Greenville's Brownfields Assessment Project Underway

By Kristen Long
Thursday, March 5, 2009

Summary: In 2007, the City applied for a Brownfields Assessment Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build upon the Revitalization Plan by inventorying, assessing, and conducting redevelopment planning at some of these brownfields sites. Following a competitive review, the City was subsequently awarded a $200,000 Community Wide Assessment Grant to address sites with known or perceived hazardous substance contamination. Components of the grant include community outreach and education, site inventory and mapping, environmental site assessments, visioning and redevelopment planning.

Brownfield properties, by definition, are properties whose development are being hindered by real or perceived environmental contamination. Other cities, towns, and counties throughout the country have used this program to turn blighted or vacant buildings and properties into thriving commercial businesses, residences, and parks.

Utilizing these EPA grant funds, the City will investigate environmental issues associated with properties potentially contaminated with hazardous substances, focusing on the West Greenville Redevelopment Area. The City of Greenville was once home to one of the largest tobacco warehouse and auction markets in the nation. Adjacent to downtown Greenville, the eastern portion of the area was once a bustling complex of tobacco warehouses, industrial facilities, commercial buildings, and railroad infrastructure. The area initially developed around the larger tobacco warehouse properties. The result was oddly shaped parcels, an erratic road pattern, and crisscrossed rail lines. With the decline in the local tobacco industry in the 1980s, however, the residential neighborhoods to the west of the Tobacco Warehouse District also declined. Commercial buildings in the historic African American business district were boarded-up and single-family homes were converted into poorly maintained rental units. The center city of Greenville is now littered with many abandoned and decaying warehouse sites, and these brownfields sites tend to be located in the vicinity of many of the older and more historic neighborhoods.

After September 1999, even greater stress was placed on West Greenville. Tropical Storm Dennis and Hurricane Floyd dumped more than twenty inches of rain on Eastern North Carolina, causing massive flooding in Greenville. Over 1,800 structures were damaged at a cost of more than $90 million. Out of natural calamity, however, emerged new opportunities. In response to the crisis, the City of Greenville embarked on one of the largest property buyout programs in the nation’s history, eventually acquiring nearly 500 flood-damaged properties. Many displaced residents resettled in West Greenville. Thus, the City of Greenville began an ongoing program to build affordable single-family homes in West Greenville for lower-income families.

In January 2006, Greenville City Council, working in partnership with downtown and West Greenville residents, business owners, and neighborhood groups, adopted the Center City – West Greenville Revitalization Plan. The Revitalization of downtown Greenville is accelerating. Downtown commercial buildings are being renovated using federal and state tax credits. One historic commercial corridor that is prime for redevelopment in the next three to five years is Dickenson Avenue, which connects the downtown with West Greenville’s Tobacco Warehouse District, historic African American business district, and residential neighborhoods.

The West Greenville section of the Revitalization Plan aims to capitalize on West Greenville’s wealth of human capital, community organizations, and historic building fabric. Revitalization goals include increasing homeownership; ensuring safe, livable, affordable neighborhoods; improving infrastructure; providing park and open space opportunities; and creating conditions favorable for economic development.

By assessing potentially contaminated properties throughout this portion of the City, the risks involved in redeveloping the properties will be quantified. Through this process, property owners and developers will be encouraged to clean up these sites and put them back into productive use. The City is currently working with property owners, environmental contractors, citizens, and other partners to identify and prioritize brownfield sites. Once an inventory of potential sites has been completed, the City will assess contamination and create cleanup and redevelopment plans at high-priority sites.

The first Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) have been completed at the former Imperial Tobacco Property. The assessments document that contamination does exist in soil and groundwater beneath the property. A Brownfields Property Agreement with the North Carolina Brownfields Program is being considered to address these environmental concerns.