Learn More About Financing Brownfields Redevelopment

When developing strategies for neighborhood revitalization, many community change practitioners target the redevelopment of abandoned commercial or industrial properties. In the case of brownfields, “the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant” poses barriers to immediate reuse. Brownfields stand out as visible and hazardous indicators of neighborhood blight, both a potential beacon for environmental justice and equitable development campaigns and a symbol of the loss of economic opportunity in many low-income communities.

In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Brownfields Program to help return these properties to productive use by “empower[ing] states, communities, and other stakeholders … to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. As part of that program, the EPA funds the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) to provide technical assistance to communities that are looking to finance brownfield redevelopment. Available resources from the CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance Program include:

• The CDFA Brownfields Financing Update is a monthly newsletter that provides the latest headlines, reports, case studies and other resources related to brownfields and redevelopment finance. 
• The CDFA Brownfields Financing Resource Center is a customized hub and search interface for CDFA's Online Resource Database and programming. 
• The CDFA Brownfields Financing Webinar Series is an annual, three-part educational offering of the program. 
• The CDFA Brownfields Project Marketplace and Response Teams offer opportunities to access more intensive technical assistance, including project-specific recommendations and site visits.

Click here for more information about the resources offered by the CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance Program.