Brownfield Redevelopment

To whom it may concern,

In the last few years, the Environmental Protection Agency has moved away from its traditional stance of clean-up first and redevelop second when it comes to brownfield sites. A movement to remediate and develop in an environmentally sustainable way has slowly emerged. This strategy has been a boon for brownfield sites across the country. Many of these sites are located in prime retail, housing, commercial, and industrial development locations (i.e. former gas stations and old industrial waterfronts). While the Superfund program is a necessity considering America's industrial and extractive history, much more attention should be given to these smaller scale remediation projects. While remediation costs were once prohibitive, these smaller scale projects benefit from their proximity to urban redevelopment areas, existing infrastructure, and the relatively limited scale of clean-up necessary. The billions of dollars that go to a few SuperFund sites and take years, sometimes decades to remediate could instead be dispersed to thousands of smaller projects within existing cities and towns. This focus on revitalizing existing neighborhoods through brownfield redevelopment is a form of in-fill development that is mandatory in the development of dense, walkable, mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods. Additionally, many of these sites are underutilized or abandoned industrial sites that could be redeveloped into uses that support the new "green" economy. These redeveloped industrial sites have the potential to reclaim the nation's dwindling manufacturing base that has been consistently shedding jobs for decades. How will brownfield redevelopment play a role in the growth of the nation's "green" economic sector, affordable housing, and inner-city revitalization in your administration?

GUNNAR HAND, AICP