The Other Side of the Economic Divide

By Charles Bartsch

In recent years, tens of thousands of brownfield sites have been cleaned up and productively reused in cities all across the country. Many of these success stories have come about because the public sector was willing and able to help jumpstart these efforts. In fact, local governments, in many respects, are the innovators, doing much to help level the economic playing field between brownfield and greenfield sites.

However, local ability to encourage and excel at brownfield revitalization strategies is greatly influenced by the larger economic setting from which the locality operates. Thriving areas, with upward pressures on real estate values, often have an easier time promoting site reuse — brownfield tools are easier to deploy and returns on public investment are more certain and typically greater.

Communities with weak markets that are struggling to maintain their economic viability are often hard pressed to attract any new investment, let alone brownfield activity, which generally requires greater levels of up-front investment to achieve project completion.

What Makes for Local Success?
Typically, brownfield success stories are found in places that have adopted their own site characterization and reuse tools that are creatively built on the foundation provided by federal programs and policies. Many jurisdictions are starting to explore ways to help prospective re-users overcome the difficulties that contamination can bring to the redevelopment process.