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Brownfields

As recently as 1999, over 30% of the City of Erie’s employment was in the manufacturing sector, a large portion being in home-grown manufacturing companies. The recent downturn in the economy, and specifically in the manufacturing sector, has caused many local companies to close. As a result, the City of Erie has an abundance of vacant former industrial sites, many of which are deteriorating to the point where they present both safety and environmental concerns to the City and its residents. Most of the buildings at these sites are antiquated and are not suitable for the types of industries that would be candidates for expansion or relocation. Many times, though, these former industrial sites already have the infrastructure in roads, utilities and a ready workforce nearby that make the locations prime candidates for redevelopment.

Beginning in 1996, the City contracted annually with the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation (GEIDC), to implement its brownfield initiatives. The City allocates annual CDBG funds to support a brownfield coordinator at GEIDC who works to acquire additional State and Federal funds for assessment and remediation activities on sites where there is a potential reuser willing to invest private funds in the site as well. The brownfield coordinator also is charged with shepherding a site through Pennsylvania’s Land Recycling Program (Act 2, 3 & 4) , obtaining “clean” title for future owners. In this way, environmental concerns are reduced so that a potential developer may consider environmentally impaired properties.

The City of Erie has also approved numerous Keystone Opportunity Zones and Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones (KOZ) throughout the City, the majority of them having some type of environmental challenge. In 1999, then Governor Tom Ridge established the KOZ program to try to spur investment in hard to develop areas across the State by creating virtual tax free zones. The City of Erie took the spirit of this program to heart and designated over 467 acres on 20 sites throughout Erie as KOZ. In doing so, the City made the commitment that it was willing to forgo annual property taxes to provide additional incentives for companies to locate on these properties.

By implementing a specific brownfield initiative, and allocating the funds to support the clean up of these sites, the City has been able to begin controlling its own destiny rather than waiting for the private sector to fund projects. The result has been the cleanup of numerous sites that had environmental contamination, increased jobs, increased tax base to the City, and an improved reputation for being industry friendly. In recognition of this initiative, the City of Erie was awarded the 2003 Western Pennsylvania Environmental Award in the Governmental category at an awards dinner on December 4, 2003.

If you are interested in a former industrial site that may have environmental challenges, your first call should be to GEIDC to talk to our brownfield coordinator, Bob Grice. Bob can discuss the brownfield initiative with you and how the Land Recycling Program may be beneficial for your project. Bob can be reached at (814) 899-6022 or bgrice@edcec.org.

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