Brownfield Tip of the Month (February) - Connect Brownfields with Community Revitalization Priorities

Communities will succeed in brownfield revitalization when they consider these properties as
community and economic opportunities that happen to have an environmental challenge, and connect
their brownfield initiatives to the broader community vision and revitalization priorities. If the citizens
and leadership of the community have identified priorities such as affordable housing, the attraction of
retail and commercial businesses, the creation of parks and recreational spaces, the renewal of a local
waterfront, or the reverse of blight in particular neighborhoods — brownfields should be viewed as
places for these opportunities, rather than places to avoid and forget about.

A community that considers a brownfield in terms of the community's economic, real estate and
community revitalization potential — rather than only as a pricey pollution problem — will be better
able to attract political leadership, organize partners and allies, obtain resources, establish workable
cleanup strategies, and build citizen confidence. This approach to brownfields turns them from liabilities
into potential assets. This approach creates the atmosphere of cross-sector and cross-disciplinary
cooperation that is essential to brownfield success. Under this revitalization approach, local
communities can fit the challenge of environmental contamination into a larger framework that can
help overcome that challenge.

The City of Stamford, Connecticut is an excellent example of a locality that has used brownfields as an
opportunity to achieve larger community revitalization goals — to expand its public transit
infrastructure, restore the Long Island Sound and Mill River waterfront for public enjoyment, create
new market rate and affordable housing, and attract business investment. Rather than shirk Stamford's
contaminated brownfields, Stamford has considered its brownfields as prime real estate for
revitalization, and used the brownfields aspect of these sites to obtain substantial funding and support
from government and the private sector.

Other examples of communities that have effectively used brownfields as a tool to enhance their
ongoing community revitalization priorities include the following:

-Portland, Oregon's brownfields strategy focuses on redeveloping old warehouses, gas
stations, dry cleaners, and other blighted properties that are impacting the City's most
disadvantaged neighborhoods.

-St. Paul, Minnesota's brownfields strategy is focused on attracting new commercial and
industrial business that will provide high wage jobs for City residents.

-Salt Lake City, Utah and Bridgeport, Connecticut are using their brownfields programs to
help leverage substantial federal and state funding for light rail, transit centers, and roads
essential to the revitalization of their communities.

-Providence, Rhode Island and Kansas City, Missouri have integrated the development of
riverfront greenways into their brownfields programs and leveraged substantial support for
these efforts.

-Glen Cove, New York; East Palo Alto, California; Des Moines, Iowa and numerous other
communities are rediscovering the value of their waterfronts and conducting major
revitalization of these underutilized areas that were once home to the industries of the past.

-Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon have integrated their brownfields strategies with
their efforts to provide a wide range of urban housing options, in terms of style and
affordability.

Many localities have missed out on the potential for brownfields revitalization because they have
considered these properties only as polluted sites, or even perceived them as potential Superfund-type
problems. However, in at least one-third of the brownfields sites that have been investigated using EPA
brownfields funding, there was no contamination at all. In most cases where there is brownfield
contamination, it has typically proved to be manageable, when put into the larger context of a
community revitalization project. Communities can connect brownfields to their broader revitalization
priorities and opportunities by:

-Fitting the environmental challenges of brownfields into the larger vision and goals of the
local community in terms of economic development, urban renewal and beautification,
infrastructure upgrades, infill housing, historic preservation, land use or other revitalization
initiatives.

-Engaging local, state and federal government economic development programs and
resources in the brownfields challenge, by showing economic development partners that
every dollar invested in brownfields revitalization can yield major returns through increased
property values, enhanced tax base, and job creation. The Brownfields Performance
Evaluation Report, by the International Economic Development Council, found that every
dollar of government funding invested in brownfields projects yields, on average, 2.5 dollars
in private sector investment.

-Realizing the community and economic benefits of turning brownfields into parks, open
space and green infrastructure. New community green space can create an economic
premium for adjacent commercial and retail development and generate the spin-off
development that can result from the replacement of blight with community amenities.
Brownfields revitalization offers the opportunity for truly sustainable development that
meets environmental, economic, and community goals. By connecting brownfields to these
broader opportunities, communities can achieve their community revitalization objectives.
Brownfields revitalization offers the opportunity for truly sustainable development that meets
environmental, economic, and community goals. By connecting brownfields to these broader
opportunities, communities can achieve their community revitalization objectives.

Further Resources:
-Brownfields Redevelopment: Performance Evaluation, International Economic Development Council
(1999)
-Converting Brownfields to Greenspace, International Economic Development Council (2001)
-Growing Greener: Revitalizing Brownfields Into Greenspace, by Danielle Miller Wagner and Riti Dhesi,
-International City/County Management Association (2002)
-From Brownfields to Housing: Opportunities, Issues, and Answers, by Danielle Schopp, Northeast-
Midwest Institute (2003)
-Coordinating Brownfields Redevelopment and Local Housing Initiatives, International City/County
Management Association (2003)
-Old Tools and New Measures: Local Government Coordination of Brownfields Redevelopment for
Historic and Cultural Reuses, by Molly Singer and Adam Ploetz, International City/County Management
Association (2002)
-www.smartgrowthamerica.org - National Vacant Properties Campaign