Brownfields Showcase Community Fact Sheet

Community Profile

Dallas, Texas

In just over two years, the Dallas Brownfields Program has leveraged more than $109 million in private investments and $1.9 million in federal funds to facilitate brownfields redevelopment. The program has helped reclaim more than 1,200 acres of brownfields and anticipates the creation of more than 1,700 jobs.

Background

The Brownfields National Partnership has selected the City of Dallas as a Brownfields Showcase Community. Dallas has been involved in brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment for more than two years, and has identified more than 200 brownfields within the city. The city targets the area of West Dallas for brownfields redevelopment. West Dallas is an 11.45-square-mile, low-income, minority populated section of Dallas greatly affected by the presence of a Superfund site, a large public housing development, and industrial land use of approximately 26% of the area. The city is also targeting the 280-square-mile Southern Sector, which consists of 38% vacant land, to both address community need and take advantage of growth potential. Both targeted areas fall within Dallas' federal Enterprise Community (EC).

Dallas combines private, state, and federal resources to maximize the benefits of brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. The city is dedicated to community involvement and empowerment as part of the redevelopment process before cleanup begins. The Brownfields Forum, citizen advisory focus groups, and brownfields site redevelopment meetings ensure the public has access to information regarding brownfields redevelopment. Additional partnerships with neighborhood associations, academic institutions, and non-profit associations encourage stakeholder involvement in Dallas' brownfields redevelopment.

Current Activities and Achievements

Since the inception of Dallas' brownfields program two years ago, the city has cleaned up and redeveloped 1,244 acres of brownfields, leveraged more than $109 million in private investments, and assisted in the creation of more than 1,700 jobs. Highlights of Dallas' brownfields redevelopment program include:

• Building a $34 million multi-family/restaurant development on a property that was contaminated and abandoned for more than 9 years;

• Reclaiming a 22.5-acre contaminated property that was abandoned for more than 8 years;

• Maintaining 60 jobs, and creating an additional 30 job opportunities when American Pallet Recyclers developed a 26.4-acre property located in an economically-stressed area. This former concrete pipe manufacturing facility had been abandoned for more than 8 years;

• Opening the Larry Johnson Recreation Center on a 2.6-acre property after the city removed contamination left by a previous apartment complex on the property;

• Developing an Occupational Training Institute. When complete, the Institute will assist community residents in developing job skills and obtaining employment;

• Securing more than $1.6 million in Economic Development Administration (EDA) and Community Development Block Grant funding toward the 90-acre McComma's Bluff eco-business park and research center project; and

• Serving as a model for brownfields management; for example, the bi-lingual brownfields guidance manual and other reports have been requested across the country.

Dallas has leveraged $1.9 million in federal funds to facilitate brownfields redevelopment. Dallas has been designated as: an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot and a Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot; a Department of Housing and Urban Development EC; a Department of Commerce—EDA Special Impact Area; and a General Services Administration Federal Pilot City. Dallas has also partnered with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the National Historic Register, the the Texas Departments of Transportation and Parks and Wildlife, and Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission for brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment.

Showcase Community Objectives and Planned Activities

Dallas plans to use the Showcase Communities project to continue the strong partnerships it has already created, and to foster new ones. The city's objectives in brownfields redevelopment are to: link job training with forecasted jobs and life skill training; provide tax incentives to businesses; maximize job growth potential of existing facilities; and develop new industrial parks. Dallas will continue to be a model for other cities in brownfields redevelopment process management.

The city anticipates a full-time federal employee to join the Dallas Brownfields Program staff as a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) expert. Additional resources available through national partnerships will expand opportunities for development of innovative technical and managerial methods to enhance Dallas' brownfields program. The processes and partnerships developed may then be documented and shared with other cities interested in brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.

For more information on the Brownfields Showcase Communities,
visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/showcase.htm