Brownfield Assessment Project
On June 18th, the Lycoming County Commissioners and the Williamsport/Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce announced the initiation of the Lycoming County Brownfield Inventory and Assessment Project at a press conference at 1:00 PM at the Fairfield Inn, Maynard Street, Williamsport, PA.
The Lycoming County Commissioners have authorized the commencement of the Lycoming County Brownfield Inventory and Assessment Project pursuant to the US EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant received by the County’s Department of Planning & Community Development. This project will be guided by the Lycoming County Planning & Community Development staff, the Williamsport/Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce, and the Industrial Properties Corporation. Technical support will be provided by the consulting team of MACTEC Engineering and Consulting and Larson Design Group.
The Lycoming County Brownfield Inventory and Assessment Project will inventory strategic real estate in Lycoming County that meets the EPA definition of a Brownfield Site. This real estate will be evaluated for potential redevelopment. The intent is to work cooperatively with owners, government, and regulatory agencies so that new jobs are created, real property tax base is expanded, health and safety issues are mitigated, and neighborhood visual impact is improved.
The County Commissioners have created a process that will gather input from local elected officials, property owners, citizens and other community leaders.
This effort is not specifically focused on remediation of contaminated sites. Rather, the focus is on sites that have direct access to transportation systems, large capacity water, sewer, electricity, natural gas, and telecom services. These are the criteria that trigger private sector investment and spur economic development. In the context of this project, Brownfield sites are defined as properties that are underutilized for various socioeconomic reasons such as abandonment, obsolescence, tax delinquency, and/or blight, and whose redevelopment is inhibited by the real or perceived presence of hazardous substances.
Potential liability from the site’s environmental issues or general conditions have been cited in the past as posing more risk than a developer may wish to assume. The challenge, therefore, is to provide solutions to the environmental issues in a way that allows a developer to make an investment and create jobs. The Commissioners will use a logical approach to the redevelopment potential of the identified Brownfield sites based on the willingness of the owner to cooperate, as well as various economic and environmental factors such as its size, location, existing infrastructure value, and extent to which the site may be impacted by hazardous substances. Inclusion of a site on the County’s inventory does not imply that a site is “contaminated”.
The Lycoming County Commissioners have secured a $200,000 grant from the United Sates Environmental Protection Agency to implement this project. In May of 2007, after a rigorous process, the Lycoming County Commissioners selected a team comprised of MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc. (MACTEC) of Pittsburgh and Larson Design Group (LDG) of Williamsport. This project starts on June 18, 2007 and will take several months to complete. Updates on this project will be available on the websites of Lycoming County and the Williamsport/Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce.
The inventory will include properties located in the Borough of Montgomery, Jersey Shore/Porter Township, Hughesville/Wolf Township, and the City of Williamsport. In addition, the inventory will look at a number of Keystone Opportunity Zone properties.
Additional Information:
With a long tradition of manufacturing, Lycoming County has an array of Brownfield sites. Historically, these properties have been viewed by the community as hopeless liabilities. Recently, that view has been reversed. Enlightened leadership now sees the vast development potential of this real estate. There is a second reversal, this time in the economics of real estate. Brownfield sites are some of the oldest manufacturing sites in a community. As a result, they tend to be located adjacent to highway networks, labor force, public transportation, consumers, and educational facilities.
To Access Project Information and Updates
www.lyco.org
www.williamsport.org
To Learn More About Brownfields
www.epa.gov/brownfields
www.brownfieldassociation.org
To Learn More About the Consultants
www.mactec.com
www.larsondesigngroup.com
