Street Corridor; and
•	Conducting Phase I and Phase II site assessments
on targeted properties.
Leveraging Other Activities
•	Experience with the Winston-Salem Pilot has
been a catalyst for related activities, including
the following:
•	Winston-Salem has established an Enterprise
Community, and the Liberty Street Corridor
Project is one of the economic development
initiatives associated with this community.
•	Winston-Salem was awarded a $3 million
Brownfields Economic Development Initiative
(BEDI) grant from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development for the
proposed Airport Business Park.
•	Voters also approved $4 million in General
Obligation Bonds as a local leverage for this
proposed Airport Business Park.
•	The city was awarded an additional $500,000
grant under EPA's Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund Pilot program, and a
$200,000 grant under the Brownfields Job
Training program.
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	c
Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 500-F-01-032
_ . .	and Emergency	. _.
Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	Jun 01
Washington, DC 20450	^ v '

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