Promoting Brownfield Development

"Development interest in brownfields sites has been growing steadily since the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) initiation of its national brownfields pilot program in the early 1990s. While, traditionally, environmental risk has been considered the major impediment to developing these sites, programs at the state and federal levels have gone a long way towards addressing these risks.

It is important to recognize that deterrents to the redevelopment of brownfields sites can come in other forms as well. Deteriorated infrastructure, out-of-date zoning, and overly complicated local approval processes often can severely hinder a brownfields redevelopment project in moving forward. With many key approvals for these projects needed at the local level, local governments are in a great position to "level the playing field" and better attract developers to these properties.

Local officials are finding new ways to streamline local approval processes, better market publicly owned sites, and offer incentives for redevelopment. These new approaches have been highly successful in attracting investment to high-priority properties in their communities."