From: Star Beacon
December 6, 2012
Effort is all about taking development to next level
JEFFERSON —
Two grant applications submitted this week to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency aim to help the county reclaim thousands of acres of
brownfield land for development.
A brownfield site is abandoned or under-used industrial or commercial land that suffers from the stigma of its prior use. The land may or may not be contaminated; assessments are required to make that determination, and those assessments expensive. Usually, neither the owner of the property nor a potential buyer is willing to make the investment. Further, if contamination is documented as a result of that process, the cost of cleaning up the site becomes yet another barrier to selling or developing the land. As a result, it remains an idle asset, often a blight on the landscape.
Sean Ratican, executive director of the Ashtabula County Port Authority, estimates there are 3,000 acres of brownfield land in the area of Lake and Middle roads in Ashtabula Township. He said there are many other brownfield sites in the county, ranging from former gasoline stations with soil contaminated by petroleum products to abandoned manufacturing sites in Andover and Orwell.
The EPA offers grants for brownfield assessment. Earlier this year, the authority partnered with Ashtabula County commissioners and the City of Geneva to apply for this funding.
Ratican said commissioners put up the $5,000 to hire a consultant, GT Environ-mental of Westerville, to assist with the grant applications.
“These grant applications were made possible by the commissioners, who agreed to give (the authority) a grant to cover the cost of developing this application,” Ratican said.
Jennifer Brown, Geneva’s assistant city manager, and Janice Switzer, director of the county’s department of planning and community services, also assisted with the research and grant preparation.
Ratican said the effort is all about taking development to the next level. MORE
A brownfield site is abandoned or under-used industrial or commercial land that suffers from the stigma of its prior use. The land may or may not be contaminated; assessments are required to make that determination, and those assessments expensive. Usually, neither the owner of the property nor a potential buyer is willing to make the investment. Further, if contamination is documented as a result of that process, the cost of cleaning up the site becomes yet another barrier to selling or developing the land. As a result, it remains an idle asset, often a blight on the landscape.
Sean Ratican, executive director of the Ashtabula County Port Authority, estimates there are 3,000 acres of brownfield land in the area of Lake and Middle roads in Ashtabula Township. He said there are many other brownfield sites in the county, ranging from former gasoline stations with soil contaminated by petroleum products to abandoned manufacturing sites in Andover and Orwell.
The EPA offers grants for brownfield assessment. Earlier this year, the authority partnered with Ashtabula County commissioners and the City of Geneva to apply for this funding.
Ratican said commissioners put up the $5,000 to hire a consultant, GT Environ-mental of Westerville, to assist with the grant applications.
“These grant applications were made possible by the commissioners, who agreed to give (the authority) a grant to cover the cost of developing this application,” Ratican said.
Jennifer Brown, Geneva’s assistant city manager, and Janice Switzer, director of the county’s department of planning and community services, also assisted with the research and grant preparation.
Ratican said the effort is all about taking development to the next level. MORE
