Land Reviialization Success Stories | EPA #560F20005 April 2020 Planning for Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment BUTTE, MONTANA - AUTO ROW REDEVELOPMENT SITE STATISTICS • Community: Butte, Montana • EPA Regional Lead: Greg Davis, Davis.Greaorv@epa.gov • Site and Use: Infill and brownfields redevelopment on and around Galena Street • Technical Assistance: Site Design PROJECT BACKGROUND Butte is a small community in Montana with a population of 33,853. Uptown Butte has a very well-preserved historic district but has a high vacancy rate in former historic office buildings and businesses, Recent residential development is underway in some of these buildings,The city wants to capitalize on the Opportunity Zone designation for Uptown Butte, encourage redevelopment activities that will generate tax revenue, increase livability of the area, and leverage assistance from the Montana State Petrofund. PROJECT CHALLENGE Figure I. One of the brownfields along Galena Street available for cleanup and redevelopment. Known as Auto Row because of several former automotive service businesses, Galena Street in Uptown Butte has more than 10 brownfields, The city desires to cleanup these sites, so the area can be transformed into a walkable entertainment district that will complement the residential redevelopment by bringing new amenities and services. HOW EPA HELPED EPA's land revitalzation technical assistance support to the city included: • Coordinating a three-day visioning workshop with local city officials and key stakeholders to develop project redevelopment goals and objectives. • Developing a site design for Auto Row to transform the segment of Galena Street running through the heart of the Uptown district into a shared space street. The street redesign will energize the area and appeal to those looking for an active urban and walkable environment. • Coordination with the proposed Praxis Center (an adjacent private redevelopment project). COMMUNITY'S NEXT STEPS • The U.S. EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality have support to help conduct the environmental assessments and potential tank removals along Auto Row. Coordinating these resources to understand the extent of environmental concerns and potential cleanup will help the project timing and infrastructure planning. • The city will coordinate with the Praxis Center to enhance the design to create the space that the community envisions for Auto Row, • The city will work on interim site activation to bring attention to the project vision and build community support, Examples include placing potted greenery or signage along the corridor, closing the street down for festivals to bring the community to the project site, or even setting up a pop-up park or plaza activity. iT ^1' TP czTTffirrn S7I.T. I ¦m-mS rp *—Yi t g • 1 U «: . L * (Tfr-rTj — m m Figure 3: Photo realistic rendering for the entertainment district. Figure 2. Conceptual Plan for Auto Row, ------- |