View of Washington Courtyards Apartments, at 2505 Washington
This City Program facilitates redevelopment of brownfields. Phase I and II environmental site assessments (ESAs) are available free for eligible properties. These ESAs are the same type of environmental investigations required by banks as part of most real estate loans. For additional information, contact Shannon Teasley with the City of Houston's Brownfields Redevelopment Program at 713.837.7978 or shannon.teasley@cityofhouston.net.
Limited cleanup grants are also available for qualified non-profit or government brownfield projects.
WHAT IS A BROWNFIELD?
A "brownfield" is any property where redevelopment is complicated by the presence or potential presence of environmental contamination. These can be abandoned buildings, vacant lots, former commercial or manufacturing sites, or other types of property.
WHAT IS THE BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENT PROGRAM?
This City of Houston program receives funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The mission is to help improve Houstonians' quality of life by facilitating the identification, assessment, cleanup, and beneficial redevelopment of brownfields. The redevelopment can be anything that will benefit the community, such as housing for the elderly, new businesses that create jobs or shopping opportunities, or parks. The program works in coordination with other neighborhood improvement efforts of the City government, other governmental agencies, and the private sector.
WHAT CAN THE BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENT PROGRAM DO FOR YOU?
The program offers to qualified applicants:
Free environmental site assessments;
Cleanup grants for non-profits and local government;
Help with participation in a State Voluntary Cleanup Program;
Coordination among local, state and federal government agencies; and
Placement of each site or project on the City's brownfields website.
The site assessments are funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants awarded to the City. Cleanup grants are funded by the City of Houston. Property owners or prospective purchasers may apply for acceptance of their properties into the program.
WHAT PROPERTIES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENT PROGRAM?
There are several requirements for eligibility, including the following. The applicant must:
Have legal title to the property or a contract to purchase the property;
Have performed all appropriate inquiry as to the environmental condition when acquiring property;
Not have contributed to the contamination at the site;
Enter the property into one of the State's voluntary cleanup programs, if necessary; and
Allow the City to designate the property as a brownfield.
