LA Brownfields Program
| Assistance & News | Sites | Useful Links |
Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.
The City of Los Angeles has a nationally-recognized brownfields program.
Los Angeles Brownfields Program:
A Showcase Community
The goal of Los Angeles’ Brownfields Program is to develop effective strategies to enable redevelopment of brownfields throughout Los Angeles but particularly in disadvantaged communities and to incorporate these strategies into the City’s normal redevelopment process. |
The City has created a Brownfields Team with members from the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), the Environmental Affairs Department (EAD), the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, Community Development Department (CDD), the City Attorney's Office, City Council offices, and other departments and agencies as needed. |
The teams have identified initial case study sites to test strategies to facilitate redevelopment of brownfields given various ownership scenarios and transaction and environmental barriers. |
The City created a multi-million dollar Los Angeles Brownfields Revitalization Fund which can be used for assessment, acquisition, remediation, and community involvement activities at brownfields sites. Additional funds and incentives for site development are available. |
Partnerships are being created between City departments, community organizations, and local, State, and Federal agencies to test brownfields strategies on case study sites. |
The City promotes the use of various tools such as prospective purchaser agreements, comfort letters, State economic development tax incentives, State Voluntary Cleanup Agreements, and community involvement strategies among others in order to facilitate redevelopment of Brownfield sites. |
| The City’s program receives full-time support from a Federal official on loan to the City from the U.S. EPA Region 9 Office pursuant to the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). |
| Federal Showcase Communities Designation - The City of Los Angeles was selected to be one of only 16 communities initially designated as Federal Brownfields Showcase Communities. This designation recognizes Los Angeles for its innovative and successful approaches to redeveloping brownfields. The designation is accompanied by grants, technical assistance, and coordination from a group of federal agencies partnering on the national Showcase Communities program. *This definition is from federal legislation: Public Law 107-118 (H.R. 2869) - "Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act" signed into law January 11, 2002. |
Contacts
For more information on the City's Brownfields Program please contact:
Nuna Tersibashian of EnvironmentLA at (213) 978-0872, or
Dan Weissman of the Community Redevelopment Agency at 213-977-2687