EMERYVILLE, CA-Stalled redevelopment plans for a 20-acre site here got the go ahead recently when a Federal District Court in San Francisco decided the city could pursue polluters for cleanup costs totaling nearly $13 million.

The city acquired the contaminated property under eminent domain with the idea of developing about 300,000 sf of retail and entertainment uses, 350 residential units and a 300-room hotel on the site. The redevelopment plan hit a snag when the city was forced to investigate the need to cleanup 25,000 yards of contaminated soil and to prevent groundwater contaminated on the site from damaging San Francisco Bay.

Once the site cleanup was underway, the city filed suit in Federal District Court claiming the prior site occupants, which include a pesticide plant, an iron-oxide manufacturing plant and a disposal drum recycling operation were responsible for the entire cost of the cleanup. Even before the court ruled, the city recovered $7.1 million in cleanup costs through mediation and a settlement.