Ground Breakers

David Misky,
Assistant executive director, Redevelopment Authority for the city of Milwaukee, Wis.
With work on more than 100 brownfield redevelopment projects under his belt, David Misky says balancing the interests of everyone involved with a site is both his greatest challenge and his favorite part of the job. (See the Renewal Awards feature story that details the acclaimed and award-winning Menomonee Valley project.)

“I’m dealing with any number of different people on any given day—architects, lawyers, consultants, regulators, engineers, politicians,” he says. “We have created a brownfield team here in Milwaukee . . . that has been very aggressive and successful in obtaining funding from state and federal governments. But we have a need [for brownfield development] because we have a lot of underutilized and vacant properties. This is a city that was based on foundries, breweries and other manufacturing businesses.”

Misky, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science and a master’s in environmental studies from the University of Wisconsin, began working with brownfield projects in the late 1990s, as an environmental consultant in the private sector. In 2003 he signed on with the city of Milwaukee as an environmental scientist, which led to his present job two years ago.

The next step for his brownfield team, he says, is putting a greater emphasis on incorporating sustainable development practices into redevelopment projects. His office created design guidelines for companies that wanted to locate in the Menomonee Valley development, he says, covering “what kinds of buildings we were looking for, and the energy and sustainable practices we were interested in seeing.” In addition, the Menomonee Valley site includes a stormwater management park.

Edward Unwin,
Project specialist, Vertegy, St. Louis
“It’s a challenge to get the idea across that you can do environmentally friendly development and pretty much maintain the original construction costs [for a project],” says Edward Unwin, who joined Vertegy—which provides clients with design, procurement and construction consulting services for green and sustainable facilities—in November. “But when you look at the entire package—maintenance, operating costs—you end up being most cost-effective by doing the environmentally friendly stuff.”

In his new position as project specialist, Unwin is using his 38 years of site development and construction expertise to provide hands-on support for clients looking to reap the benefits of sustainable design and construction. Unwin, who recently earned his LEED Green Associate credentials, is also helping clients attain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Unwin became interested in LEED issues a few years ago when he researched certification requirements for a truck terminal warehouse for a proposed development that never came to fruition, he explains. His work on numerous multi-million dollar construction and development projects over the years has included brownfield projects, he adds, starting with his first one 10 years ago, a former golf course contaminated with arsenic that was being turned into a residential housing development.

Although he admits he’s thought about retirement, the challenge of working on “green” design and construction was too inviting to pass up.

“I think this is very much a growing field,” says Unwin. “It’s very much in the mainstream now—everybody is thinking about it with the cost of energy going up. They’re looking at ways of doing economic development and preserving the environment that we’ve got left, including reusing [brownfield] sites and reusing older buildings in the cities.”

Renate Mengelberg,
Economic development manager, Clackamas County Business and Economic Development, Oregon City, Ore.
As the key person overseeing her Clackamas County’s brownfields redevelopment program, Renate Mengelberg sees her role as “unlocking the potential of the [brownfield] site, connecting the property owner with resources they may not know about, dispelling misperceptions and providing information to help property owners.”

Mengelberg, who has managed the Clackamas brownfields program since it was created in 2001, works in other economic development areas as well, but she says redeveloping brownfields is integral to the county’s goals of job creation, economic diversification, and developing lands to their highest and best use. A county-wide study in 2003 found a severe shortage of industrial land, making it imperative to transform the area’s brownfields into usable sites.

Much of Mengelberg’s brownfields work involves outreach to owners of targeted properties that her office has found through research funded by EPA grants. Her office holds public forums to educate property owners and community leaders, assists industrial and large commercial property owners, and conducts environmental assessments on strategic properties.

One of her favorite parts of the job, says Mengelberg, is working in partnership with Oregon’s Certified Industrial Site program, which verifies that a site is “project ready,” including environmental assessments that have been reviewed and approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality. The program reassures potential brownfield property buyers that contamination and cleanup, among other issues, have already been addressed.

“We’re able to leverage a lot of resources and coordinate between property owners and the city, state and county to move a site forward that wouldn’t have been able to without that partnership,” she says.

In fact, Mengelberg says the Clackamas program is partnering in a coalition that applied for an EPA coalition grant last fall, with a decision on the funding expected by early spring.

“[The grant money] would provide many more opportunities for brownfield property owners,” she says. “Right now we have a patchwork of programs—some hazardous materials, some petroleum—and we would be able to provide much better, more comprehensive programs.”

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