Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

PILOT SNAPSHOT
Emeryville, CA	Date of Award: March 1996 Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot removes barriers to redevelopment and targets brownfield properties throughout the city and also addresses the problems of citywide groundwater contamination.

BACKGROUND

EPA selected the City of Emeryville for a Brownfields Pilot. Historically, heavy industry was the predominant land use in the city, but the majority of these types of companies left the area in the 1970s. In 1996, 234 acres in Emeryville were vacant or underused, and 213 acres were known to have soil and groundwater contamination. Although there is demand for residential and commercial development, the cost and risk associated with these brownfields have impeded their redevelopment. The result for the city was a loss of $13.3 million in tax revenues and 450 jobs between 1991 and 1996.

Nearly half of the city's citizens are low-income, and more than half are minorities. Most of the city's poor live in neighborhoods bordered by brownfields.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of Emeryville's Pilot is to encourage residential and commercial development by building stakeholder confidence in a risk management-based model for brownfields redevelopment. The model will incorporate an emerging State of California regulatory policy of using an area-wide rather than a parcel-by-parcel approach to environmental cleanup.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Convened a broad-based Community Task Force to serve as a forum for community participation in decision making related to brownfields redevelopment, and conducted Task Force meetings and a community workshop;
• Compiled hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater information for more than 500 properties from available sources to develop a geographical information system (GIS) that incorporates environmental, economic, land use, and zoning information and a "One-Stop Shop" on the Internet at http://198.31.87.56/bf/bf-stat-apx-c.html;
• Established a Technical Advisory Team (TAT) comprising city staff and consultants. The TAT meets monthly to focus on discussion of the GIS model, potential funding, and a proposed amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the One-Stop Shop;
• Based on the hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater information, developed a regional and local groundwater conceptual model-a "picture" of the city's hydrogeology;
• Drafted a regulatory framework for a Mitigation and Risk Management Plan to incorporate a citywide approach to groundwater cleanup. This groundwater management plan will allow the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency to monitor groundwater throughout the city. The plan presents the Pilot's goals, including facilitation, management of sites, monitoring groundwater, and management of groundwater;
• Conducted citywide CPT analysis with a matching grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE);
• Obtained regulatory approval to facilitate brownfields redevelopment based on a risk management model enacted through an MOU with the state Environmental Protection Agency;
• Targeted several brownfields properties for redevelopment; and
• Produced a report entitled Emeryville Brownfields Pilot Project: Status Report-Testing Local Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies.

The Pilot is:

• Assisting various developers with regulatory issues, providing information through its online One-Stop Shop;
• Leveraging Pilot activities by assisting property owners and developers in conducting environmental assessments on properties throughout the city;
• Conducting additional groundwater analysis to confirm results from the USACE citywide sampling event; and
• Developing greenway and open space plans.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Emeryville Pilot has been a catalyst for related activities, including the following:

• The Pilot coordinated the redevelopment of several brownfields sites.
• Catellus Development Corporation constructed 220 units of mixed-income housing ($27 million) on a four-acre brownfields site, considerably decreasing the city's housing shortage. One hundred workers were employed during the construction phase.
• The Chiron Corporation, the second largest biotechnology firm in the country, will construct 12 new buildings over the span of 20 years to house their biotech firm, creating more than 3,000 jobs during this time. Chiron completed its first building in the fall of 1998. The 250,000-square-foot research and development facility cost approximately $190 million.
• The owner of the 10-acre Grove Valve site used the One-Stop Shop to obtain "No Further Action" status on the property, which has been developed into EmeryTech, a retail and distribution facility ($20 million).
• The owner of another brownfields property used the One-Stop Shop to determine assessment and cleanup strategies for a five-acre site that is now under a cleanup and abatement order.
• The One-Stop Shop assisted regulatory agencies in determining the cleanup requirements and low risk associated with previous contamination at the EmeryStation I Office project ($42 million), which will generate $600,000 in new property taxes and create 1,200 new jobs.
• Using the Pilot's framework for a risk management approach to redevelopment, the Pixar Animation Studio/Office project ($30 million) will create $800,000 in new property taxes and create 1,200 new jobs.
• The risk management approach is also being used in the redevelopment of the 47-acre South Bayfront area into Bay Street, a mixed-use project ($50 million) wthat will create 3,200 new jobs.
• The risk management approach was also instrumental in the construction of an IKEA store ($25 million), which opened in April 2000.
• The eLofts redevelopment project ($12 million) used the One-Stop Shop during an environmental assessment and has provide 120 units of mixed-use space.
• The projects mentioned above and several others, including EmeryStation II ($30 million), EmeryStation IV, Woodfin Suites and Courtyard by Marriott hotels ($55 million), Promenade mixed-use ($15 million), Avalon senior housing ($9 million), Gateway housing ($5.3 million), 1401 Park ($7.5 million), and Hollis Business Center ($25 million), have leveraged a total of $644 million in redevelopment/construction dollars.
• Emeryville was awarded a $500,000 EPA Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund grant and a $200,000 Supplemental Assistance grant.

CONTACTS

City of Emeryville
Redevelopment Agency
(510) 596-4350

U.S. EPA - Region 9
(415) 744-2237

Visit the EPA Region 9 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/index.html

For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/