Success Factors

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.