Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Roseville, MN

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT

Date of Announcement:
June 1999

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets the Twin Lakes Parkway property as part of the economic revitalization of the 281-acre Twin Lakes Business Park redevelopment area.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Roseville for a Brownfields Pilot. Roseville (population 35,000) is located at the northern borders of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Located within the city is the Twin Lakes redevelopment area (Twin Lakes), a 281-acre area that developed as a hub for trucking companies and related businesses because of its proximity to highways and both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. However, federal deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 resulted in the relocation and downsizing of Roseville trucking-related businesses, and many companies went out of business.

Today, the Twin Lakes area contains 110 acres of brownfields along with 11 acres of residential property, two acres of commercial space, 34 acres of park space, and 58 acres of already redeveloped brownfields. In 1994, the city adopted a land use plan for the area that calls for office, retail, business, and light industrial uses, and in 1998 the city established the area as a tax increment financing district to facilitate redevelopment. To continue the revitalization of the Twin Lakes area, the city plans to construct the Twin Lakes Parkway, already funded at $10.6 million, which will provide access to the redeveloped brownfields properties; this access is vital for their redevelopment.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot's objective is to encourage cleanup and redevelopment of the Twin Lakes area by conducting an environmental assessment of the Twin Lakes Parkway property and developing a cleanup plan for the site. The Pilot will complement other aspects of the Twin Lakes Parkway project and the city's broader redevelopment strategy, which strives to remove environmental threats, provide financial incentives, integrate green space, and coordinate with regional needs and plans. Redevelopment of the Pilot area will create a business park with high-tech jobs, provide an alternative roadway to alleviate traffic congestion, enhance the area's natural parklike environment, and increase the tax base.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Conducting a Phase I and Phase II site assessment of the Twin Lakes Parkway property; and

• Developing a cleanup plan for the parkway site.

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

CONTACTS

City of Roseville
Community Development Department
(651) 490-2247

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 5
(312) 353-3161

Visit the EPA Region 5 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields/

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/

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-99-142
June 1999

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)

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