Leelanau County still has about $140,000 in Brownfield Assessment Grant funds available to land developers through next year, according to county Planning Director Gail Myer. Myer said that new landowners should contact her office for information on this program, as it could help with everything from reviewing and assessing land to preparing a Brownfield plan.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, a brownfi eld is land that is “complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” Therese Searles, a Brownfield specialist with the Traverse City-based consultant Fishbeck, said the EPA awards grants to remediate the damage and incentivize new development.
Leelanau County was awarded $250,000 through an EPA Brownfield assessment grant back in 2022, and the grant funds are being administered by the county’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority. The grant term expires Sept. 30, 2025, and as of this reporting period, $142,971.63 remains unspent.
Roughly $110,000 in Brownfield assessment grant funds have gone into nine projects so far. These include two projects each in Centerville, Empire, and Leelanau townships, and one project each in Elmwood, Leland, and Suttons Bay townships. A Brownfield plan, supported by grant-funded assessment, was also adopted by the county board of commissioners.
Myer said that most properties that qualify for these grant funds receive phase I of environmental site assessment, which is just a review of a property’s historical records to assess the potential for recognized environmental conditions (RECs). But depending on the findings, they can also be used to conduct physical sampling for RECs.
According to a county press release, communities, property owners, and developers can contact Myer at 231-256-9812 or at [email protected] for information on how to access funds. Funds can be used on sites with an unknown, suspected, or known environmental contamination.
If owners or developers are about to acquire a site, they should reach out to the planning department and the county Brownfield redevelopment authority as soon as feasible and prior to purchasing the property, the release says.
