Revitalizing Rural Economies and Main Streets through Brownfield Reuse
When you imagine a brownfield you probably conjure images of urban sites. However, brownfields can happen anywhere, even charming small towns and postcard-worthy country sides. Across the country, rural communities are reclaiming these sites for community benefit.
“Brownfields can be anything from an industrial site to an old gas station site to a dry cleaner site, even just a vacant site that may be eligible for reuse”
– Sheryl Gonzales, CCLR Senior Brownfield Consultant
Many rural brownfields look like their urban counterparts: shuttered gas stations, closed dry cleaners, older buildings with asbestos and lead, and the like are ubiquitous regardless of community size. Other rural brownfields are unique from urban sites such as industrial uses like forestry, agriculture and mining. When these businesses moves on, jobs and important economic forces may leave a community, but contamination such as hazardous building materials, petroleum products, pesticides and herbicides, and mine tailings stay behind. These contaminated pieces can detract from a community in their idled state. However, through the process of land recycling, land can be cleaned up and transformed into community benefits. This process creates jobs, boosts the economy and removes eyesores, and is possible while respecting the history and culture that make rural communities unique.
CCLR Champions Rural Reuse
In late 2023, CCLR’s Senior Brownfield Consultant, and rural Nevada resident, Sheryl Gonzales visited four successful brownfield transformations to highlight the successes rural communities are having with the brownfield program. These projects represent a variety of reuse projects from Main Street to abandoned sawmills. Watch the video here:
Challenges of Rural Reuse
“Rural communities don’t always have resources that urban communities have”
– Sheryl Gonzales, CCLR Senior Brownfield Consultant
Rural communities face a unique set of challenges compared to their urban counterparts. These challenges may include:
- Smaller budgets and staff sizes
- Lack of experience with brownfields programs at the municipal level
- An abundance of available land discouraging reuse
- High unemployment rates or aging population restricting ability to attract new uses for sites
- Long distances complicating community engagement
- Lack of community support for projects they fear may change community character or urbanize an area
Brownfield Grants from the EPA, state agencies, and regional organizations such as economic development authorities, can provide the funding and support necessary to ensure redevelopment is accessible to rural communities. Brownfields can be a catalyst for addressing unique challenges rural communities face. For example, many grants provide funding for job training, allowing those in the community struggling with employment to find work revitalizing brownfields, in addition to working in new businesses created on former brownfield sites. Not only does this bolster employment rates in rural areas, it also keeps brownfield services local thus making access to rural brownfield sites more practicable!
Early and frequent community engagement can ensure your reuse is meeting community needs, and address fears. Brownfield grants can also assist with the essential task of community engagement. Grants can assist with incentives, such as gas stipends and free food, to encourage attendance to reuse events. It is also important to ensure that informative language is accessible, another EPA-eligible expense. CCLR can also coach and assist with conducting community outreach events through our Vision 2 Action (V2A) process.
Another common stumbling block is that land reuse and grant writing are complex processes. Navigating lengthy technical processes and learning brownfield specific jargon can be confusing for communities who don’t have much experience in this arena and don’t have the budget for a dedicated grant manager or other grant-supporting roles. CCLR provides technical assistance, training and resources to support the complexity of rural reuse.
CCLR is here to support the process of rural reuse from beginning to end. Some of our services include:
- Brownfield training
- Grant review
- Community outreach support (Vision to Action)
- Finding creative funding solutions
- Grant management support
“Follow through. Keep promises! Manage expectations!”
-Norman Wright, AICP, CCLR Senior Technical Consultant
“The rural community practitioner is wearing multiple hats! They are switching from many different responsibilities and have very little chance to specialize or dive deep into something this complex”
-Norman Wright, AICP, CCLR Senior Technical Consultant
Rural communities cherish their rural charm and can be hesitant to embrace reuse if there is a perception that it will urbanize their communities. Community-centered land reuse is all about adhering to the needs of the community and maintaining the integrity of rural spaces. In our 25 years, CCLR has helped numerous rural communities transform underutilized and abandoned sites back into community benefit. Below are examples of rural communities that have remained committed to reuse for their communities and have seen lasting benefits from brownfield reuse.
“More important than ever is that you have relationships that have built trust and promotes the collaboration and partnership”
– Sheryl Gonzales, CCLR Senior Brownfield Consultant
Get Started on your Rural Reuse Project
Whether you need assistance understanding the brownfield process, identifying your community’s brownfields, applying for or managing a brownfield grant, determining the best end use for a site, or anything else brownfield related in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon or Washington, The Center for Creative Land Recycling can help at no cost to you.
