Background: The City’s Brownfields Revitalization Program provides assistance to a wide range of individual development sites throughout the City of Los Angeles. The Brownfields Site Assistance Work Program, under the direction of the Brownfields Executive Team, is carried out by the Brownfields Resource Team, consisting of senior staff from the Environmental Affairs Department, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Community Development Department, the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, and the Chief Legislative Analyst’s office. Additional staff assistance is provided by the U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. Program assistance falls under six primary categories: On-Call Technical Assistance; Exploratory Site Assessments; Major Economic Development Sites; Special Purpose Capacity-Building Sites; Brownfields Demonstration Sites and Showcase Community Matching Fund Sites; and Showcase Community Matching Fund Sites.

The purpose of the Brownfields Demonstration Sites category is to demonstrate multiple brownfields strategies and approaches at complex development sites with significant economic potential. The FY01 demonstration site may actually consist of multiple sites with the overarching goal of developing, implementing and evaluating Polanco Act approaches.

Crown Coach Site
The site is a 20-acre parcel of vacant contaminated property owned by the State of California, located approximately 2.5 miles southeast of the Los Angeles Civic Center (at the intersection of E. Washington Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles 90021). The site was originally occupied by 11 industrial buildings, with activities ranging from food processing to product assembly. The State purchased the site to construct a prison—a plan that was abandoned because of community opposition—and started, but did not complete, remediation of the site, which has been a significant barrier to its sale and redevelopment. The site is in the City’s older industrial core near a group of business clusters. The property is zoned for heavy industrial use and is located at the northern terminus of the Alameda Corridor, a region-wide target for revitalization that stretches from the Port to Central Los Angeles. Crown Coach is strategically located near the intersection of major freeways, with immediate access to railroad infrastructure as well as a station of the region’s rapid transit network, the Metro Blue Line. 

The State has allowed the City to conduct a site-wide remedial investigation and modified feasibility study, remove contaminated soil, and select a developer for the site. The City has has entered into an exclusive right to negotiate agreement with a developer to build over 1 million square feet of special purpose industrial space and leverage $80 million in private investment. The selected developer will also implement the long-term remedy, funded by the state, in conjunction with the development. While the City has received a closure letter certifying that the top 30-feet of soil is clean and ready for development, the deeper soil and groundwater contamination still must be addressed. At present no enforcement actions apply to the site.  

For more information on the City's Brownfields Program contact: 
Craig Tranby at (213) 978-0871 or fax (213) 978-0890;
for more information on the City’s Economic Development Programs contact:
Adriana Martinez at (213) 978-0674 or fax (213) 978-0780.

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© 2006 City of Los Angeles Brownfields Program