With many years of code violations that amounted to approximately $38,000 in City liens against his property, a junkyard owner was offered the opportunity to have those liens forgiven if he would donate the site for affordable housing. An agreement was reached when the City of Clearwater Economic Development Housing Department, together with the City’s Development Services Department assisted the Clearwater Neighborhood Services (CNHS) in assuming title to the property. The Development Services Department also provided funding to eventually demolish and clear the unsafe structures from the property.

Through the City Brownfields program, the Economic Development Department obtained grant funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide $150,000 for assessment and remediation of the site. It was recognized that the former junkyard posed serious environmental and public health threats to the surrounding community. Among the contaminants that had to be removed were, drums of regulated and unregulated waste, tires, junk vehicles, scrap gas tanks, automotive parts, waste oil, pesticides and other chemicals, as well as extensive amounts of rubbish and debris. During the removal activities, an unregistered underground storage tank containing waste oil was discovered. The entire area had to be remediated to residential standards.

With the assistance of several local, state and federal agencies, the project was completed and two, affordable, single-family homes were constructed on the former site that had become a financial and social burden for the City. The project was also consistent with the City of Clearwater’s Environmental Justice Action Agenda adopted by the City Commission in September 2000. The Pennsylvania Avenue project stands as a hallmark of Community Based Brownfields Redevelopment that can result in the removal of environmental and public health threats from neighborhoods and provide sustainable redevelopment programs with many financial and social benefits.

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