The City of St. Helens, Oregon has been selected to receive a $200,000 Brownfields Area-Wide Planning (AWP) grant from EPA to help move towards the goal of revitalizing a former industrial property along the Columbia River waterfront.
The City of St. Helens will use the funding to work with the community and other stakeholders to develop an area-wide plan and implementation strategy for the downtown waterfront district project area.
The Area-Wide Planning funds will focus on planning to support the revitalization of brownfields along the city’s downtown waterfront, particularly the Veneer Plan and White Paper Mill sites.
Two mill closures in 2008 and 2012 devastated the local economy in the project area and left the 900-acre industrial project area underutilized.
The city will also continue to build on existing planning activities for new business creation, development of transportation links and housing rehabilitation.