Observations on Brownfields: Complications and Considerations
Notes from documentary filmmaker John Sutherlin’s latest project -- a film on urban redevelopment Read More
The eight-part documentary series Brownfields: Reclaiming Our Urban Environment took more than two years to be produced. It was recently completed and shown before a national audience at the Brownfields 2004 Conference.
While I was making the series, I traveled with the film crew from Wild Hare Productions to film once-polluted sites being redeveloped into properties that, in many cases, would become demonstrations of what a vibrant urban community should be.
From ballparks to green spaces to mixed-income housing, we filmed thousands of hours and interviewed more than 160 people.
Everyone had a different and interesting story to tell. Often, those stories would focus on how a project took longer than they thought and cost more than originally budgeted, but yielded results larger than they had dreamed. Maybe this could stir an interest in other similar projects or get developers to slow down their march to the suburbs and return to the inner core.
Deal-Makers — and Deal-Breakers
We filmed successful ventures across the country. After a while, the information documented from these interviews began to take shape. Patterns emerged.
One such pattern involved the type of person that served as the “local champion.” This individual, just as likely to be a man or a woman, was not always from an environmental field. In fact, many had found brownfields through the real estate or commercial lending side. State regulators almost always had an environmental perspective, but these people had a strong “deal-making” component to disposition.
On the other hand, this desire to “get a deal done” may complicate matters. One issue that we became aware of during several interviews was the concern about what happens to local residents, often economically disadvantaged minorities, when properties are clean and redeveloped (and worth more).
Since most of these people were renters, they were faced with the prospect of supporting a project that ultimately could force them to move or pay higher bills. This complication must be better tracked.
Another pattern involved support from the community in which the project would be developed. As one interviewee put it, “Community involvement is a lot like voting in this state … you want it early and often.”
Engaging the community, though, does not involve a cookie-cutter approach that works in all places in exactly the same manner. We saw communities that used local public or cable-access television, Web sites, mailings and tons of public hearings.
However it was done, which is entirely a local decision, community involvement coupled with acceptance and support equaled a successful project. Lack of involvement generally meant delays in funding, planning and remediation and redevelopment.
Still, this issue led us to note another potential complication. If there was no history of involving the public prior to this point, then it was more likely that garnering community support would be difficult. In this case, the public was likely to be suspicious or even confrontational.
Typically, in these cases, local champions had to spend much more time and effort to educate the public and identify community stakeholders. Where public financing (e.g., bonds, tax-incremental financing) was crucial, this could be an overwhelming burden.
The Complexities of Sports Complexes
A complication that was specific to mid-sized communities was the redevelopment of a property into a sports-related complex. We found small cities with newly incorporated sports teams building complexes based on future revenues or taxes generated from the project. Besides requiring a lot of square footage, downtown complexes are used infrequently and thus may not be sustainable.
This seems a bit risky. Success there will depend on variables outside the scope of brownfield coordinators, private developers and state regulators: a winning sports team.
As evidenced in the documentary series, brownfield remediation and redevelopment are becoming tools for urban, small cities and towns (and tribal governments) across the country to reclaim their communities and prevent further loss of green spaces.
While this prospect is exciting, euphoria should not replace prudence. Brownfield redevelopment as a specialized field is evolving and maturing and is now poised to learn and adapt to unforeseen complications. The result: better and more-successful projects.
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John W. Sutherlin, Ph.D., is the producer, director, and writer of the Brownfields: Reclaiming Our Urban Environment documentary series, which will appear on local PBS stations this winter. He is a visiting professor at Tulane University. Distribution of the series is handled through Films Media Group.
This column has been reprinted courtesy of Brownfield News. It first appeared in the December 2004 edition of that publication.
