Environmental services have become a tool to support economic development and a company with projects throughout Southwest Michigan has brought the two together.
ASTI Environmental, which has worked on more than 30 projects in Southwest Michigan over the past year, has created the Environmental Concerns Inventory that brings together an environmental review and ways to the use the property as well as development incentives in one document.
The document helps identify solutions to environmental impediments that otherwise would hinder redevelopment on a single parcel or over a wide area.
Using public documents and an inspection from the public right-of-way, ASTI reviews and maps suspected environmental impacts and provides an analysis of the implications for future development. It looks at nearby properties to see if they would be impacted, as well. Installed infrastructure and any improvements needed are identified.
Parcels that cannot be developed in a cost-effective way are identified. And options for remediation and a map based on the future use of the site are part of the environmental concerns inventory.
Impediments, such as historical foundations, unstable fill material or waste disposal areas, that may require engineering assessments, are also identified.
The tool is being used by communities to bolster public-private partnerships and planning activities.
However, it does not replace the need for environmental due diligence required prior to purchase or remediation.
One city official who has hired ASTI to for an Environmental Concerns Inventory says: Understanding the perceived and actual environmental impediments to redevelopment efforts can be critical if you want to identify and prioritize incentives early in the redevelopment cycle.
ASTI Environmental, with offices in Grand Rapids and Brighton, has completed 7,500 environmental investigation, remediation, compliance and restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes Region since 1985.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Souce: Doug Brown, ASTI
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