On April 27, Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, Immediate Past President of the Conference, released the second annual report on brownfields by The U.S. Conference of Mayors, a survey of 223 cities. The report, Recycling America's Land: A National Report on Brownfields Redevelopment, indicates that brownfields are still a pervasive problem throughout the United States, but, if redeveloped, tremendous benefits could be realized. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties where development is complicated by the fear of real or perceived environmental contamination.

Appearing with Mayor Helmke were Dayton Mayor Michael Turner, a co-chair of the Conference's Brownfields Task Force and Edward Thompson, Senior Vice President of American Farmland Trust.

Mayor Helmke said that redeveloping brownfields was his top priority during his tenure as Conference President because of its far-reaching impact on cities, suburbs and rural areas. Helmke stated, "The country must change its current pattern of throwing away land if we are to create more livable communities."

Citing the survey results, Helmke said that a variety of impediments must be removed to enable cities to redevelop brownfield sites including lack of funds to cleanup sites, liability issues, and the need for assessments to determine the extent of the environmental contamination. Approximately 180 cities reported having over 19,000 brownfields sites representing 178,000 acres of land, a figure that exceeds the land area of Seattle, Atlanta, and San Francisco.

Mayor Turner, responding to press inquiries, said that Mayors were hopeful that Congress and the Administration would take action to help cities in the redevelopment of brownfield sites. Congress is currently considering legislation to reform existing "Superfund" law, a law that has contributed to the brownfields problem. Turner stressed the importance of changing the laws now in order to prevent future brownfield sites from being created. He stated, "If we correct it (the laws) now, it will help us bolster and reinvest in our cities, and also protects us from the next round of brownfields that are going to cause even further sprawl out in our suburbs."

Among the major survey findings of the second annual report:

Two-thirds of the cities estimated that if their brownfields were redeveloped, they could realize additional tax revenues in the range of $955 million - $2.7 billion annually;

More than 675,000 jobs could potentially be created on former brownfield sites;

More than 50 percent of the survey responses were from cities with populations below 100,000; and

More than 170 cities said they could support additional people moving into their city without adding appreciably to their existing infrastructure, with 115 cities estimating that collectively they could support more than 3.4 million new people in their cities, a population that is nearly equal to the City of Los Angeles.

Joining the Mayors was Edward Thompson of the American Farmland Trust; a national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the nation's agricultural resources. Thompson stated, "We are here today because there's no question that recycling brownfields can help protect the nation's greenfields including the prime and unique farmlands that are located around our growing cities." Thompson said that over half of U.S. farm production including three-quarters of the domestically produced fruits and vegetables were grown in metropolitan areas.

Thompson pointed to statistics regarding the increased rate of sprawl and the consumption of farmland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has calculated that 4.7 million acres of farmland was covered by sprawl between 1987-1992, a 15 percent increase from the 4 million acres that was consumed between 1982-1987.

Helmke said, "We're hopeful that the release of this report will draw the attention of both Congress and the Administration so that steps can be taken to deal with the impediments that we have identified -- the liability issues, environmental assessments and cleanup monies -- and to look at some changes in the law that helped create this problem in the first place." He continued, "The future of our cities, the future of our farms, the future of our country really, depends on us finding ways to recycle this land that was productive in the past so that we don't let these brownfields become deadzones in our communities."