Land Revitalization Toolkit

EPA’s Land Revitalization Program can help communities identify possibilities for reusing a contaminated, or potentially contaminated site. Site reuse planning typically creates exciting opportunities within the redevelopment process. Check out Revitalization-Ready: A Guide to Revitalizing Land in Your Community to help your community get started on identifying site reuse opportunities.

Included below are guides and tools to help a community through each stage of the contaminated site redevelopment process:

Reuse Planning
Pre-Development
Development
Reuse Management & Operations

Reuse Planning

Guides

Forecasting Benefits and Public Returns for Brownfield Redevelopment (pdf) (1.15 MB) - A getting-started guide to understanding the potential for economic benefits and public returns in brownfields reuse. Economic impact analysis (EIA) and fiscal impact analysis (FIA) are two related techniques that can be used to identify potential benefits and returns or evaluate impact after redevelopment is complete.
- Recent Webinar: Forecasting Benefits and Public Returns for Brownfield Redevelopment August 22, 2024 Webinar Slides (pdf) (4.9 MB)
- Recent Webinar: Forecasting Benefits and Public Returns for Brownfield Redevelopment Webinar Recording (mp3)
Vacant to Vibrant: Revitalizing Brownfields into Incubator Spaces for Economic Development (pdf) (542.73 KB) - The industrial and warehouse spaces that once housed thriving businesses in your community may now be ripe for brownfield redevelopment. Bringing an incubator space into your community means creating a supportive space for small businesses to grow together.
The Resilient Brownfields Redevelopment Factsheet (pdf) (1.64 MB) provides information on the financial risks of our changing climate and ways to make wise investments in brownfield revitalization. Changing climate and conditions and uncertainty about these changes pose significant risks to the safe, long-term reuse of brownfield sites.
The Let it Grow! Build Your Urban Forest with Brownfields (pdf) (12.22 MB) provides information and additional resources on how brownfield sites can help a community to build their urban forest by describing how a community can save existing trees on brownfield sites and plant new ones.
The What Nonprofits Need to Know (pdf) (1.2 MB) explains what a nonprofit needs to know when they encounter a brownfield site as part of a neighborhood revitalization project, what resources are available to nonprofits to help them support the safe reuse of brownfields, strategies shared by nonprofits leading brownfield revitalization projects, and more.
5 Strategies to Minimize Displacement provide information and additional resources on several strategies and tools that brownfields stakeholders can utilize to minimize displacement alongside brownfields planning and reuse.
The Community Actions that Drive Brownfields Redevelopment guide includes specific actions that a community can take to prepare a brownfield site for cleanup and reuse and make it attractive for public or private investment.
13 specific planning activities that can help a community’s site reuse goals align with local economic, infrastructure, social and environmental conditions, and determine which reuses are feasible for the site.
The New Community Visions for Abandoned Gas Stations (pdf) (8.31 MB) checklist helps communities navigate features common to abandoned gas station sites to inform their assessment and plan for the needed cleanup to meet the community vision for reuse.
Preparing Your Plan for Site Reuse (pdf) (2.93 MB) helps a community evaluate the financial feasibility of different brownfields revitalization scenarios.
Using sea-level rise models, coastal or inland flood estimates can help protect brownfield and land revitalization projects and leverage transportation, infrastructure and resilient revitalization investments.
Stream Daylighting at Brownfield Sites explains the benefits and challenges of daylighting a stream when addressing brownfield and other contaminated areas, and describes the information and key decisions needed to determine whether daylighting is right for your community.
Revitalizing Brownfield Sites into Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.pdf (pdf) (853.54 KB) - As more electric vehicles (EVs) enter roadways every year, a broader charging infrastructure network is needed to fuel these vehicles. Cleaning up and transforming underused and potentially contaminated properties into EV charging stations is a strategic way to meet this demand. This 6-page fact sheet details benefits and considerations for redeveloping brownfields into charging stations. Additional information is provided on evaluating economic feasibility, benefits of co-locating solar and battery storage, and links to additional resources.
Brownfields Stakeholder Forum Kit provides example agendas, invitations, logistics, etc as well as other guidance to assist communities in engaging stakeholders and establishing partnerships to address brownfields revitalization challenges.
Brownfields Road Map 6th Edition breaks down site investigation and cleanup into an easy to understand, step-by-step process that provides valuable and up-to-date information to a wide range of Brownfields stakeholders involved in or affected by the redevelopment of Brownfields sites.
Brownfields Grant Recipients' Road Map to Understanding Quality Assurance Project Plans (pdf) (7.6 MB) describes for EPA Brownfields Assessment Grantees the general process for developing and using a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP).
Templates for Region 3 Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) are intended to aid in the writing of Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) in accordance with the EPA QAPP Standard. They are intended to assist organizations in documenting the programmatic, procedural and analytical requirements for brownfields assessment projects eligible for funding under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) § 104(k). Developed by Region 3 to assist those preparing a QAPP for Brownfields projects.
Considering changing climate conditions:
- Climate Smart Brownfields Manual is a resource for communities that want to consider climate change as they assess, clean up, or redevelop brownfield sites. It provides guidance on best practices for climate change mitigation, adaption, and resilience at all stages of Brownfields work, from planning to redevelopment. In addition, the manual contains case studies and links to additional resources that communities can use as they develop Brownfields project plans.
- Brownfield Revitalization in Climate-Vulnerable Areas outlines nationally applicable examples of relevant regulatory standards, incentives and guidelines for communities to consider when updating their building code, zoning and subdivision regulations. Includes guidance for communities may use to inform their efforts to balance planning goals, increase climate resiliency, and promote economic development.

