Creating Community-Based Brownfields Redevelopment StrategiesThe American Planning Association is the recipient of a Brownfields Training, Research and Technical Assistance Grant from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Creating Community-Based Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies is a three-year initiative with the goal of helping community groups in low-income communities develop a new set of "eyes" to see brownfields sites as opportunities. It is estimated that there are more than 450,000 brownfields sites in the U.S. In many brownfields redevelopment projects, community groups are frequently left out of the process. However, they represent the main constituency that suffers from the negative impact of vacant and abandoned brownfield sites. By creating a workbook and training program for community development corporations and similar groups, the project team intends to empower residents to actively and effectively participate in brownfields redevelopment and understand how different development strategies will benefit their communities. About the Brownfields Project Creating Community-Based Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies will culminate in the production of a workbook and training program. The workbook and training module, which will be written for a lay audience, will contain two primary components: a self-analysis tool and a scenario evaluation method. The workbook and training program will be tested and fine-tuned with community groups across the country throughout 2007 and 2008. The end goal is to create a program that CDCs and planning departments across the country can use to support the active involvement of their communities in brownfields redevelopment. Creating Community-Based Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies is being developed in coordination with community development corporation (CDC) leaders, community members, and others involved in revitalizing low-income and disadvantaged communities. Preliminary Workbook Outline (pdf) PartnersAPA's research department is undertaking this project, working in close collaboration with Bethel New Life, Inc., a Chicago-based CDC with extensive experience in brownfields redevelopment issues. APA and Bethel are also working with the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), an organization that promotes and facilitates public participation in environmental activities, including brownfields, to create the workbook. Bethel New Life, Inc.
Bethel is nationally known for its pioneering community development initiatives, especially in the arenas of sustainable urban community, smart growth in an urban context, and brownfields redevelopment. Bethel has been a part of the cleanup and redevelopment of seven brownfields sites in Chicago that have provided major economic stimuli to a low-income community. As a result of this experience, Bethel staff has led workshops at U.S. EPA conferences, sustainable community conferences, and as a part of the environmental curriculum of the University of Delaware. Center for Public Environmental Oversight
It was formed in 1992 as CAREER/PRO (the California Economic Recovery and Environmental Restoration Project) by the San Francisco Urban Institute, in response to the large number of military base closures in the San Francisco Bay Area. It draws upon the nearly three decades of work led by CPEO Director Lenny Siegel at the Pacific Studies Center, a nonprofit public interest information center in nearby Mountain View, California. Training WorkshopsAPA and Bethel have designed an interactive, three-hour training workshop designed to educate and empower community-based organizations dealing with brownfields issues. Round II Pilot Training Workshops A second round of training workshops are currently under way. The training opens with a focus on developing an understanding of brownfields as opportunities and creating a community vision. Participants then select among three break-out sessions on redevelopment, cleanup, or finance. A new module has been added for Round II to allow participants to discuss local brownfields issues. This portion of the program is co-taught with the local host, APA, and Bethel. The workshop wraps up with a discussion on building community support and on next steps — where to locate resources, get help, and find partners. Round II Hosts Selected Congratulations to the host organizations selected to participate in the second round of training workshops:
The project team tested the training workshop during a round of events in May, July, and September 2007. Round I Pilot Training Workshops were held in the following locations:
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Bethel New Life, Inc. is a 25-year-old nonprofit faith-based
community development corporation located and working in Chicago's West Garfield
Park neighborhood. 
The Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO) is an organization that promotes and facilitates public participation in the oversight of environmental activities, including but not limited to the remediation of federal facilities, private "Superfund" sites, and brownfields.
