From eyesores to assets
Heldrich Center publishes guidelines for successful brownfields redevelopment
Archived article from Feb 18, 2000
By Steve Manas
While certainly no quick fix to every thorny environmental, economic or social problem, the remediation of brownfields can serve as a strong catalyst to effect a range of significant, positive changes to the neighborhoods, communities and cities in which they are located.
Defined by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as "abandoned, idled or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination," more than 425,000 brownfields dot the nation, in cities and rural communities of all sizes and industrial histories.
The challenging process of remediation takes the cooperation of many interested stakeholders and also partnerships among the public and private sectors and local communities. Although important progress has been made toward this effort, much more needs to be done, especially in the realm of brownfields education, to transform these eyesores into welcome economic assets.
"Turning Brownfields Into Jobfields: A Handbook for Practi-tioners and Citizens on Making Brownfields Development Work," a report published by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development with the support of the Ford Foundation, identifies the leading strategies essential to the successful development of these controversial and complex properties.
"Brownfields pose a threat to public health and the environment, contribute to neighborhood blight and drain local tax revenues," explains Heldrich Center Director Carl Van Horn, the report's lead author. "If we can overcome the redevelopment challenges posed by these contaminated properties, in many locales brownfields offer an excellent opportunity for economic development and job creation."
To compile the report, Van Horn, a professor of public policy, and co-authors Karen A. Dixon, who directed the project for the Heldrich Center at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Gregory E. Lawler and Daniel N. Segal of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Lawler, Metzger & Milkman LLC, conducted extensive field and literature research, including case studies of 10 major brownfields sites and interviews with 200 brownfields experts and stakeholders. They found that successful projects share common approaches to overcoming barriers to brownfields development, such as the difficult issues of financing and insurance.
Besides gaining the active participation and support of local governments, communities and their leaders, and building public-private partnerships, these projects also leveraged real-estate benefits, such as a favorable location with easy access to transportation; took advantage of effective government programs that facilitate site cleanup according to end use; and used targeted insurance policies to reduce risks and costs for investors and developers.
"We found that brownfields redevelopment provides communities, especially low-income or minority communities, with new opportunities to participate in and take advantage of neighborhood development," said Dixon.
Remediation, she acknowledged, is an extremely complex undertaking. Nevertheless, she points out, "Community and government leaders are recognizing that brownfields development can offer reduced pollution; new jobs during the assessment/remediation, new construction and reuse phases; new housing; new infrastructure; new commercial properties; and im-proved public services."
Remediating these polluted and unwanted properties also delivers a measure of social justice to neigh-borhood residents. "Polluting industries and businesses were frequently allowed to locate in these areas despite the potential health and safety threat they posed to local residents, who had little or no political clout," she observed.
As added benefits, urban brownfields redevelopment can help fill in abandoned parcels of land and add them to the tax rolls or provide quality-of-life amenities, such as parks and playgrounds, utilize existing infrastructure, and help to reduce suburban sprawl, an important goal of the state plan for development and redevelopment, Dixon said.
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