The following stories comprise the first in our new Women in Brownfields series. Because of the overwhelming response we received to the initial article idea, we will make this an ongoing feature.

Photo By Gerry Lewin For pilot, entrepreneur and mayor of Salem, Oregon, Janet Taylor, the sky is the limit. She prevails upon women to take risks in their career choices. “Never limit yourself because it’s traditionally a man’s field,” she says. Taylor recently was named president of the N BA’s new Oregon chapter.

Things are really taking off for Salem, Oregon, and its mayor, Janet Taylor, both literally and figuratively. Taylor and her staff worked diligently to get Delta Airlines into Salem, a tough negotiation since the capital city is considered a catchment area for nearby Portland International Airport.

It took two-and-a-half years, fears of Delta going into bankruptcy, a possible hostile takeover by U.S. Air, a financial commitment from Salem’s business community, and a case of pinot noir grown and bottled in Oregon, but Taylor and her team succeeded. Delta will begin commercial service from Salem to Salt Lake City on June 7.

But it was more than wine and persistence that brought Delta to Salem, more than Taylor’s passion for flying—she’s a licensed pilot and owner of a Grumman Tiger. The city’s current redevelopment efforts, she says, played a huge role in winning over Delta.

“Salem is not just a government town,” says Taylor, who just started her third term as mayor. “We’re very thrilled to be the state capital, but we have tremendous private investment occurring.”

The city is wrapping up negotiations with WalMart on the construction of a $100 million distribution center at the Mill Creek Industrial Park, formerly a 650-acre state-run prison farm located near the airport. And properties of former businesses with various levels of impairment are quickly finding new life as developers invest tens of millions of dollars into redevelopment projects.

The Portland Road corridor, previously known as “gasoline alley,” is a case in point, she notes. As the old Highway 99 entrance to the capital city, it was the perfect place to top off for travelers moving up and down the Willamette valley.

While conducting right-of-way improvement efforts, the city cleaned up over a dozen forgotten underground storage tanks, removed hydraulic hoists and hauled away 3,350 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil.

After what Taylor calls “judicial exercise of eminent domain” to acquire an abandoned gas station, the site was cleaned up and is awaiting construction of a senior center, senior housing and commercial developments that are expected to spur further investment in the area.

All of these efforts, says Taylor, are creating a huge economic boon for the community.

Taylor’s involvement in brownfield issues hit its stride when she first took office as mayor in January 2003. Efforts had been made by earlier administrations to buy contaminated sites with tax increment funds—known regionally as urban renewal funds—but the properties remained vacant.

“They weren’t being cleaned up, they weren’t being offered to the private sector, and these were prime locations right in the heart of our community and in neighborhoods that needed that stimulus of new investment,” recalls Taylor. “So I just jumped in the middle of it and said, ‘This is an asset we’re not taking care of, we’re not doing what we should.’”

The departure of paper powerhouse Boise Cascade from Salem to Washington state, while representing a loss of jobs, has provided new prospects for redevelopment and continued renewal of the city’s core.

When the company began to toy with the idea of moving its facilities nearly two years ago, the city asked the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to conduct a study of the 13-acre site to determine appropriate uses for the existing property and to better understand the environmental challenges they might face if the company decided to leave.

When Boise Cascade made the decision to move its facilities, Taylor already had ULI recommendations, public input, and the support of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski’s economic recovery team, which includes the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and its Department of Transportation.

Boise Cascade was expected to choose a developer by March 23, and give the city an opportunity to sit down with that developer to frame its rezoning efforts within ULI recommendations.

In addition to the 13-acre site, Boise Cascade also leaves behind 310 acres on the north end of Minto Island, where the company had its pulp and paper settling ponds. A Phase II environmental study to determine the extent of contamination at the site is near completion.

Despite the environmental implications, Taylor calls the project exciting and the ULI suggests that it could be one of the biggest potential redevelopment sites in the U.S. because of where it is situated in the community and along the river.

Just as redevelopment played a significant role in bringing Delta to Salem, that same redevelopment has helped Taylor succeed as mayor.

“These redevelopment structures are literally bringing people back to living in the core of the city. It’s bringing vitality to neighborhoods that were stable, but not really improving in any tangible way. It also puts that property into productive use and puts it back on the tax rolls,” she says.

“So I think the community views the positive changes that they’re seeing not just as a reflection of me as mayor, but on our council, on our city manager and the staff we have.”

While modesty is just one of her many positive attributes, the drive to makes things happen might very well top the list.

Growing up with a father who flew his own plane—“an Ercoupe, the rudderless airplane of many years ago”—Taylor was determined to fly, as well. So she earned her pilot’s license in 1981, and met her husband of 25 years as a bonus.

When her husband retired from the metal roofing manufacturing company they had started together, Taylor ran the company herself. And as mayor of Salem, she enjoys the ability to help make positive changes within her own community.

She can’t help it, she says, she has a Type A personality. And being a woman in what traditionally have been men’s arenas hasn’t stopped her one bit.

“I don’t think you ever really accomplish things if you’re not risking yourself a little bit,” says Taylor. “I just have never let anything hold me back. I am sure that came from my father who told me that you can do anything you want to do that you prepare yourself for. I’ve raised my daughters that way, I don’t know how to be any different.”