Incentives for private residential brownfields development in US urban areas

Public agencies in the US have committed resources to encourage private investment in reusing contaminated sites. With public funds in short supply, the effectiveness of their efforts matters both to the agencies and the development community. This paper draws on a mail survey of private developers that uses conjoint choice experiments to investigate the relative attractiveness of incentives to promote residential infill on contaminated property. Results suggest protection from third party liability offers the most value, with protection from cleanup liability and relief from public hearing requirements also important. The findings indicate several opportunities for planners to promote infill on contaminated sites in a socially and environmentally appropriate manner.     

Increasing the capacity of community development corporations for brownfield redevelopment: an inside-out approach

While the redevelopment of brownfield sites has been the mainstay of public agencies and private developers, this paper argues that in order to promote just redevelopment that encourages participation and targets weak market sites, a community-based approach to brownfield redevelopment should be encouraged. Furthermore, this paper maintains that community development corporations (CDCs) could be the ideal agents to spur community development and address environmental justice concerns through their increased involvement in brownfield redevelopment projects. In order to promote these positions, we first describe this new approach, which focuses on building the capacity of CDCs to meaningfully participate in brownfield redevelopment. We then offer four proposals designed to increase this capacity. We conclude with a discussion of how community-based brownfield redevelopment connects to larger issues of democratic decision-making, environmental justice, and urban revitalisation.     

Conserving biodiversity that matters: practitioners' perspectives on brownfield development and urban nature conservation in London

Policies designed to conserve sites of nature conservation importance are an important aspect of city planning in the UK. London has led the way in putting in place a spatial hierarchy of sites of nature conservation importance designed to protect wildlife habitats from development. Some wasteland habitats associated with derelict and vacant land receive protection in this way but development pressure on these so-called 'brownfield sites' is high and is likely to continue. This paper examines how conservation professionals in the private, public and voluntary sectors are responding to the threats of biodiversity loss and opportunities for habitat creation posed by re-development of brownfield sites. The study draws on in-depth interviews conducted with conservation professionals and the practices employed by ecological advisers employed by developers seeking to re-develop wasteland sites. It finds that practitioners are negotiating their role in the re-development process in different ways. Key issues relate to the role of ecological science in codifying wasteland habitats, uncertainties about how best to evaluate the conservation importance of such sites and the strategies and tactics employed by different practitioners as they seek to mobilise a range of knowledges and practices to secure ecologically sensitive proposals. Scientific knowledge about wasteland habitats has not stabilised in ways that can consistently inform conservation policy and practice. As a result biodiversity issues of wasteland sites are often discounted in the re-development process. Investment in studies of the basic ecology of urban wastelands could provide a firmer scientific foundation on which conservation policies could build. At the same time, many conservation professionals involved in urban re-development are struggling to promote a pro-active approach to secure environmentally sensitive development. The knowledge and co-operation networks being mobilised to support this approach are fluid and unstable, and favourable development outcomes as yet are few. Formalising these networks to achieve more effective engagements with developers and the construction industry could consolidate ecological practices designed to conserve and re-create the biodiversity of wasteland habitats.     

Establishing Green Roof Infrastructure Through Environmental Policy Instruments

Traditional construction practices provide little opportunity for environmental remediation to occur in urban areas. As concerns for environmental improvement in urban areas become more prevalent, innovative practices which create ecosystem services and ecologically functional land cover in cities will be in higher demand. Green roofs are a prime example of one of these practices. The past decade has seen the North American green roof industry rapidly expand through international green roof conferences, demonstration sites, case studies, and scientific research. This study evaluates existing international and North American green roof policies at the federal, municipal, and community levels. Green roof policies fall into a number of general categories, including direct and indirect regulation, direct and indirect financial incentives, and funding of demonstration or research projects. Advantages and disadvantages of each category are discussed. Salient features and a list of prompting standards common to successfully implemented green roof strategies are then distilled from these existing policies. By combining these features with data collected from an experimental green roof site in Athens, Georgia, the planning and regulatory framework for widespread green roof infrastructure can be developed. The authors propose policy instruments be multi-faceted and spatially focused, and also propose the following recommendations: (1) Identification of green roof overlay zones with specifications for green roofs built in these zones. This spatial analysis is important for prioritizing areas of the jurisdiction where green roofs will most efficiently function; (2) Offer financial incentives in the form of density credits and stormwater utility fee credits to help overcome the barriers to entry of the new technology; (3) Construct demonstration projects and institutionalize a commitment greening roofs on publicly-owned buildings as an effective way of establishing an educated roofing industry and experienced installers for future green roof construction.     

