Sustainability is difficult to achieve precisely because so many variables go into it, and even if it were possible to account for all the relevant variables, how would we know when we’ve arrived?  Land use is definitely one primary variable that impacts sustainability, and given that Earth is now an urban planet with a rapidly changing climate, international exchange focused on sustainable urbanism has never been more critical.  More brains, after all, are better than one.  That’s why the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) and the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. (GMF) took this message to the 2017 National Brownfields Conference last week in Pittsburgh, one of the premier brownfields training events in the United States.
 

By 12:00pm on November 27th around forty people had congregated at the Sobrato Centers for Nonprofits in San Mateo, California. A pleasant buzz of conversation filled the room as the diverse group of participants networked with old and new colleagues. The workshop came to order with welcome remarks from Don Horsley of San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, Fiona Hsu of Silicon Valley Bank, Sarah Sieloff of Center of Center for Creative Land Recycling and Ken Cole of San Mateo County Housing. It then transitioned to a panel consisting of seven members representing various organizations that encapsulate the infill development process from start to finish.

The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) has been awarded a grant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide technical assistance to brownfields-impacted communities. CCLR seeks to augment team capabilities with contractor expertise. Accordingly CCLR is hereby requesting – in accordance with 40 CFR Part 30 as appropriate for a not-for-profit organization – Statements of Qualification (SOQ) from interested non-profit organizations, educational institutions, private firms and individual consultants to be a part of the CCLR team that will deliver services under the awarded EPA grant.  This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) shall be open November 29, 2017 through December 14, 2017. Contractors who have worked with CCLR on similar assignments in the past may also be sent a copy of the RFQ.

Knoxville, Tennessee is riding in the 2017 Redevelopment Rodeo with two properties: a former laundry facility and a former warehouse facility.  Together with their buddies from Michigan, Oregon, Florida, Montana and New York, Knoxville’s Bad Brownfields Bulls are coming at you in Pittsburgh with one name: Dirty Laundry. Located just blocks apart in Knoxville’s downtown, they’re different sizes with different histories, and they both have the ability to contribute substantially to Knoxville’s downtown vitality.

CCLR’s past Vision to Action engagements (Skamania County, WA; Gresham, OR; Fairbanks, AK) have mostly focused on a single site.  Anacortes, Washington’s big vision involves an entire stretch of waterfront along the Guemes (GWEE-mas) Channel.  Historically an industrial, working waterfront, the Guemes Channel today is home to four non-operational former canneries, two ferry terminals (one run by Skagit County and the other by the Washington State DOT) and important natural and research areas, including critical salmon habitat.  

Join the TAB providers and our rodeo partner, Brownfield Listings, and see the Rodeo at the National Brownfields Training Conference at these dates and times:

The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) and New York Pollution Prevention Institute (NYS P2I) hosted “Innovations in Remediation and Land Reuse” in Rochester, NY on October 25, 2017.

Over 135 people attended the workshop, including city, town and county officials from the Finger Lakes to Western New York covering Monroe, Wyoming, Syracuse-Onondaga, Herkimer, Ontario and other counties across the state.  Many federal and state government agencies participated in panels and hosted Exhibitor tables, including U.S. EPA, NYS Dept of Environmental Protection, Empire State Development Corp and U.S Economic Development Administration.  A wide range of private sector experts from the fields of engineering, law, real estate, planning and financial services attended the workshop, and both staff and volunteers from non-profit organizations focused on housing, public health, and the environment contributed to the broad cross-section of stakeholders interested in brownfield redevelopment.

Meet just a few of our Redevelopment Rodeo and Developers Talk Deals presenters, and join us at the National Brownfields Training Conference to see some of the roughest, toughest properties out there go head to head with our wranglers.  Learn their names and histories, and don’t be a rodeo clown – join the discussion in Pittsburgh, and take home some good ideas for your local bucking brownfield!

Vog – Hilo term for volcano-induced fog. Vlog – CCLR term for Hilo-induced blog.
 
The vog-shrouded Hilo town is an apt visualization of the challenges in reconciling economic development with local culture, values and history, and the concealed ways brownfields redevelopment can meld some seemingly incompatible goals against monumental challenges.

I spent last weekend at the Pacific Council’s annual Members’ Weekend.  Based in Los Angeles and founded in 1995, the Pacific Council on International Policy exists to reframe international relations as a concern not only for foreign policy practitioners, but for the larger population of the U.S. West Coast.  Its members span the U.S. and work in the public, private and non-profit sectors.  The goal is to provide a non-partisan platform for learning, networking and action for people who are interested in international relations and citizen diplomacy, but who don’t work in the field on a daily basis.