Turig Browfields ito Greespaces: Examiig Icetives ad Barriers to Revitalizatio Juha Siikamäki Resources for the Future Kris Werstedt Virgiia Tech Uiversity Abstract This study employs iterviews, documet review, ad a atioal survey of local govermet officials to ivestigate the factors that ifluece the success of efforts to covert uderutilized cotamiated properties ito greespace. We fid that the presece of cotamiatio cotiues to be a cocer despite federal ad state efforts to ease liability fears but also that site ad project features ca overcome this hurdle. I particular, jurisdictios appear more likely to covert distressed properties ito greespace if recreatioal parks, rather tha ope space, are plaed, sites are already owed rather tha available oly through tax foreclosure, ad the state is perceived as beig supportive of the coversio. I additio, mixed public-private fudig ad site locatios i residetial areas are more likely to attract commuity support for coversio projects. The redevelopmet of browfields properties that cotai abadoed or uderused facilities i which expasio or redevelopmet is complicated by real or perceived cotamiatio presets both a problem ad a opportuity to the active-livig commuity. Left uatteded, browfields have accumulated ad dragged dow the quality of life i umerous America eighborhoods, burdeig local residets with shuttered busiesses, empty lots, ad polluted soil ad groudwater. At the same time, may of these eighborhoods suffer from a shortage of greespace We gratefully ackowledge fudig for this study from Active Livig Research, a atioal program of the Robert Wood Johso Foudatio. We also would like to exted special thaks to Marla Hollader for her active-livig expertise, to Fracie Streich for outstadig research assistace durig survey desig ad admiistratio, ad to iterviewees i Miesota ad Wiscosi for their iput i shapig this research. Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law, Vol. 33, No. 3, Jue 2008 DOI 10.1215/03616878-2008-008 2008 by Duke Uiversity Press
560 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law for parks, playgrouds, gardeig, atural ope-space areas, ad walkig (Harik 2001). Covertig browfield properties ito greespaces offers a potetial solutio to both problems, improvig the atural eviromet by addressig cotamiatio, as well as helpig trasform distressed eighborhoods ito healthier huma eviromets that provide more veues for walkig, recreatio, ad other physical activities. To realize such gais, however, potetial browfield-to-greespace coversio projects must cofrot the fiacial realities of browfields revitalizatio. Such revitalizatio typically is powered by the promise of housig opportuities or the ecoomic gais jobs, icreased icomes, heighteed tax reveues, for example associated with commercial or idustrial reuse. The beefits of greespace, i cotrast, frequetly appear more ivisible, qualitative, ad loger term. As a cosequece, coversios have frequetly lacked the political champio ecessary for implemetatio. Much of the federal ad state fiacial support for browfields redevelopmet has cotributed to this dyamic by focusig primarily o reuses desiged to furish more immediate ecoomic gais. Despite all of these challeges, scores of commuities have successfully trasformed cotamiated properties ito valuable parks ad ope spaces. Regulatory ad programmatic chages i the wider browfields area that cotiue to reduce liability cocers, the emergece of dedicated fuds to support browfield-to-greespace trasformatios, ad the growig sophisticatio of local advocates have drive may coversios; such projects may ow accout for 5 percet of browfields redevelopmets i major cities, accordig to oe estimate (De Sousa 2004). Our goal i this article is to explore a variety of policies ad other factors that shape these coversios. To this ed, we seek to (1) describe o-thegroud efforts to ecourage the coversio of browfields ito greespace ad (2) systematically assess perceptios about the trade-offs amog the icetives that ca promote ad the barriers that ca hider browfields coversio. For our aalysis, we rely o a series of iterviews of state ad local stakeholders ivolved i browfield-to-greespace coversios as well as a survey of the perceptios of early 450 officials with resposibilities that touch o these coversios. Backgroud o the Browfields ad Greespace Nexus The umber of browfields i the Uited States is ot kow with certaity, because o sigle registry of such sites has ever bee developed
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 561 the federal govermet does ot maitai a roster of browfield properties, ad while some state govermets do, the rosters are either uiversal or uiform i terms of what costitutes a browfield. However, commetators place the umber of browfield properties i the rage of hudreds of thousads atiowide, with some estimates as high as oe millio (Simos 1998; U.S. Geeral Accoutig Office [GAO] 1987; U.S. Evirometal Protectio Agecy [EPA] 2007). The origis of the browfields problem lie i the ecoomic activities idustrial, commercial, trasportatio, ad residetial that have take place over the last oe hudred years that may have geerated cotamiatio, coupled with the specter of liability associated with the 1980 federal Superfud law. 1 Court iterpretatios of this law have held that a wide rage of etities ivolved i a cotamiated site past ad curret owers, waste trasporters, leders, ad local govermets, for example may be resposible for cleaup, eve if they did ot cause the cotamiatio. This has cast a shadow over all sites at which cotamiatio is preset or suspected. Sice the late 1980s, most states have reformed their legislative ad regulatory laguage ad developed programs to ecourage the redevelopmet of browfield properties. I additio, the federal Small Busiess Liability Relief ad Browfields Revitalizatio Act of 2002 authorizes up to $250 millio per year to support