EPA recognition bolsters local sustainable use and re-use

Earlier this month, both the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Mid-America Regional Council have been granted a total of $1.4 million in Brownfields Programs funding for cleanup planning and assessment within our region.

The funds are part of a larger national program spending $65.6 million across 155 grants for brownfields cleanup and assessment that will span dozens of census tracts, including some of Kansas City’s 35 qualified opportunity zones (economically distressed communities offering tax incentives for investors). Between the KCMO and MARC grants, funding will be spread across both sides of the river and in Missouri and Kansas.

“Reclaiming these underutilized sites and putting them back to good use will benefit the community and its residents, our economy, and our environment,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford.

A brownfield site is a property whose potential for revitalization is complicated by hazardous contaminants like oil and industrial byproducts in the ground. Cleanup of these sites can be expensive for a single developer, but public/private partnerships and the leveraging of relatively small amounts of federal funding have allowed projects under the EPA’s Brownfields Program to create more than 160,000 jobs since the program’s inception in 1995.

Additionally, projects have been shown to double, triple and, in some cases, return seven times the EPA’s initial investment through local tax revenues just one year after cleanup. In the same period of time, property values of homes near cleanup sites increased between 5% and 15%.

The city of Kansas City, Missouri, and its coalition with Jackson County in Missouri and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, were awarded an $800,000 Revolving Loan Fund for cleanup activities.

Brownfields funding has been previously used to create new affordable housing and jobs in Kansas City at the Gateway at 39th development, the DeLaSalle Education Center and the Aldi store at Prospect Avenue.

“Environmental sustainability is key to the future development of any city and the long term health of its residents,” said Missouri U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. “Targeting qualified opportunities zones will facilitate equitable development in areas that need it most.”

The Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant awarded to the Mid-America Regional Council will supplement local cleanup efforts with 15 Phase I and 12 Phase II environmental site assessments, as well as four risk assessments, four cleanup plans, and support community engagement. Sites include those near communities along Blue River industrial districts in Jackson County; Prospect and Independence Ave in Kansas City, Missouri; and neighborhoods bordering Quindaro Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas.

“Grant funds will facilitate the sustainable reuse of properties in diverse communities around the Kansas City region,” said MARC Environmental Program Director Tom Jacobs. “This initiative will be integral to fostering higher levels of regional collaboration in service of long term sustainability and resilience goals.”