Land Recycling News

Posted March 5, 2021

Written by Ignacio Dayrit

Since the turn of the 21st century, California cities and developers have successfully and safely reused urban sites for housing. For sites potentially compromised by vapor intrusion (VI) - where contaminants in the subsurface can volatilize and enter buildings through cracks on the floor, joints, walls and pipes - California regulatory agencies typically applied a 0.001 attenuation factor (AF) to estimate the concentration of vapors entering proposed residential sites. In 2015, the U.S. EPA proposed a guidance AF of 0.03. There has been little discussion on the cost impact of the 0.03 AF to VI response costs, which currently are the responsibilities of cities and developers, though it is expected that they will increase substantially. State agencies should resolve their differences expeditiously, look beyond their silos, and realize the unintended impacts of this new policy.

Posted February 16, 2021

Written by Rachel Ross, Communications Coordinator

Compromises are, by definition, imperfect. Yet in many brownfields projects, moving forward with cleanup and reuse of an underutilized and potentially hazardous site is dependent on overcoming entrenched positions to find a compromise. Such is the case of the former PureGro site in Brawley, CA; compromise enabled the cleanup of a site with known contamination, sitting vacant for more than a decade. 15,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil was removed from the site in December 2020, marking a major milestone in the cleanup of the site - and satisfying a key desire of the Brawley community. 

Posted January 15, 2021

Written by Laura Tepper, Senior Program Consultant and Ignacio Dayrit, Director of Programs

The City of Emeryville, California is showing the value of patience, partnership, and persistence in the process of brownfield redevelopment, reaping its latest reward in the form of a long-awaited piece of bike and pedestrian infrastructure, the South Bayfront Bridge. This public project tops off a decades-long community revitalization effort, bridging brownfields sites to build a more sustainable community.

Deadline Extended to November 9, 2020

17 de marzo de 2020
Por David Southgate, M.P.A.

A raíz de las tormentas y de otros desastres naturales, las islas de todo el mundo están trabajando para integrar medidas para aumentar la resiliencia y combatir la dependencia en las importaciones de alimentos, energía y otros suministros básicos de supervivencia. Los desafíos del cambio climático están perturbando la actividad económica, dañando la infraestructura crítica y deteniendo los servicios esenciales, especialmente en las islas.

Report on Second Climate Strong Islands Dialogue

In the wake of destructive climate storms and natural disasters, islands across the world are working towards integrating measures to build resilience and combat a dependency on imports of food, energy, and other basic life-sustaining supplies. The challenges of climate change are disrupting economic activity, damaging critical infrastructure and halting critical services, especially on islands.

17 de marzo de 2020
Por Yelena Tolstopyatova, Gerente de Programas y Operaciones, CCLR 

Entre el COVID-19 y los terremotos, el 2020 tuvo un comienzo inusual por no decir otra cosa. El año pasado, el equipo de asesores ejecutivos de CCLR en Puerto Rico, David Southgate y Sonia Cosme, estuvieron promoviendo oportunidades de revitalización de la tierra con el Programa de Evaluaciones de Brownfields (TBA, por sus siglas en inglés) de la EPA. Bajo el TBA, la EPA contrata, paga y dirige a expertos ambientales que completan las Fases I y II de las evaluaciones ambientales de posibles brownfields. En 2019, ayudamos a Rescate Playa Borinquen, The Americas for Conservation + Arts y otras organizaciones a lo largo de Puerto Rico a eliminar el estigma de los obstáculos ambientales para sus proyectos de desarrollo comunitario en sitios de la misma comunidad.  

CCLR’s Puerto Rico team makes a difference

Between the Coronavirus and the earthquakes, 2020 is off to an unusual start to say the least! Last year, CCLR’s Puerto Rico team of Senior Advisors, David Southgate and Sonia Cosme, continued to evangelize opportunities for land revitalization with EPA’s Targeted Brownfields Assessments program (TBA). Under TBA, EPA hires, pays for and manages environmental experts who complete Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments for suspected brownfields.  In 2019, we helped Rescate Playa Borrinquen, The Americas for Conservation + Arts and other organizations across Puerto Rico to remove the stigma of environmental obstacles for their site-based community development projects.

Written by Sarah Sieloff, Executive Director

Posted on January 22, 2020

At the National Brownfields Training Conference in December, CCLR honored three outstanding brownfield redevelopment practitioners with National Brownfields Leadership Awards. For many years, these awards have recognized land reuse luminaries who have made significant contributions to our field. Given only every two years at the National Brownfields Conference, the National Brownfields Leadership Awards honor practitioners who have distinguished themselves as problem solvers and innovators, and whose work is helping make the built environment more livable, sustainable and equitable.  

Published on September 20, 2019

By Sarah Sieloff, Executive Director, with thanks to Brahm Ahmadi and David Greensfelder for background information and their reflections

Retail is a notoriously complex component of real estate.  Boost your knowledge and demystify retail by joining CCLR for a free webinar on September 25 featuring David Greensfelder, retail expert, developer, and CCLR Board member.  Every redevelopment practitioner needs to know what questions to ask about retail, so don’t miss out – this is a unique opportunity to hear directly from an expert who regularly wrangles retail in tough redevelopment projects, including one of the toughest out there, a grocery store in a historically marginalized neighborhood.  Read on, and register here.

By Ignacio Dayrit, Director of Programs

Posted September 13, 2019

The US Environmental Protection Agency plans to release “Requests for APPLICATIONS” (RFA)  for brownfield assessment, cleanup and revolving loan fund grants in a few weeks. The intent is to have the grant application season completed before the National Brownfields Conference in Los Angeles beginning December 10.