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Project Details
About
ICMA TAB is a U.S. EPA grant-funded program that provides free technical assistance to brownfield impacted communities throughout the eight southeastern states and six tribes in the U.S. EPA Region 4 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee).
Through the ICMA TAB program, communities in EPA Region 4 can access free technical assistance to support brownfield redevelopment efforts.
- What Are Brownfields?
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What Are Brownfields?
In everyday terms, brownfields are properties that might be contaminated. The perceived (or actual) contamination makes reuse of such sites difficult. Common examples of brownfields include abandoned gas stations, former dry cleaner sites, vacant commercial buildings on any Main Street corridor, or the large fenced off industrial site where people in the community used to work. Brownfields and their redevelopment challenges are found in all communities—large, small, urban, and rural.
Every site has a history. Some site histories include operations that might have released contamination, pollutants, or toxins into the soil, groundwater, and surface water. Buildings on brownfield sites may be impacted by past hazardous releases in the soil and/or groundwater beneath them, or even by the materials that comprise buildings themselves.
Definition: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a brownfield as, "a property where expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant".
- Impacts
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Impacts
Legacy sites and the former releases of petroleum, hazardous substances, or materials can create negative public and environmental health conditions that need to be addressed before a brownfield can be redeveloped. Brownfields also tend to fall into disuse creating a cycle of decline, and they may harbor unlicensed or illegal activity that is undesirable for the surrounding community. Such typical outcomes of unaddressed brownfield conditions have significant economic implications greatly reducing tax revenue, employment, and business opportunities.
These impacts are not felt evenly across all communities. Lower income communities and communities of color endure a disproportionate share of brownfields and their negative impacts. As such, if equitable in implementation, brownfield redevelopment outcomes that address brownfield conditions often include advancement of environmental justice goals.
- Benefits of Redevelopment
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Benefits of Redevelopment
Brownfield redevelopment catalyzes a host of benefits including job creation, economic development, healthier communities, improved natural environments, community building sustainability, resilience, and a stronger sense of place. Using improved public health and environmental quality to leverage economic development gets to the heart of brownfield redevelopment.
Technical Assistance
ICMA TAB offers tailored technical assistance, free of charge, to assist in transitioning brownfields from liability to asset. This assistance is made possible through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities (TAB) program. Throughout EPA Region 4, ICMA can provide technical assistance and give clear and actionable direction and feedback about specific sites, area-wide strategies, brownfield basics, best practices, technical subjects, building a brownfields program and program capacity, accessing EPA grant resources, and financial, legal, and regulatory processes, and more.
Contact
Clark Henry, director, chenry@icma.org
Christopher Harrell, senior program manager, charrell@icma.org
Madalyn Dessy, assistant program manager, mdessy@icma.org
Key Project Information
Funder
Period of Performance
Location
United StatesICMA's Role
Project Details
Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers Program (TCTACs) will support communities, particularly those adversely and disproportionately affected by environmental, climate, and human health harms and risks, to identify, access, and deploy resources to create transformative change for communities and individuals.
Collectively, we are building the Thriving Communities Network that connects and supports the local and regional leaders advancing environmental action in their communities across the country.
Regional Technical Assistance Centers
A network of regional Technical Assistance Centers will provide technical assistance, training, and resources to help communities, including local governments, nonprofit organizations, and other community-serving institutions, to access the resources they need to succeed. The Technical Assistance Centers will build the capacity of communities to navigate federal grant application systems, write strong grant proposals, and effectively manage grant funding. Support may include guidance on community engagement, meeting facilitation, and translation and interpretation services for limited-English-speaking participants. Each Regional Technical Assistance Center will be tailored to meet the needs of their region.
National Technical Assistance Centers
ICMA and two other organizations have been selected to support the Thriving Communities Network at the national level. Together, our organizations will:
- Leverage our networks of local governments, state and tribal governments, nonprofits, community leaders, and public health and environmental action advocates to scale solutions nationally.
- Support the Regional Technical Assistance Centers with training, resources, technical assistance, and opportunities for peer learning.
- Provide additional technical support to communities in ways that supplement and support the regional centers.
- Raise awareness and engagement by engaging key stakeholder groups through our online platform, conferences, events, resources, and trainings.
- Accelerate the dissemination of successful tools, models, and resources.
Contact
For additional information about TCTACs, visit the EPA website, or contact tctac@icma.org.
Green infrastructure refers to strategies that complement traditional “gray” infrastructure (pipes, tunnels, etc.) in managing stormwater. This additional capacity to filter and absorb stormwater is needed given increasing precipitation rates and sea level rise, as well as the limitations of aging gray infrastructure.
Examples of green infrastructure range from local bioretention areas to regional greenways. Regardless of scale, green infrastructure has proven environmental, economic, and social benefits for communities. This report is a practitioner’s guide on developing a green infrastructure program.
Inside you will find:
- Green infrastructure definitions, benefits, and challenges
- Steps to develop a funding and financing strategy for long-term investment
- Lessons in success from local governments of all sizes.
Expert Insight
David Rouse, FAICP
Urban + Regional Planning Consultant
"Green infrastructure has become an indispensable tool in the local governmental toolbox. It can be used to address a host of challenges, ranging from satisfying regulatory mandates to increasing resilience to natural disasters to providing ecosystem services and benefits that residents (and businesses) expect. Particularly for smaller communities, lack of financial resources can be the primary barrier to employing green infrastructure solutions. The approach described in this report can be used to overcome this barrier in ways that maximize the full potential of green infrastructure to realize community goals and provide community benefits."
