This month's newsletter focuses on a workshop held June 30th that was designed and facilitated by the Western Region Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities (TAB) for the City of Spokane's Brownfields program. The workshop was the culmination of a relationship that began in 2002.

Spokane skyline

Spokane received an EPA assessment grant in May of 2002 to aid in the redevelopment of properties in two economically challenged areas of the urban core. Shortly after the EPA grant awards were announced, TAB made contact with the city's brownfields coordinator and later visited Spokane to assess how best to assist with the city's brownfields program. The outcome of the TAB needs assessment was a proposal presented to the city, with a plan to meet the objectives of their grant and to promote their brownfields redevelopment program.

The plan consisted of a series of stakeholder surveys to assess the specific attitudes, needs and brownfields knowledge of community leaders, lenders, developers, regulators and city personnel. The cornerstone of the TAB proposal was a 4-hour workshop focusing on developing criteria for brownfield site selection and prioritization and determining their relative importance.

Potential Spokane brownfield

In the fall of 2003 Spokane put out an RFP for an environmental consultant to perform tasks related to the city's brownfields program. The tasks included building an inventory of brownfield sites, participating in two community meetings (one in each targeted area), and assisting in the criteria development workshop proposed by TAB. Using the information gathered at these events the consultant would then perform environmental assessments on the top three or more sites and develop an integrated remediation and redevelopment plan for at least one site.

The city selected the local GeoEngineers office for the project. The firm brought in two other Spokane-based firms, Jim Kolva & Associates and Hubbard-Gray Consulting, to assist in the tasks put forth by the RFP. Working as a team, the city, TAB and the three local firms engaged in the necessary steps to gather information for use in the Criteria Workshop as well as to promote brownfields redevelopment in Spokane.

Stakeholder interviews, site inventory building and community meeting design and planning were performed by the local firms. TAB participated in the community meetings with a presentation on “Brownfields Basics” and posters on site assessment and brownfields "before and after”. When these events were completed, it was time to convene the workshop.

Participants at the Criteria Workshop included a community leader, regulatory personnel from the city and state, city planners, a local real estate developer and a brownfields expert from the state economic development agency. After short presentations by the Spokane brownfields team members, TAB facilitated the process of building a list of criteria and ranking them in order of their importance to the Spokane community. A summary of the Criteria Workshop can be seen here.

If you would like to know more about the Workshop or TAB's work with the City of Spokane, contact Jerry Orlando at 541-737-5736 or by e-mail at jerry.orlando@oregonstate.edu.