Jump to main content.

Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Fact Sheet

City of Detroit, MI
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

Detroit, MI Date of Announcement:
March 2000

Amount: $65,000

Target Area: City of Detroit, MI

Profile: The Pilot will conduct site investigations and site assessments at three sites: the Public Safety Mall and Department of Public Works municipal yard located within the Detroit Empowerment Zone; the Brush Park Residential Rehabilitation Project; and the Eastern Market Retail Shopping District.

BACKGROUND

EPA awarded the City of Detroit supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. For decades, Detroit has been known as the Motor City—hub of the automobile industry. As a result, a considerable portion of the city has been subjected to heavy industrial activity, and a number of Detroit properties have become contaminated. More than 45,000 contaminated sites have been abandoned by their owners and forfeited to the city due to unpaid taxes.

The Pilot targets three areas—the Public Safety Mall and Department of Public Works municipal yard within Detroit's Empowerment Zone; the Brush Park Residential Rehabilitation Project; and the Eastern Market Retail Shopping District (Wholesale Distribution Project). The Public Safety Mall site was formerly a junkyard, a vulcanizing facility, and an auto service station. The Eastern Market site, characterized by dilapidated structures and vacant parcels, was once home to an incinerator and an illegal junkyard. Historical uses of the Brush Park Rehabilitation Project area include dry cleaners, felt works, auto repair shops, and junk yards.

OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Detroit will use the supplemental assistance to conduct environmental site assessments at three major brownfield redevelopment project areas. These activities will allow the city to eventually develop a centralized location for law enforcement agencies and community services on the Public Safety Mall site; redevelop the Department of Public Work Municipal Yards site into a retail shopping center; construct new food-related facilities within the underutilized Eastern Market area; and construct new condominiums in the Brush Park Rehabilitation Project site.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

• Conduct a Phase II/subsurface investigations at the Public Safety Mall and Brush Park Rehabilitation Project sites;

• Conduct Phase I and II environmental site assessments on the Department of Public Work Municipal Yards site and several city-owned parcels in and immediately adjacent to the Eastern Market project area; and

• Seek input from and disseminate information to communities within the targeted areas.

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 Detroit
Department of
Environmental Affairs
(313)-237-3091

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 5
(312) 886-1960

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-00-013
April 2000
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet

Using This Site | About PDF | Site Archive
Please email comments on this website to:Brownfields-Web-Comments@epamail.epa.gov

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.