Reconnecting Health Equity and Development

Weaving Together Health Outcomes in Redevelopment Planning in Fairmont, West Virginia

Project Summary

Community: Fairmont, West Virginia

Technical Assistance: Brownfield Health
Assessment and Revitalization Plan

Former Use: Box Factory

Future Use: Community Center and Trailhead

Fairmont's Beltline District along the Monongahela
River has long been the city's hub for heavy industrial
activity, having grown up along the once bustling raii
line. The Beltline District was previously used for glass
manufacturing, electric light works, machine shops, and
a foundry, among other uses but is now a collection of
vacant and semi-operating businesses. The City of
Fairmont intends to convert the Beltline District into a
mixed-use hub that complements current public uses
and adaptively reuses properties for recreational
facilities, housing, and commercial opportunities.
Greenway and bike/ped connections, as well as the
reuse of the Box Factory site, currently the most
notable brownfield within the study area, have been
prioritized by the city in recent planning efforts.

The Community's Challenge
The Beltline District's industrial properties have been
the constant neighbors of residential blocks, a public
school, and the popular East West Stadium. The
incongruent land uses have also raised concerns about
public health outcomes for residents in the area,
including environmental health hazards and growing
concern about substance abuse disorders. Site access
is a challenge for implementing project goals, as much
of the district is comprised of privately-owned
properties. The area also has over 100 individual
landowners, which makes strategic revitalization
planning for the area difficult.

EPA's Land Revitalization Technical Assistance
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Office of Brownfield and Land Revitalization (OBLR)
and EPA Region 3 provided technical assistance to the
City of Fairmount to complete a revitalization plan for
the Beltline District and perform a Brownfields Health
Assessment (BHA) to evaluate the public health
impacts of various elements of the proposed plan.

The Revitalization Plan included a review of physical
conditions, a yield table for the proposed land uses, and
an opinion of probable costs for redevelopment. The
technical assistance team also held two stakeholder
listening sessions to gather community feedback on
health conditions and the vision for the area to help
inform the plan. Each of these efforts also informed the
BHA, which investigated prevailing public health trends
of the neighborhood and evaluated the plan for
promotion of a healthier neighborhood. The Box
Factory property is specifically envisioned to host a
community center and trail head that would connect the
neighborhood via a walking path to the proposed rail
trail being pursued by the city. EPA technical
assistance support contributed to Fairmont being
awarded a $500,000 Assessment Grant for
environmental assessment work in and around the Box
Factory site.

One option for the Box Factory site would be the adaptive
reuse of the existing building into a community and recreation
center.

For more information, contact Sydney Adams, EPA
Region 3 Brownfields Program, at

Adams.Svdnev@epa.aov.

United States
Environmental Protection
^*^1 M * Agency

Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization
560-F-23-317

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