Birmingham City Council votes to accept $400,000 EPA brownfields grant for North Birmingham
The city of Birmingham has received a large grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time since 1997, according to city officials.
The Birmingham City Council voted today 7-0 to execute an agreement with the EPA to accept a brownfield grant for $400,000, to be used to reclaim some potential commercial properties in North Birmingham.
A brownfield is a former industrial or commercial site where future use is hindered by environmental contamination.
The city hopes that this grant can serve as “a stepping stone” to more grants in the future – including grants for brownfield sites in other areas of the city – according to Amber Courtney of the Office of Community Development.
The goal is to identify and clean up old industrial sites in North Birmingham and to find “private sector dollars to come in and revitalize the area,” Courtney said.
“It is looking specifically to draw jobs once we remediate these buildings and entice companies to come into the area,” she said.
Councilwoman Lashunda Scales raised the concern that the EPA grant is focused only on North Birmingham. “What about the rest of the city that has these problems?” she said.
With some EPA grants, the applicants must focus on a particular area, according to Courtney, who added, “It is our intention to continue to apply for grants for each section of the city.”
And the city, having not received an EPA grant since 1997, was trying to turn on the tap of grant money, according to Courtney.
“We were trying to get our foot in the door,” she said.
Scales continued to press the point regarding a focus on North Birmingham and asked for a comment from John Colon, the city’s director of community development.
“Why didn’t we apply for everything, meaning all the brownfield spots in Birmingham?” she said.
The trend with such program is to focus on “geographically concentrated areas for maximum impact,” Colon said.
Colon also said that the effort was initiated by Mayor William Bell and led by Councilman William Parker, “who is a strong advocate and built some of the relationships that led to this award, so I think it was his leadership in this regard that put the North Birmingham community in the forefront.”
Scales said she would like all council members to learn more about how they can get some of these grants for their districts.
Bell said that the city was directed by the EPA to apply for this grant as a way to deal with “specific studies” of North Birmingham.
The mayor also stressed that the city is working on other brownfields mitigation projects in the city, including one in Ensley.
Councilwoman Patricia Abbott said that she attended an “excellent” EPA brownfields workshop at Boutwell Auditorium last week and was “excited” when she left.
“They talked about building on what they are doing in North Birmingham [and] building in other areas of the city,” she said. “We are an industrial city. We have a lot of brownfields.”
She also praised the city’s community development office for winning the grant and for their handling of “the brownfields issue.”
According to Abbott, the city could see more dollars from the EPA and from “some other agencies further down the food chain from the EPA that really do a lot of the work and will really provide some of the funding for us.”
The grant money will be used to develop a site inventory, prioritize sites, and conduct assessments, according to the text of the resolution. The funds will also pay for public outreach, community involvement and clean-up and reuse planning activities.
Courtney told Council President Pro Tempore Hoyt said that the city will work with Lawson State to provide training so that area residents can get some jobs during the clean-up phase in North Birmingham, including hazmat and remediation activities.
I-20/59 discussion continues
The council voted 7-0 to approve an agreement between the city and the Alabama Department of Transportation to do another study of plans to relocate the aging I-20/59 interstate outside of downtown Birmingham.
This study will be funded by $3 million from ALDOT, according to Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt, who chairs the council’s Public Safety, Transportation Committee
Hoyt said his committee had recently heard proposals regarding the aging interstate from ALDOT and – just last week – from the non-profit group Move I-20/59 group that opposes ALDOT’s plans for updating the freeway.
“The compromise is to do a study and see if now or in the future it would be prudent to do something different,” Hoy said.
Again referring to the study as a “compromise,” Hoyt said, “ALDOT said if you want a study, do a study.”
Other business
The council voted to approve a contract with local business consulting firm ADAH International Inc. to target and develop relationships with European companies at international trade shows and delegations and to work with the city to convince these companies to do business in Birmingham. The contract, which will pay the firm up to $150,000, runs from Sept. 13, 2016, through June 30, 2017. The item was recommended by the council’s Economic Development, Budget and Finance Committee, which is chaired by Councilman Marcus Lundy.
Council members voted 5-0 to pay the Southern Museum of Flight Foundation the sum of $100,000 per year for five years so it can hire an executive director of the museum. The facility is located in East Lake near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport