In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added a definition to its plenty saturated lexicon: brownfields. It supported the word by launching a new program, the Brownfields Program, designed to benefit local communities, protect the environment, create jobs, and increase property values.

As the EPA definition reads, “Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties protects the environment, reduces blight, and takes development pressures off greenspaces and working lands.”

The Brownfields Center adds this perspective: “Brownfield redevelopment can help a community in many ways. Many brownfields sites are in unattractive, economically depressed parts of a neighborhood. Cleanup and redevelopment of the sites can encourage higher property values and create jobs, as well as positively impact the local economy by creating a safer, healthier urban space to house businesses and residences.”

Nobody argues about ridding a community of its urban blight or environmental hazards. And for the right developer, or team of developers, such an endeavor might look like a pot of gold. Finding the money to accomplish any cleanup or redevelopment, on the other hand, is where things get tough – sometimes the equivalent of calling for the Pied Piper.

Take the case of Dixie Square in suburban Chicago (photo above), an abandoned mall which has been a vacant blight since 1979. According to Brownsfields News, “By now, trees sprout from the parking lot and the ceilings have turned to mush. Every attempt to redevelop the site–into a showroom for kitchen implements or senior housing–has fallen through due to asbestos, fire, and one suitor accused of threatening his creditors with a gun.”

In the midst of today’s troubled global economy, questions are raised about the economic viability of any brownfield plan, unless it has already been funded. brownfields working as revitalized projects that enhance neighboring property values and rid a community of visual blight.

The California-based Center for Creative Land Recycling is one of the more active champions of land recycling.

EPA numbers look convincing. According to the government unit, brownfield projects leveraged $18.68 for every EPA dollar spent and created 61,023 job nationwide. In addition, property it states property values rose and average of 2 ro 3 percent when nearby brownfields are addressed.

A press release from the June annual U.S. Conference of Mayors read: “Brownfield sites in 150 American cities. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by either real or perceived environmental contamination. As a result, Brownfields present a major challenge for both small and large cities – primarily due to the lack of funding necessary to redevelop and/or recycle these lands. This year’s results indicate that 136 cities estimated that they collectively had more than 22,537 Brownfields’ sites.

Plenty of work ahead.

Reprinted with permission from Green Building Elements