California Lags Behind Other States in "Brownfields" Redevelopment: Greenspace, Quality of Life at Risk, Major New Report Finds

With Population Expected to Hit 50 Million Mark in 2025, State Should Curb Sprawl and Restore Abandoned Urban Sites, Urges CA Center for Land Recycling

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Even as suburban sprawl, population growth, and urban decay threaten to jeopardize the quality of life, California lags behind other states in creating programs that encourage the redevelopment of abandoned or idle inner city sites known as "brownfields," according to a new report by the California Center for Land Recycling (CCLR).

As California's cities balloon outward, many of the urban areas left behind are sinking into deeper physical and economic decline. Coordinated, statewide policies must be in place to help redirect growth from the urban fringe to its core, says the report, "Strategies for Promoting Brownfield Reuse in California: A Blueprint for Policy Reform."

"Reusing brownfield sites not only revitalizes depressed inner cities, cleans up contamination, and creates jobs, but can be harnessed as a powerful tool for curbing urban sprawl - an increasingly pressing issue as California braces for explosive population growth in the next century," the report argues.

Five to ten percent of California's urban land area - approximately 300,000 to 600,000 acres - are available to be recycled for use, according to George Brewster, executive director of CCLR. CCLR is a project of the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization based in San Francisco.

The report provides a critical analysis of how California brownfields programs are - and are not - working, and examines obstacles to redevelopment, including liability risk, regulatory uncertainty, difficulty finding financing, and the need for community involvement in planning. The study also explores how successful brownfield reuse programs in other states can be used as models for California.

The report concludes with recommendations for statewide policy reform, including elements for a comprehensive policy package that:

* Provides greater liability relief for prospective purchasers and other innocent parties;
* Clarifies and simplifies the regulatory environment;
* Creates meaningful public sector financial incentives;
* Provides clear, achievable endpoints to cleanup (i.e., answers the question, "How clean is clean?") while insuring that public health and the environment are safeguarded.