Brownfield Redevelopment Toward Sustainable Urban Land Use in ...

Chinese Geographical Science 2007 17(2) 127–134 DOI: 10.1007/s11769-007-0127-5 www.springerlink.com

Brownfield Redevelopment Toward Sustainable Urban Land Use in China CAO Kang, GUAN Hua (School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China) Abstract: Brownfield redevelopment is a new urban land use strategy to pursue the ideal of sustainable development. It relieves environmental pressure and resolves the glaring contradiction between urban land idleness and urban sprawl. It addresses issues of urban land use and farmland protection in China. This paper compares brownfield with greenfield, and defines brownfield and its redevelopment. It elaborates general and special government policies for this sustainable land use strategy in the context of China. General policies contain two aspects: clarifying brownfield redevelopment’s priority in Chinese urban planning and land use and setting a general quantitative redevelopment target. The extent of the government’s special policies, which aim at coordinating three factors in the redevelopment process, namely governments, developers and users, are divided into five areas: statistics and categorization, assessment and remediation, financial supports and tax incentives, environmental and legal liability, and publicity and guidance. The paper concludes the major functions of different levels of Chinese government in the redevelopment process, i.e. making general strategy, formulating legislation, spectifying regulations and technical standards, estimating and categorizing brownfield sites, drawing up brownfield planning, providing information and financial support, guiding developers, publicizing the strategy to the public, and checking reuse results. Keywords: brownfield; redevelopment; sustainable development; land use

1 Introduction Use of disposable products is a significant trend in today’s consumer society. However, this throwaway mentality is in direct opposition to the idea of sustainable development, which demands the coordinated, consummate use of every asset or resources. A brownfield redevelopment strategy based on sustainable development principles must resist this throwaway mentality in urban planning and land use. The strategy, which represents the idea of recycling and recovering urban land, can bring these previously developed lands back into the urban land use circulation system. Urban lands would be cleaned and saved and urban sprawl partially contained. Thus brownfield redevelopment strategy, a win-win strategy for both the economy and environment, can improve the quality of the environment and control urban sprawl, while supporting the Chinese national policy of total farmland dynamic balance. The concern here is implementation of the brownfield redevelopment strategy in Chinese urban planning and urban land use pracReceived date: 2006-05-10; accepted date: 2007-01-10 Corresponding author: CAO Kang. E-amil: [email protected]

tice, with special emphasis on action at different levels of Chinese government. Many cities in China face the problem of idle or inefficiently used urban land. On the one hand, cities still depend and focus on greenfield development and farmland possession to meet their growth needs to some degree; on the other hand, economic growth and industrial restructuring have produced abandoned site and obsolete building called “brownfield” in some urban districts. Failure to envision the rich potential of brownfield and attend the need for their redevelopment increases public concern for the apparent incongruity of urban sprawl and deficient urban land use. This is one of the key reasons why farmlands keep shrinking and urban land use problems grow more acute in China. Proceeding from China's actual situations, a brownfield redevelopment strategy advocating urban land recycling will help solve the contradiction within urban land use in the near future and also help make long term improvements in environmental quality, farmland protection, public health and safety, housing and job growth, tax revenue and eventu-

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ally economic health. In order to achieve this, two steps are essential. Firstly, it must be clear that brownfield redevelopment is a principal land use strategy and should have a high priority in Chinese urban planning and land use. Secondly, a series of steps must launch a concrete, efficient method to put the strategy into effect.

2 Definition of Brownfield and Brownfield Redevelopment Brownfield is a coinage from “greenfield” and its semantic counterpart (De Sousa, 2000). Greenfield is formerly undeveloped area (Greenberg et al., 2001). The differences between greenfield and brownfield are presented in Table 1. Table 1 Comparison between greenfield and brownfield Greenfield Undeveloped

Brownfield Developed

Land use type

Farmland, woodland, wetland, etc.

Industrial district, commercial properties, warehouse, etc.