browfields redevelopmet ad clarifies the process by which ew purchasers ad users of browfield properties ca reduce their liability exposures. As a result of these ad other reforms, browfields redevelopmet has greatly expaded over the last te years. This has improved public health ad the atural eviromet through site cleaups that reduce exposure to hazardous substaces, ad it has heighteed ecoomic activity as measured by such traditioal impacts as job creatio, icreased icomes, sales, taxes, ad the ehacemet of off-site property values through spillover effects (Werstedt 2004b). The beefits of greespace coversios ca also be substatial, particularly i terms of off-site property impacts. The Iteratioal Ecoomic Developmet Coucil s (2001) examiatio of the off-site impacts of a half-doze browfield-to-greespace projects estimates that property values i eighborhoods surroudig these projects have icreased more tha two times those i cotrol eighborhoods lackig coversio efforts. 2 1. The Comprehesive Evirometal Respose, Compesatio, ad Liability Act, or CERCLA (42 U.S.C. 9601 9675). 2. More geerally, McCoell ad Walls s (2005) recet review of over sixty studies examiig the omarket beefits of ope space otes that while a umber of site-specific features
562 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Such property ehacemets do ot ecessarily traslate to widespread public support for greespace coversios, but there is some evidece that coversio beefits ca be attractive i a rage of settigs. For example, 90 percet of respodets to a survey by Greeberg ad Lewis (2000) of residets i a New Jersey muicipality most of whom were lowericome reters idicated that i browfield redevelopmets they preferred or strogly preferred greespace uses (play areas ad parks) to small busiesses, stores, or factories. This, i part, reflects a demad for active-livig features i core ad ier-rig urba eighborhoods. Although ot specific to browfield coversios, a umber of other studies also suggest substatial health beefits associated with urba greespace features, particularly for older residets (Tisley, Tisley, ad Croskeys 2002; Godbey et al. 1998). Moreover, a large body of research has demostrated the obvious: that urba eviromets lackig access to recreatioal ifrastructure hider physical activity (Saeles, Sallis, ad Frak 2003) ad that such activity ca be substatially icreased by ehacig urba desig ad evirometal features i both residetial ad oresidetial settigs (Duca, Spece, ad Mummery 2005; Zaza, Briss, ad Harris 2005; Humpel, Owe, ad Leslie 2002; Kah et al. 2002; Zimrig et al. 2005; Everett Joes, Breer, ad McMaus 2003). Sallis ad Glaz (2006) recetly highlighted the importace, from a health perspective, of recreatioal opportuities ad access to places where childre ca be physically active o a regular basis. This requires adequate provisio of outdoor ad eighborhood spaces ad places, icludig parks, commercial facilities, ad urba greeways (Lidsey et al. 2004; Shafer, Lee, ad Turer 2000; Braswell 1999; East Bay Regioal Park District 1998; Scott ad Moore 1995). The exus of browfields, greespace, ad active livig i urba eviromets has gaied some attetio at the policy level (see, for example, Hirschhor 2002 ad Iteratioal City/Couty Maagemet Associatio [ICMA] 2002), but it still remais relatively uexplored by policy, practitioer, ad academic commuities. From a practical perspective, this partly reflects the reality that relatively few browfield-to-greespace coversios have occurred. 3 The lack of local public fiacial support critically ifluece that value of ope space the size of the area, its proximity to differet kids of lad uses, ad the type of ope space the studies geerally demostrate a value to preservig ope space i urba areas. 3. The estimate cited i the text that 5 percet of browfield projects i major cities i the Uited States have ivolved ope space or recreatioal reuse is based o data from the U.S. Coferece of Mayors (2003) aual survey of muicipalities with browfields. I cotrast,
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 563 for site acquisitio ad remediatio of a browfield property, especially fuds for the maiteace of greespace, to support more active livig ca pose early isurmoutable barriers abset private ivolvemet or federal or state fuds (Kee et al. 2001). Such private ad exteral public ivolvemet has appeared critical i most success stories. I additio, fee simple public acquisitio of cotamiated sites for greespace creatio historically has ofte bee stymied by liability fears eve whe fiacial resources may have bee available. While these fears have eased with the passage of liability reforms, private competitio for browfields has icreased acquisitio costs (Heberle ad Werstedt 2006). Alterative routes to public owership of sites, such as tax foreclosures, may be uavailable i some jurisdictios that lack the political support for foreclosures as well as i jurisdictios that pursue i persoam (takig actio agaist a perso) rather tha i rem (takig actio agaist property) foreclosures (Werstedt ad Haso 2006). For its part, much of the academic work related to greespace coversios has focused o desig ad plaig or evirometal aspects (Kirkwood 2001; Braswell 1999; Harriso ad Davies 2002; Burger 2000). The trasformatio of larger sites, especially waterfrot areas, ito parks, ball fields, ad ope space particularly has garered attetio (Lowrie, Greeberg, ad Kee 2002; Lerer ad Poole 1999; Garvi ad Beres 1997). Such efforts ca yield large ameities to help revitalize dowtows, although use of these features by residets of adjacet distressed iercity eighborhoods is ofte very limited. However, several states have developed area-wide browfield approaches to help revitalize such eighborhoods, ad some literature has also appeared o this topic (Werstedt 2004a). A otable exceptio to the paucity of work o the potetial health beefits of browfield-to-greespace coversios comes from a series of greespace studies by De Sousa (2003, 2004, 2006). Although ot focusig o active livig per se, De Sousa s (2004) survey of twety U.S. browfield-to-greespace project coordiators revealed that over oe-half of the twety projects ivolved the creatio of both recreatioal lad ad ope space, ad eight of the twety coordiators idetified the provisio De Sousa (2003, 2004) otes that about 20 percet of the reuse of derelict ad vacat lad i Scotlad from 1993 to 2002 ivolved ope space, recreatio, ad leisure space, ad roughly the same proportio of British browfield sites were coverted ito greespace over the 1988 1993 time period. A estimated 10 15 percet of browfields i the Netherlads become greespace.