Tools

Public Infrastructure Coordination Assessment and Planning (short how-to video and tool (xlsx) (570.19 KB) ): Helps a community develop a coordinated approach to infrastructure asset management. Can be used to assess progress and benefits of cross-system/cross-department or city-wide asset management.
Residential Demolition Tool: A guide for communities facing residential demolition to help them achieve improved environmental results during demolition. Includes contractor bid specification development tools for use by cities, counties or land banks undertaking large-scale residential demolitions.

Pre-Development

Guides

Revitalization-Ready: A Guide for Revitalizing Land in Your Community is a step-by-step process for identifying reuse possibilities for contaminated sites. The Revitalization-Ready Guide builds from the PREPARED Workbook (pdf) (6.72 MB) .
The Anatomy of Brownfields Redevelopment (pdf) (3.83 MB) guide explains how the brownfields cleanup and reuse process from the real estate development perspective.
RE-Development Academies (2019, 2021 versions)
- For community members who wish to learn how developers approach contaminated site redevelopment. View archives:
  - Part 1: Intersection of Real Estate and Brownfields
  - Part 2: Peering into the Crystal Ball: How the Market Decides Future Use
  - Part 3: Pulling Back the Curtain: How Developers Make Money
- For community members who wish to learn how to reposition sites, manage risk, and overcome challenges to attracting investment to brownfield sites. View archives:
Setting the Stage for Leveraging Resources for Brownfields Revitalization assists communities in finding and attracting sufficient funding for brownfields redevelopment projects.
Creating a Brownfields Investment Package (pdf) (3.12 MB) explains how to compile relevant site information into a highly visual communications and marketing document.

Tool

The Community Reuse Property Prioritization Tool is designed to help communities prioritize properties based on a specific reuse plan. Additionally, the Tool supports communities in developing a low-level inventory that can be used to prioritize brownfields for future assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment by capturing information that will help estimate the complexity of such activities.

Development

Guide

Cleaning Up Brownfields under State Response Programs - Getting to "No Further Action" guide for owners of brownfields properties on the general requirements for entering a brownfield into a state cleanup program and the process for attaining a state decision or certification of the need for “no further action” under each state response program.