Characteristics

Green, clean and pristine

Contaminated potential)

Location

Periphery of city

Inner city

Treatment before development

Ready for development

Needing treatment development

Development

(known

brownfield (NLUD, 2000). This definition would be too broad and general to tackle in actual practice. Based on the above definitions and the Chinese urban land use status quo, brownfield should be defined as “the industrial and commercial lands, sites and facilities in urban areas, which are abandoned, idled or underused due to real or perceived environmental threats and other developing obstacles, and cannot be immediately put into use without treatment.” Brownfield redevelopment (or brownfield regeneration, brownfield reuse) is a strategy for dealing with the aforementioned lands and redeveloping them for suitable purposes through measures to overcome barriers to brownfield reuse. After successful redevelopment, these areas may turn into residential neighborhoods, retail centers, office blocks, light industrial facilities, parks, studios, recreation areas and so on.

3 General and Special Policies of Government for Brownfield Redevelopment

or

before

Agencies, institutions and scholars have defined brownfield in various ways. The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defined brownfield as “abandoned, idled, or underutilized industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived contamination” (USEPA, 1997). The American Planning Association (APA) defined brownfield as “vacant or underused properties passed over for development due to actual or perceived contamination or other obstacles” (APA, 2005). Alker et al. (2000) proposed a universal definition of brownfield land as “any land or premises which has previously been used or developed and is not currently fully in use, although it may be partially occupied or utilized. It may also be vacant, derelict or contaminated. Therefore a brownfield site is not necessarily available for immediate use without intervention.” The third definition is much broader than the first two. Nevertheless, the British National Land Use Database included such kind of site that are “currently in use but subject to a local plan allocation or planning consent and currently in use but with potential for redevelopment” in the realm of

Government policy has clearly been the main drive behind brownfield redevelopment. In the last few years governments, agencies and relative organizations at national and local levels in western countries had developed many policies and programs to promote and support brownfield development. British government’s policy strongly emphasized the reuse of brownfield sites as part of its sustainable development agenda (Shephard and Dixon, 2004). The USEPA took a proactive approach in announcing its Brownfield Action Agenda on January 25, 1995 to fund brownfield pilot assessment programs, clarified liability issues and established partnerships between federal departments and agencies (Yount and Meyer, 1999). European governments took on active roles in making plans, setting up agencies to deal with derelict properties and finance reusing projects (De Sousa, 2000). General and special policies for China should be developed to achieve the same goals, as outlined below. 3.1 General policies Land in China is publicly owned. Central and local governments take control of the land market and set up land use planning. Developers cannot possess land permanently but use it for a fixed number of years. In view of this, general policies for brownfield redevelopment in China contain two aspects.

Brownfield Redevelopment Toward Sustainable Urban Land Use in China

3.1.1 Priority The position and function of brownfield redevelopment should be distinct in the domain of urban and land use plan and should be recognized by legislation. Brownfield redevelopment should become the part of Chinese Urban Planning Act and Land Management Act. Priority should be given to brownfield development by merging the strategy with the land reserve system. Chinese urban land reserve system, created a decade ago, deals with land use cycle issues. The operation of the system by the government includes three stages: 1) land purchase, requisition and regain; 2) land consolidation and reserve; and 3) supplying land to the market (Zhang and Jia, 2000; Zhou et al., 2003). In this process local governments assemble and manage lands from dispersed land users. The reserve system is a premise to brownfield redevelopment because not only it clears away the obstacle of inconsistent property rights, but it helps to bring brownfield into the land market. The priority of brownfield is secured at the third stage of the process where local governments supply brownfield first to the land market, before greenfield and other sources are tapped. 3.1.2 Quantitative target Setting quantitative target can be effective for China, just as it is in the UK. In 1998, the UK government set a national target of at least 60% of all residential developments to be built on brownfield sites by 2008, which has already reached by 2000 (Morris, 2003; Dixon, 2004). Two kinds of quantitative targets might be set as general policy for China. One is a percent target like the UK, and the other is an absolute amount target for brownfield reduction in a fixed period of time, e.g. per year or every five years in sync with the 5-year plan. The percent target helps control the overall redevelopment process. The practical dynamics of the large amount of brownfield sites necessitates an absolute amount target. This is feasible and visible, with the actual target number correlated to the brownfield statistics and assessment in the following discussion of special policies. 3.2 Special policies The redevelopment of brownfield is a complicated process involving a variety of public and private sectors. Governments, developers and users are the three essential actors in this process. Figure 1 illustrates a general three-stage process for brownfield redevelopment, as well as the interactions, behaviors and functions of the three actors in the process. The role of the central and

