[CPEO-BIF] Troutdale, Oregon riverfront

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Troutdale works to make riverfront property 'shovel-ready' with help of 
redevelopment firms

Matt Buxton
The Oregonian
November 11, 2010

In this economy, developers need ground to be "shovel-ready."

That's the leading philosophy behind the Troutdale Urban Renewal 
Agency's plan to secure potential developers for the 20 acres of vacant 
riverfront property bordered by Interstate 84, the Sandy River, the 
Columbia Premium Outlets and downtown Troutdale.

But making it shovel-ready, which involves removing old buildings, 
clearing vegetation and running utilities to the property, also requires 
steps beyond construction. Possibly the most important is clearing legal 
hurdles over the site's pollution.

In the case of the Troutdale riverfront plot, its 20 acres -- a 
combination of city-owned property and land owned by Eastwind Property 
Management -- were home to a wastewater treatment plant and a tannery. 
Both could have potentially polluted the land, which would designate the 
land as a brownfield site and create a significant legal liability for 
developers.

That's where risk-analysis experts come in. Two German firms specialized 
in developing challenging pieces of land recently visited Troutdale 
after the city was picked as the finalist for the U.S.-German Bilateral 
Working Group, an exchange program of U.S. and German environmental 
development experts.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.oregonlive.com/gresham/index.ssf/2010/11/troutdale_works_to_make_riverf.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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