Feature
Land ownership, cultural differences among development hurdles for tribes
In the world of brownfields, perhaps no better redevelopment projects cry out in need than on the country’s tribal lands.
Many tribal lands, usually rural developments with small populations that have high poverty and unemployment rates, have some very large environmental problems. Take the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation in north central Washington.
The tribes there gained ownership in 1979 of a former mill site. It was converted to the Inchelium Wood Treatment Plant in 1985. The plant treated posts and poles with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). The list of contaminates on the 40-acre site now runs long: lead, arsenic, chromium, copper, and diesel and heavy-oil range petroleum hydrocarbons. Contamination has been found in the soils and groundwater.
Still, the project has hit a standstill. Don Hurst, toxics cleanup manager for the Colville reservation, says its EPA funding is in “eligibility purgatory.” While the tribe has a strong land base, it isn’t a person under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), he says. The toxics cleanup program hasn’t been able to move forward on this project because of eligibility issues.
On tribal lands, a piece of property could mean anywhere from one to 500, or more, landowners, explains Ryan Rossi, an environmental scientist in the Environmental Waste Management program for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in southeastern Idaho.
The question of ownership is just one of many hurdles that pop up when tribes become involved in brownfields redevelopment. And EPA Region 10 knows better than any other region what those hurdles are. The region has more federally recognized tribes than any other EPA region in the United States. No one even comes close. Region 10 has 271 tribes: Idaho has four, Oregon nine, Washington 29 and Alaska 229.
Tribes bring sovereign governments, cultural concerns and, often times, subsistence issues to the brownfields table. All may influence the type of redevelopment that’s needed. It also may be more difficult to get brownfields information out on tribal lands, which are nearly always rural, or even remote as in the case of Alaska.
Ellen Simeonoff, environmental program director for the Woody Island Tribal Council in Alaska, sees tribes having jurisdiction and coordination issues that prevent brownfields work from being completed. In Alaska, reservations have a tribal government and village corporations. The tribal government usually has no land ownership. When the tribal government and corresponding corporation don’t get along, problems arise, Simeonoff says. A breakdown in relations has left the Woody Island tribal government with no land access one year into its brownfields program.
Meanwhile, her department has identified several brownfields sites, including abandoned military buildings, abandoned fuel tanks, community dumps and a satellite tracking station with contaminated oil under its building pad. These sites have much tourism potential because of their attractive fishing and hunting opportunities. You’re not looking at setting up a big box store, Simeonoff says. Instead, the tribal government would like to see more green space or recreational land.
“It’s an easy place to envision the tremendous amount of possibilities,” she says. Still, no cleanup will happen until the tribal government gains access to the land again.
Balancing those lines of communication and cooperation can be difficult when you have more than one agency involved. In Alaska, tribes aren’t eligible for direct brownfield assessment or cleanup grants. This makes that relationship between the tribe, its corporation and city government especially important.
“The brownfields program is suitable for tribes; I think it’s highly compatible,” Simeonoff explains. “But you have to have a cooperative corporation. We don’t have that right now.”
When projects are identified, the question of what is going to be developed comes into play. Or, a tribe may oppose development all together. Green space is an important issue for many tribes that have a strong appreciation for the environment, says Kelly Wright, the Environmental Waste Management program manager for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.
A developer who wants to work with the tribes is going to have to be patient, Rossi says. There may be unique zoning restrictions or other tribal issues, he says. For example, many tribes have high unemployment rates and want development that will support their employment laws, which includes hiring tribal employees.
And a developer can’t come into a tribal community and force an idea upon the people there, Wright says. Tribal communities want to be involved in the process. Both sides will have to show some flexibility, and a developer may appreciate a proactive community, he says.
There are numerous brownfields that are easier to move forward than one on a reservation, Hurst says. He hopes Congress approves the CERCLA brownfields funding long enough for it to trickle down to the reservations and make some real headway. This is an outstanding opportunity for tribes, he says. While the way the brownfields program was conceived may make for a difficult path on a reservation, it really is just a different path the tribes must take, he says.
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Problem Solver
Astoria lays groundwork to attract developer
By the time developer Art DeMuro of Venerable Properties in Portland stepped up to the table to do business with the city of Astoria, Ore., the main course was nearly finished.
