Key Players

To ensure successful implementation, it is important to gather and identify key stakeholders early on.  Stakeholders include:

• Communities .  The affected community-especially residents, but also workers and small business owners-needs to be informed during all stages of design and implementation.  It is the community that is affected by the policies and bears the successes or failures of brownfields redevelopment.
• City governments .  This includes the mayor's office or town council. The responsibility of redeveloping a site often falls on the local government, and they are often the leaders in securing financing.
• Site owners . A brownfields site could be owned by an individual, small or medium-sized business, or large corporation.  Banks often own brownfields as a result of foreclosure or bankruptcy.  It is necessary to have the cooperation of the landowners, as they usually know the condition and previous uses of their land.  Although including the landowner in the redevelopment process is important, it is sometimes a difficult relationship to secure because owners are wary of the liability issues of owning a potentially contaminated site.
• Environmental regulators .  This includes federal and state regulatory agencies, such as the US EPA.  The Northeast-Midwest Institute offers direct links to individual state regulatory agencies.
• Developers .  There are three types of developers. Any one, or a partnership, may redevelop a brownfields.

• Public .  Local government agencies and city planning offices.
• Private, or for-profit .  Private agencies have the objective of maximizing profits.  As such, they usually target larger brownfields properties in profitable areas, such as waterfronts.  Private agencies can also secure loans with more ease-offering a larger rate of return on their investments.
• Nonprofit .  These include CDCs and usually integrate brownfields development with the larger goals of the community.

• Investors . These stakeholders provide money for the project.  Investors include banks, government agencies, equity investors, private organizations, insurance agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
• Consultants .   Consultants are important participants.  Working with consultants during all stages of the redevelopment process, especially during stages 1 and 2, will help the process advance more efficiently.

Ingredients for Success

Manage risks. The key to successful brownfields redevelopment is proper management of the economic, environmental, and legal risks involved.  The California Center for Land Recycling (CCLR) provides a number of suggestions for managing the risks associated with brownfields redevelopment, including:

• Contract with an environmental consultant .  Find a consultant who can perform Phase I and II evaluations.  Propose a timeline consistent with project goals and review progress.
• Consult with financial sources .  Find out what level of "closure" on the toxic mitigation the lender requires to provide funding. 
• Obtain access to property. Obtain access to enter the site for preliminary samples.  Owners are sometimes unwilling to allow access until escrow for fear of potential contamination being discovered. 
• Request disclosures.  Ask the site owners for any information they have regarding potential environmental issues, such as previous land use and site history.
• Consider any and all legal protections .  Research statutory and regulatory procedures, such as EPA policies regarding limited liability and voluntary clean-up programs.
• Select clean-up process .  Based on the Phase II evaluations and proposed use of site, select an optimal remediation process.
• Assign clean-up costs.  How much will the buyer or seller contribute to clean-up costs? How will costs be shared?

Keep community residents informed and involved.  For community input to have real meaning, residents must be kept informed about developments, and given real opportunities to provide opinions and influence decisions.  To make this possible, some training in brownfields, environmental health, and remediation may be necessary so that the involved residents can knowledgably participate in the conversation.  This will also help alleviate any unwarranted fears about the reuse of the site.

Plan for the long haul.  Brownfields remediation can be a long process. Often the longest periods will produce little visible progress, as they involve putting together funding or working with regulatory agencies.  Planning from the beginning for a long process and paying attention to sustaining both the sponsoring organization and the group of stakeholders will be important in seeing a project through.

Be creative about potential uses.  Often brownfields sites are zoned for industrial uses in an area where industry has declined and a different use would make more sense.  On the other hand, sometimes residents only consider housing as an option, when the site may be better suited to light industry, which could be a fine neighbor and produce stable jobs.  Make sure all potential uses of a site are considered.

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