CASTLO News!

"MAHONING RIVER CORRIDOR OF OPPORTUNITY PARTNERS SUCCESSFUL AT BROWNFIELD REDEVELOPMENT"

2007
 

By William D. DeCicco, Executive Director
CASTLO Community Improvement Corporation

The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines brownfields as, “Abandoned, idled or under-utilized industrial and commercial sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination that can add time or uncertainty to a redevelopment project.” Brownfields routinely are associated with distressed urban areas, particularly central cities and inner suburbs that once were heavily industrialized but since have been vacated. A brownfield can be a small as a former gas station site or as large as a former integrated steel mill operation. Brownfields are also defined as the opposite of greenfields, or property that has never previously been used for commercial or industrial activity, and thus perceived free of environmental contamination.

The Mahoning Valley was once home to nine fully integrated steel mills where today only WCI Steel in Warren survives. In the wake of the region’s many steel mill closings in the 1970s and 1980s, lies perhaps more brownfield property than in any other Ohio metropolitan area. One of the state’s largest brownfields, is the approximately 1,470-acre Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity (MRCO) site situated along both sides of the Mahoning River for a distance of about five miles from the east river crossing in Youngstown, through Campbell, to the Struthers/Lowellville border. This immense site for the first three quarters of the 20th century was home to the former Republic Steel Corporation’s Youngstown Works and the defunct Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company’s massive Campbell Works complex which, at one time, collectively employed some 15,000 steelworkers. Today only about 2,000 are employed on this land where many of our ancestors toiled.

In 1995, the MRCO organized with the purpose of enhancing, encouraging and promoting redevelopment of the very important industrial corridor. Key members of the MRCO include the municipalities of Campbell, Struthers and Youngstown, Mahoning County, as well as the CASTLO Community Improvement Corporation, the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corporation, the Youngstown/
Warren Regional Chamber, Youngstown State University, the state of Ohio, area railroads and utility companies, and private companies which own property in the area. In June, 2002, an MRCO Master Plan was completed. The plan presents a long-term strategy for the redevelopment of the Mahoning River industrial valley located southeast of downtown Youngstown in the cities of Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers. To fully implement the plan, several impediments to redevelopment must first be removed. To make this property productive once again and to enable the corridor to someday accommodate perhaps 5,000 additional future jobs, various environmental issues must first be addressed with several corresponding infrastructure improvements made in the form of new bridges and roadways and upgraded utility service. The plan also calls for reserving open space, future hiking and bike trails, and preservation of the Mahoning River’s riparian zone.

Fortunately the MRCO presently has three well-established industrial parks: Performance Place in Youngstown, the Casey Industrial Park in Campbell, and the Struthers-based CASTLO Industrial Park. Performance Place presently houses two of the region’s newest industries, the Exal Corporation and Cantar Polyair, and several other smaller companies. The September 19, 2005 dedication of the new $4 million Steelworkers Bridge at Walton Avenue has assisted in attracting new tenants, including the Impact Metals Corporation, to the Casey complex. Presently the CASTLO Industrial Park, anchored by the Industrial Timber & Lumber Company and the Drywall Barn, has 20 tenants in its existing buildings, and if future environmental remediation projects are implemented, perhaps several new buildings can someday be constructed on the park’s eastern acreage.

Further, with the construction of new bridge structures at Center Street and Bridge Street over the past decade, the entire corridor’s link to the regional highway network and interstate system has been enhanced. Also, considerable progress is being made to eventually construct an interior roadway system through the heart of the corridor linking Bridge and Center Streets. The first phase of this roadway will be a western extension of Bob Cene Way in Struthers that someday will be linked by another new bridge structure across the Mahoning River to an upgraded roadway system in the cities of Campbell and Youngstown.

The MRCO and its members have been very successful over the years in securing federal and state grants to ameliorate existing environmental problems within the corridor. Environmental grants received by various MRCO members over the years include:

• A 1999 $200,000 USEPA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Grant to Youngstown that was utilized to conduct Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments as a prerequisite for the Steelworkers Bridge project; a Phase I for the former Finishing Corporation of America building and site in Campbell; a Phase I for selected property at the Casey Industrial Park in the vicinity of the new bridge structure; a Phase I for the entire CASTLO Industrial Park; and a Phase II for the eastern 40 acres of the CASTLO Industrial Park;

• A 2002 $65,400 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant to Campbell to undertake a Phase II environmental assessment and also remediate the former eight-acre FCA site which is now occupied by a new contracting company;

• A 2003 $171,000 USEPA Brownfields Assessment Grant to Mahoning County to conduct a Phase II environmental assessment on the western 80 acres of the CASTLO Industrial Park;

• A 2003 $201,091 Clean Ohio Round II Grant through Mahoning County to remove residual contamination from steelmaking operations from the CASTLO Industrial Park’s eastern acreage;

• A 2004 $176,762 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant to Struthers to conduct a Phase II environmental assessment on the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company coke plant site that will be eventually developed by the city and Astro Development, LLC;

• A 2005 $173,518 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant to Campbell to remediate property formerly utilized by YS&T for pickling;

• A 2005 $603,379 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant to Struthers to remove residual contamination from steelmaking operations at the former YS&T coke plant site; and

• A 2006 $190,310 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant to Campbell to conduct a Phase II environmental assessment on the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company open hearth site.

A long range goal of the CASTLO C.I.C. is to eventually have its entire 120-acre site rid of all previous steel mill contaminants so that a “No Further Action” and a “Covenant Not to Sue” can be issued by the appropriate environmental agencies paving the way for additional long-term redevelopment. Presently through the city of Struthers, CASTLO is pursuing an additional federal grant and an additional state grant. Before the end of the year, Struthers will submit an $188,936 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund Grant application for additional environmental assessments at the CASTLO Industrial Park. The city will also file, in CASTLO’s behalf, a $200,000 USEPA Brownfields Cleanup Grant proposal to remove three abandoned underground tanks and two aboveground tanks from the park and also remediate contaminated soils in the vicinity of the tanks. Copies of both applications are available for the general public and neighboring businesses to review at the Struthers branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.

At least two additional MRCO grant requests are pending, possibly in 2007, as an appropriation through U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan. One request is for approximately $400,000 to extend the CASTLO Industrial Park’s main roadway with complete infrastructure improvements to provide for future development of its eastern acreage, and another is for approximately $320,000 to rehabilitate and upgrade an existing sanitary sewer lift station which should help stimulate the redevelopment of vacant industrial property in the city of Campbell.

CASTLO and other MRCO members welcome input from the community and will make tours available on an appointment basis for both the CASTLO Industrial Park and the MRCO. Arrangements can be made to tour both locations by contacting the CASTLO office at (330) 750-1363.

Revised:
November 17, 2006