What: Press Conference & Brownfield Tour
When: 11:00 a.m. to Noon, Tuesday, September 29, 1998
Where: Venice Beach Damson Oil Site (call 415-255-1946 for directions)
Who: George Brewster, Executive Director, CA Center for Land Recycling
Mike Bonin, Dir. Community Affairs,
Councilmember Ruth Galanter's Office
Greg Steptoe, Community Youth Advocate, Youth Skate expert
Juanita Tate, Executive Director, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA - An abandoned oil facility on Venice Beach is being showcased as an example of the enormous promise - and the considerable challenge - of redeveloping abandoned urban lots in California, and the need for statewide "brownfield" reform.

The press event in Venice, hosted by the California Center for Land Recycling (CCLR), will be held the same day as one in Richmond, CA featuring a former railroad right-of-way. "Brownfields" are once-thriving commercial and industrial sites that now sit idle or abandoned due to the threat (real or perceived) of contamination. In California and elsewhere in the nation, these sites are often located in low-income communities of color.

Abandoned nine years ago by the Damson Oil Corporation, the one-acre site on Venice Beach has become an eyesore and nuisance for the surrounding community. Although several large wastewater treatment tanks have been removed, underground pipes and concrete pits with potentially contaminated sludge still remain. In order to protect the public from this potential hazard, the city has kept the site closed.

Now the city Department of Recreation and Parks has joined forces with CCLR to clean up and redevelop the site as a skate area and roller hockey arena for local youth. Reclaiming the Damson Oil site would cement the last missing piece of the larger Venice Beach refurbishment plan put together by RRM Design, with all work scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2000. However, the city has limited funding for the remediation - some of it gained from a suit against the bankrupt Damson Oil Corp., and is consulting with an engineering and remediation expert to ascertain their options.

This week, more than 50 of the most prominent business, environmental, community and agriculture groups in the state - from the California League of Conservation Voters to the California Chamber of Commerce - are urging the gubernatorial candidates to recognize brownfield redevelopment as a key strategy for revitalizing urban communities and preserving greenspace and farmland.

In a major new report on brownfields released this week, CCLR discusses the challenges to brownfield redevelopment and makes state-level policy recommendations for overcoming them. CCLR began as a project of The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization based in San Francisco, in 1996.