Case History 13


Project Name:
Brown & Keener Urban Design

Location of Work: Borough of Manville, New Jersey

Work Scope: Excel Environmental Resources, Inc. (Excel) was retained by Brown & Keener Urban Design to perform an Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) of the Borough of Manville in support of development of the Borough's Revitalization Strategy and Redevelopment Plans. The objective of the ESA was to identify properties within the Main Street Redevelopment Area that may require investigation and/or remediation prior to implementation of construction activities associated with the Borough's Redevelopment Plan for the Main Street corridor. To assess the potential environmental risk associated with more than 75 properties located within the study area, Excel conducted a preliminary evaluation of the environmental condition of the property and ranked the properties based on known and/or potential contamination for use by the Redevelopment Team during the final stages of developing the Revitalization Strategy. Excel worked closely with the Borough's representatives, the land planners, engineers, architects, and local and state agency representatives throughout the project and provided expert environmental consultation during key planning sessions.

Following are key aspects of the project:

  • Excel conducted a detailed review of historic documents, environmental database records, Sanborn™ Maps, and historic aerial photographs, and interviewed local agency representatives in order to obtain as much information as possible regarding each property.


  • Excel evaluated the historic information and identified issues of potential environmental concern associated with several properties located within the Main Street corridor area.


  • Excel participated in a comprehensive tour of Manville for field verification of the information obtained through review of historic information. The field tour was used to supplement the findings of the historic document review with visual evidence of potential issues of environmental concern.


  • Excel prepared a report summarizing the findings of the ESA with graphics suitable for use by other professionals working on the Revitalization Strategy and to assist in communicating the outcome of the ESA during public meetings.


  • Excel provided technical and strategic consultation to the Redevelopment Team to incorporate the ESA findings into the draft and final concept plans for the Main Street Revitalization Strategy.

    Project Outcome: The findings of the ESA were incorporated into the final Revitalization Strategy and Excel provided creative solutions for management of potentially contaminated properties, including strategies for incorporation of potential environmental compliance activities into redevelopment plans for known contaminated properties and innovative recommendations for streamlining the investigative and/or cleanup process for problems that may be encountered as development proceeds.

    Client Contact: Mark R. Keener, Brown & Keener Urban Design (215)751-1133