Brownfields Redevelopment Brownfields redevelopment refers to the reuse of abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Public sector benefits include job creation, increased tax revenues, reduced urban sprawl, mitigation of health hazards, community and environmental stewardship, crime reduction, and prevention and elimination of blight. In the past, concerns regarding purchaser and lender liability for pollution stymied the redevelopment of many Brownfields sites. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and equivalent State environmental regulators have taken steps to allay concerns about future liability, putting many of these sites back into productive use.
Regulatory reforms continue at both the state and federal level.
The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices examines innovative state practices in brownfields redevelopment. The Institute for Research Management , a non-profit organization supported by EPA, conducts research on the processes needed to achieve integrated cleanup and reuse of contaminated properties. This EDA-funded review identifies common themes and distills lessons from more than a decade of intense efforts by practitioners to redevelop idle brownfield properties. Focusing on redevelopment for commercial and industrial purposes, it examines the role of local, state, and federal economic development organizations in promoting redevelopment. E.P. Systems Group, Inc., 2000.