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Brownfields
2001 Assessment
Pilot
Fact Sheet
Belvidere, IL
EPA Brownfields Initiative
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: Apr 2001
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets two sites in the Belvidere downtown river corridor for assessment and redevelopment planning for high-end users to be determined with involvement from the community.
Background
EPA has selected the City of Belvidere for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot. Located between Chicago and Rockford in north central Illinois, Belvidere (population 18,712) is experiencing booming development along its downtown river corridor. However, growth has occurred largely in industries that are a concern to the community. The Pilot targets two properties in the downtown river corridor: the Kishwaukee River Site, which includes four properties; and the East Madison Street site, which includes three properties. More than 11 percent of the residents in the target areas live below the poverty level compared to 6.1 percent for the county.
Objectives
Belvidere's long-term objective is to generate high-density downtown development, which will help preserve nearby farmland and open space. City-directed redevelopment of the project area will establish key sites as anchor properties for further development of higher-end reuses. As part of this objective, the Pilot will focus on quantifying environmental conditions at the Silver property, which is part of the Kishwaukee River site, and environmental assessments of the three East Madison site properties. The Pilot also will enroll the Silver property in the Illinois voluntary cleanup program and refine land-use plans with support from the community.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
- Developing a conceptual land reuse strategy for the Kishwaukee River site;
- Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments on the Silver property and the three East Madison Street properties;
- Enrolling the Silver property in the Illinois EPA Site Remediation Program and preparing cleanup plans for both sites; and
- Establishing a steering committee to involve the community in redevelopment decisions at both sites.
Contacts
For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/brownfields).
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Team
(312) 886-7576
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields)
Grant Recipient: City of Belvidere, IL
(815) 544-3726
The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.