New Partners for Community Revitalization

This initiative seeks to build the knowledge and capacity of City agency personnel and BOA CBO staff to conduct BOA planning in a coordinated way.

March 2011 Capacity Building Workshop On March 24, 2011, the OER/NPCR 3rd Capacity Building Workshop took place at the Central Park Room at 100 Gold Street. It was well attended by approximately 35 BOA CBOs and city agency representatives. The workshop was co-led by four community-based organizations (CBOs) – Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, SoBRO and Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement. Also featured were the Department of Housing Preservation & Development and the Department of Parks & Recreation. The Workshop provided successful examples of collaborative planning efforts between the City and CBOs.

Photo courtesy of Breanna Gribble, OER

February 10, 2011 Capacity Building Workshop February 10, 2011: The second OER/NPCR workshop was held at theNYC Department of Transportation’s offices. The four-hour workshop followed the same format as Workshop 1, it featured introductoryspeakers from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability and the NYC Office of Environmental Remediation, showcased two city agencies who co-led sessions with BOA CBOs and included an overview of the BOA Program. The first half of the workshop featured NYCDEP and focused on their recently released “Green Infrastructure Plan” and their collaborative efforts with Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice andGreenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center on stormwater collection and open space projects. The second half of the workshop was co-led by NYCDOT and GJDC with DOT providing a summary of resources they can provide to BOA grantees and Greater Jamaica Development Corporation describing a collaborative project with NYCDOT at the Jamaica Air Train Station. About 40 agency representatives and BOA CBOs attended and audience participation was lively with several BOA grantees requesting that the agencies join their Steering Committees. The workshop also provided an excellent networking opportunity.

Photo courtesy of Breanna Gribble, OER

November 23, 2010: The first workshop was held in the Blue Room at City Hall and was well attended by approximately 40 BOA CBOs and City Agency representatives. The Mayor’s new Director of the Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability kicked off the workshop with a discussion of PlaNYC 2.0 and the City’s area-wide community based planning strategy. The first half of the workshop was co-led by the NYC Department of City Planning and SoBRO and focused on their collaboration on a rezoning effort in the Bronx. Following their session, information sessions on site eligibility criteria for EPA petroleum site assessment funds and BOA basics were provided. The second agency- CBO session was co-led by the NYC Economic Development Corporation and NYC Small Business Services and UPROSE and GJDC. The workshop provided detailed information about the agencies and the CBOs and excellent examples of collaborative planning efforts in the City. Follow-up discussions focused on how such collaborations can be replicated by other agencies and CBOs in the BOA program.

BOA Meeting June 24, 2010: The kick-off meeting for the Capacity Building project with NYCOER took place on June 24th at City Hall. Representatives of six city agencies participated with CBO representatives involved with the NYS BOA program. The preliminary workshop outline with workshop topics and roles of city agencies and CBOs was the main topic of discussion. A series of three workshops will be held with the first one scheduled for early November 2010.

Photo: NYCOER

NPCR Training/Workshops in 2009

In 2009, NPCR held three brownfields training/workshops that covered the basics of brownfields as well as the BOA Program, the BCP and BTCs, OER and brownfields transactions.

NPCR Second Annual Brownfields Forum December 2, 2009: The third workshop of 209 was held in conjunction with NPCR’s, Second Annual Brownfields Forum entitled New Directions in Brownfields: Building Sustainable Communities through Stronger City, State and Federal Partnerships. The Forum, hosted by National Grid, was attended by over 250 brownfield stakeholders who heard from community development, environmental justice and government leaders involved in sustainability and neighborhood renewal. NYS Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes Vazquez announced the Place-Based Regional Collaboration Pilot, a new NYS partnership with federal agencies to advance community revitalization. Three panel presentations were organized: connecting the EPA-HUD-DOT Partnership for Sustainable Communities to the NYS DOS Brownfield Opportunity Area Program; shortcomings in the NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program and the NYS law that limit the use brownfield tax credits to advance the construction of affordable housing projects; and the NYC Brownfields and Community Revitalization Act and the support it offers to NYC BOA grantees. Read more details about this event.

April 27-28, 2009: NPCR’s second workshop coincided with its Albany Summit III on Brownfields. NPCR provided a summary of site assessment resources drawn from its recent White Paper “Using Public Dollars for Brownfield Site Assessments.” and moderated a panel of Government agency representatives and municipal and community leaders from around the state about the opportunities and challenges of using federal and state dollars for site assessment. The workshop also included presentations by the two of the three BOA Spotlight Communities and presentations by agency representatives about brownfield redevelopment projects that involved DEC and/or EPA funds for site investigation and/or cleanup and how these resources/programs fit together. Read more details about this event.

February 2009 Training February 11, 2009: NPCR’s first workshop,was hosted by Enterprise Community Partners. About 50 representatives of BOA Community Based Organizations, Community Development Corporations, Local Development Corporations, Community Development Financial Institutions and other brownfield advocates and professionals attended. The program included seminar presentations on Brownfield Basics, the Brownfield Opportunity Program (BOA), and Transactional Issues, as well as a case study of the Fifth Avenue Committee’s Atlantic Terrace Project, which focused on Brownfield Tax Credits and Scheduling/Sign off issues. The workshop concluded with policy updates at the City, State and federal levels.

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