564 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law of recreatio space as the most importat objective of the coversio. 4 I De Sousa s (2003) earlier study of such projects i Toroto, Caada, iterviewees idetified public recreatio as a key beefit i six of the te projects examied. More recetly, De Sousa (2006) has surveyed early five hudred users of three parks developed from browfields i Chicago ad Mieapolis. Nearly three-quarters of the users surveyed visit the coverted parks at least oce per week, with early 90 percet udertakig walkig or hikig activities ad about 40 percet either joggig or bikig or both. The most frequetly oted persoal beefit of the greespaces by the users was a icrease i their physical activity. As for the effect o the quality of commuity life, a majority of the respodets viewed the greespace as havig a positive impact o the provisio of trails, access to recreatioal areas, ad improvemets i persoal health. De Sousa s surveys ad iterviews of project maagers ad other stakeholders ivolved i browfield-to-greespace projects i Caada ad the Uited States provide isight ito the factors that ecourage such coversios ad those that retard it. I both settigs, the presece of political leadership appears as oe of the most frequetly idetified facilitators. However, while more tha oe-half of the Caadia iterviewees selected commuity ivolvemet ad collaboratio as a importat factor to facilitate coversios, oly 15 percet of U.S. respodets idicated this. A more importat factor i coversios i the U.S. settig appears to be locatio i a area whose ecoomic potetial the project could ehace. Coversely, the four most frequetly idetified obstacles to the coversios iclude, i decreasig importace, the high costs of ad lack of fudig for coversios, remediatio issues, lad acquisitio problems, ad redevelopmet ad log-term maiteace issues. Study Desig The above literature o browfield-to-greespace coversios ad o greespaces more geerally suggests that a disparate set of factors shape the coversio of browfields to greespace. May of the most importat oes ot surprisigly relate to fiacial costraits. They iclude the extraordiary costs of site remediatio, expeses associated with mai- 4. I cotrast, park officials iterviewed by Kee et al. (2001) from twety-five cities aroud the coutry with recet park redevelopmets idicated (i ope- rather tha closed-eded resposes) that about oe-third of smaller parks (five acres or less) had beefits from meetig recreatio demads. For parks bigger tha five acres, officials idicated that less tha 20 percet of the projects etailed beefits from meetig recreatio demads.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 565 teace of publicly owed parks ad recreatioal areas, ad the lack of reveue from recreatioal ad ope space uses (abset the impositio of user fees). Some of these costraits ca be mitigated by exteral fudig from federal ad state programs although these are oversubscribed ad ofte limit awards to projects that support job-geeratig redevelopmet activities or parterig with private for-profit ad oprofit etities. I additio, at ay give site, other forces that may depress iterest i a greespace coversio may iclude the project locatio ad its surroudig lad uses. Eve if oe of these costraits applies, demad for coversios also may be low if ample greespace already exists. Gaiig a better uderstadig of these disparate factors both barriers to ad icetives for the coversio of browfields ito greespaces ad areas of physical activity would be useful o two frots. First, it would help delieate the types of browfield settigs most coducive to such coversios. Secod, ad related, a better uderstadig of the factors that shape the success of coversios could help to more effectively target local, state, ad federal efforts to ecourage browfield-to-greespace coversios to further active-livig objectives. I the first part of our study, we develop short vigettes of two statelevel greespace coversio iitiatives. These are qualitative ad ceter o a small set (te) of telephoe ad i-perso iterviews coducted from December 2005 to February 2006 as well as o a review of relevat program documets. The two iitiatives represet the oly state-level efforts i the coutry kow to us that have come to fruitio, ad the pricipal purpose of the vigettes is to highlight features to explore i the atiowide survey described later. For each state, we idetified a iitial cotact based o our extesive prior browfields work i the regio (Werstedt ad Hersh 2006). From this iitial cotact, we geerated a sowball sample of policy ad project-level stakeholders (from both the public ad private sectors), whom we the cotacted to schedule iterviews. Prior to the iterviews, we circulated a list of geeral questios grouped ito four categories. These relate to experieces with cotamiated lad (e.g., scale of lad i questio ad barriers to its reuse), greespaces (e.g., fiacial aspects of greespace developmet ad political support for its creatio ad maiteace), fiacial icetives (e.g., experiece with grat program ad recommedatios for improvemets), ad active livig (e.g., adequacy of greespace resources ad opportuities for improvig physical activity i them).
