Sustainable Land Development Today - April 2008 - (Page 22) Mason Run’s network of tree-lined streets connects to adjacent neighborhoods, creating a seamless addition to the city’s fabric. Select A Brownfield Professional with Care If you do not already have an experienced, proven brownfield professional you can rely on, move cautiously when it comes to selecting one, according to the Institute of Brownfield Professionals. A listing of such professionals can be found at its website: www.brownfieldpros.org. Choose three or more candidate brownfield professionals (Registered Brownfield Professional is an important mark of accomplishment) and ask each to furnish a statement of experience and qualifications. The furnished material should include information about past projects, with an emphasis on those similar to the project you’re involved with. Contact representatives of the client for each similar project. Ask about the brownfield professional’s performance; e.g., the individual’s or firm’s ability to work with client representatives in establishing an effective scope of service, ability to fulfill the scope, the reasonableness of the brownfield professional’s fee, the brownfield professional’s ability to deliver on time, and, of course, the effectiveness of the brownfield professional’s services. Further information on selecting a brownfield professional is available on the website. Harless’ approach was consistent with the sustainable development goals of the project and saved over $2.5 million in response costs, making the project economically viable. That was just the beginning. The presence of bedrock 10-12 feet below grade limited the depth of native soil excavations, presenting a mass balance and en- gineering challenge. There were sewer lines in road ROWs in the southern portion of the development installed at depths below the bedrock surface and through the required two-foot, native-clay barrier under the cinder/ash fill. Because it would not be feasible to backfill around the sewers with compacted clay, Harless and his team designed a cement/bentonite grout that would be sufficiently impermeable to block migration of impacted groundwater from the cinder/ash fill, but still brittle enough to allow removal for access to the sewers to effect future repairs. Traditional excavation methods were used to remediate remaining areas of contamination, and to remove the filled basements to allow access to contaminated media and construction of houses. Only those soils and other materials that could not be reused, recycled, or reclaimed were disposed. More than 50,000 tons of concrete and steel from the plant basements, other structures, and utilities were recycled Find a Registered Brownfield Professional www. brownfieldpros.org Cost-effective Solutions The financial impact of a brownfield professional was evident. Site cleanup had to be completed before land could be transferred to the developer and homes could be built. These costs came to $6.9 million, which, thanks to Dr. Harless’s brownfields team, was $3.1 million less than originally estimated. Meanwhile, the project team developed a financing program to fund cleanup, based on Michigan’s Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act (Public Act 381 of 1996, as amended), which pro- vides tax increment financing (TIF) of brownfield redevelopment costs. The team also designed a five-phase approach for redeveloping the site, which addressed issues of product absorption, generation of sufficient taxes to securely finance cleanup activities, and provide sufficient time to secure brownfield financing to bridge the gap between incurring the cleanup costs and realizing the tax increment revenues from completed homes. The project team secured a $1 million state grant and $5.5 million in federal, state and local loans. The Result Mason Run is a New Urbanism, Traditional Neighborhood Design, single-family, residential development characterized by a density of approximately eight to ten homes per acre, front porches and sidewalks, detached garages on alleys, traditional architecture reflective of the Monroe community, a 8811 Colesville Road • Suite G106 Silver Spring, MD 20910 Tel: 301/588-8668 • Fax: 301/589-2017 E-mail: info@brownfieldpros.org Circle 113 • or www.SLDTonline.com/webcard 22 April 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today http://www.brownfieldpros.org http://www.brownfieldpros.org http://www.brownfieldpros.org http://www.SLDTonline.com/webcard
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.