California's Clean-up Bill May Help Slow Sprawl

"The legislation, considered another tool to slow down California's urban sprawl, aims to standardize rules for environmental cleanups at vacant gas stations, dry cleaners, printing plants and other contaminated sites. It also gives cities more power to force cleanups under state supervision.Experts say these parcels, typically smaller than five acres, are prime for revitalizing old neighborhoods blighted by vacant lots behind barbed wire fences. While developers successfully clean up contamination on large vacant industrial sites, often called 'brownfields,' smaller sites have languished."