Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

When presented with the question of what to do with a contaminated property in the heart of its historic downtown, the city of Newberg, Ore., didn’t turn and run. Rather, it stepped up to the challenge.

If the city hadn’t taken the property off the previous owner’s hands, the former car lot that sits across from city hall would have been a community eye soar, says David Beam, Newberg’s economic development coordinator.

“We didn’t want a big, contaminated site in the middle of town,” Beam says. “It was very likely that property could sit empty forever.” Instead, the property needed to return to city tax rolls, benefiting the downtown economy.

After nearly five years of working to assess, clean up and revitalize that property, Newberg is well on its way to having that vehicle for economic development. No longer an eye soar, the land is a green space, expected to be sold or even developed into a business complex with apartments on top.

“Either way, the city wins financially,” Beam says.

The property, a corner lot sitting on a quarter acre, was an auto dealership and service center since 1934. A gas station once operated on the lot’s southeast corner. In the early 1950s, the gas station was replaced with expanded facilities for the auto dealership.

In 2001, the former property owner decided to move his car dealership. City officials knew the site was being watched by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). In 1987, a leaking waste oil underground storage tank was removed from the property. It became imperative the city get involved, Beam says.

Working with the former property owner, the city instigated a charrette. It’s not a typical way to start one of these renewal projects; however, for Newberg, it was a good tool, Beam says.

A charrette is a French word meaning “cart.” In the business world, a charrette refers to an intense work session, usually with workshops and open houses, that harnesses the talents and energies of all parties and results in a feasible plan for a project.

Anyone with a stock in this property was invited to the charrette. The former property owner, state and federal officials, the downtown association, real estate agents and bankers, city representatives and even residents attended. In the meeting, all those involved talked about the different ways to develop the property.

The charrette was followed by a one-day event to talk about how the property would be cleaned up. All the involved parties were invited back. This is where project officials started putting together the financial piece of this project, hooking up with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DEQ to come up with a financial game plan, Beam says.

Because the site had been on the DEQ watch list, a Phase I analysis was already complete. Phase II was done by DEQ through its Targeted Brownfield Assessment program. Sampling found:

At that point, the city believed it knew what it was getting into and bought the land for $1. A $300,000 Community Development Block Grant paid for demolition and contamination removal. A contractor was hired by the city to implement the demolition and cleanup project. And a consultant was hired to advise the city and ensure procedures suggested by the contractor were consistent with the city’s goal of having a site suitable for building upon. Building materials were recycled as much as possible, extending the demolition time by a couple weeks.

Inevitably, surprises popped up, says Bob Bielman, the city’s project manager. The property had multiple layers of concrete–the former showroom alone had three layers. Of the six fuel USTs recovered, four were undocumented. Of the eight air-hydraulic hoists found, two were undocumented. The project was even shut down for a time to deal with the extra tanks, Bielman says. The good news was the business sat on dense, fine-grain clay, so contamination tended to contain itself, he says.

“This is where you get to why people are scared to death of these projects,” Beam says. City officials had to keep telling themselves the benefits would outweigh the bad, he adds.

In the end, the only investment from the city was staff time, Beam says. The process was paid for by grants along the way. The city got a valuable piece of property now valued at nearly $140,000. And the city got to control what happened to that site.

This past summer, Newberg threw a block party on the new green space to celebrate its adventure. The party, which drew 500 people, also served as a way to determine what the public wanted to see done with the property. People were shown conceptual drawings and asked for their opinions on the property’s future use. The city’s Downtown Revitalization Council has recommended a three-story, mixed-use building be built.

The site’s water quality now will be monitored for a year. The DEQ is expected to close the project in the next couple months, Beam says. Under CDBG guidelines, the property must serve the low-income population or the money is paid back. If the property is to be used in economic development, as the city plans, then it would first remain vacant for five years, as required by the CDBG, until sold to a developer.

Beam advises other communities to do their homework before embarking on such a project but to also take some risks. “It was a lot of hard work and it certainly made our hearts skip a beat a couple times,” he says.

But it was worth it, he adds, because the city has a great catalyst in the revitalization of its downtown.