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Recycling America's Land: A National Report on Brownfields Redevelopment
Volume I: Executive Summary
This report shows that a failure to address brownfields redevelopment will result in a wasted opportunity for America to recycle its land, create jobs, increase local tax bases and revitalize neighborhoods. The report's findings indicate that the total number of brownfields in 126 cities exceeded 16,500 sites, representing over 47,000 acres of abandoned or underutilized properties. Over 100 cities collectively estimated that they would receive additional annual tax revenues in the range of $205 - $500 million if they could return their brownfields to productive economic use. In the report, 112 cities indicated that 236,000 jobs could be created if their brownfields were redeveloped. Cities cited increased local tax revenues and job creation as the most important public benefit of brownfield redevelopment -- followed by neighborhood revitalization -- a ranking that substantiates the view that abandoned properties can negatively affect entire neighborhoods. The report also finds that the proliferation of brownfields is a problem that affects communities of all sizes. Fifty-three cities or 36 percent of respondents were communities with populations of less than 50,000. Eighty-eight cities or 59 percent of respondents were communities with less than 100,000 population. These responses confirm that brownfields are not an isolated problem and can be found in communities of various sizes and locations. Cities participating in the study identified several major obstacles to the redevelopment of brownfields. Cities ranked the lack of clean up funds as the number one impediment, followed by liability issues and the lack of environmental assessments for such properties. About one-third of all respondents indicated that they had established a relationship with their county to deal with the issue of brownfields. More than one-half of the responding cities offered local incentives to encourage brownfield redevelopment, such as infrastructure upgrades, low interest loans, loan guarantees, and job training. States received mixed reviews in their support for brownfield activities. Only 30 percent of the cities gave their state a "very active" rating; 47 percent said their state was "somewhat active;" and 23 percent cities said their state was "inactive." This report also depicts the amount of farmland and openspace lost from 1982 to 1992. According to the American Farmland Trust, over 13,823,000 acres of land were lost largely to greenfield development (out of which 4,266,000 acres were prime or unique farmland). The 13.8 million acres is roughly the size of the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and a quarter of Maryland combined. These figures do not take into account greenfield development which has occurred over the last five years. In a related finding, 74 cities were able to estimate that, collectively, they could absorb an additional 2.5 million people using the infrastructure and land that currently is available in their communities. This finding confirms that existing infrastructure in these communities is not only available for brownfield redevelopment, but can make a significant contribution to the preservation of farmland and open space. The final portion of the report describes the characteristics of brownfield sites from over 66 cities, and efforts underway to redevelop these sites. Please refer to page 17 for a list of selected excerpts from these descriptions.
Copyright © 1998, US Conference of Mayors, All rights reserved.
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