566 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law I additio, for those iterviewees liked with a specific project, we asked for iformatio o that project. I the secod ad more extesive part of our ivestigatio, we used the iterviews ad follow-up cotact as scopig sessios to desig ad admiister a atioal-level survey of local officials ad other idividuals with resposibilities that bear o browfield-to-greespace coversios. This survey collected iformatio o the relative importace of differet barriers to browfield-to-greespace coversios ad icetives to overcome them. Rather tha askig direct questios about the importace of differet factors to coversios, however, we elicited data o perceptios about how differet attributes of browfield-to-greespace coversios joitly determie whether specific coversio projects are likely to be udertake. Methodologically, our approach i this secod part rests o the use of choice experimet methods, which are widely used by marketig, trasportatio, decisio aalysis, ad evirometal valuatio research for ivestigatig ad modelig idividual decisios (e.g., Louviere, Hesher, ad Swait 2000) to elicit prefereces over differet decisio alteratives. Choice experimets are desiged to assess what drives idividual prefereces over differet alteratives. They preset idividuals with a choice betwee two or more exclusive alteratives, each of which cosists of a specific budle of attributes. Usig statistical models for qualitative depedet variables (discrete choice models) to examie the elicited choice data the eables estimatio of the quatitative trade-offs betwee the effects of differet attributes o choices (see appedix A). I this study, choice alteratives comprise differet potetial browfield-to-greespace coversio projects, which i tur comprise differet attributes site cotamiatio, fudig source, capital ad operatio/ maiteace costs, surroudig lad use, site owership, ad type of greespace each represeted by two or more possible levels. For example, site cotamiatio is a biary attribute with levels desigated as cotamiated ad ot cotamiated. Cost attributes comprise multiple moetary levels that reflect the potetial variatio i site redevelopmet costs. Although each attribute comprises multiple levels, by defiitio, each attribute takes oly oe level for ay sigle specific alterative. While the choice experimet approach i priciple allows exploratio of dozes of attributes, sample size ad cogitive cosideratios geerally restrict attributes to a half doze or so. Collectig iformative data o prefereces is esured by usig experimetal desigs that vary the levels
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 567 of the attributes across differet choice alteratives ad respodets. Geerally, attributes i choice experimets ca be qualitative (e.g., privately versus publicly owed sites) or quatitative (e.g., capital cost i dollars). I additio, attributes ca be biary (e.g., cotamiated versus ocotamiated sites) or comprise multiple levels, although multiple levels are ofte best icorporated i statistical aalyses by defiig multiple biary variables. Obviously, everythig else beig equal, respodets will almost always prefer some attribute levels over others. For example, ocotamiated sites will be preferred over cotamiated sites, ad less costly projects will be preferred over costly oes. However, we are less iterested i whether a certai attribute is cosidered good or bad (such iformatio would be easier to obtai with direct questios) tha i the implicit trade-offs betwee differet attributes. For example, up to what level of cost differece do respodets cotiue to prefer ocotamiated sites to cotamiated oes, ad what is the trade-off for respodets betwee operatio ad maiteace (O&M) costs ad capital costs? Choice experimets are specifically desiged to discer these prefereces by recoverig the relative weights of differet attributes. The samplig frame for our survey comes from the Leadership Library Directory (LLD), a database of istitutioal decisio makers across the coutry. We discuss the LLD i more detail i the fifth sectio, i which we also highlight characteristics of our recruited sample, but briefly our goal is to reach officials who are most likely to be ivolved with browfield-to-greespace coversios. Thus, i the LLD, we focus o staff i local public agecies with developmet ties ad o elected local officials. This samplig frame ecessarily limits the geeralizability of results, but it allows us to employ a uique method to elicit perceptios related to browfields redevelopmet issues from a diverse ad kowledgeable sample of officials focused o local issues across the atio. Moreover, while we recogize that the LLD caot be cosidered a radom sample of local decisio makers because it likely overrepresets larger commuities, such a bias may offer some advatages for our research isofar as larger commuities may be more likely to have relevat experiece with browfield-to-greespace coversios. Nevertheless, we cautio that the reader should cosider the limitatios of our samplig frame whe iterpretig ad geeralizig the results we preset.
