Overview

"Brownfields" is a catch-all term for the approximately 450,000 former industrial and commercial sites across the United States that are contaminated, unused, and often abandoned. Unless they can be cleaned up, these sites will continue to burden area economies, causing blight and discouraging local growth. Over the past few years, states have realized the economic development opportunities that brownfields present and have made great strides in creating programs that return these idle properties to productive use. Brownfield redevelopment can revitalize the communities and businesses around them.

Focus of Center Activities

The NGA Center for Best Practices examines innovative state practices in brownfield redevelopment that encourage urban cleanup and revitalization. The Center focuses its brownfield activities on:

• sharing state strategies for streamlining cleanup processes and providing financial incentives to investors and developers;
• providing a forum for state executives and key federal, private, and local players in brownfield redevelopment to discuss the successes and limitations of redevelopment efforts;
• promoting coordination of state economic development and environmental protection authorities to spur brownfield redevelopment; and
• examining state efforts to coordinate programs and resources directed to brownfields and use them as building blocks for an overall state economic development strategy.