On the city’s plate was a major hurdle: 16 acres of abandoned riverfront property contaminated with toxic chemicals that needed to be cleaned up and redeveloped. The city envisioned the site, a lumber mill since the 1870s, as a mixed-use redevelopment with homes and commercial space.
When DeMuro became involved, the city had gained ownership of the land. A $1.4 million cleanup project was finished. A Prospective Purchaser’s Agreement (PPA), which limited the new owner to the liability of any contamination that occurred after acquiring ownership, was nearly completed. And, after a year of research, the city had a solid vision for the property. The city now was looking for someone with whom it could work to give the property new life.
DeMuro, whose company is known for its work in historical redevelopment, had never worked with contaminated land. But this was riverfront property where the community already had done the groundwork. “So it wasn’t as intimidating,” he says.
DeMuro admits he’s never had a professional relationship quite like what he found in Astoria. “Typically a city is an impediment,” he says of other projects. “You’re trying to find ways around a city’s restrictions.”
If there are lessons to be learned from Mill Pond Village, they are lessons of perseverance and cooperation. Lessons of a city that wasn’t afraid to dig in and get the cleanup process rolling, even before a developer stepped forward.
From the city’s perspective, it was time to start thinking like a developer, says Paul Benoit, Astoria’s city manager. And from a developer’s perspective, this project wasn’t attractive. Here you have a town that hasn’t seen any population growth in nearly 100 years. Why put up more housing? And on a brownfield, at that?
That’s why the city had to step up and make this project appealing, says Benoit, formerly Astoria’s community development director and the man who spearheaded this effort.
“We were dogged and perseverant, and flipped over every stone,” Benoit says.
Mill Pond Village sits along the Columbia River off of Highway 30, at the east entrance into Astoria. The city, where the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River meet, has a history rich in logging and fishing. The development, modeled after a fishing village, is on the site where the Clatsop Mill Company operated from 1870 to 1955. In 1955, the Astoria Plywood Cooperative took over, going out of business in 1989.
That year, a visit by the Small Business Administration (SBA) alerted Benoit that the co-op had defaulted on a $3 million SBA loan. Soon after he learned the co-op was more than $5 million in debt. “It was real clear to me the mess that was going to be left behind,” he says looking back.
And what a mess it was. The SBA, not wanting to sell a piece of contaminated land, stripped the mill of anything useful, like metal, roofing materials, etc., leaving behind a dilapidated building. The property stood out among the new development around it. “It looked like the town dump,” Benoit says.
Benoit began working with the property’s lien holders, asking if they would assign their liens to the city. Weyerhaeuser, PacifiCorp and Liberty Northwest Insurance handed over their liens; however, it took a year to work out deals with the other two lien holders: the SBA and Clatsop County.
While working out the liens, the city started remediation in 1993, partnering with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The city and state split the cost of the $1.4 million cleanup.
For the state, $700,000 was used out of its orphan site account, a special state fund approved by the Legislature to pay for the clean up of contaminated property where no known, willing or able party can pay for it. In this case, there was no owner the EPA or DEQ could go to, says Alan Kiphut, Land Quality administrator for DEQ. In these situations, the sites must be high priorities. Since the orphan account was formed in the early 1990s, DEQ has used money on about 50 sites, Kiphut says.
For its share, the city approached ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific, a regional conservation development fund that facilitates environmental and economic development in rural communities. ShoreBank authorized a $750,000 loan that was secured by the property.
During this time, the city also was collecting public opinion at community forums. Many people spoke of attracting industry and family wage jobs to replace what was lost. However, after a year of talking about where the city was headed, the community arrived at a consensus that a mixed-use site was in the city’s best interest, Benoit says.
With its vision of a development that would celebrate the city’s history, the city put together a full-color brochure and advertised from Seattle to Portland for a private developer. Only two responded, including DeMuro’s Venerable Properties.
Venerable Properties bought the site for $700,000. The sale was assisted with the PPA, one of the first PPAs in the state and a major incentive for the developer, Kiphut says.
The city was able to orient him to the project, educating him about the PPA process and making concessions along the way to get the project started, DeMuro says. DeMuro also spent about $300,000 on brownfields-related costs. Remediation included restoring the south bank of a small pond that’s on the property, including a weir where the pond flows into the Columbia River. A 2-foot soil cap was needed in some hot spots. And groundwater monitoring was to take place for 10 years; however, after one test DEQ determined the water had returned to non-hazardous levels.
