Brownfields 2004 Grant Fact Sheet

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, CA

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, the President signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

ASSESSMENT GRANT

$200,000 for hazardous substances

EPA has selected the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to receive a brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will be used to perform Phase II assessments at four sites in the Western Addition District slated for redevelopment as affordable housing units and open space. Grant funds will also be used for community outreach activities.

CLEANUP GRANT

$200,000 for petroleum

EPA has selected the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to receive a brownfields cleanup grant. Grant funds will be used to clean up Parcel 732-A, a former commercial site located at the northeast corner of Fillmore and Eddy Streets in the Western Addition community of San Francisco. Grant funds will also be used to perform community outreach activities. The target site will be redeveloped into a jazz club, restaurant, and office space.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant and a cleanup grant. Of the city's 776,733 residents, 35,172 live in the Western Addition community. This area has been impacted over the years by many government programs, including deportation to internment camps of many of its Japanese residents during World War II, the construction of the double-decker Central Freeway through the heart of the area, and the demolition of housing and small businesses during the urban renewal programs of the 1960s and 1970s. The poverty rate in the Western Addition target area is 15.8 percent, compared to 11.3 percent in the entire city. The population of this area is 22 percent African-American, 20 percent Asian, and 3 percent Hispanic. Within the area, 14,178 people live in the Fillmore neighborhood, once the center of the city's African-American community. Today, 18.1 percent of the Fillmore population lives below the poverty rate. African-Americans in the Fillmore neighborhood make up 33.2 percent of the population, 18.3 percent are Asian Pacific Islander, and 3 percent are Hispanic. Brownfields redevelopment is expected to transform the former Central Freeway, which was damaged by the 1989 earthquake, into a surface road, with new affordable housing, open space, neighborhood-serving commercial uses, and pedestrian improvements in the community. Cleanup of the Fillmore neighborhood site will ensure the development of the Fillmore Jazz Center mixed-use project.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 9 Brownfields Team
415-972-3188
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown

Grant Recipient: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, CA
415-749-2441

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.