Potential for Redevelopment of Contaminated Brownfield Sites

The focus of this article is on the ways contamination from past industrial practices and present environmental policies affects redevelopment of brownfield sites. First, the factors that have produced the large number of contaminated sites and the environmental legislation enacted to control pollution and to remediate existing contamination are examined. The second part of the article discusses several examples that illustrate some problems, costs, and outcomes of redevelopment efforts that cope with contamination problems. The authors argue that environmental policies must consider the value of such sites for private sector use and redevelopment activities, as well as providing incentives for such redevelopment where appropriate. A model is proposed that uses return on investment and the risk of contamination for discriminating among redevelopment projects in allocating scarce remediation funds.