I am pleased to unveil our second annual brownfields report entitled, Recycling America’s Land: A National Report on Brownfields Redevelopment, Volume II. As you know, the issue of brownfields and their redevelopment has been a top priority for the nation’s mayors for many years, and we are continuing to work towards federal legislation and policies to speed our redevelopment efforts.

The problem of brownfields is pervasive throughout our country. Almost every city in the United States has some type of abandoned or vacant site whose redevelopment was impeded or is currently being impeded by the fear of environmental contamination and liability.

When many people think of brownfields, they think of it as only a problem in the older industrial regions of the Northeast or Midwest. But in Salt Lake City, we have a 650 acre brownfield site in an area known as Gateway, which was home to railroad tracks, maintenance facilities, heavy industry, salvage yards, manufacturing and warehouse units. In our fast-growing community, we can not afford to let these acres go to waste. Nor should we. Across from the Gateway area was another former brownfield site, which now is the home of the new arena for the Utah Jazz. The stadium has a seating capacity of 24,000, employs over 1,400 people, and generates approximately $1 million in annual tax revenue.

The success of the stadium project is but one example of what cities across America are doing with these former abandoned sites. But we still have a long way to go.

As President of the Conference of Mayors, I am pleased to continue the work of my predecessors, Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Their leadership along with the Brownfields Task Force Co-Chairs has been instrumental in putting the issue of brownfields on the map with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Congress and the White House. We will continue to push forward on our brownfields agenda, to give local governments and businesses the tools necessary to cleanup and redevelop these sites. Providing Mayors with current information on brownfield redevelopment is part of our work, and we hope this second annual report is helpful to you and your community.

I wish to thank all of the cities that contributed to this report. The information provided is now included in the Conference of Mayors’ National Brownfields Database, a resource that can be accessed by all cities and can be used when we meet with the Administration and Congressional officials to discuss brownfields issues.

Please keep us informed as you continue to lead the way in your communities and let the Conference Staff know how they can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Deedee Corradini
Mayor of Salt Lake City
President

The U.S. Conference of Mayors defines the term "brownfields" as an abandoned or underutilized property where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by either real or perceived environmental contamination. This description can apply to a wide variety of sites including but not limited to industrial properties, old gas stations, warehouses, or even residential buildings which could contain lead paint and asbestos. These sites are located in just about every community throughout the United States. They represent pockets of disinvestment, neglect and even missed opportunities. Many times these brownfield sites can be found in poorer communities and neighborhoods, areas that could use economic investment and job creation.

The existence of many brownfield sites can now be traced to the strict liability provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), a federal law more commonly known as "Superfund." CERCLA was enacted in 1980 to stop the irresponsible discharge of pollutants to the environment by holding entities to very strict liability standards, making owners fully responsible for any and all costs to rid "Superfund-caliber" properties of contamination. This federal law, over time, has affected virtually all properties — including brownfields— by making owners of these sites potentially subject to liability even though they did not cause the contamination, and it drives many potential developers and businesses away from these brownfields as potential sites for investment. Instead, private and public parties have looked to "greenfields", pristine or undeveloped land resources, as the first choice for locations for new businesses and other development. As a result, our nation is consuming farmland and openspaces at an alarming rate, while leaving brownfields abandoned or underutilized in just about every community in the nation.

The purpose of this report is to build upon last year’s first national brownfields survey, by compiling new information from the nation’s cities on the status of brownfields and the impact these properties have on communities. The information in this report has been added to the Conference of Mayors National Brownfields Database to help track local efforts in redeveloping these properties. This resource will be updated regularly as more information becomes available.

This report is a compilation of data from 223* cities that responded to a Conference of Mayors’ questionnaire. Participating cities represent all parts of the United States including Bangor, ME, San Diego, CA, Bellingham, WA, and San Juan, PR. Additionally, it was determined that the problem of brownfields affects cities of every size, with survey respondents ranging in size from Oak Brook, IL with a population of 9,087 to New York City with a population of 7,380,906.

Cities completed all or part of the questionnaire based on their best available data. The questionnaire solicited information on the number of brownfields (subject to each city’s criteria) and acres of land affected, impediments to and potential benefits of redevelopment, state activities and regional partnerships.

The final portion of this report contains narrative descriptions of brownfield sites as well as information regarding redevelopment activities.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors wishes to thank everyone who participated in this report.

The second annual brownfields report once again demonstrates the pervasiveness of the brownfields problem throughout the United States, and documents the lost opportunities by failing to recycle these sites back into more productive uses. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized property where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by either real or perceived environmental contamination.

A total of 223 cities provided information regarding the brownfields in their communities, a substantial increase from last years’ 149 responses. In this years’ survey, 180 cities estimated that they had over 19,000 brownfields sites. This figure represents more than 178,000 acres of land, acreage that exceeds the total land area of Atlanta, Seattle and San Francisco.

This year’s report again found that brownfields are not just a "big city" problem; more than 50 percent of the survey responses came from cities with a population under 100,000. These cities alone reported nearly 3,000 brownfield sites, totaling more than 89,000 acres.

The cities again identified the major obstacles to the redevelopment of brownfield sites. Like the 1998 survey, the ‘lack of funds to cleanup these sites’ was the most frequently identified impediment, followed by ‘liability issues’ and the need for ‘environmental assessments’ to determine the extent of the contamination.

The survey also asked cities if they had brownfield sites that would require additional subsidies beyond cleanup funds and assessment monies. More than 75 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they would need additional help, such as infrastructure upgrades, financial assistance to demolish obsolete buildings and structures, tax incentives, and low interest loans.

Among the potential benefits cited most often were tax base growth, job creation, neighborhood revitalization, and environmental protection. Two-thirds of the survey respondents estimated that if their brownfields were redeveloped, their cities would realize additional tax revenues in the range of $955 million – $2.7 billion annually. In addition, 168 cities estimated that more than 675,000 jobs could potentially be created on former brownfield sites.

More than 170 cities said they could support additional people moving into their city without adding appreciably to their existing infrastructure. Of these, 115 respondents estimated 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, our nation’s second largest city.

More than one-half of the respondents indicated that they now offered incentives to encourage brownfields redevelopment, through tax credits or abatements, infrastructure upgrades, low interest loans, job training, grants, cleanup funds, and tax increment financing.

The survey also found that states have increased their participation with cities on brownfield issues, with 51 percent of the cities indicating they had city-state partnerships, up from last year’s level of 33 percent. While only 16 percent of the cities reported that the state was working with them on the issue of urban sprawl, 27 percent of the respondents had formed a partnership with their county to deal with this issue.

The reviews are still mixed when it relates to cities ranking their State’s Voluntary Cleanup Program. For the 140 cities in states with such programs, 44 percent gave their state a "satisfactory" rating. The remaining respondents were about equally divided, with 28 percent giving their states an "excellent" or "very good" rating while 29 percent giving them either a "not very good" or "poor" rating.

The last section of this report contains descriptions of brownfields throughout the United States as well as redevelopment projects on these properties. These city status reports document the progress being made by cities. Finally, many cities credited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Brownfields Pilot program in helping them address their brownfields problem.