Mixed land‐use patterns and the development of spatial structure of Nigerian cities

Differences exist in the spatial structure of cities in both the developed and developing world owing to the contradistinctive nature of their urban growth processes. The structure of Nigerian cities is characterised by the preponderance of mixed land uses resulting primarily due to the organic nature of city growth and more fundamentally, owing to the dynamics of informal urban economic activities. This paper examines mixed land‐use patterns in selected Nigerian cities and appraises their relevance in the general city growth process. By suggesting principles and speculative spatial patterns expressing desirable use combinations, an attempt is made to rationalise the utility of the concept such that its environmental impact is understood and given planning resolution.     

What are the effects of contamination risks on commercial and industrial properties? evidence from Baltimore,Maryland

Using the hedonic pricing approach, this paper investigates how the information released on public registries of contaminated and potentially contaminated sites affects nearby commercial and industrial properties in Baltimore, Maryland. The study found that industrial properties are virtually unaffected by proximity to a site with a history of contamination, while commercial properties do suffer an external cost due to the proximity to a contaminated site. This external cost is not cleared once the site has been cleaned up or has been pronounced to be harmless. It also found that the impacts of urban economic development policies, such as Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Zones, have had positive effects on industrial property values, but less so on commercial properties. In sum, brownfield properties in Baltimore are not particularly attractive investments for developers, and there is little potential for self-sustaining clean-up based on appropriate fiscal incentives, such as Tax Increment Financing. It is doubtful that ‘one size fits all’ measures to encourage the clean-up of contaminated sites can be successful in this context.     

Promoting community involvement at brownfields sites in socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Brownfields programmes provide environmental justice to distressed communities by applying private sector remediation and real estate expertise to abandoned and contaminated properties. This study examines how brownfields developers and community support organisations operating in socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods work to increase awareness of projects in the community, build trust between stakeholders and create mechanisms for community members to participate in brownfields decision making. Analysis of case study data from brownfields sites in four US cities shows that developers and non-governmental organisations can play important roles in fashioning redevelopment outcomes which benefit both developers and communities. When standard required outreach efforts are combined with non-traditional community involvement mechanisms, the result is often long-term support for redevelopment projects.     

Assessing London,Ontario's brownfield redevelopment effort to promote urban intensification

Intensification of existing urban areas is currently a major item on the policy agenda of the Ontario and Canadian governments. As part of the urban intensification drive, brownfield sites have become major candidates for redevelopment. Governments at all levels have initiated policies and programmes to encourage their remediation and redevelopment. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative exploration of brownfield redevelopment in London, Canada. Through in-depth interviews (n?=?17) with key stakeholders involved in brownfield redevelopment, the study explores the level of participation in brownfield redevelopment, barriers to brownfield redevelopment in the city, and perceptions about financial incentives in the city's Brownfield Community Improvement Plan. The study found that despite the availability of financial incentives, the overall private sector participation in brownfield redevelopment is low due to barriers such as competition from greenfield, risk, cost, negative public perception of brownfields, and complex remediation processes. The paper provides policy suggestions that may contribute to a more active participation in brownfield redevelopment in the city.     

Cities vs. agriculture: A review of intersectoral water re-allocation

Water demand management, or making better use of the water we have — as opposed to augmenting supply — is increasingly proposed as a way of mitigating water-scarcity problems. Moving water away from agriculture to uses with higher economic value is one of the main measures widely seen as desirable. Sectoral "allocation stress" is seen as resulting from the disproportionate share, and inefficient use of water in the agricultural sector. This apparent misallocation is often attributed to the failure of government to allocate water rationally.
This paper revisits this commonly-accepted wisdom and examines the nature of urban water scarcity, showing the importance of economic and political factors, shaped by incentives to decision-makers, and sometimes compounded by climatic conditions. It shows that cities' growth is not generally constrained by competition with agriculture. In general, rather than using a narrow financial criterion, cities select options that go along the "path of least resistance," whereby economic, social and political costs are considered in conjunction. The question of allocation stress is thus reframed into an inquiry of how transfers effectively occur and can be made more effective.     

