Pima County
Community Development and Neighborhood Conservation Department
(CDNC) won a highly competitive $400,000 EPA Community-Wide Assessment
grant to conduct voluntary environmental site assessments on southside
commercial and industrial properties in an effort to spur economic
development and create jobs.
The
brownfields funds will allow CDNC to complete a minimum of 36
environmental site assessments in addition to conducting community
outreach and planning activities, said Daniel Tylutki, program manager
for the county’s brownfields program.
Brownfields, according to the EPA, are property whose expansion,
redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by a hazardous substance,
pollutant, or contaminant. Former gas stations, manufacturing sites or
industrial facilities often become abandoned paved lots, decrepit
buildings and home to rusting equipment because developers can’t afford
the costs to address the environmental concerns. The grant funds enable
communities to redevelop brownfields sites into job-producing
facilities, community green space, or for other recreational and
non-profit uses.
“These are the old warehouses, factories and vacant properties you drive
by on your way to the airport or Raytheon that are always for sale and
you wonder, ‘Why hasn’t anything been done with that property yet?”’
said Tylutki. “Typically current property owners or developers do not
want to pay the thousands of dollars needed to conduct an environmental
site assessment as part of standard due diligence and often required by
the bank to get financing.”
“The county’s brownfields sites,” said
Pima County Supervisor Ramón Valadez,
whose district encompasses much of the target area, “offer tremendous
revitalization and job creation opportunities through expansion and
reinvestment that support the region’s aerospace, defense, and emerging
bioscience sectors; transportation and logistics industries; solar-power
renewable energy incentive districts; and, commercial and residential
infill development.”
Specifically, EPA brownfields funds provide interested property owners
money for lead/asbestos testing and environmental site assessments to
characterize and add value to their sites.