Neville Island a mecca for green development?

That's one vision a panel of experts gave to leaders of a township populated by industrial and chemical plants and where a one-time hazardous dump was once known as "poison park."

The group, which first was brought to Neville Island in 2003 by Carnegie Mellon University to help plot development strategies, believes the township has made enough progress to make the goal a realistic one.

After spending two "intensive" days on Neville Island, the four panelists concluded that the environmental situation really had taken a turn for the better over the last five years.

"Were seeing a lot of the former -- I guess we would call environmental negatives -- really being turned into positives. We're seeing the state-of-the-art recycling industries, were seeing a lot going on. It seems to us Neville Island is in position to market itself as a the community of green industry," said Charles Bartsch, a panelist who served as spokesman for the group.

That, said Bill Leon, vice chairman of the Neville Island board of commissioners, would the "ultimate irony," given the township's gritty industrial past.

"It would be the perfect rags- to-riches story," he said, noting the island has gotten a start in that direction with recycling industries.

But the biggest break for Neville Island came when the popular Island Sports Center was built at its western edge, at a site that once was a hazardous dump known as poison park. The Superfund site has since been remediated, allowing for the development.

While pursuing green development, the experts, brought in by CMU's Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center, also urged the township to build on the success of the sports complex and to create more recreational and outdoors opportunities for people.

Those lifestyle amenities will in turn help to attract business and retail development. The panel also recommended possible flex space and warehouse developments near the Interstate 79 interchange on the island.

They also said the island's waterfront is a key asset that should be protected and cultivated for non-industrial uses.

The township formed a development association in 1999 to help bring more opportunities to the island. It is seeing the first fruits of that with the development of a Marriott Fairfield Inn and a Kings Family Restaurant near the I-79 interchange.

Panelists also suggested that Neville leaders establish one point of contact for development and brownfield redevelopment activities in the township. "You need someone whose every day job when they get up is to focus on these issues," Mr. Bartsch said.

The panel also said Neville Island should think about setting aside a portion of revenue generated by development to fund other development activity.

Mr. Leon said the township will have to sort through the recommendations before deciding what steps to take. But he liked much of what he heard.

"I think they're dead on with a lot of things," he said.

Besides Mr. Bartsch of consultant ICF International, panelists were Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield; Jerry Chudzik of engineering firm Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer & Associates Inc.; and Ira Whitman of the Whitman Companies Inc., an environmental engineering firm.