Brownfields 2005 Grant Fact Sheet

Parkhill Community, Inc., Denver, CO

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, President George W. Bush 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.

CLEANUP GRANT

$200,000 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected Parkhill Community, Inc., for a brownfields cleanup grant. Grant funds will be used for landfill and soil cleanup at the Dahlia Square Shopping Center, once the heart of the Northeast Parkhill neighborhood. During the 1950s a landfill was operated on the site. Phase I and II site assessments indicate the presence of methane gas attributed to the landfill, chlorinated solvents related to dry cleaning activities at the site, and friable and non-friable asbestos in the structures on the site. This aspect of the cleanup is part of a $3-to-$5.5-million effort to relocate remaining tenants and remediate the Dahlia Square site.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

Parkhill Community, Inc., was selected to receive a brownfields cleanup grant. The Northeast Parkhill neighborhood (population 7,824) of Denver, one of the city's three Brownfields Showcase Communities, is located in Denver County, mid-way between downtown Denver and the Denver International Airport. The neighborhood is adjacent to Denver's original municipal airport, Stapleton International Airport. In the 1970s, the Northeast Parkhill neighborhood was bisected by the construction of Interstate 70. It became home to a mixture of existing residential areas and an expanding industrial warehouse area. Since then, property values and incomes in the area have lagged behind the rest of Denver. When Stapleton Airport closed, the neighborhood was left with numerous brownfields that pose dangers to the health and welfare of area residents. In the past decade, the neighborhood population grew 27 percent, or 50 percent faster than Denver as a whole. Ninety-three percent of area residents are minority. The poverty rate in the area is 24 percent and the average income is two-thirds that of the city. Cleanup of the Dahlia Square Shopping Center site will allow the community to proceed with its plans to sell the property for redevelopment into a mix of attached residential units, senior housing, and commercial and civic facilities. This revitalization is expected to provide jobs and market-rate housing to a growing area of the city.

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 8 Brownfields Team
303-312-6803
http://www.epa.gov/region08/land_waste/bfhome/bfhome.html

Grant Recipient: Parkhill Community, Inc., CO
303-205-7910

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