Grantmakers Like Community Involvement

By Kelly Novak

The City of Rochester has already successfully entered four revitalization and redevelopment projects into Rochester’s comprehensive economic development strategy  (CEDS) and received EPA brownfields program funding. The city understands that community involvement in a brownfield project is crucial. Not only is it necessary for getting a project off the ground, it also makes grant applications competitive.

In fact some grant programs weigh community involvement as a “ranking criterion.” In the case of an EPA brownfields application, community involvement is worth up to 15 points, or 15 percent, of the ranking criteria. Put in simple terms, this means if one fails to establish a clear plan for how the community is involved in the project, then the application loses points and is less likely to result in an award.

Projects with involvement from a community-based group (like Rochester Neighbors Building Neighborhoods with the Orchard-Whitney site) will fare better in grant competitions when they prioritize the site through a clearly-outlined participatory planning process. The manner in which the planning process is undertaken, such as hosting public meetings, can also help increase a project’s likelihood of winning a grant.

For example, once the city is in ownership of the property, they could work with the Genesee Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council — which is the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) district serving the Rochester area within the nine-county district — to consider including the site in Rochester’s and/or Genesee County’s CEDS. In order to develop a CEDS, a series of publicly noticed meetings are held where community leaders and the public get to openly discuss community needs and wants and then rank them. 

Thus, as an economic development priority within a CEDS, the Orchard-Whitney site would be opened up to receiving a wider variety of redevelopment funding from EDA such as public works grants to enhance or build infrastructure, construction grants, planning grants, economic adjustment grants, defense grants and technical assistance. And at the same time, community involvement at the CEDS public meetings, notification of meetings and follow-up posting of the CEDS, and site selections can be used for satisfying some of the ranking criteria for an EPA brownfields grant.

Rochester’s Orchard-Whitney and other difficult brownfield sites around the country have a lot to gain by bolstering community involvement via existing community-based groups and using already established economic development processes to enhance federal, state and local grant competitiveness and fund leveraging possibilities.

An even greater outcome, and the driver justifying the existence of these grant requirements, is that community involvement drives the reuse vision to be what the whole community wants and needs. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”

Just as a brownfield redevelopment is not good for a community unless it is what the community wants and needs — and is willing to be involved in pursuing it. BFN

Kelly Novak is research manager at NADO research foundation in Washington, D.C.

Read Rochester’s Poster Child, the case study this article is based on, and other expert advice on the Orchard-Whitney site from the varying perspectives of the Brownfield News editorial board:
DEVELOPER’S DEPARTMENT Can you find a good apple in this orchard?
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT What a personality!
INSURANCE DEPARTMENT Perfume and lipstick to help developers see past flaws
ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT Financial reporting considerations not a deterrent
COMMUNITY DEPARTMENT A good place for all of us to live in
OWNER’S DEPARTMENT A potential for renaissance
U.S. EPA DEPARTMENT The classic brownfield story line

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