[CPEO-BIF] Washington State "Brownfields are becoming developers’ next frontier"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Brownfields are becoming developers’ next frontier
In the last two years, the Department of Ecology has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of contaminated sites being reported and increased applications into the Voluntary Cleanup Program.

By MICHAEL STRINGER and JIM DARLING
Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (WA)
September 29, 2016

A row of empty mill buildings along a quiet river bank lined with old pilings. A sunbaked empty lot along a railroad track bordered by a chain link fence with the foundation of a former manufacturing plant barely visible beneath the weeds. These sites are symbols of the natural resource extraction economy’s decline. 

Communities across Washington state are increasingly looking at vacant and shuttered former industrial sites as opportunities to spark revitalization. 

From closed lumber mills in Aberdeen to a former rail yard in Spokane, local governments are following the examples of Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway and Bellingham’s Waterfront District by taking a leadership role in cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield properties. Through a combination of market forces, land-use planning and public-private partnerships, some of Washington’s most challenged properties are now becoming catalysts for redevelopment. 



…

For the entire article, see
http://www.djc.com/news/en/12093394.html

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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/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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