New dog park still tops probability wish list for Palmetto brownfield property

PALMETTO -- When Palmetto's Community Redevelopment Agency Director Jeff Burton envisions a future project, "World class" is a common theme of what he sees, even if it's a dog park sitting on 1.5 acres at 505 Fifth Street W, a parcel of land surrounded by commercial industrial and residential uses.

The property is better known as the Edenfield property, named after its owner up until 1999 when the city purchased the property from the former CSX Railroad employee who often bought up former railroad storage yards no longer needed. While the property is surrounded by other uses, it's southern border sits along the Manatee River and most of the property is shrouded by ancient oak trees making it ideal for public use. What that public use looks like, or if it will be public use remains a question.

"I know there have been discussions on a dog park and I think it would be a huge benefit," said Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant. "I've heard some real positive feedback on the idea, but I've also heard some real opposition on the commission. We'll look at some other opportunities and re-configuring something on the water that may be more in line with some of the other businesses that could transition that neighborhood than what's there now."

Bryant said the first priority is getting the property cleaned up to make it more of a "blank canvass to shine a light on what opportunities are there."

Cleaning up the property is the first challenge given its history as a former CSX storage site for creosote soaked railroad timbers.

"The CRA has completed and paid for the environmental studies on the property," said Burton. "We have determined that there are some hot spots related to the railroad storing the rail timbers and those spots have to be cleaned up. The future use of the property is very important because different uses require different levels of cleaning."

Residential use would require extensive clean up compared to public or commercial use, "but it's an asset in the making, a diamond in the rough," said Burton, who noted that a world class dog park also meets the goals of the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corporation's long range plans, which is why a dog park remains high on the likely future use.

An environmental study in May of 2014 indicated the presence of arsenic in the soil, which also is a naturally occurring event, but also the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which is a name for hundreds of different chemicals that are related to burning coal, oil, gasoline, trash or other organic substances. However, no ground water contamination has been detected.

The chemical presence makes the area a brownfield, which qualifies for Florida Department of Environmental Protection grand funds to help cleanse the property. Burton said a rehabilitation agreement with FDEP is already in place.

"We are in the process now of heading down that path with the state to turn this piece of property from a fenced-in field to something viable to the community," said Burton.

Public feedback has been mostly positive for the city's first real dog park proposal, but some residents expressed early concerns about their pets playing and digging in a brownfield environment. Burton said the goal is to remove the contaminates, but it also "Depends on how we design that type of facility."

He said a secondary goal is to work with the Southwest Florida Management District to help pre-treat the water from a nearby storm drain leading into the river.

"If we tie in with Swiftmud with pre-treatment opportunities like a retention pond and other water features where those hot spots are, we can match our dollars with Swiftmud by eliminating the hot spots and creating those retentions for stormwater. It's something we have looked at with a park designer and have some conceptual designs to deal with the existing hot spots."

Though a dog park is high on the probability list, Burton agreed with Bryant that the land has other opportunities, "but that part is up to the city leaders."

Burton said in 2014, the end result for the Edenfield property would take about five years "and right now we are in year two. We are in the process of beginning clean up, we have the assessments, we have agreements with the state, so we are heading down that road to whatever we put there will be an asset to the city."

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter@urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 4:16 PM with the headline "New dog park still tops probability wish list for Palmetto brownfield property ."