Brownfields redevelopment is essential to the revitalization of older downtown neighborhoods. Additional funding and adaptation of the existing program or creation of a new program to fund clean up of potential public-use or residential projects with little or no direct economic impact will strengthen the program.
Background
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rownfields are abandoned or under-utilized commercial or industrial properties where expansion or redevelopment is hindered by real or perceived contamination. Neighbors know that brownfields impede neighborhood development, affect property values and impact the quality of life in their community.Today, waterfront property once used in commerce and industry and former industrial sites in downtown neighborhoods could be redeveloped for mixed-use retail/residential projects, exclusively residential projects, or for public use as the site of a park or a municipal building.
In many cases, the reclamation costs are beyond the resources of a community if today’s property taxpayer must bear too much of the burden of correcting yesterday’s environmental mistakes. The governor and Legislature created Wisconsin’s Brownfields program in 1994 and the program was improved upon recommendation of a broadly based Brownfields Study Group (http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/rr/rbrownfields/bsg/) .
Still, in 2000, there remain an estimated 10,000 unreclaimed brownfields sites in Wisconsin.
The Problems
Under existing brownfields programs, projects with direct economic impact and job creation receive more points, often excluding the quality-of-life projects described above. Of the $12.2 million the Department of Commerce has available for brownfields projects, just $400,000 is earmarked to fund brownfields reclamation projects that have minimal direct economic impact. Stewardship can only be used for acquisition of property.
As some members of the working group have said, there is a "new vision for brownfields:" to fund clean up of sites that do not fit the current program criteria or do not score well enough in relation to other projects to be funded. They are sites potentially appropriate for green space, residential development or public use in neighborhoods where pure industrial development is no longer desired or appropriate.
The Solution
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