City seeking input on brownfield sites
JANESVILLE — The city of Janesville has received a $400,000 grant for its brownfields program, and staff has scheduled a Wednesday meeting to seek input from the community on how to spend the money.
A brownfield property is one where expansion, redevelopment or reuse is complicated by the presence—or potential presence—of contamination or pollution.
Brownfield properties often decay and sit vacant because of the complications.
The grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be used to create an inventory of potential brownfield sites and to conduct environmental assessments on those deemed to be priorities.
City staff are asking residents to help identify community issues to be addressed by the program. The meeting will include interactive exercises where community members will work individually and together to identify community issues.
Those issues will be used to help the city select properties for environmental assessments to determine whether contaminants are present and, if so, to what extent.
The Wednesday meeting is a first step toward cleanup and redevelopment of the sites, according to a memo from the city.
A new health monitoring committee will develop ways to measure how redevelopment of brownfield sites will impact the community.
IF YOU GO
What: Comprehensive Brownfields Program public meeting
When: 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: City Hall, fourth floor, Room 417, 18 N. Jackson St.
For more information: Call Al Hulick at (608) 755-3059 or visit gazettextra.com
/brownfield.
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Jun 4, 2012 at 8:03 a.m.
Suggest removal
You can find brownfield sites on the EPA's website. There is (or was) a website called Scorecard.org that also detailed sites with contamination.
Jun 4, 2012 at 8:03 a.m.
Suggest removal
You can find brownfield sites on the EPA's website. There is (or was) a website called Scorecard.org that also detailed sites with contamination.
Jun 3, 2012 at 1:51 p.m.
Suggest removal
I believe the Robinson's location is the primary reason the city applied for this grant in the first place, but both of those are good candidates. The big problem is that the public has little knowledge of where these potential brownfields are. I'm in favor of these downtown sites because of their visibility and their hindrance in redeveloping the area; I'm not sure that an out-of-the-way industrial site, for instance, is as good a way to spend the money, since we're not really lacking in industrial sites.
Jun 3, 2012 at 7:45 a.m.
Suggest removal
I vote for the historic gas station by the police station.
Jun 2, 2012 at 8:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
The old dry cleaner shop on Centerway gets my vote - if it qualifies.
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