Site Assessment and Remedial Action Plan for Park City Commons Brownfield Redevelopment

The City of Winnipeg and EdgeCorp Developments Ltd. (EdgeCorp) will conduct a supplementary Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) on a 23 acre site which was formerly used as a municipal public works yard and outdoor road salt and sand storage area. The supplementary Phase II ESA will collect the necessary data to support a risk assessment for the site, which will then be incorporated into a risk management strategy emphasizing onsite management to mitigate and manage exposure to contaminants. Through an agreement, the City and EdgeCorp intend to undertake the Project through a joint-venture arrangement called ‘‘Park City Commons Joint Venture’’ to manage the re-development, servicing and marketing of the site, which is located at 1500 Plessis Road and Transcona Boulevard. The site has undergone both a Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA). Contamination at the site includes salt impacts and petroleum hydrocarbon from the former fueling and maintenance facilities, and potentially some asbestos in buildings on site. The supplemental Phase II ESA will provide additional delineation and definition of the salt-impacted areas at the site and collect the necessary data to support a risk assessment to quantify potential risks to human health and the environment. Consultants will also conduct a hazardous materials assessment to identify whether there is asbestos in any of the buildings, and then develop a Hazardous Materials Management Plan. They will then conduct a hydrocarbon impact assessment and risk assessment focusing on the area near former underground storage tanks, fueling infrastructure, and a former in-ground hydraulic vehicle hoist system. Finally, they will create a remedial action plan. The proposed approach will examine the opportunity to leave 65,000 cubic materials of mainly salt contaminated soils on site rather than remove them off site to a landfill, saving landfilling costs, transportation costs and environmental impacts associated with the transport. If all of the material was removed offsite, 136,912 litres of fossil fuel would be consumed by haul trucks, generating 316 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The future transit oriented nature of the site is expected to reduce GHG's by a further 2.27 to 3.35 tonnes per year, per household. The development plan for the site includes neighbourhood-scale shopping and a residential village, which will incorporate transit oriented development, smart growth design, and ageing in place principles. OurWinnipeg - The Complete Communities Direction Strategy - identifies this site as one of the four transformative areas for the development of complete communities with significant residential and employment densities and attractive urban design. The project links to the City investment in a new library and their work with YWCA to build a new multipurpose recreation centre. It is in line with the Transcona West Area Structure Plan and the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Plan, which identify the location of a proposed rapid transit station on the site. The development will also be linked to the eastern expansion corridor of The City of Winnipeg Bus Rapid Transit system. Land use planning for the site will outline the layout and design of bus and transit infrastructure to optimize modal shift from fossil-fuel vehicles. (Project description from original funding application)