At SCS, we’re proud that our services, vision, and corporate citizenship support community revitalization through brownfield redevelopment and land reuse.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 estimated that roughly 40 percent of all Americans, including a quarter of all children, live within 3 miles of a brownfield site that has received EPA funding. This is a conservative estimate, as only 5.5% of brownfields nationwide have benefited from EPA resources. But these striking numbers clarify the degree to which remediating and repurposing contaminated and underutilized properties has transformative potential to protect our residents’ health and safety.
SCS firmly believes that all blighted, abandoned, and underutilized properties have a future as community assets. We support this vision through the services we provide as well as through our corporate citizenship. The partnership of SCS technology and environmental know-how with CCLR is powerful. There is no shortage of possibilities for brownfields now; ski resorts, parks, mixed-use properties, solar farms, really almost any infrastructure is possible.
SCS is proud to support the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR, or “See Clear”), the leading national nonprofit dedicated to transforming communities through land recycling. Over the past two decades, CCLR has convened, navigated, and influenced the redevelopment industry. Their programs educate the public and community stakeholders to clean up and repurpose underutilized and environmentally impacted properties in a sustainable, equitable and responsible manner.
CCLR and SCS share the belief that with the right training, incentives, and conditions — chiefly, an active corporate partner/investor, community support, and municipal leadership — the redevelopment of brownfields changes communities for the better. CCLR has produced two videos, “About CCLR” and “What is Land Recycling?,” which provide important perspectives about CCLR’s mission and accomplishments.
Dan Johnson, Jim Ritchie, and Amy Dzialowski are among the SCS staff who have worked with CCLR. They have spoken on panels at CCLR’s California Land Recycling Conference, participated in vapor intrusion study groups, teamed with CCLR on providing technical support to West Sacramento and other municipalities, and serve on the planning committee for the Brownfields 2021 Conference together.
At SCS, we understand that brownfield redevelopment is inherently complex and multifaceted, and we appreciate that productive, successful land recycling requires all hands on deck. We’re proud to play a part on the road to redevelopment and thank CCLR for their national leadership in transforming communities through land recycling.
For more information about CCLR, brownfields, and property remediation, contact , or Jean Hamerman, Acting Executive Director of CCLR.
Landfill Sites are Finding Second Lives as Real Estate Properties
Innovative projects have sprung up over the years that house retail, apartments, golf courses, conference centers and hotels. Engineers in the solid waste space are applying several structural design techniques that other industries have leveraged for years like building on piles, which has historically been done on marshlands and other unstable ground. They’re also designing floating foundations that allow for movement and making adjustments when differential settlements happen.
Over the years, SCS has designed landfill-related systems for dozens of projects, mainly apartments, business complexes, entertainment complexes, hotels, parks and golf courses. In the past three years,SCS has fielded calls from developers looking into options, resulting in projects moving into the development stages. From small to the largest landfill redevelopment project in the nation , this article gets you started and leads to more information.
SCS’s environmental services supporting COMM22, a mixed-use, mixed-income redevelopment project in San Diego will be recognized at Environmental Industry Summit XV
When the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) presents its 19th annual Business Achievement awards this March, SCS Engineers will receive an award of Project Merit: Redevelopment, for its investigation and design program for COMM22, a multi-family residential development by BRIDGE Housing.
COMM22 is a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented development built on a former bus maintenance facility. SCS addressed several issues including underground storage tanks and the testing of fill soils. The firm’s pre-construction characterization and three-dimensional data analysis resulted in time and budget savings.
“Our remediation effort on this property ensured that human health and the environment were protected as cost-effectively as possible,” said Dan Johnson, vice president of SCS. “Affordable housing is important to San Diego communities and we applaud the work of BRIDGE Housing and the collaboration it takes to create urban projects like this.”
BRIDGE Housing Corporation, a leading nonprofit developer of affordable housing, creates and manages a range of high-quality, affordable homes for working families and seniors. Since it was founded in 1983, BRIDGE has participated in the development of over 16,000 homes in California and the Pacific Northwest.
More award-winning redevelopment projects of interest:
Petco Park and East Redevelopment – San Diego
Emerald Ridge Homes – East Alton
NFL Stadium Site – Los Angeles
Commercial Real Estate Transactions blog
