The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected East Baton Rouge Parish for a $500,000 Brownfield Assessment Grant. This grant will provide funding for technical assistance towards the assessment, clean-up and redevelopment of brownfield sites in the parish.
Brownfields are sites with real or perceived contamination that are complicating redevelopment of an area. These sites typically include old commercial buildings, former gas stations and dry cleaners located in central locations with good connections to existing infrastructure, but in disinvested neighborhoods. EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse these sites.
“East Baton Rouge is excited to continue our brownfield program and focus our efforts on assessing and restoring contaminated and long vacant properties back into commerce. In partnership with EPA, we will be able to target the areas of Plank Road, Scotlandville and the Florida Boulevard Corridor to turn blighted and vacant sites into community assets,” said Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome.
The Planning Commission, through their Brownfield Program, and in partnership with numerous city-parish agencies and non-profits, will use this funding to advance the Imagine Plank Road Master Plan, the Scotlandville Community Plan and the Mid-City Medical Corridor Plan by addressing lingering environmental concerns. The work is set to begin in October 2022 through September 2025.
This would build on the Planning Commission’s 20-year brownfield program by identifying resources and incentives to place idle sites back into productive reuse. Since the pilot program began in 2000, East Baton Rouge has leveraged over $53 million in redevelopment dollars which has led to job creation, an increase in the tax base and placement of idle properties back into commerce.
To view the EPA grant fact sheet: https://java.epa.gov/acrespub/gfs/factsheet/12134
For more information about the economic and environmental benefits of brownfield reuse: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-program-environmental-and-economic-benefits
For more information on the Baton Rouge Brownfield Program visit:
https://www.brla.gov/2536/Baton-Rouge-Brownfields-Program or contact Maggie Gleason at 225-389-3144 or mgleason@brla.gov
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