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Governor Rendell Designates Allegheny, York County Sites for Redevelopment

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 12:00 CDT

HARRISBURG, Pa., March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell today designated former heavy industrial sites in Allegheny and York counties for Brownfield Action Team redevelopment assistance to help improve the quality of life in the area and increase economic viability.

"Our environmental protection initiatives are driving economic growth in Pennsylvania, especially in our urban areas, helping to make our state even more competitive," Governor Rendell said. "Cleaning up abandoned industrial sites enhances the quality of life, addresses serious environmental problems in communities and provides new opportunities for job creation and business development."

The Brownfield Action Team, administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, helps accelerate redevelopment deals and gives investors the incentive they need to clean up contaminated industrial sites. BAT projects typically get permitted in half the usual time.

The York County project covers what is known as the Northwest Triangle in the city of York. The area includes a handful of operating industrial firms but much of the land is vacant. The redevelopment plan includes attracting commercial and waterfront recreation businesses to the land adjacent to the Codorus Creek in downtown York, with between 300 and 500 new jobs projected for the site. Also, as many as 250 new downtown residents are expected with the development of attractive housing in an urban park setting. This development is near the minor league baseball park slated to open in the spring of 2008, which is also expected to spur related economic activity in the area.

The Allegheny County project calls for the redevelopment of 135 acres of the former Carrie Furnace steel site on both sides of the Monongahela River in Swissvale, Rankin, Whitaker, and Munhall boroughs, as well as the city of Pittsburgh. Plans for this site include commercial/professional offices, light industrial and research businesses, tourism activities related to steel industry heritage, and residential development.

Not only would this site make use of prime riverfront property, but it would also coordinate redevelopment with other major initiatives such as the Mon Fayette Expressway, Route 837 improvements, the waterfront on the former U.S. Steel Homestead Works land, riverfront trails, the North Versailles Redevelopment Area, Hazelwood Redevelopment, and the South Side Works.

"These plans fit with Governor Rendell's goal of providing innovative ways for land-locked municipalities to increase new business opportunities and create jobs for residents," DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said. "Both of these projects make creative use of waterfront properties and the redevelopment occurring in adjacent areas. BAT works directly with community leaders to cut delays because time is money."

Since 2004, BAT has fast-tracked 35 projects in 22 counties to redevelop more than 6,286 acres of brownfields that have created and retained nearly 40,000 jobs. The commonwealth's land recycling program has cleaned up 2,267 contaminated and abandoned industrial sites and has created or retained as many as 77,700 jobs since 1995. More than 1,020 sites have been cleaned up and redeveloped and 28,700 jobs have been created or retained since 2003.

Nearly half of the cleanups conducted over the 11-year history of the state's land recycling program have come in the last four years.

Governor Rendell has worked aggressively to provide new incentives and financing and put in place enhanced management approaches that hasten brownfield redevelopment.

The PennWorks Program provides funding for municipalities and municipal authorities, industrial development corporations and investor-owned water or wastewater enterprises for projects that construct, expand or improve water and wastewater infrastructure which are related to economic development. In 2006, 40 projects totaling over $146 million were approved by the Commonwealth Financing Authority. These projects will create 77,418 jobs and leverage more than $209 million in private investment. Since inception: 62 PennWorks projects totaling nearly $200 million have been approved by the CFA.

The Business in Our Sites Program provides funding for communities and developers to build an inventory of shovel-ready sites for businesses. Last year, 33 projects totaling about $111 million were approved by the Commonwealth Financing Authority. These projects will retain 2,094 jobs, create 26,303 jobs and leverage $609 million in private investment. Since the program's inception, 107 projects have been approved with $300 million in state funding.

The Rendell administration added another enhancement through a historic memorandum of agreement between DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make Pennsylvania's land recycling program the first and only in the nation to serve as a "one-stop shop" for state and federal standards guiding the cleanup of brownfield sites.

The memorandum clarifies that sites remediated under the state's brownfields program also satisfy requirements for three key federal laws: the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation Liability Act, commonly referred to as Superfund; and the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Brownfields are abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by environmental issues. For more information, visit DEP's Web site at http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/, Keyword: "Land Recycling."

The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses. To find out more about Governor Rendell's initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit his Web site at: http://www.governor.state.pa.us/.

Contact: Barry Ciccocioppo, 717-783-1116

Ron Ruman, DEP, 717-787-1323

Pennsylvania Office of the Governor

CONTACT: Barry Ciccocioppo of the Pennsylvania Office of the Governor,+1-717-783-1116; or Ron Ruman of the Pennsylvania Department of EnvironmentalProtection, +1-717-787-1323

Web site: http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

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