![Mathy Stanislaus]()
Mathy Stanislaus
March 10, 2015
12:23 pm EDT
When I joined EPA, I wanted to continue to help communities
address their brownfield sites in a coordinated way – to bring the
community, federal resources and stakeholders together to plan for the
revitalization of neighborhoods, particularly in communities facing
economic distress and disruption. EPA’s Area-Wide Planning (AWP) grants
were modeled after New York State’s Brownfields Opportunity Area (BOA)
program which provided a framework for communities to draft brownfields
revitalization plans and consider implementation strategies.
The AWP grants recognize that successful, sustained community
revitalization occurs by fostering inclusive revitalization planning
among neighborhood stakeholders, local governments and the private
sector. This locally driven planning advances health and inclusive
economic development by fostering public-private strategies for
community-wide improvements such as infrastructure investments to
catalyze redevelopment opportunities on brownfield sites – the types of
investments needed to equitably revitalize communities in ways that meet
local community needs for jobs, recreation, housing, and increased tax
base. The program recognizes the need to affirmatively address
environmental justice concerns, and rejected the notion that only low
market uses can be built on brownfield sites in low- and moderate-income
communities.
We are investing
$4 million in 20 new communities that have been impacted by plant
closures and other economic disruptions. These recipients span the
country from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, to southeastern Kansas, to
Milwaukee and the Rustbelt, to the New York Finger Lakes, and Maine.
The communities are some of our most vibrant urban areas, as well as
rural communities like Whitewright, Texas and Hickory, North Carolina. I
am also pleased to see that five of these new grantees are the lead
for, or members of, an EDA-designated Investing in Manufacturing
Communities Partnership (IMCP) region.
These new grantees will follow in the footsteps of our first AWP
grant recipients by aligning and targeting existing resources, updating
policies, continuing community involvement, and attracting new
investment to the project area. These activities yield a variety of
economic, social and environmental benefits to the local community. So
far, these pilots have attracted more than $400 million in additional
investment into their project areas.
![View4]()
Community input helped to shape these design concepts for the Core Revitalization Area downtown district in Kalispell, MT.
A critical aspect of the AWP process is the development of a
well-organized implementation strategy – a list of short, intermediate,
and long-term actions, resources needed, and project partners
responsible for implementing the goals of the plan. A strong
implementation plan clarifies how the community will follow through on
commitments made during the process and turn the goals of the plan into
reality. Incremental progress keeps momentum behind the effort;
demonstrates to potential funders that the plan is viable in order to
encourage additional involvement and helps the community remain
dedicated to investing in the project area.
To further align community based plans in ways that promote
sustainable economic development, EPA is partnering with HUD, DOT and
EDA to better align AWP recipients with infrastructure and other
economic implementation resources. One specific example is the
preference accorded AWP recipients for DOT’s Transportation Investment
Generating Economic Recovery (or TIGER) discretionary grants.
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pdfs/EPA_OBLR_AWP_Report_v4_508.pdf
Editor's Note: The views expressed here are intended to explain EPA policy. They do not change anyone's rights or obligations.
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