The political economy of certificates for land use in Germany – experimental evidence

Certificate trading schemes have been discussed as a cost-efficient means of reducing urban land consumption in Germany by capping and reallocating permissions to conduct building projects. However, in contrast to the established cap & trade systems for emissions, reputation-seeking politicians would be in charge of buying and trading certificates – an aspect not considered to date. We thus present a laboratory experiment that captures politicians’ incentives connected to electoral cycles in a cap & trade scheme for land consumption, whereby tradable certificates are auctioned and grandfathered in equal shares. We find the cap & trade system to be efficient at large; yet, there are several politically relevant distortions that are aggravated by self-serving incentives. We thus identify potential problems to a cap & trade system for urban land consumption that could substantially reduce both its assumed superior efficiency and its political feasibility.     

FLOOD PROTECTION BENEFITS AS REFLECTED IN PROPERTY VALUE CHANGES1

ABSTRACT: Measuring flood control benefits from estimated property damage in prior floods omits losses in the form of depressed values of land put to less valuable uses because of annual flooding. Covariance analysis of real property values in three urban areas differently situated around Lake Cumberland, Kentucky shows a much larger rate of increase, over a 15-year period, for the area receiving flood protection. This suggests that the economic benefits from a flood protection facility include these additional property value increases as well as the prevented property damage.     

Scarcity of natural resources and the implications for sustainable development

The idea of sustainable development has much popular appeal, but conflicts with centuries of economic theory about how limited land and natural resources constrain the growth of economies and populations. Much of that doctrine, especially that in the Malthusian tradition, is contradicted by historical experience, but the modern threat of environmental degradation raises new questions about whether growth can be sustained. Many of those new problems result from biases in economic organization and institutions against so-called environmental resources. Marketed resource commodities like minerals and timber are protected by the incentives of owners and suppliers to conserve them, enhance them and find new sources, and by the incentives of users to economize on their demands and find cheaper substitutes. Together, these forces have been sufficient to offset depletion and render resources less scarce over time. The same forces are not at work on environmental resources like water and air, so they are over-used and degraded as demands grow. However, promising opportunities exist to develop property rights and economic incentives to encourage users of environmental resources to protect and husband them, and these are likely to be more effective in harmonizing economic activity with the environment than purely regulatory policies.     

Nonpoint source water pollution abatement and the feasibility of voluntary programs

This article details a case study of a voluntary, decentralized institutional arrangement for nonpint source water pollution control used in the Root River watershed in southeastern Wisconsin. This watershed was chosen because of its mix of urban, agricultural, and urbanizing land uses. The project objectives were to monitor and draw conclusions about the effectiveness of a voluntary, decentralized institutional system, to specify deficiencies of the approach and suggest means to correct them, and to use the conclusions to speculate about the need for regulations regarding nonpoint source pollution control or the appropriateness of financial incentives for nonpoint source control. Institutional factors considered include diversity of land uses in the watershed, educational needs, economic conditions, personality, water quality, number of agencies involved, definition of authority, and bureaucratic requirements     

Economic,ecological, and equity dimensions of brownfield redevelopment plans for environmental justice communities in the USA

ABSTRACT

This paper employs qualitative content analysis to assess 28 brownfield redevelopment plans produced as part of a US Environmental Protection Agency programme. The analysis framework followed the economic, ecological, and social equity dimensions of sustainable development. The findings illustrate that, in terms of economic dimensions, most plans discussed financing the overall project, but few mentioned site values or the pivotal cost of remediating brownfield sites or addressed questions related to liability, the transfer of ownership of sites, or the end use of remediated sites. In terms of ecological dimensions, while many plans suggested “green” uses of existing brownfields, few discussed the impacts of the plans on urban ecological issues or offered technical feasibility of remediating the sites. In terms of social equity dimensions, half of the plans described potential local jobs stemming from the proposed redevelopment, but many did not discuss the human impacts of remediating contaminated sites or the costs of doing nothing. Most plans mentioned community engagement methods but not their outcomes, making the degree to which the lessons gleaned from such engagement influenced the plans totally unclear. Despite the programme’s explicit focus on the nexus of environmental justice and local environments, many plans struggled to address the topic in favour of tackling broader economic, environmental, and equity issues. Overall, this paper contributes to the understanding of brownfield redevelopment planning by not only summarising and synthesising the tendencies of existing plans but also suggesting strategies to address areas in which current planning efforts fall short.     

Toward an applied phenomenology: The case of abandoned pier use in Hoboken,New Jersey,USA

This research demonstrates the contribution of phenomenological inquiry within the realm of geographic and environmental planning. The contention is that a focus on the wide range of individual meanings and values ascribed to landscapes, a marginalized element in many planning assessments, can bring out data to more substantively inform decision making, A case study of user meanings imparted to residual waterfront land in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, suggests that such property provides an array of amenities to residents. Most importantly, it expands the range of recreational activities, creates visual relief from the monotonous urban milieu, and provides scenic vistas to promote an awareness of the quality of life still possible in cities. The study concludes that planners can use phenomenology to generate data for more judicious decision making.     