568 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law State Level Browfield-to-Greespace Coversio Efforts Policy-level promotio of browfield-to-greespace coversios to heighte active-livig opportuities ad provide health beefits is a relatively ew emphasis i browfields. We are aware of state-level iitiatives to promote these goals i oly Miesota, Pesylvaia, ad Wiscosi, ad oe of these the Gree Opportuities for Browfields: Coservatio Plaig for Recyclig Lad effort i Pesylvaia ever wet further formally tha a brochure. 5 Wiscosi The Wiscosi Browfields Gree Space ad Public Facilities Grats program was awarded $1 millio from the 2001 2003 bieial budget ad aother $1 millio from the 2005 2007 bieial budget to help commuities i the state clea up browfield sites iteded for log-term public beefit (icludig greespaces or recreatioal areas) by a local govermet. Of the ietee projects receivig awards to date, all but two have a explicit park, greespace, or active-recreatio compoet. 6 Eligibility for the grats is restricted to local govermets icludig cities, villages, tows, couties, tribes ad redevelopmet, commuity developmet, ad housig authorities. Allowed expeses are largely limited to remediatio ad exclude acquisitio ad developmet costs. The impetus for the greespace ad public facilities grat program came from the state s Browfield Study Group. This comprises a advisory body of diverse iterests local ad state officials, busiess represetatives, attoreys, private cosultats, evirometal ad health groups, ad educators that the state legislature established i the late 1990s to advise the Departmet of Natural Resources o browfields reform (Werstedt ad Hersh 2006; State of Wiscosi 1999). Group members recogized that the priciple browfields grat program i the state stressed traditioal 5. As oted by oe reviewer, the eighborig states of Wiscosi ad Miesota have similar political cultures i some respects ad may be more positively disposed to browfieldto-greespace coversios tha most other states. They likely are ot represetative cases. However, our study of them served a importat fuctio i helpig us to develop our survey questioaire ad the vigettes of the two states efforts provide a flavor of the cetral issues ivolved i browfield coversios. 6. Followig the structure of the browfields grat program i the state s Departmet of Commerce, the greespace ad public facilities grats program divides fudig ito separate pools for large (>$50,000) ad small (<$50,000) grats, thereby icreasig its appeal to a wider cross sectio of commuities ad state legislators. Both grat pools require local matches.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 569 ecoomic developmet objectives taxes, jobs, ad local ad private ivestmet makig it difficult for greespace coversio propoets to compete for grats uder the program s scorig criteria. Moreover, study group members were aware of situatios i which the appropriate ed use of a browfields parcel was ot privately led ecoomic developmet. This was particularly the case i older commuities aroud the state that could offer oly limited recreatioal opportuities for their residets ad yet lacked room for park expasio. I additio, cotrary to the fidigs of De Sousa (2004) ad Kee et al. (2001), state officials believe that i may of these commuities, capital rather tha log-term maiteace costs represets a big fiacial obstacle to greespace developmet. Commuities with strog ecoomies face particular obstacles if appreciatig lad prices make potetial parklad too costly to acquire. At the site level, the role of fudig is more complex. Our iterviews suggest that the state fuds typically do ot make or break a greespace developmet, but rather the grats provide a seed or a extra measure of security to project propoets ad help build support withi the commuity for committig local fuds to leverage state support. I may commuities with flat or decliig reveues ad the threat of cutbacks i city staff older midsize cities i Wiscosi ad Rust Belt states, for example resistace to local public expeditures for what may may perceive as uecessary luxuries is commo. State support ca alter this dyamic by daglig greespace coversio ad offerig olocal dollars to help stem cotiued eighborhood deterioratio, fuds that will be lost to the commuity abset local buy i to a coversio project. I additio, echoig Kee et al. (2001), a importat factor at oe project we examied was the combiatio of private ad public fudig. The publicly led greespace coversio ehaced the potetial value of a cotemplated private ivestmet adjoiig the greespace, heighteig the firm s iterest i locatig a storefrot that could take advatage of public exposure to the greespace. The coversio effort i a formerly blighted eighborhood made the private ivestmet less risky. From the public side, the greespace coversio effort was the ceterpiece of a effort to make the area more palatable to private ivestmet, thereby stimulatig overall recovery of the eighborhood. Miesota Ulike Wiscosi s Departmet of Natural Resources, the Miesota Pollutio Cotrol Agecy (MPCA) has ever developed a formal, state-fuded