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local governments, perhaps joined by others such as private agencies, research institutes and non-profit organizations, is to supply overall control and provide guidance and support to developers throughout the whole redevelopment process. Developers and investors can be roughly divided into three parts: public, private and public-private. While most developers are private enterprises, sometimes governments act directly to develop pilot programs to attract developers and investors, and to stir the revitalization of the sites around. Public-private partnerships involve government and entrepreneur cooperation in development. Users are those who purchase, inhabit, rent or enjoy the buildings and facilities constructed on former brownfield sites and any neighbors who may be influenced or benefited by the redevelopment. The extent of the government’s special policies, as negotiated with the private developers, investors and users, covers technical, environmental, legal, financial and other matters. 3.2.1 Statistics and categorization The first task in brownfield redevelopment is to clearly identify the location and size of brownfield sites in a city, province or the whole country. According to the National Land Use Classification (Ministry of Land and Resources, 2001), brownfield sites are parts of the land categories No. 21 (commercial and service sites), No. 22 (industrial, mining and warehouse sites) and No. 26 (transportation sites), namely part of the construction land. According to the Standard for Urban Land Use Classification and Planning Construction Land (GBJ 137-90), brownfield sites are part of the land categories C21 (commercial sites), M (industrial sites), W (warehouse sites) and U29 (other traffic utility sites) (Ministry of Construction of China, 1991). In accordance with the Chinese Land Management Act, the land administrative competent department in local government and the statistical department are responsible for statistics of brownfield sites. That act also requires that dynamic changes of land (brownfield sites) should be monitored by the national land management information system, both potentially and retrospectively. Pursuant to those steps, brownfield analysis and categorization by different standards should be made. Table 2 shows one kind of categorization according to class of contamination. Also needed are quantitative standards, like the U.S. hazardous rank system, which estimates the contamination and its influence. Setting up an indicator system for brownfield estimation, however, requires more than

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Fig. 1 Interaction, behavior and function of government, developer and user in brownfield redevelopment Table 2 Contamination degree, waste and site of brownfield Contamination degree

Type of waste

Brownfield site

Heavily contaminated

Hazardous waste: ignitable, toxic, corrosive, or reactive

Chemical industry, papermaking, metallurgy, machinofacture,

(explosive)

building materials industry, petrochemical industry, hazardous cargo warehouse, etc.

Moderately contaminated

Lightly, potentially or not

Ordinary waste: other solid, liquid and gaseous contaminated

Food industry, pharmaceutical industry, spinnery, petrol station,

materials that are not so dangerous

dry cleaner, etc.

Waste that are lightly or not polluted

contaminated

examining factors like hazardous rank. Also to be considered are: total and various industrial district areas, brownfield site areas, land areas to varying degrees of use, land areas with different levels of contamination, land area changing rate and percentage, period of idleness and inefficient use, output value of industrial and commercial enterprise especially on brownfield, number of workers, etc. 3.2.2 Assessment and remediation Another major premise before reconstruction is site assessment and contamination remediation. Site assessment involves initial and detailed work. The initial assessment, aimed to get general information about the sites, is historical and surrounding analysis through research on retrospective data, literature and reports, etc. The detailed assessment includes field investigation of

Electronic industry, apparel industry, handicraft making, normal warehouse, etc.

the suspected pollution by physical and chemical methods and evaluation of site. This is essential in judging whether the site is viable or not. Contamination remediation is the core issue in brownfield redevelopment. It includes setting cleanup standards and remediation of the contaminants. A contaminated site is generally one that has soil, groundwater or surface water containing contaminants at levels that exceed those considered safe by regulators (De Sousa, 2000). Different types of use mentioned-above result in different kinds and levels of contaminations to the land (surface and underground). In addition to factors that harm people’s health, research on brownfield contamination emphasizes contaminants that are detrimental to concrete foundations of the buildings, mainly on sulfates and pH levels of the soil and groundwater (Price, 2003).


