BCONE 2019 Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop Recap

Langan Environmental Leaders Present and Celebrate Project Wins

The Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast (BCONE) hosted the Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop (NSCW) 2019 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, on June 4, 2019.

The conference emphasized the impact of sustainability on community revitalization. BCONE brought together experts to discuss redevelopment challenges, the use of technology as it relates to sustainability, and success stories.

Langan scientists, Charlene Drake, LSRP, PG, Omer Uppal, and Kale Novalis presented on two panels. Professionals in land development, tax law, and economic development joined Drake for a presentation entitled How Opportunity Zones Will Actually Work. This panel discussion highlighted benefits and challenges of the new tax code incentive program related to using Opportunity Zone funds for brownfields sites. The panelists broke down the elements needed to ensure successful project development within the Opportunity Zone framework.

Uppal and Novalis were joined by Dr. Mark Kram, Groundswell Technologies; David Shea, Sanborn Head Engineering; and Dr. Blayne Hartman, VaporSafe for a discussion about technology being developed to streamline characterization of vapor intrusion in their presentation on Expediting Brownfields Vapor-Intrusion Assessment and Mitigation Efforts.

Additionally, two Langan projects won the NSCW Sustainable Communities Redevelopment Award, which was created to recognize an exceptional sustainable redevelopment project in the northeastern United States.

This award goes to a brownfield development project (or projects) that has provided the greatest benefit to its municipality and citizens from an overall perspective:

• The Haddon Towne Center development (Langan contact: Jason Lynam, LSRP) was the location of the once contaminated Dy-Dee Diaper Wash facility and several other light industrial and commercial properties. The successful redevelopment represents the culmination of a 14-year public-private partnership among Haddon Township, Fieldstone Associates, the developer, and the NJDEP to revitalize downtown Haddon Township.
• Bartram’s Mile (Langan contact: Spencer Finch, PE, LEED AP) is a greenway and brownfield redevelopment project led by Philadelphia Parks and Recreation along the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The project incorporated sustainable and resilient strategies for its infrastructure and sought a neighborhood-wide impact, including a neighborhood-wide green stormwater infrastructure system, construction of a key segment of the Schuylkill River Trail and East Coast Greenway, and strategic placement of porous pavements. Strategies also included recycling old industrial infrastructure (including protection of historic cobblestone pavement and reuse of an abandoned crane clamshell as a sculpture), relocation of the historic Newkirk Monument, which honors the first bridge between Philadelphia and Washington D.C., new entrances to Bartram’s Garden (the nation’s oldest botanical garden), landscapes throughout the project, and risk-based remediation standards for soil.