Vance Park is a well-worn jewel in the rough in Gresham, Oregon’s Rockwood neighborhood. Used for a variety of purposes, like futsal, community gardens, Frisbee golf, and children’s playground, it’s potential lies in more uses and the reuse of the adjacent sites, including Vance Pit. The Pit is comprised of a defunct gravel pit, suspected former landfills and other industrial uses. The Rockwood community faces considerable challenges and opportunities. As Gresham’s highest density and poorest neighborhood, Rockwood boasts a rich ethnic tapestry. It has struggled economically in recent years, and the City, county and state partners are committed to nurturing a more prosperous community. Rockwood CDC has embarked on a strategy to promote community and economic development. Through Rockwood Speaks and other initiatives, they are steadily building a base for the economic growth and stability of the neighborhood and its residents.

New York has experimented with responses to the daunting challenge of getting brownfields cleaned up and redeveloped in low-income communities. These communities are often dually burdened by multiple brownfields and economic disinvestment. New York's Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) program, established in 2003, provides funding for community-based, area-wide planning, designed to boost eligibility for government resources and private investment. The program works to attract and leverage funding for revitalization in some of the State's most blighted neighborhoods.

The Center for Creative Land Recycling has launched a new page for Sustainable Remediation Resources (hyperlink) through the Online State Resources Page! This page compiles state and national resources about sustainable and green remediation, such as EPA’s Climate Smart Brownfields manual, NY Department of Environmental Conservation documents and presentations, EPA Green Remediation best practices and more. 

In partnership with New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the City of Louisville, CCLR organized a half day workshop focusing on land reuse and recycling building better communities.

The Center for Creative Land Recycling organized a full-day course focusing on fostering economic growth and creating vibrant communities through land reuse and brownfield redevelopment in San Jose.
 

The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) and New Partners for Community Redevelopment (NPCR) are featuring a Redevelopment Rodeo at its upcoming "Economic and Community Revitalization Through Planning and Brownfield Redevelopment" conference in Albany, NY on June 7th and 8th. 

CCLR and its partners, Maul Foster Alongi (MFA), the Skamania County and the City of Stevenson, WA, hosted the second of two Vision-to-Action (V2A) workshops on February 16, 2017 to inspire the future redevelopment on the former Hegewald Veneer Mill Site, and the adjacent Rock Cove.

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.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 2/22/17 2/16/2017

In the first workshop of its kind, CCLR partnered with Winefield & Associates and Assemblymember Mike Gipson (AD64) to bring real estate professionals and city leaders together together at CSU Dominguez Hills.  This half day workshop was spent exchanging ideas and showcasing redevelopment projects in the greater Los Angeles area. 

The EPA is announcing $1 million in a grant to provide support state implementation support related to CERCLA 128(a). The EPA anticipates award of one cooperative agreement to support state implementation for CERCLA 128(a) and other brownfields related issues. The maximum amount for the cooperative agreement is $1,000,000. The proposal deadline is January 31, 2017.