Environment
by martha edenfield
A Greener Shade Of Brown
What happens when the economic and social decay of inner cities runs
up against Mother Nature? In the past, the needs of people and communities disappeared
under a deluge of draconian environmental standards.
That time has passed with the enactment of the Brownfields
Redevelopment Act of 1997. Sponsored by Sens. Jack Latvala (R-Palm Harbor) and Jim
Hargrett (D-Tampa), the law strikes a delicate balance between maintaining strong
environmental protection while encouraging development of brownfield sites through
incentives.
Brownfields are clusters of abandoned, vacant, or underutilized
sites contaminated by hazardous materials released decades ago. Commonly located in older,
poorer parts of cities, brownfields are often viable sites for redevelopment or reuse.
The existence of brownfields often contributes to overall community
decline, including issues of human disease and illness, crime, a lack of education and
employment opportunities, and infrastructure decay. Brownfield redevelopment, properly
done, can be a significant element in community revitalization.
Unfortunately, stringent environmental regulations, development
requirements, and impact fees have had the unintended and unforeseen consequence of
creating disincentives for private cleanups and investments in these brownfield areas. The
regulatory regime actually made it easier and more desirable to develop virgin parcels on
the outskirts of town than to redevelop old abandoned sites in the inner city.
The new brownfields law makes redevelopment of the sites a true
partnership opportunity for state and local government regulators to work with businesses
and citizens to create economic opportunities in areas that are currently idle or
underutilized.
What's more, the concept has already passed the test in the field.
CREATING A BROWNFIELD AREA
The City of Clearwater brownfield redevelopment work
plan is expected to become a blueprint for brownfield redevelopment on a statewide and
national basis. It is providing an economic model of how environmental issues, such as
water quality, can be addressed as mutually inclusive cornerstones in resolving
environmental, economic, and social problems.
Clearwater, with a population of 100,265 is located in Pinellas
County and is a center for canning, packing and shipping citrus fruits grown in the
region. In the past, Clearwater had a more balanced economy. The downtown area -- once
populated by printing operations, electronics manufacturers, fish canneries, and other
industries -- is now a landscape of brownfields. The abandoned properties are located on
the site of a large lake that was filled in and developed about four decades ago.
Over the past 25 years, the city has experienced private
disinvestment and a significant loss of jobs. Today, vacant and derelict buildings and
lots, a few transmission shops and print facilities, and a 12-acre junkyard are what
remain.
The collapse was primarily caused by the environmental regime.
Regulations imposed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District mandated a 10 to 15
percent property set-aside for stormwater attenuation and treatment. The set-aside made
business expansion unfeasible and actually provided incentives for relocation of
businesses.
Thus, many businesses left the area. As a result, the city's tax
base was substantiality reduced and the threat of liability for environmental
contamination halted private investment in the area. Property values declined for more
than 150 sites within a half-mile radius of the brownfields area.
PROFILE OF A BROWNFIELD AREA
An examination of the Clearwater brownfields reveals a
zone of spiraling decline in need of government and private intervention. Thirty percent
of the city's residents live in the area. Of those residents, 54 percent are low-income
families, while 20 percent are below the poverty level. There is a 10-percent unemployment
rate and 75 percent of the city's reported crimes occur there.
Property owners have seen their property values decline by 5.4
percent since 1988. There is a 32-percent vacancy rate. The area includes 100 contaminated
sites and a number of functionally obsolete properties.
City officials and local community groups have banded together to
economically revive and environmentally restore the area. The objectives include
stimulating physical redevelopment, reopening the investment climate, improving
environmental conditions, creating new jobs and environmental justice.
The centerpiece of the economic development and environmental
justice framework is the recapture and revitalization of the lake. Designed as a
stormwater basin management system, the lake would allow for an improvement in water
quality and would accommodate stormwater attenuation and water quality treatment
requirements. Restoration of the lake, therefore, will negate the need for property
set-asides. Developers will have access to off-site stormwater retention, thereby reducing
up-front costs, as well as construction and maintenance costs. This is a crucial
development and investment incentive.
The city is receiving federal grants and state funding that are
necessary to implement the effort. The brownfields pilot project consists of five major
objectives, including environmental site assessment, job placement activities,
establishing a brownfields environmental assessment and clean-up fund, and developing a
form of ownership plan to manage and limit investor liability. Overall, the city is moving
to streamline the permitting process to provide investors and developers with clarity,
certainty, and flexibility.
With the passage of the 1997 Brownfields Act, the city of Clearwater
has already seen an immediate increase in economic activity in its brownfields area. The
liability protection in the legislation provides incentives for lenders, investors,
businesses, and developers to participate in the revitalization of the area.
Robert Keller, Clearwater's assistant city manager, predicts that
citizens of Florida will look back in one year and say that this legislation made a
difference. "If it hadn't been for brownfields legislation, the city would now be
stopped in its tracks on the brownfield redevelopment issue. The legislation gives us the
flexibility to implement what will work best for our community."
Keller believes that with more successful brownfield initiatives,
more local governments will change their attitudes. Often the local governments and
regulators are the obstacles to new and innovative ideas. The brownfields legislation will
accomplish no good unless it is implemented. Unless citizens get involved in convincing
the local governments to act, the potential embodied in this new law will go unrealized.
Will the brownfields law work to stimulate environmental clean-up
and economic recovery in idle, abandoned, and underutilized sites? As with any innovative
solution to a complex and controversial problem, the question will not be answered
immediately. After all, these areas were created over years and years, and won't be
revitalized overnight.
Business developers and activists in poverty-ridden urban areas are
natural partners when it comes to pushing politicians and bureaucrats toward
implementation of the brownfields act. The social and economic benefits for the community
and for individual entrepreneurs are merely waiting for action.
One thing is certain, it is in no one's best interest to let the
Brownfields Redevelopment Act of 1997 languish.
Martha Edenfield practices administrative law with an
emphasis on environmental law with the firm of Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson & Dunbar,
PA, in Tallahassee. She has served as legal and governmental counsel for agricultural
trade groups, industrial association, medical doctors, and local governments. She received
undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University.
