Brownfields Success Stories

Par for the Course: Brownfields Pilots Provide Communities with More Greens

Across the U.S., brownfields are being turned into greens: more specifically, golf course greens. Restoring brownfields into golf courses is a fast-growing trend. Usually part of a larger-scale recreational development project, golf courses created on urban brownfields sites tend to be targeted toward low-income residents residing in those brownfields communities, who may have few available recreational options. These golf courses can provide area residents with an outdoor, scenic activity that brings the community together in a positive atmosphere, as well as beautifying and enhancing the landscape of the area.

Currently, three Assessment Pilots include golf courses in their site redevelopment plans. In Providence, Rhode Island, a gravel pit contaminated by an adjacent metals recycling plant has been cleaned up and will soon be the home of a new 9-hole golf course. A driving range and training center have already opened on the site and are proving to be tremendously popular with local residents. In Houston, Texas, a former municipal landfill unused since 1979 is being cleaned up in preparation for the construction of two new 18-hole golf courses. When completed, the courses' new facility will include a clubhouse, a practice and training center, and a separate pitch-and-putt course. In Hammond, Indiana, a dump site for steel mill slag waste is being redeveloped into a community golf complex. A driving range opened in October 1999, a 9-hole youth course and clubhouse opened in April 2000, and a 120-acre, 18-hole adult course and clubhouse are anticipated to be completed in the spring of 2003. These three Pilots' efforts will help leverage more than $33 million to transform approximately 600 acres of vacant and abandoned sites into new, pristine golf courses and create more than 35 jobs.