Student Corner: Land Revitalization and Brownfield Grants

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program has the power to transform communities. Since 1995, the federal program has assessed over 30,000 properties and designated 92,000 acres for anticipated reuse. North Carolina has been working in tandem under state statute since 1997, and has issued more than 550 brownfields agreements to protect projects ranging from $100,000 to over $70 billion in committed private investment through brownfields redevelopment.[1] To be clear, the EPA defines a brownfield as “a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” The Community and Economic Development Program in UNC’s School of Government has written extensively about brownfield grants and agreements over the years. This post will dive deeper into the connection between brownfields and land revitalization. Land revitalization, defined loosely as “sustainable redevelopment of abandoned properties,” is a key aspect of the brownfield grants program, but it is not always perceived as part of the “bread and butter” grants (i.e. Assessment Grants, Cleanup Grants, and Revolving Loan Fund Grants). Instead, conversations on land revitalization should be central to the brownfields process, through assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment and reuse. This is essentially how Williamston, NC allocated its funding towards River Landing [CED]: “community outreach, site inventory, environmental site assessments, and cleanup and redevelopment planning.” The Process: Land Revitalization and Grant Applications Camilla Warren, Brownfields and Land Revitalization Support at U.S. EPA Region 4, described risk assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment as a “fluid process.” [2] Brownfield grants act in the same way, as [...]

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