570 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law browfield-to-greespace coversio program. However, the MPCA has worked assiduously for a umber of years with a broad coalitio of iterests to promote these coversios. This work origiated with the Natioal Heritage River Iitiative, a federal Natioal Park Service/EPA effort to desigate rivers for which the federal govermet could provide techical assistace to local citizes groups ivolved i river preservatio efforts. A stretch of the Mississippi River i the Twi Cities area received such desigatio, ad oe of the workig groups ivolved i the iitiative s plaig activities was o browfields. It focused specifically o the coversio of browfields to greespace, both for ameity values ad to reduce pollutio from ruoff at sites that geerated wastes. Efforts to fid sites that might fit these criteria expaded to iclude busiesses, oprofit lad coservatio groups, ad commuity developmet agecies, ad thirtyfour potetial projects were idetified, about oe-half of which are movig forward or have bee completed at the time of this writig. Like their Wiscosi couterparts, the MPCA staff recogized i the late 1990s that coversio projects could ot compete with traditioal browfields developmet projects applyig for fudig from the state s Departmet of Employmet ad Ecoomic Developmet. The coversios would yield few if ay jobs ad tax beefits. However, lackig a dedicated grat program for cleaups to support such coversios efforts i 2002 for a $5 millio bod proposal to fud assessmet ad cleaup grats i a proposed Browfield to Greespace Grat program failed to gai approval from the goveror the MPCA has take two other approaches. First, after passage of the 2002 federal browfields law, MPCA maagemet received approval from the EPA to give priority to coversio projects applyig to the state for a Targeted Browfield Assessmet grat (which is supported by EPA fuds). These grats, while ot usable for site cleaups, ca support site ivestigatios ad cleaup plaig. Although ot restricted to coversios, they give preferece to sites where the proposed reuse cotributes to a broader visio beefitig the commuity. As a cosequece, te of the thirtee sites that received Targeted Browfield Assessmet support from 2004 to 2006 have a browfield-to-greespace elemet. These te sites have received a total of early $200,000 i assessmet fuds. Secod, the MPCA has helped to start ad urture a coalitio of local ad state agecy represetatives, oprofit orgaizatios, ad private parties that has raised the visibility of browfield-to-greespace coversio issues. Oe early success was the awardig by the Legislative-Citize Commissio o Miesota Resources a committee of legislators ad
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 571 citizes that makes fudig recommedatios to the legislature for atural resource projects of a $10,000 grat to a evirometal oprofit orgaizatio to spearhead a pilot effort to ecourage coversios. More recetly, this coalitio has ecouraged the restoratio of a sigature twetyseve-acre ature sactuary alog the Mississippi River i St. Paul at the site of a former railway switchig yard. Although ot receivig Targeted Browfields Assessmet fuds, the restoratio has moved forward largely because the visibility ad viability of coversios has bee raised. The project has attracted iterest from a diverse set of stakeholders, icludig bike advocates, watershed districts, developmet corporatios, eighborhood associatios, atioal evirometal orgaizatios such as the Trust for Public Lad, ad a array of federal ad local agecies. More tha $10 millio has bee garered to support lad acquisitio, cleaup, revegetatio, restoratio of wetlads, ad trail costructio. Not surprisigly, much of the actio i Miesota o coversios has take place i the state s metropolita areas. For example, three-quarters of the thirty-four potetial browfield-to-greespace projects oted above are located i oe of the state s metropolita areas, ad twelve of the thirtee projects that received Targeted Browfield Assessmet moey lie i the Mieapolis-St. Paul-Bloomigto metropolita area. May of these projects may be located i smaller commuities withi these metropolita areas, but our iterviewees suggest that local capacity to develop a browfield-to-greespace project is a limitig factor for ometropolita local uits of govermet ad oprofit orgaizatios. The iterviewees also ote the prevalet resistace to devotig redevelopmet dollars to greespace coversios i may of these areas. I particular, may agricultural ad resource extractive commuities with browfield sites are strugglig to regai a ecoomic footig that provides employmet for local citizes. While tourism ad evirometal ameities may offer greater ecoomic developmet potetial i the log ru i these commuities, shorter-term efforts to attract reveue ad job-geeratig busiesses ofte have made greespace coversios a hard sell. Lessos from the Wiscosi ad Miesota Experieces Both the Wiscosi ad Miesota experieces echo some of the themes i the broader literature o greespace coversios, particularly o the difficulty such coversios ecouter whe competig with browfield redevelopmet projects that offer tax ad employmet beefits. This
572 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law appears to be particularly problematic i Miesota, where ometropolita areas with limited ecoomic opportuities have bee less active tha their metropolita couterparts i applyig for coversio support ad i movig forward o projects. I both states, mometum for grats to help uderwrite coversio projects that did ot offer such ecoomic beefits depeded o broad coalitios of iterests that could pressure the legislature ad state evirometal agecies to fid fuds to support coversios. I additio, because either the Browfields Gree Space ad Public Facilities Grats i Wiscosi or the Targeted Browfields Assessmet grats i Miesota fud acquisitio or greespace maiteace costs, projects receivig coversio moey from state sources have had to cobble together support from a mix of public ad private sources. However, eve whe dedicated coversio moey is abset or