Springfield Standard

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 staff presented the City’s Brownfields Revolving Loan Program with a $1 million ceremonial check today at Jordan Valley Park, a brownfields success story. The City’s Economic Vitality Department, which administers its brownfields programs, was notified of the competitive award in May. The grant is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help states, tribal nations, local governments, and non-profit organizations assess and clean up polluted brownfield sites across the country. These investments through EPA’s Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs and Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs aim to transform once-polluted properties into community assets while creating jobs and spurring economic revitalization in overburdened communities.

Brownfields are properties whose redevelopment or reuse are complicated by potential contamination by lead, asbestos, petroleum, or other hazardous substances. The City of Springfield's Brownfields Program works to assess, clean up, and facilitate the redevelopment and reuse of brownfields within Springfield by providing incentives for qualifying properties. These include free Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments, cleanup planning, technical assistance, and low-to-no interest loans and subgrants for site remediation.

The City has identified several priority sites for the loan program. This includes 12 dilapidated properties along South Douglas Avenue adjacent to the Grant Avenue Parkway currently listed for sale. These sites are prioritized to realize the vision of Forward SGF—the GAP redevelopment plan—and regenerate disinvested center city neighborhoods. The Brownfields Revolving Loan Program will be marketed as loans to potential developers for remediation of suspected asbestos, lead-based paint, and surrounding soil contamination. Existing City HOME Investment Partnership funds and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can be leveraged with the Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund to target reinvestment in various housing types, neighborhood commercial development, and placemaking strategies that connect to parkway and greenway trails.

Another priority is subgrants to the Pacific Community Garden projects at 813 and 819 E. Pacific St., where Springfield Community Gardens received both lots through donation. They plan a project allowing the community to grow food on these lots and donate produce back to the community. Lead and arsenic concentrations above acceptable levels have been identified in the soil that need addressing before moving forward.

The City also identified two commercial properties downtown: The Newberry Building at 132 Park Central Square—currently for sale—and Remington’s property at 201 S. Campbell. Both properties face issues such as likely lead-based paint, asbestos contamination due to their age but have potential redevelopment interests that could benefit from leveraging Brownfields RLF funds alongside other funding sources.

Anticipated outcomes from this EPA award include job creation through redeveloping vacant downtown properties into commercial spaces which would expand Springfield's tax base that relies heavily on sales tax for community services.

“The South Douglas Avenue properties cover more than two acres of land,” said Amanda Ohlensehlen, director of Economic Vitality for Springfield. “Their redevelopment represents an opportunity to create sustainable housing in a new urban district... The Pacific Community Garden parcels...can then be used to grow food for a low-income area.”

City Manager Jason Gage noted Springfield's extensive history with EPA partnerships: “Springfield has proven itself as a model community regarding its Brownfields Program... We have an extensive history of partnership with the EPA.”

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