City Of Cocoa Awarded $400,000 Brownfields Grant From the EPA

By  //  June 2, 2015

The City of Cocoa is one of nine communities in Florida to receive the grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency

CityofCocoa-580-4
The City of Cocoa has been awarded a $400,000 Brownfields Community-Wide Assessment Grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess existing environmentally contaminated or perceived contaminated sites within the community.

BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – The City of Cocoa has been awarded a $400,000 Brownfields Community-Wide Assessment Grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess existing environmentally contaminated or perceived contaminated sites within the community.

The funds will result in long-term re-use and redevelopment plans for properties that are assessed and where appropriate will lead to remediation and clean-up plans.

The EPA granted a total of $54.3 million to 147 communities across the United States to provide the funding necessary to aid communities and businesses to return economic stability to underserved and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods through the assessment and cleanup of abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

The grant is highly competitive with half of the funding going to first time applicants and the other half going to former grantees.

The City of Cocoa is a four-time Brownfields Grant recipient.

VIDEO: Dragon Boat Festival Set For June 13 In CocoaRelated Story:
VIDEO: Dragon Boat Festival Set For June 13 In Cocoa

In 2003 and 2005, Cocoa was awarded $200,000 and in 2009 and 2015 was awarded $400,000.

Previous grant funds were used to assess a number of properties throughout the city including such sites as Family Dollar on State Road 520, the site for which Emma Jewel Charter Academy is located, the 270-acre site located on I-95 and State Road 524 purchased by Canaveral Port Authority in early 2015, and the site where the current Cocoa City Hall is situated.

John Titkanich
John Titkanich

“As a four-time Brownfields Grant recipient since 2003, we are excited that the EPA is continuing to invest in our community and helping us deal with properties that are constrained by their environmental condition,” said John Titkanich, Jr., Cocoa City Manager.

Since the inception of the EPA’s Brownfields Program in 1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $22 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities which has resulted in approximately 105,942 jobs nationwide.