Earlier this month, commissioners approved $105,000 to hire Indianapolis-based RW Armstrong & Associates Inc. to do an “area-wide planning study” for West Dayton, once a stronghold for manufacturing, printing and publishing, and other industries.
The city’s goal is to enhance the appearance of the “Innerwest and “Southwest” sections of the city and to identify greenfield and brownfield sites ripe for redevelopment — such as the former Delphi sites off Abbey and the former Nibco, McCalls and Arlington Courts sites.
An RW Armstrong executive pledged to involve the public in the drafting of a plan, establishing a public website and scheduling public meetings, with the first meeting perhaps in the next two months.
“Our goal with this plan is to really use this as a springboard to come up with other investment opportunities in the West Dayton area,” said Veronica Morris, a Dayton government development specialist.
Still, environmental hazards must be addressed, and private investment eventually must come forward.
“It can be viewed as a daunting task,” said Todd Davis, chief executive of Hemisphere, a Cleveland-based brownfield redevelopment firm which has worked with the University of Dayton in redeveloping brownfield properties.
Leah Yasenchak, owner of Brownfield Redevelopment Solutions in Medford Lakes, N.J., said public funding can often inspire the interest of a private developer in a brownfield area, acting as “seed money” to get the process started. Market conditions alone don’t always allow for brownfield redevelopment, at least not at first, she said.
Redevelopment plans dictate the level of cleanup required, but much of the time, several phases of work are required, Yasenchak said.
Any contamination must be found and identified as precisely as possible. Former chemical tank storage areas, research lab areas and more must be found, Yasenchak said.
This can involve sampling of soil and groundwater. Once the extent of contamination is found, long-term monitoring might be established. And contamination must be removed or addressed somehow: Dug up and hauled away, or maybe treated and capped.
“It often adds an enormous amount of time to the redevelopment process,” Yasenchak said.
There are often surprises, such as tanks that didn’t show up in earlier searches, she said. And if contamination is found and monitoring wells are needed, people and businesses on site need to be made aware.
Beyond dealing with environmental issues, there are the stages of development that happen everywhere: Planning, financing, arranging permits.
“All of those other phases would be the same whether is contamination or not,” Yasenchak said.
Based on his experience in Dayton, Davis believes local officials understand what it takes to bring vitality to brownfields. “They get it,” he said.
However big the task may be, an attempt must be made, said Nan Whaley, a Dayton city commissioner.
“West Dayton and Dayton have had enormous changes and stresses during this economy,” Whaley said. “To walk away and say, ‘We can’t develop this market and these areas’ would be unfair.”
Martin Kahl, 94, said he grew up near Edwards Avenue, which became Inland Avenue, close to the nation’s first airplane production facility, started by the Wright brothers in 1910. Orville Wright sold the business to Charles Kettering and others in 1915, and in time General Motors built plants around the Wright hangars.
Kahl, a World War II veteran, went to work at the auto plant, then called the “Inland” plant, in 1949 before becoming a supervisor at a Vandalia plant.
Now a Miamisburg resident, Kahl recalls a very different West Dayton in his childhood — less crowded and more prosperous. He remembers a nearby “forest” where today there are dozens of homes and closed businesses.
“How different?” he said. “Oh my goodness, completely different.”
Cynthia Bowen, planning and urban design director for RW Armstrong, cautioned that future industrial uses may not be possible for some past West Dayton industrial sites. Retail and office uses may be explored instead.
But Bowen is confident that these areas can be made vital again. She said her company has helped Indianapolis and Nashville, among other cities, bring retail, restaurants and other businesses to troubled neighborhoods.
No one should expect overnight results, she said. “It’s a long-term cycle.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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