Maul Foster Alongi
City of Palouse Hires MFA to Turn a Brownfield into Green
The City of Palouse has retained Maul Foster & Alongi, Inc. (MFA) to help clean up and plan for redevelopment of the former Palouse Producers site. The project builds on the renaissance under way in Palouse where new restaurants, antique shops, and an art gallery have spurred growing activity and interest in this historic town just north of Pullman, Washington.
"Never before has the opportunity to incorporate long-term planning, land reuse and site cleanup into a single process been available to us. By building a solid partnership with both the Department of Ecology and Maul Foster and Alongi, we have the ability to reshape our future by focusing all of the positive aspects of our community into a single vision. Our future could not be brighter and we look forward to the expertise MFA brings to our small rural community," stated Michael Echanove, Mayor, City of Palouse.
MFA was selected to conduct this project because of its expertise in the areas of environmental cleanup, land use planning, and economic development. The project will involve assessing the legacy contamination issues, developing a community-based vision for reuse of the property, and integrating this vision into the City's overall economic development strategy. The Department of Ecology is funding this effort.
"This is a great opportunity to bring back to productive use an important piece of downtown property and open up the City's riverfront," stated Steve Pottle, MFA's Director of Economic Development. "We look forward to working with the community to clean up this property, define a new use, and provide access to the river."
MFA and the City will begin a public planning process this summer to identify the community's vision for the future of the site. The project was recently featured in EPA's Region 10 Building on Brownfield's August newsletter. For more information, please contact Steve Pottle at 360-701-9521.
