Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

PILOT SNAPSHOT
Ogden City, UT	Date of Announcement: April 1997 Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets a nine-block area of Ogden City's Central Business District.

BACKGROUND

EPA selected Ogden City for a Brownfields Pilot. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, Ogden City grew from a small frontier town into a major industrial center. The railroads and associated industries closed their Ogden operations in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving behind high unemployment rates, unskilled workers, and environmental pollution.

The Pilot will focus on a nine-block area of Ogden City's Central Business District where vacant rail yards, a former tannery, and large warehouses are typical of the area's properties. In January 2001 Ogden City Corporation submitted a revised work plan that expanded the scope as well as the area by three 20-acre blocks and two 10-acre blocks within the Central Business District. In the first priority Pilot-targeted area, 80 percent of the property is vacant and very few businesses are operating. A large railroad property covers half of the Central Business District. The poverty rate in the target area is three times the city's average rate, and the unemployment rate for Ogden City is 4.4 percent.

OBJECTIVES

Ogden City's objective is to revitalize the Central Business District by removing barriers to economic development and reclaiming potentially valuable properties for mixed-use development. The city will demonstrate the viability of redeveloping obsolete facilities, attain the highest and best use of priority properties, and regain the city's progressive image by cleaning up gateway areas. The pilot will assist in these objectives by conducting assessments in the target area and developing cleanup plans for targeted sites.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The pilot has:

• Completed Phase I assessments of the 99 properties within the target area;

• Formed a project steering committee consisting of city officials to oversee the Pilot project;

• Conducted Phase II environmental assessments for the first priority (Block 37) area; and

• Entered into a Voluntary Cleanup Agreement with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality Division of Environmental Response and Remediation in January 2001.

The Pilot is:

• Working with the Department of Environmental Quality and implementing the Voluntary Cleanup Agreement;

• Continuing to seek input from community representatives;

• Developing a list of suitable land uses for the project area based on the results of site assessments and developing cleanup plans appropriate for these land uses; and

• Identifying cost-effective financing solutions to promote private or public/private redevelopment efforts.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Ogden City Pilot has been a catalyst for related activities, including the following:

• The city spent $1,010,200 on the acquisition of the Iron Works Property.

• The City Council approved the location of an intermodal hub on the railyard property, a portion of which is in the Pilot's priority area. Members of the steering committee, along with other federal and state agencies, were invited by Union Pacific to review the results of an environmental assessment performed on the rail yard, though no testing was performed on the site within the Pilot's priority area. The city plans to pursue additional federal funds for the design and construction of the intermodal facility.

• On November 14, 2000 Ogden City entered into a site agreement with the General Service Administration (GSA) to develop the first priority area (Block 37).

CONTACTS

City of Ogden
(801) 629- 8995

Regional Brownfields Team

U.S. EPA - Region 8
(303) 312-6019

Visit the EPA Region 8 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region08/land_waste/bfhome/bfhome.html

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