DeMuro, Benoit and Kiphut all agree this project, which won a 2001 Phoenix Award for EPA Region 10, was successful because of the level of cooperation between the city, state and developer. Benoit learned that building relationships is critical in brownfields redevelopment. Establishing that redevelopment vision also was important. It took a year to gain the community’s consensus. For a private developer, that time translates into money lost, he says.
Cities should also be willing to view the project through the developer’s eyes. That may be hard for government agencies because they’re often in regulatory mode, Benoit says.
Today, Mill Pond Village has 200 residential lots and four commercial or mixed-use lots. At the time of the interview, only 13 lots--12 residential and one commercial--were still for sale. However, DeMuro expected all contracts on those lots to be completed by the end of the year.
While Mill Pond Village has given the city a significant boost in its tax rolls, more importantly, it’s given the people there a sense of community pride. “It has had as much an impact on the psychology of the town as the financial impact,” Benoit says.
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Groundwork
Brownfields for sale. How do you find them?
The word is out: brownfields make for good development. They are often in areas where infrastructure already is in place. Developing them can save a community’s limited open space. And, with partners such as your state environmental agency or EPA, you have resources to help you through the assessment and cleanup phases.
So just where do you find a brownfield to buy?
Each state in EPA Region 10 has a listing of brownfields sites on its state environmental agency Web site. These lists are a good start. Searching through the listings may give you an idea of land that’s available and in what regions or counties. The lists are at:
Alaska: http://www.dec.state.ak.us/SPAR/csp/brownfields.htm
Idaho: http://www.deq.idaho.gov/Applications/Brownfields/index.cfm?site=brownfields.htm
Oregon: http://www.deq.state.or.us/wmc/cleanup/brn0.htm
Washington: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/SiteLists.htm
However, these lists are just a start. Many don’t give the current status of the property, such as whether it’s for sale. With a property in mind, now the work is up to you.
Next, tap into the community’s knowledge, advises Keith Donahue, brownfields program manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). For example, the Capital City Development Corporation in Boise has identified at least 30 petroleum sites for redevelopment in its community.
“Local government can be a great source,” Donahue says. “They will know the properties lying there stagnate.”
Other resources include local consultants, economic development officials and real estate agents, says Sharon Kophs, brownfields program manager for Washington State Community, Trade and Economic Development. You can even give your state environmental cleanup agency’s brownfields program a call to ask for assistance.
Unique to Oregon is OregonProspector (http://www.oregonprospector.com/). The Oregon Economic Development Association put together this Web site for businesses interested in relocating or expanding a business in the state. The Web site provides a database of available sites and buildings, some of which are brownfields, by city, county, type of property and size.
When looking at properties, there also are signs to look for that may point to a brownfield distinction. If it’s an abandoned property, that’s usually a good indicator the property is a brownfield. If the back taxes haven’t been paid, that’s an indicator the property may be for sale.
In Idaho, infill developers already do a good job of finding these properties for sale, Donahue says. His department has seen some “national players,” developers from outside the state, looking to expand or open a new office. Those developers understand brownfields can be a tool to get into a community. Donahue expects to see this attitude spill over into the general building industry.
While states have been compiling an inventory of brownfield sites, few have taken that list as far as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The agency’s Land Recycling Program created PA SiteFinder as a one-stop-shop for brownfield buyers and sellers. The site (http://www.pasitefinder.state.pa.us/) is an online real estate directory of brownfields for sale or lease in Pennsylvania. Sellers can list their properties. Buyers can do searches using criteria such as sale or lease price, property size, building space or location by county or region. The site also compiles financial incentives for brownfields redevelopment and will put a user in contact with resources such as lenders, consultants and attorneys.
Hooking up these buyers with sellers is important to the brownfields program, says John Carnahan, brownfield coordinator for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. One of Carnahan’s goals is to send out a mass distribution list to the owners of these sites in Alaska to see if they are interested in selling their properties. His department also could inform prospective purchasers if they are eligible for federal assistance, he says.
“A lot of people just want these things out of their hair,” Carnahan says. “And there are people looking for them.”
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