New Smyrna Beach residents can learn more about local Brownfield Redevelopment on April 20.

Written by Anthony Bicy

Belden Communications News

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected the City of New Smyrna Beach for a Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant totaling $600,000. 

The EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and substantially reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is a property where the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

According to a release, these funds will allow officials to conduct assessment activities that will focus on the Southeast Volusia County Corridor along U.S. 1, including New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, and Oak Hill. Priority sites include a vehicle repair and maintenance facility and 70-year-old vacant housing units in New Smyrna Beach, a former honey manufacturing facility and former concrete manufacturing plant in Edgewater, and a vacant former rail-line property in Oak Hill.

Residents can learn more about potential projects at a Brownfield Redevelopment Meeting with Cardno Brownfields Practice Group Leader Miles Ballogg on April 20 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Alonzo “Babe” James Community Center at 201 N. Myrtle Ave in New Smyrna Beach. 

For more information, visit https://www.epa.gov/brownfields. You may also contact Community Resources Coordinator Irma Terry at iterry@cityofnsb.com or (386)314-4849.