In the media, a large city is usually symbolized as a skyline -- a compact mass of tall
buildings. A city's skyline is one part of it's total image but, as a glance out an
airplane window reveals, only a part. The city's residential and commercial neighborhoods
are usually an irregular patchwork of buildings, green spaces and vacant lots. Indeed, a
mosaic or a patchwork quilt might be a better symbol for a city than a skyline. Cities
also look different from one hour to another. The inner core of the city may be densely
populated during business hours and a high-rise ghost town in the evening. The reverse is
true for residential neighborhoods.
Whether a particular area of a city contains houses, commercial buildings, high-rises
or vacant lots has something to do with geography and market forces, but also public
policy.
Public policy can help ameliorate the natural tendency toward urban sprawl created by
market forces.
Market forces dictate that real estate prices decrease as you travel outward from the
center of the city. Simply put, buyers can get more property for their money by buying
toward the edges of a city. This creates a strong financial incentive for new development
to push outward to the suburbs, rather than inward toward the city's core. This
low-density outward development is called "urban sprawl."
The trouble with urban sprawl is that |
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a spread-out city with undeveloped property
between buildings means that services must be extended long
distances to reach relatively few people. Thus, the efficiency
of delivering city services is compromised.
Nationwide, cities are striving to limit urban sprawl by utilizing inner city
properties called brownfields.
Brownfields are abandoned, idle or under-used industrial or commercial properties with
real or perceived environmental contamination. Houston's Brownfields Redevelopment Program
facilitates the reuse of eligible inner city properties. A barrier to expansion or
redevelopment on these properties has been the potential environmental liability and cost
associated with cleaning up the contamination.
To be eligible for consideration, the applicant's property must
be located within the Houston city limits.
The program is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
through Brownfields Assessment Grants awarded in 1996, 1998,
2001 and 2003. The program makes free Phase I and Phase II
Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) available to determine
the nature of contamination at applicants' properties.
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Brownfields are abandoned, idle or
under-used industrial or commercial properties with real or perceived environmental
contamination.
A Phase I ESA is designed to gather historic information
about the property through aerial photographs, interviews, etc., and includes analysis of
historical information for the property, federal and state regulatory databases for the
site, regional, geological and hydrogeological information and a tour of the property. The
purpose of a Phase II ESA is to confirm the presence or absence of impact to the soil and
groundwater from potential environmental conditions identified during the Phase I ESA.
The Phase II ESA includes collection and laboratory analysis of soil or ground water
/surface water samples and data evaluation. Due to funding constraints, not every
qualified applicant will be able to participate in the program. The City will give
priority to eligible brownfield projects that in its opinion will generate the greatest
potential for employment creation opportunities; cleanup and improve abandoned or idled
properties; and create the most evident community benefits.
In Houston, brownfields redevelopment activities are aided by the Land Redevelopment
Committee |