The brownfield dual land-use policy challenge: reducing barriers to private redevelopment while connecting reuse to broader community goals
Introduction
Brownfields are “abandoned, idled, or under-utilised industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived contamination”. This US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition characterises a tremendous number of properties as brownfields—because the severity of contamination is not specified, and the environmental problems can be merely suspected as well as actually documented.
Most brownfields are found in central cities and industrial suburbs with a history of traditional manufacturing. These sites can be abandoned industrial and railroad facilities or manufacturing plants that are operating but show signs of pollution. Brownfields, however, can also be small commercial or even residential lots with only suspected contamination. The most contaminated brownfields are the 1300 or so Superfund sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). These sites contain waste with amounts of toxic chemicals, like lead or mercury, considered hazardous by the USEPA. Most brownfields, however, have only low to medium levels of known or suspected contamination from ordinary waste like non-hazardous garbage.
For the private sector, brownfields offer opportunities to profit from a large under-exploited source of land within established communities. The public benefits have focused traditionally on employment and tax base generation. In this connection, the US Conference of Mayors (2000) estimated from a survey of 231 cities that brownfield redevelopment could produce over 550,000 new jobs and up to $2.4 billion annually in additional tax revenues.
Brownfield redevelopment, however, presents a dual land-use policy challenge: reducing the barriers to private-sector redevelopment while connecting reuse to broader community goals (that go beyond just job and tax base generation) (Table 1). The first part of this challenge involves addressing the uncertainties created for the private sector by four major issues: liability for contamination; uncertain cleanup standards; availability of funding for redevelopment; and complicated regulatory requirements.
The second part of this challenge involves connecting brownfield redevelopment to wider community efforts to achieve environmental and health protection, improved public safety, targeted jobs and training, central city revitalisation and reduced suburban sprawl. This requires tackling a number of sustainable development and environmental justice issues that meet site-specific and broader community goals: the marketability of brownfields; the social costs and benefits of developing greenfields at the urban periphery instead of redeveloping central city sites; and meaningful community participation.
This paper examines the progress by US local, state and federal agencies during the last decade in addressing this dual challenge. It is based on a review of the interdisciplinary brownfield literature, and evidence from Toledo, OH, whose experience, promoting cleanup and reuse, reflects that of many cities in the Midwest and Northeast.
Section snippets
Conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of brownfield redevelopment
A review of some of the major land-use theories that have attempted to conceptualise urban development and change can help situate this examination of the challenges associated with brownfield redevelopment in terms of the locational, economic, and other characteristics of these sites that can make reuse difficult.
Land-use theories to explain land-use differentiation within a monocentric city, beginning with the Chicago School of Human Ecology, have drawn on the ideas of open competition for
Reducing the barriers to private brownfield redevelopment
During the last decade, governments at all levels have attempted to promote central city renewal and counter suburbanisation by attempting to reduce the barriers to brownfield reuse for developers. Progress so far has been facilitated by the relatively straightforward focus of these efforts—making reuse easier for private real estate practitioners. This economic focus is reflected in the titles of numerous publications, including Turning Brownfields into Greenbacks (Simons, 1998), Mining
Connecting brownfield redevelopment to broader community goals
More limited progress has been made in connecting brownfield reuse to broader community goals of achieving environmental protection, central city revitalisation and reduced suburban sprawl. This is because government attempts to remove the barriers to private brownfield redevelopment must also try to protect the environmental and economic health of residents, especially minority and low-income people, which is not straightforward. This involves addressing the challenges of: the marketability of
Concluding comments
Government efforts to reduce the impediments to private brownfield redevelopment have focused on the economics of reuse and making redevelopment easier for the private sector. Progress has been possible because public agencies at federal through local levels have the authority to act at the scales necessary to address the barriers to private brownfield reuse involving legal liability, cleanup standards, funding, and public regulatory requirements. Federal and state agencies have passed
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