Public policies that foster contaminated land recycling - expanding the horizon

This paper identifies the public policy levers that have been developed to address brownfields cleanup and reuse and asks whether the best practices identified to date are sufficient to address the problems posed by individual brownfield properties as well as the larger local and regional challenges implicated by these properties. More specifically, this paper suggests that the current, limited linear approach to brownfields cleanup and reuse (i.e., site identification, assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment) is insufficient to meet the complex problems associated with brownfields cleanup and sustainable reuse. Despite the great advances seen in many local, regional, and national reuse programs, the creation of new brownfields is still exceeding the number of sites reclaimed. The purpose of this paper is to propose and explore a more comprehensive, institutionalized approach to brownfields that addresses prevention and regeneration to ensure that the number, size, and complexity of "new" brownfields created is minimized as much as possible.