small relative to other sources of support, may projects have moved forward because they have bee able to use the support from the states evirometal agecies to leverage other fuds. At the local level i both states, the locatio of coversio projects appears to be a key factor for buildig support. Projects that are part of larger areawide redevelopmet particularly oes that combie private ad public fudig make it possible to access higher levels of fiacial commitmets from outside the greespace area ad to geerate reveue streams that ca be capitalized to support greespace ivestmets. Similarly, projects that are see as protectig or furtherig commuity assets areas with particular historical or ecological sigificace have eergized local stakeholders ad attracted more commuity buy i. Evidece from Wiscosi ad Miesota o other themes vetted i the greespace coversio literature is less clear. Some, although ot all, of our site-level iterviewees oted the difficulty that log-term maiteace costs pose for greespace coversios, but state officials argued that iitial capital costs costitute a bigger hurdle. Problems with site acquisitio also geerated some discussio, particularly i the cotext of recet court decisios ad subsequet legislative actio o acquisitio of property through emiet-domai proceedigs. Fially, the ature of the greespaces developed from browfield sites differs otably betwee the two states. Most of the projects supported by Wiscosi s grat program have emphasized recreatioal facilities, while the Miesota greespace projects represet a broader mixture of both recreatioal parks ad ope space. This discrepacy likely relates partly to the differet origis of the two states iitiatives.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 573 Natioal Survey As oted i the third sectio, our atioal-level survey of officials who focus o local issues employs a set of choice experimets to elicit iformatio o the icetives, barriers, ad potetial for coversios of cotamiated lad to greespace. The structured questioaire presets respodets with a series of paired hypothetical greespace-developmet alteratives o a previously used but curretly vacat property. The alteratives differ i six attributes: the type of project (ature park with few developed facilities, recreatioal park), status of site acquisitio (already owed, available through tax foreclosure), state grat (available, ot available), site cotamiatio (preset, ot preset), expected capital cost of the project to the jurisdictio, ad expected aual O&M costs of the project to the jurisdictio. These follow from the pricipal themes of the literature discussed i the secod sectio of our article ad were developed from iteractio with our iterviewees i Wiscosi ad Miesota i lieu of formal focus groups (which are frequetly employed to develop choice experimets). As figure 1 shows, each respodet is asked to idicate which of two hypothetical alteratives with differet values or coditios i the six attributes is more likely to be developed. Followig the first choice questio, the survey has two more similarly structured choice questios related to the likelihood of developmet, with the coditios varied amog the set of six attributes. It the presets two additioal choice questios related to the likelihood of commuity support for differet alteratives, each with a set of four attributes: ed use (ature park with few developed facilities versus recreatioal park), project eighborhood (residetial versus commercial versus idustrial), fudig sources (public oly versus mixed public ad private), ad amout of public fudig required for implemetig the project. I each of the latter choice questios, respodets are asked to idicate which alterative would the commuity more likely support? Across all respodets ad both types of choice questios, the survey
574 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Figure 1 Likelihood of Alterative Developmets, Attributes, ad Choice Questio Illustrated uses a wide variety of combiatios of attribute levels to esure that the relative importace of differet attributes ca be statistically estimated. The attribute levels were chose usig the priciples of statistically efficiet experimetal desig for choice experimets (e.g., Louviere, Hesher, ad Swait 2000). Appedix B cotais a more detailed explaatio of this desig. Survey Admiistratio The LLD, as oted earlier, is a database of istitutioal leaders across the Uited States. It icludes cotact iformatio ad job fuctios of approximately four hudred thousad idividuals from forty thousad leadig U.S. govermet, busiess, professioal, ad oprofit orgaizatios. From this uiverse of cotacts, we idetified two subsets of survey
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 575 recipiets by usig the iformatio available through the database: (1) idividuals who work chiefly at the local level ad who fit withi specific job subject criteria ad (2) elected local officials. For the first subset, which cotais 1,807 idividuals, we idetified all idividuals i the database who worked i orgaizatios that cover local plaig ad developmet, commuity developmet, ecoomic developmet, eviromet, outdoors, policy ad plaig, real estate, recreatio, or urba ad city issues. Of these, the eviromet category is the largest, cotaiig 1,174 idividuals, followed by plaig ad developmet (533) ad recreatio (364). No local officials are idetified i the commuity developmet, outdoor, or urba ad city issues subject areas. The secod subset, elected local officials, cotais a additioal 3,237 cotacts. Together, the two subsets iclude 5,044 idividuals from every state, with