The State Environmental Protection Administration of China (1995; 1999) has promulgated the Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (GB 15618-1995), which is applied to farmland, pastureland, woodland, etc., but does not include industrial districts, and the Environmental Quality Risk Assessment Criteria for Soil at Manufacturing Facilities (HJ/T 25-1999), which is applied to industrial properties but does not include farmland and residential areas. Since neither standard is suitable in judging whether a brownfield is ready for reuse and reconstruction after remediation, the national environmental agency needs to prescribe cleanup standards of the categories and the threshold limits of contaminants in brownfield remedial practice. New physical, biological and chemical clean-up methods developed by professional specialists and institutions should be intro-

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duced and disseminated to the developers. Government bodies play an important role in popularizing information on restoring contaminated sites and encouraging the use of new remediation technologies. The information and techniques are ensured to be timely and up to date. 3.2.3 Financial support and tax incentives Because of the relatively low real estate value and high environment and market risk, it seems brownfield redevelopment does not have advantages in costs and benefits compared with other types of land development. From a long-term point of view, however, brownfield regeneration is beneficial to both the environment and economics, so the unfavorable investment climate must be changed. Governments play a key role in alleviating the cost and risk so as to turn the investment climate around (Table 3).

Table 3 Negative factors to investment and relative government policies in brownfield redevelopment Negative factor

Impact on brownfield redevelopment

Government policy

Financial loan and debt

Grants and loans by government come from the auction of

General policies set by the central government should allow local

use rights of former brownfield sites. Financial disputes

governments to sell the site so as to pool funds before the financial

(loans and debts) involving former brownfield users

disputes are settled.

hamper local government efforts to reduce storage lands. Actual or potential con-

These make development costs higher than other types of

Moderately and heavily contaminated sites require financial support

tamination in brownfield

land development, such as greenfield. The costs of con-

for cleanup rather than reconstruction. Cases show that larger

site

tamination treatment include: site assessment, cleanup

projects are more likely to receive public sector financial support

plan and implementation.

(Yount and Meyer, 1999). Smaller projects should receive firmer support from government, especially local, than that in the past.

Existing facility, buildings

Either demolishment or alteration of existing structures

Existing structures on brownfield sites need not always be demol-

and other structures on and

should be done before reuse. As a result, these two opera-

ished. Lightly or potentially contaminated sites can be reused after

under ground

tions become part of direct cost that greenfield develop-

requisite reform. Low interest loans and government funds suppert

ment does not have.

in this process.

Former users, like workers, and residents are discontented

Government funds are also used in job training, benefiting workers

because they loss both jobs and homes. Neighbors may

and residents on former brownfield sites.

Human factor

claim compensations for losses due to land price after regeneration.

Financial support and tax incentives are two essential and powerful economic stimuli. Financial support includes making loans available and providing funds. Choosing which project to invest depends on such factors as the degree of contamination and previous function, project scale, project goal, company type and size, etc. Distribution of land use profits can be readjusted accordingly to spur the revitalization by using leverage of tax categories and amounts. The land tax system consists of land tenure, land acquisition and transfer, and land use tax. Appropriately raising the land tenure tax may reduce the idle-rate of land and hasten brownfield sites’ return to the land market and their turnover. Land acquisition and

transfer tax reduction or exemption may assist in cutting down transaction costs and facilitating the process. Diminishing the tax revenue from redevelopment benefits developers and motivates them to engage in land recycling. Legislation by the government will further ensure these principles. 3.2.4 Environmental and legal liability Another major barrier to brownfield reuse is liability, which raises the uncertainty in valuing relevant environmental and legal liabilities within the sites. Environmental liabilities often come from claims for ecosystem damage, health problems encountered by neighbors or workers, and loss of property value by nearby owners

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due to contamination (Meyer, 2000). Liability uncertainty comes by six ways: 1) engineering estimates and costs are unclear; 2) regulatory requirements are dynamic and difficult to quantify in money; 3) market’s reaction is unpredictable; 4) third-party liability is impossible to quantify; 5) financing may be difficult or impossible to obtain; and 6) cleanup cost varies over time as regulations and laws change (Geltman, 2000). Developers and investors usually withdraw from brownfield redevelopment due to such uncertainty. To encourage the private sector to engage in brownfield development, governments should eliminate impediments and minimize uncertainties in the regeneration process wherever possible. Table 4 summarizes national laws and regulations impacting brownfield redevelopment. In accordance with these laws, the central government should announce firm legislations to the land and real estate market, strictly controlling the land development application process. Local government ought to establish standards for local environmental quality based on national standards, and examine the environmental effect of development projects. Government should monitor and manage the above process (Ministry of Construction of China, 2002).

