Strategies for Greyfield Sites Clean-up and Maintenance

1. Dr. Barrett L. Kays Dr. Barrett L. Kays Landis, Inc. www.barrettkays.com Dr. Barrett L. Kays Landis, Inc. www.barrettkays.com

2. Strategies for Improving the Clean-up and Maintenance of Greyfield Sites by Dr. Barrett L. KaysGreyfields 2002Community Renewal and Redevelopment Through Adaptive Reuse Conference, West Palm Beach, Florida

3. Strategies for Improving the Clean-up and Maintenance of Greyfield Sites • Is it a Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield? • Don’t pull the trigger until you are sure. • What are the major environmental issues? • What are the major regulatory hurdles? • What strategies will led to a successful project? • How do we assure environmental compliance?

4. Is it a Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield? • Brownfields – may have: • Action levels of hazardous wastes in soil and groundwater, and • Action levels of petroleum wastes in soil and groundwater (depends upon state’s brownfield law), or • No wastes, but have a stigma or perception (depends upon state’s brownfield law).

5. Confidential Industry – Proposed Brownfield Redevelopment Confidential Industry – Proposed Brownfield Redevelopment

6. Is it a Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield? • Greenfields – may have: • Corps regulated jurisdictional waters and wetlands, • FWS regulated endangered, threatened and protected species and habitats, • FEMA regulated floodplains, and • EPA regulated water quality restrictions.

7. West Creek Business Park, Richmond, VA – Greenfield Development West Creek Business Park, Richmond, VA – Greenfield Development

8. Is it a Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield? • Greyfields – may have some: • Corps regulated jurisdictional water and wetlands, • FWS regulated endangered, threatened and protected species and habitats, • FEMA regulated floodplains, • EPA regulated water quality restrictions, • But, a lesser amount than Greenfields.

9. University Place Plaza, Charlotte, NC – Greyfield Redevelopment University Place Plaza, Charlotte, NC – Greyfield Redevelopment

10. Is it a Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield? • Greyfields – also may have some: • Limited areas with action levels of hazardous wastes in soil and groundwater (depends upon state’s brownfield law), • Action levels of petroleum and dry cleaning solvent wastes in soil and groundwater (depends upon state’s brownfield law), • But, a lesser amount than Brownfields, or • No wastes, but have a stigma or perception (depends upon state’s brownfield law).

11. Great Lawn, Central Park, New York, NY – Greyfield Redevelopment Great Lawn, Central Park, New York, NY – Greyfield Redevelopment

12. Belvedere Lake, Central Park, New York, NY – Greyfield Redevelopment Belvedere Lake, Central Park, New York, NY – Greyfield Redevelopment

13. Therefore, Greyfields are: • Sites with limited contamination • hazardous wastes, petroleum, and dry cleaning solvents (depends upon state’s brownfield law), • Sites with environmental restrictions • floodplains, wetlands, eroding stream channels, stormwater, etc., and • Sites that have a stigma or perception of environmental and, or economic difficulties.

14. Don’t Pull the Trigger Until You’re Sure • Conduct a complete and thorough “environmental site assessment” • Determine all contingent environmental liabilities, • Determine corrective actions and costs, and • Determine alternative strategies – very important. • Determine how to maximize the develop- ment potential of the site and at the same time assure environmental compliance.

15. What are the major environmental issues? • Factors that prevents full development of the site: • Floodways and wetlands, • Inflexible local land development codes, and • Stormwater regulations that cuts into the net usable acreage by requiring vegetated buffers along stream channels and stormwater basins with large surface areas. These issues are important because they impact the net usable acreage, and thus redevelopment potential.

16. What are the major land use/ environmental issues? • Local development regulations effect net usable acreage or maximum floor area: • Minimum lot area & buildings per lot requirements, • Setbacks and yard areas requirements, • Building heights and floor area ratios requirements, • Off-street parking requirements, and • Limitations on mixed uses. All of these requirements are intended to achieve environmental welfare of public, but also limit the redevelopment potential of the property.

17. What are the secondary environmental issues? • Soil and groundwater contamination • Leaking underground storage tanks (LUST’s), • Limited pockets of hazardous waste, and • Otherenvironmental issues and contingencies • That affects development construction costs, but does not affect the net usable acreage or gross leasable square footage in buildings.

18. Strategy Matrix Hit – Maybe? Significant increase in base property value + Significant environmental & land development costs Home Run Significant increase in base property value + Limited environmental & land development costs Strike Out Limited increase in base property value + Significant environmental & land development costs Hit – Maybe? Limited increase in base property value + Limited environmental & land development costs

19. Wetlands Tool Kit • Wetland Hydric Soils • Use “Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in United States” Version 4.0: • http://www/statlab.iastate.edu/soils/hydric/fieldindintro.html • http://www.barrettkays.com/articles/website_1-02.html • Wetland Hydrology • Use DRAINMOD computer simulation: • http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/bae/research/soil_water/www/watmngmnt/drainmod/ • http://www.barrettkays.com/articles/webarticle_2-02.html

20. Tool Kit • Floodplains • LOMA for floodway and floodway fringe • Add cross sections to narrow floodway, • Add adjustments for existing bridges & structures to further narrow the floodway, • Consider major shift in floodway using an asymmetrical floodway, • Obtain necessary environmental approvals to fill the floodway fringe

21. Tool Kit (cont.) • Stormwater Quality Basins • Reduce size of facility with use of polyacrylamides(PAM's) flocculants, • http://www.barrettkays.com/ articles/webarticle_5-02.htm • Further reduce size of facility using aeration in second cell of the basin, and • Provide shallow surface flow discharge through dense vegetated buffer, or • Bioretention cell with subsurface drainage into stream channel.

22. Tool Kit (cont.) • Stream Channel Buffers • If there is sufficient space, add vegetated stream buffers on flatter slopes adjacent to the channels, or • If space is at a premium, add ecological bioengineering of stream banks with vegetation in lieu of vegetated stream buffer • Add bioengineering of eroding stream channels bottoms and include ripples and pools,

23. Tool Kit Summary • Environmental Tool Kits • Learn to solve difficult wetland problems that would otherwise prevent redevelopment, • Learn to solve complex floodplain problems that are essential for a successful site redevelopment, • Learn to solve water quality basin designs when there is inadequate space on the site, and • Learn to design and implement bioengineering of stream channels and buffers in limited space.

24. Public Solutions Team • Action Team Driven for Success • Create a truly multidisciplinary redevelopment team that will “Never Ever say No to a Client”, • Challenge the team to master creative market driven site design & redevelopment economics, • Make them responsible to find and partner with private development clients, to solve any problem of the client, and to close the deal, and • Grant them the authority to exempt a project from any local regulatory requirement, and assist them by seeking the same from other public agencies.

25. More Information • www.barrettkays.com • Download a copy of this power point presentation, • Download technical environmental articles about technical resources, projects, and cases, • Use my links for technical environmental information and environmental regulatory sites, • Sign up for periodic web articles to be sent you, and • Contact me if you have any questions.