About

CCLR is the oldest and only national non-profit working exclusively to champion land cleanup and reuse.  We are an independent, third-party force for the sustainable and equitable reuse of land.  Our expertise is in cleaning up and redeveloping vacant or contaminated properties, sometimes referred to as "brownfields.”  We offer trainings and technical assistance for communities working to turn this land around, and we advocate for policy change at the federal, state and local levels to make land reuse possible in more places.  

CCLR serves as U.S. EPA’s Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities (TAB) provider in New York, New Jersey, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Island territories.

We focus our programs on the communities with the greatest need and the least access to the specialized knowledge and tools needed to clean up and repurpose land.  Often, these are low and moderate income neighborhoods and communities of color.  We are a national platform for land recycling excellence, and we are committed to this work because we know that land recycling is the key to ensuring a healthy, sustainable and equitable future for all of us and for our environment.

Major developments in 2017:

In 2017, CCLR merged with two outstanding redevelopment nonprofits: New Partners for Community Revitalization (NPCR), a New York-based organization, and the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP), a Washington, D.C. based national organization. The mergers will consolidate the nation’s leading land recycling organizations, strengthen CCLR’s national leadership, and continue both NPCR’ and NALGEP’s work to build the capacity of redevelopment practitioners across the country.  To read more about the work of NPCR, including its first-ever comprehensive study of the Brownfield Opportunity Areas Program in New York State, click here. For more information on NALGEP’s resources and history, click here.

CCLR is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization CCLR was founded in 1996 by the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national, nonprofit land conservation organization.

Our Programs 

To date CCLR has educated nearly 5,000 community stakeholders through our workshops. Our graduates return to their communities with new tools and resources, ready to tackle redevelopment.

• $73 million in forgivable loans and grants for site assessment and cleanup
• 12,600 new residential units 
• 60,000 square feet of retail
• 818,000 square feet of commercial
• 1,500 acres of open space