Back in her undergrad days at Brown University, Christine Russell struggled to connect her passion for environmental science with her deepening interest in urban planning. Then she discovered brownfields.

“It was an opportunity to change the lives of people living with abandoned and contaminated buildings for years, and you can really change their lives by returning (those properties) to productive use,” says Russell, who heads the brownfield office for the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority.

After graduating, she began to learn the ropes by joining a team responsible for one of the largest and longest brownfield projects in the country: the 1,050-acre Fernald uranium processing plant in rural Hamilton County, Ohio. The Cleveland native spent 14 years diligently working to transform the former Department of Energy eyesore into something the Greater Cincinnati area could use, while holding a variety of different titles throughout various stages of the project. The restoration was completed in October 2006, 12 years ahead of schedule and several billion dollars under budget.

Now she is focusing her efforts on three sites that the Port Authority is working to redevelop: a former Celotex plant, the American Can building, and Linden Pointe. The latter, an office development, is nearing completion while the others are in various stages of remediation.

“Linden Pointe was a 15-acre site formerly owned by General Motors with a unique situation, as it had been cleaned up before,” says Russell. “The property had use restrictions, but was never developed. We were able to start construction while we were doing remediation, and now we’re focusing on regulatory paperwork.”

With the first phase of the project completed, the $65 million, 600,000-square-foot mixed-use development will bring over 1,000 jobs and $3 million in tax revenue to suburban Cincinnati.

A firm believer in the proactive approach, Russell reaches out to developers in hopes of piquing their interest in local redevelopment projects, often working with them to find grant money and holding educational seminars.

“When a developer comes to us with a project, we help assemble their team and try to create a public/private partnership,” she says.

With American Can in Cincinnati, the biggest obstacle was PCB contamination. Russell’s office secured $500,000 to help dev-elopers Bloomfield/ Schon + Partners begin the remediation efforts in 2005, but the recent discovery of additional contamination forced the firm to apply for Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Funds (BCRLF). Since the building has been granted landmark status it also may be eligible for historic tax credits.

Though Cincinnati has a rich industrial heritage, most of the city’s brownfields are too small for developers, making redevelopment efforts difficult.

“Most developers have a minimum acreage requirement, and most of the sites dotted across the city are five acres or less,” explains Russell. “So we have to work on assembling land to make it financially viable.”

Lately, Russell has gleaned inspiration from other Midwestern cities that have discovered new ways to deal with their own contaminated areas, recently traveling to Indianapolis to check out the town’s neighborhood-based brownfield redevelopment program.

“I was impressed,” she says. “I’m also very interested in the innovative landbanking programs that are being implemented in Cleveland and in Kenosha, Wis.”

She’s also working to strike the right balance between commercial and residential waterfront redevelopment, a challenge many cities across the country are facing.

“While luxury condo developments can be glamorous and high-profile, riverfront planning needs to take into account the many necessary uses of the land, including residential, industrial and recreational,” stresses Russell. “The challenge is to balance these uses without one area getting all of the luxury condos and another area getting all of the industry.”

Russell’s love for Cincinnati is evident in the way she lights up when she speaks of the city’s personality.

“There’s a lot going on,” she says, “and it’s great to be in the thick of it.”