This week I attended the Florida Brownfield Conference in Orlando. Until recently, I had not heard much about brownfields, and apparently I was not alone. Brownfield development has been around for quite some time. Only recently has it become a viable development practice because of government involvement. The State and Federal government have stepped in and allocated funds and incentives to help redevelop contaminated sites.
Typically old dry cleaners, manufacturing facilities or petroleum sites are designated brownfield sites. Developers and communities come together and change the old site into a new viable site. Sites are transformed into housing, office buildings or community parks. Redeveloping brownfield sites have economic benefits as well as environmental benefits.
The redevelopment creates new jobs and increases tax revenue, as well as reduces sprawl (preserve open space). During the conference, speaker Matt Robbins stated ” there are over 400,000 designated brownfield sites all over the country. Redeveloped brownfield sites have created over 500,000 jobs.”
The one thing that I took away from this conference is that brownfield development is just as important as green development, it is just not as cool. I urge everyone to look at brownfield sites and imagine what the possibilities are.
