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This newsletter tracks congressional brownfields issues, emerging trends in brownfields redevelopment, and smart growth/urban redevelopment policy and research. Evans Paull, Executive Director of the National Brownfields Coalition and Principal of the consulting business Redevelopment Economics, is responsible for content. |
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Coalition Launches Brownfields Federal Policy Campaign
Press Release, September 17, 2010
The National Brownfields Coalition announced today the launch of a campaign to make brownfields redevelopment a central strategy in the nation's community development, environment, and climate agendas. The National Brownfields Coalition is comprised of national organizations, as well as local and state government, nonprofit, and private organizations, which represent economic, community, and environmental interests. This extraordinarily diverse Coalition has been instrumental in advancing important brownfields legislation in Congress and is being led by Evans Paull, formerly a Senior Policy Analyst, with Northeast-Midwest Institute, as its new Executive Director. Paull said, "Brownfields redevelopment contributes to many of our critical national issues, from bringing much-needed jobs closer to under-served populations, to lowering greenhouse gases due to more efficient development patterns." He continued, "We need to make the case to Congress and the Administration that adding resources and improving programs that support brownfields redevelopment will contribute significantly to multiple national priorities - the jobs agenda, the climate agenda, and the sustainable community development agenda." Mr. Paull is also Principal at the consulting firm, Redevelopment Economics. New financial support of the Coalition has been received from the Goldstein Brownfields Group, a member of the Coalition. These resources will allow the Coalition to re-double its efforts to advance and support HR 5310, the Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pallone, D-NJ and Sestak, D-PA). The National Brownfields Coalition has previously acted as an informal coordinating group with limited staff support from the Northeast-Midwest Institute. These new resources will allow the Coalition to continue to grow in support, visibility and organization.
Michael Goldstein, Managing Director of the Goldstein Brownfields Group and Chair of the Contaminated Land Practice at Akerman Senterfitt, indicated that "The federal role in brownfields redevelopment has shown great promise, especially through the innovative, cutting edge, sophisticated, and highly coordinated efforts of US EPA, US HUD, US DOE, and US DOT, but the potential is there for an even stronger role that would reinforce brownfields as a primary mechanism for distressed communities to re-position themselves for future growth." He continued, "In the National Brownfields Coalition, we saw a diverse organization that, with some financial backing..." Read the full press release.
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Developing a Green Job Strategy for Older Industrial Cities
Pittsburgh's Allegheny River Towns look to Green Jobs for Economic Revival
Flabeg Corporation, now manufacturing concave mirrors for solar  |
(This article will appear in the October issue of Brownfields Renewal). Older industrial cities face a common plight - a surplus of vacant and under-utilized former industrial land, combined with poor economic conditions and an unfavorable lending environment, leading toward "redevelopment stagnation." Some have postulated that matching up green jobs with brownfield sites in these older communities is the way to get redevelopment moving again, while also contributing to urban sustainability goals, a classic win-win-win for jobs, community development, and smart growth/sustainability. It sounds so simple and obvious, but how does one connect-the-dots? A team of economic development consultants were recently tasked with that challenge - developing a green job strategy for a group of older industrial towns strung along the Allegheny River, just north of Pittsburgh. CWS Consulting, Redevelopment Economics, Sustainable Strategies 2050, and Richard Greene joined forces and developed a strategic plan for bringing the benefits of the green economy to the riverfront communities of Blawnox, Etna, Millvale, Aspinwall, Sharpsburg, O'Hara and Shaler, all members of the Allegheny River Towns Enterprise Zone ( ARTEZ), which was ... Read the full article.
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| Economic Impacts of Brownfields Refined in Delaware |
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A new University of Delaware study cites the economic productivity of brownfield investments, estimated using a unique methodology that compares brownfields reuse numbers to an "expected case." The report examined 119 brownfields properties in the program during a 10-year period through 2008. The methodology isolates net new economic benefit by comparing activity on brownfield sites to a baseline that represents expected or average growth, resulting in estimates of new economic activity, as follows:
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| Pennsylvania Adopts Third Party Liability Protections for Public Agencies
Coalition Advocates for Broadened Federal Protections
As reported at the recent Pittsburgh Business of Brownfields Conference, Pennsylvania adopted the most aggressive and specific public agency liability protections in the U.S. in 2009. Steven Miano, an attorney with Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, outlined the protections adopted by the legislatiure as Senate Bill 84. Pennsylvania's Act 3 (1995) had already established strong protections relative to state enforcement actions, as well as common law protections. The new amendments protect public agencies in acquisition (and lending or grant-making) activities relative to third party liability, including: - Property damages
- Diminution of property value claims
- Natural resources damages
- Economic loss
- Bodily injury or death (e.g., toxic torts)
The Pennsylvania standard for gaining the protections is that the public agency has not caused or exacerbated the release. There is no explicit "due care" requirement.
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"Double-bottom-line" Investors Support Brownfield Projects
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New Reports Cite Impacts of Sprawl
Article Subtitle
Two new reports cite the advantages of compact development and the costs of sprawl.
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Third Party/Toxic Tort Protection in State VCP Programs
A Few States Are Pioneers in Offering Comprehensive Third Party Protections - Should Other States Follow? Evans Paull
Are third-party and toxic tort protections the next wave of brownfields reforms? Gerald Pouncey, an attorney who has been involved in over 250 brownfield projects nationally, believes that state and federal reforms are going to have to go that direction if the brownfields gains of the last 15 years are going to be maintained.
The problem, as Pouncy sees it, is that brownfields financing has been severely and possibly permanently impacted by the financial crisis-that lenders have become risk averse, and brownfields financing will be more difficult, even when some semblance of normalcy returns. He maintains that lenders and innocent purchaser/developers will need comprehensive third-party liability protection, much like the measures that were adopted by Pouncey's home state, Georgia, in 2002. ... To see the full article in Brownfield Renewal, click here (requires registration) To see Evans Paull's presentation on this issue at the Oklahoma Brownfields Conference, click here. |
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Evans Paull
Executive Director, National Brownfields Coalition, and Principal, Redevelopment Economics
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