UK allotments and urban food initiatives: (limited?) potential for reducing inequalities

The number of urban food initiatives in many regions of the world, notably Europe and the USA, has burgeoned in recent years, and analyses of the impacts of these activities on people and environments are the focus of an increasing academic literature. The impacts documented include enhanced food security, cohesive neighbourhoods, sustainability, and food justice. Yet, another literature presents opposing analyses and focuses on exclusionary aspects of projects and their enabling of a continued neo-liberal reduction in state welfare provision. As a result, there has been an impasse in debates over the potential of urban food projects to reduce inequalities. This paper proposes that the benchmark of the UK allotment system provides a means to examine these opposing positions. It uses the conceptual frameworks of diverse economies and the capital assets framework to attain clarity in the analysis of the many kinds of food-related activities seen in (peri-)urban areas. Drawing on empirical work in Plymouth, UK, it focuses on the potential of the different food ventures to reduce inequalities, given certain contingent economic and political factors. It also presents evidence that the allotment movement despite its initially radical roots can be seen as largely apolitical in the present day and has no leverage over allocation of land to allotment sites. Even so, evidence is growing that both allotments and the newer forms of urban food activities contribute to meeting national and city-level policy objectives, with the potential to enhance food justice and reduce inequalities.     

Urban Flood Problems in Dhaka,Bangladesh: Slum Residents’ Choices for Relocation to Flood-Free Areas

This article applies a stated preference choice model to assess trade-offs that residents of two squatter settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh might consider if they were given choices for relocation to flood-free areas. The respondents were asked to choose repeatedly from a set of choice cards, which displayed different configurations of financial incentives for relocation, such as free or inexpensive land, loans or nonrepayable grants, and provisions for temporary or permanent employment opportunities. The survey results indicated that despite extensive experience with flood problems, many residents of Mirpur and Vasantek found that certain configurations of economic incentives were not attractive enough for them to relocate to flood-free areas. At the same time, they would prefer a reduction in the risk of flooding at their current location. The economic incentives that would best assist in increasing voluntary relocation of residents from their current locations included free land, nonrepayable grants (Taka 20,000), and long-term employment opportunities. Further, differences in geographic location (i.e., Mirpur vs. Vasantek), income levels, and membership in neighborhood communities were linked with the tendency of residents to stay at their current location.     

Food production in the city: (re)negotiating land,food and property

This paper addresses issues of access to land for food production in Toronto by offering fresh perspectives on urban agriculture in the neo-liberal city of the global north. It examines attempts to scale up urban agriculture that emphasise changing the relationships between land access, property and new collaborative relationships among different stakeholders. These initiatives involve renegotiating access to land for growing food between private property owners and landless growers, concomitant shifts in control over valued resources and commercialisation. These shifts are often based on relations of trust within a sharing economy rather than public battles over political decisions to develop urban agriculture lands. Growing food on private lands in the city is political in challenging taken-for-granted ideas and practices of property and urban agriculture. New approaches offer options for training and income, as well as expanding the land base for urban agriculture. Small-scale farming projects are affirmative political manoeuvres. They challenge urban residents to consider land for food production across the categories of public and private property. We document three approaches that challenge current property relations: temporary use of a development site through “soft” squatting; redesignating suburban backyards for farmer training and community-based and private food production; and garden sharing of private home backyards for urban food production and commercial growing. Such initiatives articulate alternative visions of sustainability and food security that rely on principles of collaboration and a sharing economy that challenge prevailing notions of property ownership and food security.     

Can the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch

ABSTRACT

In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.     

Governmentality,environmental subjectivity,and urban intensification

This article delineates concepts of eco-modernisation and urban sustainability (including its associated discourses), elucidating Foucault's notion of governmentality and examining select moments of contested urban governance in the neighbourhood of Old Ottawa South, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It shows how intensification – a “compact city approach” to urban sustainability – as both policy and practice, serves to both discipline and regulate by “conducting the conduct” of environmental and entrepreneurial subjects. It reveals that zoning has more explicitly become a political technology (albeit a flexible one) for achieving “highest and best use” of private property, privileging intensification projects proposed by developers, through a hierarchical exercise of state power that privileges market processes, while undermining community values and priorities.