Urban Brownfield vs. Suburban Greenfield

What is a Brownfield?  

    Brownfield sites are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations (EPA, 2000).  Brownfield sites are almost always found in urban areas, particularly near highways, railroads and low income areas of a city.  The size of a site varies and has no limitations.  A Brownfield site could be a single building or an entire industrial development.   
 
                          

Why Brownfield restoration?

• Ease of Transportation-- public transportation makes for easy access to downtown areas
• Pollution Reduction-- the increase use of public trans will reduce vehicle use which then lessens the impact of air quality, energy consumption, farming, etc.
• Infrastructure costs-- a great deal of infrastructure already exists in these areas, costs to build new often exceed repairing; underused or abandoned infrastructure is a huge loss in tax dollars

What do Brownfield sites do for the community?

    Brownfield sites reduce urban sprawl, lessen Greenfield development, create jobs, increase local revenue and rejuvenate urban areas.

What are the disadvantages of Brownfield sites?

   Unfortunately Brownfield sites are expensive to clean up, this makes the potential site for redevelopment unattractive to developers.  The process of hiring an environmental consultant  and testing the contaminated soil can cost the developer a great deal of money.   Liability tends to stand in the way of developers as well.  A major obstacle to redevelopment of Brownfield sites is the perceived presence of environmental contamination.  Prospective  developers are concerned that they will be held liable for the costs associated with environmental cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as "Superfund"

What is a Greenfield?  

    A Greenfield is any parcel of land that has not had any previous type of development on site.  Greenfield sites are almost always found in suburban or rural areas.  Parcels of land include but are not limited to undeveloped farmlands and woodlands.  

What are the effects of Urban Sprawl? 

    Urban sprawl has been a result of Greenfield development.  Inner cities have since been neglected because of the advantages of Greenfield development.  People moving to the suburbs has pushed businesses to follow causing inner cities to diminish.  Inner city population has declined, schools have been negatively effected, and industrial sites have been abandoned.  

Why develop on a Greenfield site?

• Build bigger-- Greenfield sites are almost always unoccupied parcels of land.  Companies and business are often free to build as big as they desire. 
  
   
• Parking-- Greenfield developments allow for a great deal more parking than inner city businesses can ever dream of.  Parking lots are generally made even larger to draw in more consumers.  With extra empty parking spaces customers are more likely to stop to shop. 
  
• Liability-- little to no environmental problems with suburban Greenfield sites, less or no liability
• Availability of Loans-- because there is no environmental liabilities banks are more willing to grant loans to develop Greenfield sites
• Tax Incentives-- there are few tax incentives to redevelop urban Brownfield sites; suburban cities and  municipalities offer tax breaks to get companies to locate or relocate in their areas
• Lower costs-- water, energy, construction labor, and waste disposal generally cost less in suburban areas, plus environmental impact reports are not require prior to development

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