FACT SHEET:
Tamiami Trail Petroleum Brownfields Revitalization Initiative:
A Collaborative Partnership for Economic Growth
What are Petroleum Brownfields?
Brownfields are abandoned or under-used
properties with active redevelopment potential that
are complicated by either real or perceived
environmental contamination. Often, Petroleum
Brownfields are old abandoned Underground
Storage Tank (USTs), such as gas stations.
In many communities, these vacant UST brownfields
properties represent untapped resources for
economic and community revitalization. Real estate
activities that redevelop, renovate, or remove these
eyesores involve investment lending risks.
What is the Initiative?
The Tamiami Trail (U.S. Highway 41) Petroleum
Brownfields Revitalization Initiative is designed to
remove the environmental component of that
investment risk. This Initiative is intended to further
local economic development projects by enhancing
technical assistance, environmental assessment and
cleanup services for USTs. The outcome will be to
reuse properties, making for a more vibrant and
attractive community.
The targeted communities are those along the
Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway route, which extends
almost 70 miles within Manatee and Sarasota
Counties. This corridor includes the cities of
Palmetto, Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice and North
Port.
Benefits of Brownfields Redevelopment
O
Eliminating health and safety
hazards
O
Eliminating eyesores
o
Bringing new jobs into the
community
o
Bringing new investment into the
community
o
Increasing the productivity of the
land
o
Increasing property values and tax
revenues, such as from tourism
The Partners
Success of the program depends on effective
communication and cooperation among many
partners. In this early phase, partners in this
collaborative include: the local municipal, County
and economic development agencies; the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency; and the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection. Plans are
to expand this partnership to include the Florida
Department of Transportation, non-profit groups,
businesses, environmental consultants; UST
owners/operators; cleanup contractors; site
managers; and the people in communities along the
Tamiami Trail.
Abandoned
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Preliminary Objectives
The following is an initial brainstorm list of
objectives; the overarching purpose is to
deliver business-ready sites to economic
development:
• Conduct inventory of USTs along Tamiami Trail.
• Identify economic development opportunities that
overlap UST locations.
• Prioritize UST locations that need environmental
assessment and/or remediation services to
position sites for reuse. Stimulate the removal of
abandoned USTs and assist UST owners,
operators, and partners with the identification, and
cleanup of releases.
• Conduct meaningful community involvement, such
as visioning sessions for the community. This
innovative interview and visualizing technique
captures and integrates individual and community
visions. This multi-vision synergistic activity often
helps propel the community into dedicated
actions.
Former local gas station, now Art Gallery, in
Sarasota's Arts and Historic District.
Successful Models
This collaborative initiative to help revitalize the
Tamiami Trail highway corridor is in alignment with
the 11-page "U.S. EPA Petroleum Brownfields
Action Plan." The four strategic components to
return abandoned Petroleum Brownfields sites to
productive use are outlined:
http://www.epa.aov/oust/raas/petrobfactionplan.pdf
This Action Plan provides a roadmap for working
through these challenges to revitalize communities
plagued with old, petroleum-contaminated
properties. Other successful Petroleum Brownfields
"Highway Corridor" models that have best practices
already developed, including:
• Route 66 (a 200-mile stretch in western U.S)
• Colorado Historic Byways Initiative
Basics of EPA's Brownfields Program
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Brownfields
Program empowers communities, Tribes,
States, and other stakeholders to work
together in a timely manner to assess, safely
clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields.
The Brownfields Program provides grant
support for revitalization efforts by funding
environmental assessments, individual site
cleanups, and community-based revolving
loan funds for brownfields cleanup. Since
the program began, thousands of properties
nationwide have been assessed and cleaned
up using federal brownfields grant funds,
clearing the way for their revitalization. For
more information, vist:
www.epa .go v/brownfields
Basics of FDEP's Brownfields Program
veto/
Department of Environmental Protection
FDEP's Brownfields program goals are to
reduce public health and environmental
hazards on existing commercial and
industrial sites that are abandoned or
underused due to these hazards; create
financial and regulatory incentives to
encourage voluntary cleanup and
redevelopment of sites; derive cleanup target
levels and a process for obtaining a "No
Further Action" letter using Risk-Based
Corrective Action principles; and provide the
opportunity for Environmental Equity and
Justice. For more information, visit:
http://www.dep.state.fi. us/waste/categories/b
rownfields/
For more information, please contact:
Karen M. Stewart
Manatee County Government
Office: 941-749-3029 ext. 6832
karen.stewart@mymanatee.org
Robert M. Herrington
Sarasota/Manatee MPO
Office: 941-359-5772
bob@mymop.org
Channing Bennett
U.S. EPA Region 4
Office: 404-562-8474
bennett.channing@epa.gov
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