3.2.5 Publicity and guidance Residents are understandably reluctant to live in redeveloped brownfield areas. In addition to contaminations, worries include environment, accessibility, infrastructure, recreation facilities and so on. These factors are also developers’ concerns when they set foot in such sites. From the government’s point of view, the crux of the matter is sophisticated psychological guidance, an integral part of the process to change ingrained public perception. Besides disseminating the information and techniques of remediation treatments, governments also need to publicize general knowledge of brownfield redevelopment to the public and developers, builders and investors who are unfamiliar with them. The government’s firm financial support, legal and tax policies should be publicized to attract developers and build confidence in everybody else. Print, TV and web media can familiarize the public with this exciting new kind of urban land use, especially the neighbors, potential purchasers and investors, and thus change public opinion. Third-party publicity by governments can allay misgivings and shift opposition and doubt to support and participation. Public understanding and collaboration will favor the procedure and brownfield redevelopment will emerge as a beneficial process.

Table 4 National law and regulation impacting brownfield redevelopment Legislation and regula-

Time of promulgation

Agency of promulgation

Impact on brownfield redevelopment

1986 (second revised, 2004)

Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress

Guiding brownfield land use planning, statistics, acquisition of land use rights and related issues

Environment Protection Act

1989


Guiding to setting environmental quality and contaminant effluent standards, and to monitoring; defining environmental liability of those responsible for the brownfield site

Real Estate Management Act

1994


Guiding allotment, transfer and auction of brownfield use right, issues of brownfield development and marketing

Solid Waste Polluting Environment Prevention and Remediation Act

1995 (revised, 2004)


Providing solid waste prevention and remediation methods, and legal liability of government departments and enterprises involved

Construction Project Environmental Protection Management Regulation

1998

State Council

Guiding prevention and reduction of contaminants in construction projects and corresponding legal liability

Environmental Effect Estimation Act

2002


Defining and guiding environmental effect estimation of various planning and construction projects

tion Land Management Act

4 Conclusions In summary, central and local governments in China should take a positive role in implementing the strategy of brownfield redevelopment. Figure 2 summarizes their functions: 1) the central government makes general

brownfield redevelopment strategy; 2) the central government should mobilize relevant agencies and research institutes to formulate legislation, regulations and technical standards for brownfield and its redevelopment that meet China’s unique needs and goals, while special regulations must be established by local government;


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Fig. 2 Function of central and local governments in brownfield redevelopment

3) totality of brownfield sites should be estimated by different levels of governments and categorized by location, cause, pollutant and other factors; 4) local governments need to draw up redevelopment plans (brownfield planning) according to the categories, in coordination with land use plan and the land reserve system; 5) governments can lead in propagating information and techniques of contaminants cleanup, and guide the financial structures to provide low interest loans and funds to help developers in cleanup projects; 6) governments should guide the developer in reusing brownfield sites, based on the established brownfield planning; 7) governments ought to publicize general knowledge of brownfield development to the public and encourage them to participate in the process; and 8) governments should check the results when the project is accomplished and monitor future use. The strategy of brownfield redevelopment aims at those abandoned, idle and underutilized sites which can not be recycled in the land and real estate market due to a variety of development barriers (especially contamination). Implementation of the strategy is beneficial to resolve problems of urban land idleness and inefficient use as well as achieve Chinese national policy of total

farmland dynamic balance. Addressing the issue of farmland abuse first involves strictly controlling the occupancy of farmland. According to analysis, it also requires governments to bring urban brownfield back into the land market through the land reserve system. The former solution regulates the flow and the latter opens up the source. In this way the abuse of farmland caused by urban sprawl would be fairly mitigated. The advantages of implementing the brownfield redevelopment strategy in China are therefore numerous. It eases urban land use tensions and reuses idle lands. At the same time, it improves the quality of the environment and protects rural farmland. So, the strategy of brownfield redevelopment is an effective method in addressing current Chinese urban land use problems.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr. Richard T West of Sias College of China, Prof. Huang Xianjin in the School of Geographic and Oceanographic Science in Nanjing University of China, Lei Aixian of the Ministry of Land and Resources of China, and Yang Luren in Zhengzhou Bureau of Land and Resource of China for their com-

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