HERC Hazardous Material Cleanup and Revitalization Plan

Project Description

This project plans for and completes hazardous materials cleanup for future redevelopment of the Homer Education and Recreation Complex (HERC). The site is a 4.3-acre brownfield property located at the corner of the Sterling Highway and Pioneer Avenue, the gateway to Homer's commercial district.

The HERC property currently includes two former school buildings constructed in 1956. The Kenai Peninsula Borough transferred these buildings to City of Homer ownership in 2000. Since then, they have supported a variety of recreational programs and administrative functions including public use of the gym, offices and classrooms.

Over the years, the City has commissioned multiple structural and feasibility studies to identify cost-effective strategies for repurposing the aging buildings into more productive long term community assets. The results reveal that both buildings contain hazardous materials typical of 1950s construction, including asbestos, lead paint, PCBs, and mercury in materials such as paint and varnish. These findings have significant implications for demolition, requiring costly controlled removal and disposal.  Additionally, bringing these aging structures into compliance with modern fire and seismic codes while managing hazardous materials has proven cost-prohibitive for renovations. Consequently, each repurposing effort has been halted by environmental remediation challenges. In the meantime, the buildings have continued to deteriorate—the smaller building (HERC 2) has been closed entirely due to potential structural instability.

Scope

Phase 1 Assessment and Planning Completed Steps

• Limited Hazardous Materials Assessment
• Comprehensive Materials Inventory
• Analysis of Brownfields Cleanup Alternatives (ABCA). The ABCA evaluates five cleanup alternatives with rough order magnitude cost estimates to assist informed decision-making on the City’s objectives of demolition and eventual site repurposing.

Phase 1 Assessment and Planning Next Steps

• Council Review of Alternatives and Recommendations
• Finalize Cleanup Plan

Phase 2 – Site Cleanup

• Funding Acquisition 
• Select Contractor

Phase

Cost Estimate

$10.5M

Funding

Need and Benefits

Public Health and Environmental Protection - Cleanup removes the threats of hazardous materials that could contaminate soil and/or groundwater and it reduces the potential for community exposure to toxins.

Economic Revitalization - Cleaning up the contaminated site creates the opportunity to transform this blighted, largely unused property into a productive asset. It also eliminates the ongoing costs of maintaining the deteriorating, partially functional HERC 1 structure with limited utility.