Escambia County is considering designating four Community Redevelopment Areas in north Pensacola and Cantonment as brownfield areas.
The County Commission will vote Thursday to schedule two public hearings on designating the Community Redevelopment Areas in Atwood, Ensley, Oakfield and Cantonment as brownfield areas, which would allow properties in those areas to qualify for state and federal incentives under the Brownfield Redevelopment Act.
The county designated its other CRAs — Palafox, Englewood, Brownsville, Barrancas and Warrington — as brownfield areas in 2011.
Tim Day, environmental programs manager with Escambia County, told the News Journal that being designated a brownfield area does not necessarily mean the area is polluted, as the law only requires the perception of pollution for an area to be designated a brownfield area.
“Within a brownfield area, you may actually have brownfield sites, and so the brownfield sites are actually contaminated,” Day said. “Within a brownfield area, it doesn’t mean that the property is contaminated. It may be in an area that’s blighted, and there may be a public perception that there must be something wrong with it because it’s not redeveloping.”