From Landfill to Landmark: Save The Bay Center Available Now from the Institute of Brownfield Professionals - June 11, 2007

The unabridged version of From Landfill to Landmark: Save The Bay Center (Policy Lessons from the Coastal Brownfield Development of Fields Point, Providence, Rhode Island) is now available free of charge at the Institute of Brownfield Professionals website. Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the unabridged report comprises a thorough review of Save The Bay’s seven-year Fields Point development project, documenting the interplay between permitting, financing, and clean-up requirements, Save The Bay’s decision-making, and the project outcomes.

The project began in the late 1990s, when Save The Bay partnered with Johnson & Wales University to assemble the capital, political will, and design expertise to clean up a vacant, contaminated, coastal site at Fields Point, along the Providence River. Completed during the summer of 2005, the Save The Bay Center features a high-performance, green building and innovative site design. The remediated brownfield now provides dramatic and extensive new public access to Narragansett Bay, educational and community meeting space, and a powerful demonstration project for public officials and private organizations of the development potential of Providence’s underused waterfront.

Redevelopment of brownfield properties like the Fields Point site builds on prior public and private investment, takes advantage of existing infrastructure, and helps to revitalize communities.

Save The Bay faced many financial, permitting, and political challenges in the course of its development project, all of which are detailed in the report. From Landfill to Landmark: Save The Bay Center also examines the broad federal and state policy context shaping Rhode Island coastal development patterns, and the regulation of coastal brownfield redevelopment in particular. Based on this analysis, Save The Bay developed a series of 11 lessons for policymakers, regulators, municipal authorities, and developers:

1. Smart Growth principles can provide guidance and structure to coastal communities seeking to shape development and related policies.
2. The redevelopment of a brownfield site offers significant environmental benefits.
3. The water-typing scheme created under the Rhode Island Coastal Management Program is a powerful tool for shaping development patterns along the coast.
4. States can use coastal management structures established under the Coastal Zone Management Act to create a broader regional view of planning, zoning and growth management.
5. Consider developer experience and the differing needs of sophisticated and unsophisticated brownfield developers when developing programs.
6. Consider the needs of small, mission-driven, project developers, particularly in urban infill areas.
7. Differing perspectives create unexpected dynamics between the regulator and the regulated.
8. Differing mandates within and between agencies need to be reconciled rather than dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
9. The permitting process should be streamlined with a focus on predictability in addition to speed.
10. Centralized, easily accessible information about the entire landscape of brownfield-related programs and assistance is important in attracting and supporting smart development.
11. The timing of funding and capital assistance programs should be designed to meet the different needs of a brownfield developer.

The report’s contents also address “A Federal and State Regulatory Framework for Planning,” “Site-Specific Permitting, Liability and Capital Issues Impacting Coastal Brownfield Development,” and “The Impacts of Liability and Capital on Brownfield Development.”

A valuable reference, From Landfill to Landmark: Save The Bay Center (Policy Lessons from the Coastal Brownfield Development of Fields Point, Providence, Rhode Island) is available free as a PDF from the IBP website or by contacting Institute Resources Manager Alpha Moore at alpha@brownfieldpros.org or 301/588-8668.