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Brownfield to Parks Examples

Since the 1970's TPL has been helping to transform used land into gardens and parks. These are recent examples-- snapshot portraits of four communities where brownfields are giving way to gardens, parks, greenways and open space.

Photo: Tom Evers

Within walking distance from downtown St. Paul, the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, a former industrial site, links the region's trails and open space system, and preserves historic caves and natural springs. The sanctuary is situated within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and nestled below the bluffs of Indian Mounds Regional Park—once a center of Dakota tribal trade and ceremony.

In 1996, St. Paul brought in the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to facilitate transactions to buy the contaminated lands from the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company and convey the lands to the city. As the property once contained rich and diverse habitat, the conversion plan included substantial wetland restoration. Industrial uses and presence of hazardous materials complicated the transactions with liability and value considerations. Working with the railway company, community groups and regulatory agencies, TPL, over the course of three years, executed an environmental response plan, obtained environmental liability insurance, and assisted in the design of the new nature sanctuary.

Photo: Jill Metcoff

Nearly forty years after Chinatown's only public park was demolished to make way for the Dan Ryan Expressway, the South Side Chicago neighborhood celebrated the dedication of a new five-acre jewel on the Chicago River in 1999 - Ping Tom Memorial Park.With a new pagoda-styled pavilion, this riverfront park has become a community center. However, the small size and narrow shape of the land could not meet the recreational needs of the growing Chinatown community. Specifically, it was not suitable for a much-anticipated field house.

To solve this problem, the City of Chicago Park District requested TPL's assistance in acquiring an adjacent five acres of abandoned railroad land owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. A former industrial site, or brownfield, the land has been cleaned up and redeveloped into a spacious community park with ball and soccer fields. Plans include construction of a field house and a swimming pool.

Photo: Eric Leshinsky

The Eastern District Terminal was a major rail-to-barge shipping facility (sugar from a nearby refinery being the principal good) until the middle of the 20th century. Abandoned for decades as shipping moved to the west side of New York Harbor, the site fell into disrepair and was abandoned. Meanwhile, growth pressure spreading outward from Manhattan has made Greenpoint/Williamsburg an increasingly attractive place to live.

In the 1990s, a major new waste transfer station was proposed for the property—a plan that the community organized successfully to oppose. With the support of local and state politicians, TPL stepped in and negotiated to acquire a two-block portion for desperately needed parkland.

Given the former industrial use, TPL screened the property for environmental hazards in the earliest stages of the transaction. Environmental evaluations showed underground fuel tanks and fuel hydrocarbon contamination in the soil. TPL coordinated sign-offs from stakeholders and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on necessary remediation measures. The property was then conveyed to the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The tanks have since been removed, and plans are nearly complete for building out the park.

This two-block (six-acre) parcel is now the core of a seven-block park being planned along the waterfront in Williamsburg. Its protection has inspired a major rezoning that will bring new residential and park development to the entire 1.7 miles of riverfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Most of the world knows East Boston as the home of Logan Airport, at the edge of Boston Harbor. In the 1960s, the Massachusetts Port Authority bulldozed a 45-acre Olmsted-designed park for a new airport runway, and residents have felt keenly the lack of open space ever since. For years East Boston residents have had access to only 1000 acres of open space-less than a third of the national urban standard.

In 1996, attention focused on a 1.2-mile railroad right-of-way between two newly developed East Boston Parks. A greenway along the route promised a much needed addition to the parks-poor neighborhood. But the land needed to be acquired, and then it would require significant environmental clean-up before the greenway could be developed.

TPL negotiated donation of the right-of-way from Conrail. Substantial funds for the clean-up came from a mitigation settlement between EPA Region 1 and the Massachusetts Highway Department after the greenway was designated a Supplemental Environmental Project. The city chipped in $250,000 for the project.

In sprawling Los Angeles many neighborhoods that contain brownfield sites are desperately lacking in parks and open space. One of these is the city of Maywood, the most densely populated city in California , with more than 30,000 people in 1.14 square miles. Ninety-three percent of its residents are Latino, and most families are of low-to-moderate income.

In Maywood, TPL and its partners are working to acquire a series of properties that comprise seven acres along the Los Angeles River---part of a planned fifty-mile-long Los Angeles River Greenway. Like some of the other potential open-space sites along the river, the Maywood site was contaminated, formerly used for mixing and distributing petroleum products and other industrial chemicals.

TPL negotiated the purchase of six parcels on the site. The city of Maywood will develop the park which, in addition to serving local recreational needs, will be an important gateway to the bikeway that runs along the River's levees.

Belltown is one of the most rapidly growing neighborhoods in Seattle. High-rise apartments and condominiums are transforming this downtown district near the waterfront into one of the city's most sought after residential enclaves.

But with only a single park-- popular Myrtle Edward's Park-- Belltown offers insufficient open space for this increased density. Now the Seattle Art Museum, with help from TPL, will create a new six-acre sculpture park on a former petroleum tank farm, effectively doubling the neighborhoods open space and preserving public access to Eliot Bay.

The parcel-a little north along the waterfront from the bustling tourist center of Pike Place Market- will offer stunning views across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains, and will draw both tourists and office workers from the state's densest and fastest-growing neighborhood.

TPL's negotiated an option with UNOCAL, the property's owner, which has been performing site remediation for a number of years. The TPL worked with UNOCAL, SAM, and local, state, and federal agencies to address the site's environmental concerns. Funding for the acquisition was obtained through a private fund raising campaign conducted jointly by TPL and the Seattle Art Museum. The park will be owned and managed by the museum.

Sixth Avenue and 15th St. Community Garden, NY

A 12,500-square-foot former gas station has been transformed into a community garden on a corner lot in the rapidly developing South Park Slope area of Brooklyn, NY-one of the few community gardens developed on private property in New York City.

All underground tanks and contamination were removed from the parcel after a residential building was proposed in the 1980's. A foundation was laid, but the real estate market crashed and construction was abandoned. Disturbed by the gaping eyesore in their neighborhood, residents persuaded the NYC Department of Sanitation to fill in the foundation, and since 1992 the lot has hosted a thriving community garden. Programs include composting and children's classes, such as summer writing and art workshops, chess class, crafts and games, and a youth mentorship program.

In 1999, TPL purchased the garden in anticipation of conveying it to the Brooklyn Land Trust, a private non-profit that will hold the property for management by the local gardening group. An anonymous donor provided TPL with the entire purchase price.

More examples of TPL's brownfield work.

Updated 8/2006