Brownfields
Success Story
EPA Grant Recipient:
City of Minot, North Dakota
EPA Grant Types:
Brownfields Area-Wide Planning,
Brownfields Assessment
Former Uses:
Car Repair, Dry Cleaning,
Entertainment, Grocery, Other Retail,
Restaurants
Current Uses:
Day Care, Entertainment, Restaurant
After the Flood, Redevelopment Blooms
Minot, North Dakota
Minot is a small city located on the banks of the Souris River in northern
North Dakota, in 2011, record-breaking snowfall followed by a late spring thaw
and heavy rain led to disastrous flooding. Twenty-five percent of the city's
housing stock and a total of 4,000 structures and 12,000 people were affected
by the flood.
The city's planning department struggled to address the needs of both
displaced residents and developers trying to keep their construction jobs going,
despite flood-related setbacks.
"Those jobs and those housing needs were critical to keep our community from
falling into a sinkhole," says Donna Bye, who was the Minot city planner at the
time. "Several federal agencies were providing assistance for major issues like
sewers, water and roads, but in the neighborhoods residents were feeling left
out of the process. People were feeling lost."
The Opportunity
A consultant suggested that the city look to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) Brownfields Program for additional support. Even before the
flood, some areas had been blighted by various industrial and commercial
causes. Now, the city had no choice but to take a closer look at the need for
affordable housing, resiliency and sustainability.
"We wanted to take the opportunity to plan carefully,"' Bye says, "and to
encourage certain businesses and industry to relocate outside the downtown
area where there was more space and where neighbors wouldn't complain. We
needed funds, but we also needed help planning."
The city embarked on two years of research and community involvement,
using a Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Grant to fund, plan and develop
implementation strategies for extensive flood mitigation, cleanup and
revitalization of multiple catalyst sites along the Souris River downtown.
"We formed neighborhood groups and met regularly with residents, explaining
what we were working toward," Bye says. "It felt like a therapy session for
people, like someone was finally listening."
The Minot City Council approved a Brownfields Redevelopment Area-Wide Plan,
whose framework also helped the city earn a $74 million grant from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help reduce flood risk,
build resilient neighborhoods and spur economic development.
SEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
The Oak Park Theater was originally built
in the 1960s and was restored following
a devastating flood in 2011. Above, the
theater is under water and, below, under
reconstruction.
lit

-------
oak park theatw
IARY OF » WIMPY KID
UL SURFER « P**
Today, the Oak Park Theater is back in active
use by the community.
The Assessments
Minot used a $400,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant to assess more than
15 sites along the Souris River, including the former Oak Park Shopping Center.
The shopping center had stood vacant since the flood, when it was inundated by
at least eight feet of water.
The Oak Park Shopping Center, originally built in the 1960s, had been used for
numerous businesses over the years, including bars and restaurants; a bingo hall;
a movie theater; shops providing shoe repair, car repair, dry cleaning and video
rental services; and a grocery store.
Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments at the shopping center indicated
some elevated levels of volatile organic compounds, likely associated with
former dry cleaning and vehicle maintenance operations, but the concentrations
did not exceed EPA recommendations for commercial use. The North Dakota
Department of Health cleared the site of any additional monitoring or action.
The assessments, clearance and All Appropriate Inquiries performed at the site
protected the new owners from liability and made the property more attractive
to developers.
Lance Meyer is Minot'scity engineer and administers contracts on revitalization
projects like the one at the Oak Park Shopping Center. "With all the different
uses at that property over time," he says, "we knew that, if we were going to
revitalize the site, we'd have to clear it of environmental concerns. Getting that
property redeveloped and back on the tax rolls would be good for everyone."
The Revitalization
The $4.9 million redevelopment of the Oak Park Shopping Center took about 12
months to complete, and included the new parking lot, which has landscaping to
break up the pavement and improve aesthetics.
Today, there's a movie theater, a trampoline center, a pizza shop and a day care
facility. The Oak Park Theater is a great example of how the community has
persevered through an extraordinarily difficult time. Opened originally in the
1960s, the Oak Park Theater is one of the longest running theaters in the area-
having shut down only from 2011 to 2016 due to flood damage. It's a truly unique
and meaningful asset for the community.
Much of the surrounding area is residential, with single-family homes. The
shopping center is located across the street from Oak Park, the largest park in
Minot. The shopping center complements the park well: school-age kids go to
the trampoline center for birthday parties, and families can have lunch or dinner
at the pizza shop and then go see a movie together.
The Benefits
Redeveloping the shopping center created numerous permanent and temporary
jobs and has generated tax income for the city. Many local companies provided
cleanup, construction, paving and landscaping services for the redevelopment.
Local contractors also helped upgrade the sewer, water and electrical systems in
the buildings.
Local residents are employed both full- and part-time at the shopping center's
businesses, and the day care facility provides much-needed child care services
to local families.
Bye emphasizes that the revitalization was truly a community effort. "All of the
people and organizations who supported us through the area-wide planning
and assessment," Bye says, "they were people who i:ke us, had no experience
with these programs. And, amid the chaos in our community at the time of
the flood, they said, 'I want to learn about this and help get this through.' All
these people came together and gave up their time when they didn't have
to, and when we know they didn't have the time to. But they did, which is
pretty special."
it Everyone knew
that if we were
able to use EPA
Brownfields funds to
clear the property
of environmental
concerns, it would
be a big help toward
redevelopment.
That's why these
grants are so
important for our
communities. M
Lance Meyer;
City Engineer,
City of Minot
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website
at www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact
Ted Lanzano at 303-312-6596 or
Lanzano.TediS>epa.gov.
EPA-5!60-F-19-OB
June 2013

-------