Schedule a Meeting to Get Started!
Rural Reuse Examples
Troutdale, OR
Located on the banks of the Sandy River and alongside the Union Pacific Railroad, the Troutdale Riverfront Renewal Area was once a bustling industrial zone with connections to the rest of the country via land and water. Through its transformations from a slaughterhouse, to meatpacking facility, to wool pullery to wastewater treatment plant, to sludge lagoon and cabinet-making business, this piece of land was left with a myriad of contamination concerns. The City of Troutdale used a thorough assessment process to create a clean up plan. The city is currently in the process of selecting a development partner to transforming the site into greenspace and a mixed-use commercial area called the Confluence at Troutdale.
| Before:
| After:
|
East Wenatchee, WA
The City of East Wenatchee Washington is located along the Columbia River in Central Washington. In the early 1900s, settlers displaced indigenous communities to plant apple, cherry, apricot, pear and other orchards, which thrived in the cool, dry climate, and with irrigation from the river. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) saw East Wenatchee has a need for more parks and open space, and purchased an old cherry orchard in 2018 on which it planned to develop this new community asset. During pre-purchase environmental site assessment, it was found that the site had higher than allowed levels of arsenic and other chemicals in the soil left behind from decades of pesticide use. Once remediated, the park development was able to move forward. In March 2022, TPL officially transferred the completed park to the Eastmont Metropolitan Park District, conveying it permanently into the public domain as open space for the enjoyment and benefit of East Wenatchee residents.
| Before:
| After:
|
Gardnerville, NV
The town of Gardnerville turned a run-down gas station into a Welcome Center and community meeting space. At this welcome center, you will find electric car charging stations as well! Located on Main Street, the Eagle Gas Station served more than gasoline. Opening in the late 1930s or early 1940s, it was a community meeting space where high schoolers practice wrenching on cars and retirees watched the state-of-the-art television. However, it became an eyesore once the station closed in the 1990s. The City of Gardnerville used brownfield funds to remove the leaking fuel tanks under the station, replacing the tanks with a stormwater retention and diversion system that will alleviate flooding concerns on Main Street. This space is once again a hub for the community, providing meeting spaces that local nonprofits can use for free.
| Before:
| After:
|
Carson City, NV
The Bank Saloon opened in August of 1899 in Carson, NV. Through prohibition, name changes and robberies, the Bank Saloon has been a cornerstone of Carson City’s history. In 2002, the saloon (Called Jack’s Bar at the time) closed and was left to deteriorate. The roof was rotting and caving in, the paint cracking and peeling. The owners of the historic landmark announced plans to tear the structure down. The Nevada Builder Alliance was unwilling to let that happen and purchased the Bank Saloon in 2017 with the intention of restoring this historic saloon. The historically significant facade was saved, while the rotten interior, lead and asbestos were removed and replaced. Today, one of the oldest buildings in Carson City is once again open for business!
| Before:
| After:
|
Reno, NV
The Three Nations Walmart Plaza contributes to the economic development of the community and the revenue of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC). The Three Nations represent Shoshone, Paiute and Washoe tribes, who suffered environmental inequity when their tribal land was surrounded by polluting uses. From print shops to auto repair shops to sheet metal fabrication, there were highly hazardous contents on the land before the RSIC purchased and began the reuse process. Once cleaned, the land was reclaimed by the colony who are now landlords of the Walmart which reclaimed and revitalized former tribal lands while creating new jobs and revenue streams for their community. While the Walmart is located on the tribe’s historic land in what is now downtown Reno, revenues from the store directly support the Hungry Valley Reservation and the services the RSIC provides to its rural residents. Thus, it provides a compelling example of how urban reuse can support surrounding rural areas.
| Before:
| After:
|
Crescent Mills, CA
To respond to declining forest health, high risk of catastrophic wildfire, and poor socioeconomic conditions in a community that has historically had a strong presence in the timber industry, Sierra Institute for Community and the Environment has repurposed an old sawmill site for an innovative wood products campus in Crescent Mills. The Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus takes burned and hazard trees, removed to maintain the health of forests, into lumber. This locally-sourced lumber is helping to rebuild the town of Greenville, which was destroyed in the 2020 Dixie Fire, while also creating jobs for a community with high unemployment rates. The new campus is facilitating economic and sustainable forest management and creating a circular economy where residents can purchase lumber milled locally, and also generating clean, locally sourced energy through biomass heating, which transforms timber cleared for fire prevention, and which is unusable as building materials, into fuel, reducing the need for imported fossil fuels. At full build-out, this campus will generate 30-50 well paying industry jobs for local residents.
| Before:
| After:
|
