Mayor Kevin Smith's office says more than 125 properties city-wide are idled, potentially contaminated and in need of revitalization.

Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Anderson Mayor Kevin S. Smith is participating in a national effort to revitalize vacant brownfield properties for new economic development today.

On Tuesday, October 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is convening a select group of high-level officials from the federal government, local communities, state governments, the corporate sector, and environmental groups to seek solutions to the challenges of revitalizing “mothballed brownfield” properties. Mayor Smith was invited because the City of Anderson is underway with a nationally-recognized initiative to turn vacant and contaminated General Motors facilities into commercial offices that bring new jobs, new tax base, and economic revitalization.

Mayor Smith said, “Anderson is poised for an economic resurgence, and we aim to work with allies in the private sector and the state and federal government to convert these long-vacant properties into new prosperity.”

The City of Anderson is underway with an initiative to convert closed and contaminated properties into new business and jobs for the community. There are more than 125 properties city-wide that are idled, potentially contaminated, and in need of revitalization.

Since the time that Mayor Smith first identified the revitalization of these sites as a priority, Anderson has received $200,000 in U.S. EPA brownfields grant funding to identify brownfield sites, assess their contamination, and create strategies for their redevelopment. Anderson has put this funding to work. The emerging success story at Anderson sites has been recognized nationally, and was featured at the U.S. EPA’s 2006 Brownfields Conference in Boston. At the EPA meeting on October 9, Anderson will describe how determined efforts to forge partnerships with the private sector can overcome barriers to economic revitalization at mothballed brownfield sites.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a nationwide initiative to explore the causes of mothballed brownfield properties, and seek potential solutions to overcome barriers to the revitalization of these sites. On October 9, U.S. EPA is conducting a forum with selected invitees who have valuable perspectives on the issue. The meeting will have 70 participants, including senior EPA management running the national brownfields program, corporate executives from Fortune 500 companies, state environmental officials, local government officials, and environmental groups promoting brownfields revitalization.

Kevin Smith will represent local governments, as the only invited mayor, and has been asked to give the opening presentation at the EPA meeting. Officials from other localities that will also be participating include representatives of the City of Rochester, NY, Emeryville, CA, and Charles Town, WV. One important segment of the session will focus on how individuals, companies and small businesses that mothball brownfields can inhibit downtown and community revitalization. The session will seek positive approaches to collaboration with such site owners to realize value from these properties.

The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to use the input from the meeting to understand how to provide more tools and resources to localities and businesses on the mothballed brownfields challenge. Mayor Smith of Anderson plans to use these lessons learned, and the relationships built through this October 9 forum, to promote the creation of new businesses and community improvements in idled sites throughout Anderson.

Source: Anderson Mayor Kevin Smith's Office