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"Brownfields"
are defined as "...sites that are generally abandoned,
idled, or under-used industrial or commercial properties
where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by actual
or perceived environmental contamination."
The
Environmental Studies Department of the University of
West Florida was contracted in March of 1998 to assist
Escambia County in its efforts to identify potential Brownfields
within the county and begin the process of making these
available for commercial redevelopment. In a joint effort
with the Escambia County, the Environmental Studies Department
assisted in the preparation of various grant applications
to the United States Environmental Protection Agency,
applications that where eventually funded. Since then
The Escambia County Neighborhood and Environmental Services
Department has received additional funding from various
state and federal agencies, merging the Brownfield Program
into its Community Redevelopment Program and maintaining
a full-time Brownfield Coordinator. The Environmental
Studies Department has since contracted with the West
Florida Regional Planning Council to do Brownfield Surveys
for the Pensacola Area and the Panama City Metropolitan
Planning Organizations . All of these projects involve
mapping and analysis of Brownfield areas using an ArcView
3.1-3.2 GIS format. The Escambia County maps, which are
the most detailed, are now being put up on the Environmental
Studies Department’s interactive web server at
http://www.uwf.edu/gis.
This web site has been developed with funding from the
U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration
through the West Florida Regional Planning Council. For
more information on this project, or to set up a consultation
with Dr. Mel Droubay about your Brownfield project needs,
contact Dr. Droubay at (850)474-2746 or e-mail him at mdroubay@uwf.edu
The
work done by the UWF team and periodically presented the
to the Committee was groundbreaking for this area. A method
was discovered using ArcView GIS systems wherein property
lines from local tax assessor files could be overlaid
on digital air photography data bases as well as U.S.
Census TIGER road data bases. To this same database could
be added a host of other information from dozens of electronic
databases as well as field material. The UWF team identified
four major Brownfield areas within the urbanized area
of Escambia County.
In 1998,
Ms. Cunniff in conjunction with County staff and UWF faculty
and students applied for an EPA Pilot Demonstration Project
on one of the identified Brownfield areas, the Palafox
Corridor. The $200,000 grant was awarded. The County Brownfield
Committee became dormant while one of its subcommittees
became active on the EPA grant. Since receiving that grant,
the Board of County Commissioners has declared the Palafox
Corridor an official Brownfield Redevelopment Zone, and
additional grants applied for and received have included
a $500,000 Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund from
the EPA, a $95,000 Superfund Reuse Pilot grant, a $150,000
EPA Supplemental Grant, and a $20,000 Streetscaping grant
from the Economic Development Administration ($10,000
matched). The Brownfield Coordinator for the County (a
recent graduate of UWF) has also applied for a Brownfield
Job Training grant and an Urban Infill Project grant for
the Englewood area, and Community Development
Block Grant funds have been authorized for continuing
the initial environmental audit program for potential
Brownfield properties. Mr. Keith Wilkins is
now the Director of Neighborhood and Environmental Services
for Escambia County, and the original Brownfield Coordinator,
Ms. Shawna Chandler has recently moved to Baldwin County,
Alabama and Ms. Tamika Dickerson is taking her place.
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The
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques developed
by the UWF Brownfield Research Team are now being used
by the Community Outreach Partnership Project (COPCE)
, a $400,000 HUD funded project wherein the University
of West Florida is working closely with four downtown
communities. As also by Front Porch Florida, a state funded
Community Development project to work with these four
and three others neighborhoods in Pensacola and Escambia
County. A new University interactive
GIS web site has just been launched, with various
GIS
projects including the Palafox Corridor Brownfield.
In mid-1998,
the Transportation Planning section of the West Florida
Regional Planning Council began negotiations with the
Environmental Studies Department of UWF to do some Brownfield
Research on a regional level. Members of that section
at WFRPC had attended many of the Escambia County Brownfield
Committee meetings. The U.S. Department of Transportation,
one of the federal government's Interagency Working Group
on Brownfields, made funds available to identify potential
Brownfields as they might hinder transportation routes
in Northwest Florida. With personnel from the DEP and
the WFRPC, UWF personnel made presentations to the three
Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Pensacola, Fort Walton
Beach, and Panama City. Pensacola and Panama City accepted
the funds and authorized the WFRPC to contract with the
UWF to do the research. Those research projects
were completed in 1990 and 1991.
Shortly
thereafter, the University of West Florida's Environmental
Studies Department signed a contract with the U.S. Commerce
Department, Economic Development Administration (through
the Economic Development Section of the West Florida Regional
Planning Council) to establish a Brownfields Information
Center for Northwest Florida. This Center’s purpose is
to gather information about Brownfields and serve as an
exchange area for counties in the region. Many counties do not
have the personnel to dedicate full time to Brownfield
issues, but have the need.
This web site is part of the outreach of that Brownfield
Information Center.
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