A virtual meeting was hosted on Thursday morning to inform the community about the opportunities available through the Carbon County Coalition Site Re-Use and Revitalization Program.
Dave Laney stated that in 2018, the county was awarded a Brownfield Assessment grant of $600,000. There is a coalition that consists of Helper, Price, Wellington and East Carbon that are collaborating with the county on the grant, which is 100% funded by federal dollars with no matching funds needed.
This money may be used for sites that are impacted by petroleum, asbestos, lead-based paint and the like with the goal being to re-use, revitalize and redevelop property. The brownfield properties have issued the level of concern and the wish is the help those that want bank financing for their property.
Brownfield properties are old warehouses, former auto repair shops, dry cleaners, gas stations, vacant lots, abandoned railyards and more. They impact counties by negative property values, lost tax revenues, not creating jobs, public health risks and safety concerns, uncontrolled contaminations and more.
When developed, a county sees an increase in tax revenues, job creation, infill development, removal of environmental threats, etc. Brownfield redevelopment success stories in areas such as Ogden were then discussed.
The focus then moved to the steps to redeveloping and what the assessments are, with three basic kinds: Phase I, the Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), Phase II and the hazardous building material surveys.
With the grant thus far, the website has been developed, a fact sheet was prepared, the brownfield site inventory was completed, a brownfield advisory committee was established and a quality assurance project plan was prepared. Three public information meetings were also hosted.
A Phase I assessment of USU Eastern property has been completed and a site plan for both Wellington City Hall and an area of Helper City have been finished. In the future, there is hopes to do an area-wide plan for Price City and continue work on USU Eastern.
Those that have properties and wish to participate may click here to fill out the site nomination form, which will then go to County Economic Development Specialist Rita Vigor for review.