Brownfield Assessment Program

The City of Auburn is continuing its efforts to revitalize the Downtown business district and surrounding neighborhoods by targeting brownfield sites thus defined as "properties characterized as vacant, abandoned or underutilized where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination." The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports the City’s redevelopment efforts by providing funding to inventory known and suspected Brownfields within a 63-acre target area located primarily along the Owasco River. The inventory will be prioritized using a series of screening criteria and sites will be selected for additional environmental investigation. The funds from this EPA grant will provide valuable information that will facilitate revitalization and redevelopment decisions by removing the uncertainty associated with Brownfield sites. The City has preliminarily selected properties as potential Brownfields within the target area and will solicit community involvement to expand this list.

Citizen participation is the driving force behind the success of the EPA Downtown Brownfield Assessment Program. Community involvement is necessary to ensure that the most appropriate brownfield sites are selected for further investigation, cleanup and redevelopment.  A Program Committee has been selected to guide the project and public forums and neighborhood workshops will be conducted on a regular basis to fully engage the community. Please visit this website regularly for continued updates on future:

• Program Committee Meetings
• Public Forums & Neighborhood Workshops
• Inventory of Brownfields
• Site Selection Criteria
• Environmental Investigation Findings
• Redevelopment Plan for Selected Sites