We're going for another Grant! The City of Flagstaff Brownfield Land Recycling Program is applying for another Community-wide Assessment Grant for the Sunnyside area. The grant will include both petroleum and hazardous substances, and seeks a total of $400,000. The grant application is due Oct. 16, 2009. A draft document is available. Please submit questions or comments about this grant application to or call (928) 913-3217.
On June 4, 2009, the City of Flagstaff held a Community Workshop for the West Phoenix Avenue Redevelopment Plan Project. The Community Meeting featured four interactive displays, each one designed to inform the participant about the West Phoenix Avenue project area, possible redevelopment alternatives, and the various deign themes under consideration. Each station also allowed each participant the opportunity to learn about the project and provide input.
A Sketching Session was designed to allow members of the public to work with project architects to develop possible configurations for the redeveloped site. View the Sketching Session.
The Brownfield project at 116 W. Phoenix was featured in the April 2009 edition of Brownfield News and Sustainable Development magazine. [Read the PDF...]
Brownfield Letter from Mayor Presler In December, 2008 Mayor Presler signed a letter encouraging residents located within the Route 66 Central Corridor to volunteer for a free Phase I property assessment. Resident's response to the letter have been overwhelmingly positive! Thank you to those that have inquired about the free assessment. I enjoyed talking with all of you.[Read the Letter from Mayor Presler]
The City of Flagstaff Brownfield Program was featured in the December 2008 edition of Brownfield News and Sustainable Development magazine, a publication of the National Brownfield Association.[Read the PDF...]
Draft proposal for a Brownfield EPA Site Specific Clean-Up Grant The draft proposal for the Brownfield EPA Site Specific Clean-Up Grant is 80% complete, pleaseview the draft proposal. The Brownfield Program is seeking comments and feedback on the grant proposal from members of the Flagstaff community. We greatly respect your input and would appreciate all comments to be submitted to the City of Flagstaff (c/o April Laliberte, 211 W. Aspen, flagstaff, AZ 86001), no later than October 31, 2008. Thank you for your participation in the grant application process. Please direct comments or questions to the Brownfield Specialist at (928) 913-3217.
Bailout Bill Extends Brownfields Tax Incentive The Wall Street rescue package passed by the House and Senate includes an extension, until December 31, 2009, of the Section 198 brownfields remediation expensing provision, which allows property owners to deduct the expenses of cleanups in the year incurred, rather than treat them as a capital improvement. First signed into law as part of the Tax Relief Act of 1997, it is the only federal incentive targeted to private site owners, typically new property purchasers. Properties eligible for the incentive include those contaminated with hazardous substances or petroleum. Section 198 also allows property owners to amend tax returns to include deductions for past cleanups. The tax expensing program had expired at the end of 2007. As the bailout bill is written, the deduction is retroactive back to December 31, 2007.
No provisions of the incentive have changed. It is still applicable to non-Superfund caliber properties used for trade or business. Taxpayers must obtain a statement from their state environmental agency verifying that they are in fact brownfield sites. Any corporation that is considering filing an amended return to take advantage of the retroactive tax deduction still must do so within three years after the date it filed its original return, or within two years after the date it paid the tax. For more information about the Federal Brownfields Tax Incentive, contact NBA Advisory Board Co-Chair Charlie Bartsch at .
City of Flagstaff Brownfield Land Recycling Program For exciting news about Summer happenings in the Brownfield Land Recycling Program, please view our Summer newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1, Summer 2008. 2008 National Brownfield Conference Notes April Laliberte from the City of Flagstaff Brownfield Land RecyclingProgram participated on a panel with Clark Henry, Portland Brownfield Program and Dave Valinetz, Brownfield Development Group, LLC, at the 2008 National Brownfield Conference in Detroit.The panel presented challenging case studies in Brownfields from Oregon, Arizona, and Indiana. There were approximately 70 – 80 people in attendance at the presentation.
City of Flagstaff Brownfield Land Recycling Program Workshop Review The City of Flagstaff Brownfield Land Recycling Program hosted a day of individual workshops on April 25th, entitled Flagstaff Brownfields: Issues and Solutions. The day consisted of four individual workshops, they are listed below.
EPA Brownfields & Grant Writing Basics session covered the basics of brownfields redevelopment. What are brownfields? Where are brownfields? Why are there brownfields? The session also discussed several of the grants that are available to property owners and municipalities for brownfield properties.
The Brown to Green session covered the basics of building green on brownfields. The presentation also covered in great detail, how to redevelop contaminated land in stages while keeping the protection/barriers in place for minimal cleanup. The session also featured information on LEED and brownfields.
The third session of the day, Not the End of the Line,Working Cooperatively with Railroads, featured LaTonya Finch from Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad. Ms. Finch gave a great presentation on how BNSF does business and how the railroad acquires and sells property.
Performa – in support of return on investments, was the last session of the day. It was full of number crunching, financial logistics of purchasing and redeveloping brownfield property.
Over 50 people attended the workshop sessions throughout the day. The audience was comprised of environmental professionals, local builders and developers, officials from the Cities of Kingman, Williams, and Flagstaff, as well as staff from Maricopa County.
LUST in the City Part II While recent pop culture in America has brought us memorable lyrics such as “hot in the city, hot in the city tonight”, by Billy Idol. The man, the blonde hair rocker has also brought us a different anthem, “It’s a nice day to start again.” Indeed, for the owners of potential Brownfield sites in Flagstaff, it is a nice day to start again.
Flagstaff residents are left with several reminders of the industrialization of America in the 1900’s. Some of the reminders are subtle and others are not. Residents of Flagstaff and the surrounding communities may drive by these relics everyday, without realizing what they are seeing. Some of these icons of the past include old gas stations and auto repair shops, manufacturing sites, and dilapidated buildings and structures. One of the reasons why these properties are sitting vacant may have to do with the historical use of the property.
During the industrialization of America, steel underground storage tanks (USTs) were installed to dispense oil and gas throughout Arizona. The average life of a steel underground storage tank is 30 -50 years. When the tanks begin to break down they become leaking underground storage tanks (LUSTs). LUSTs came to the fore front of attention in the 1980’s. During this time period, hundreds of thousands, of these steel tanks nationwide, caused widespread contamination of soil and ground water, thus contaminating our nation’s drinking water.
Over 300,000 leaking underground storage tanks have been identified and cleaned up across America since the mid 1980’s. In Arizona, 8,022 UST releases have been reported and 5,728 LUST cases have been closed. There is still work to be done throughout the nation and locally here in Flagstaff.
Through a United States Environmental Protection Agency funded program, the City of Flagstaff conducts free petroleum contamination assessments. These comprehensive reports could cost a property owner anywhere from $3,000 - $10,000 to produce and are often a required component of commercial property sales. These assessments have the potential to give your property a clean bill of health which may increase your property value. Wouldn’t you like to uncover the past to create a better future? The Brownfield Land Recycling Program is seeking property owners to participate in the Route 66 Central Corridor Project. To find out more, contact April Laliberte, Brownfield Specialist at (928) 913-3217.
Flagstaff City Hall, 211 West Aspen Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, Phone: (928) 774-5281