Califoria (612), Florida (443), Texas (368), New York (268), Virgiia (254), ad Ohio (185) providig the most. 7 Prior to fully implemetig the survey i the field, we pretested the questioaire ad survey logistics, both i house with staff i our orgaizatio ad by coductig a pilot survey of a total of two hudred idividuals, whom we radomly selected from the elected ad other officials subsets of our sample. We the posted a electroic versio of it o a secure Web site ad ivited via e-mail the potetial respodets from our LLD samplig frame to complete it. Each respodet was provided a uique lik to the Web survey, which eabled us to cotrol for multiple resposes by a sigle respodet. The e-mail explaied that we were coductig research o redevelopmet issues especially those cocerig the provisio of greespace ad promotio of active livig ad that we would like to lear about the e-mail recipiet s views ad experieces regardig this topic. The e-mail also oted that survey resposes would be used for research ad o other purpose ad that more detailed descriptios of our istitutios ad the survey itself were also available through the lik. I additio, we welcomed survey recipiets to cotact us by e-mail regardig ay questios or cocers about the survey. We coducted the fial survey durig a three-week period i August 7. All of the iformatio preseted for Leadership Library Directory (LLD) etries is verified with their offices of employmet. There are o beefits to participatio i the LLD, ad all requests for removal of iformatio are hoored. Overall, the LLD icludes etries from 333 differet cities ad 145 couties. This provides a large umber of idividuals i differet istitutios, areas, ad job fuctios, but as a whole it does ot represet a radom sample of policy actors. For example, at the local govermet level, i which we are most iterested, the LLD is weighted toward jurisdictios with oe hudred thousad or more residets.
576 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law 2006. Our first participatio request wet out through e-mail to 3,109 elected officials ad 1,735 other officials who had ot received the pilot survey, for a total of 4,844 questioaires. After the first e-mailig, a total of 601 survey requests bouced back due to ivalid e-mail addresses or some other factor, yieldig a viable samplig frame of 4,243 officials. The large majority of these about 94 percet work for tow, city, ad couty govermets, with the remaider represetig regioal etities, special districts, ad oprofit orgaizatios. We set orespodets a remider e-mail three busiess days after the first e-mailig ad a secod remider to every cotiuig orespodet a week after the first e-mailig. Respodet Characteristics The use of the olie format allowed us to collect a atiowide sample with relatively modest resources, yieldig a total of 446 uique respodets from our 4,243 uit samplig frame. This represets a overall respose rate of 10.5 percet, with 92 percet of the respodets comig from local govermet offices ad the remaider from ogovermetal orgaizatios focused o local issues. The respose rate is comparable to other olie surveys (e.g., Kaplowitz, Hadlock, ad Levie 2004) which have had respose rates i the 5 15 percet rage ad to rates from mail surveys of private developers ad corporate fiacial officers that have asked aalogous project evaluatio questios (Werstedt, Meyer, ad Alberii 2006; Broue, Jog, ad Koedijk 2004; Graham ad Harvey 2001; Traha ad Gitma 1995). Idividuals from every state except Rhode Islad ad Arkasas participated i the survey (see table 1 for a summary of respodets at the regioal level). While chi-square tests suggest that these respodets are distributed somewhat differetly across regios tha the samplig frame would suggest the test statistic for cross-regioal comparisos was 21.1 versus a 5 percet critical value of 11.07 the differeces are ot large. I additio, summary statistics show that our respodets characteristics o a umber of socioecoomic ad demographic variables closely resemble those of orespodets. For istace, the weighted mea populatio of our respodets jurisdictios is 692,183 (compared to 653,976 for the orespodets); populatio desity is 3,166 residets per square mile (versus 3,421 residets per square mile); media aual household icome is $42,921 (versus $43,173); ad aual per capita real estate taxes are $682 (versus $693).
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 577 Table 1 Regioal Distributio of Respodets Regio Cout Percetage Northeast 46 10.4 South Atlatic 147 33.1 North Cetral 84 18.9 South Cetral 64 14.4 Moutai 34 7.7 Pacific 69 15.5 Total 444 100.0 Note: State was ot determied for two respodets. Table 2 shows that survey respodets brig a variety of job descriptios. Nearly oe-third are elected officials ad almost oe-fifth have plaig or zoig resposibilities, followed by parks ad recreatio ad other evirometal or atural resources. Each of these fields bears o greespace developmet. I additio, early all respodets are familiar with greespace developmet projects (figure 2) ad more tha threequarters idicate that they are at least somewhat familiar with developmet projects o cotamiated lad. More tha three-quarters also idicate that their commuities have witessed coversios of browfields ito greespace. Discussio of Estimatio Results Developmet Likelihood A total of 368 respodets aswered at least oe choice questio about the hypothetical scearios i our questioaire, with 340 of these furishig resposes to each of the five choice questios. This yielded a total of 1,758 choice resposes, divided betwee our developmet likelihood (1,074) ad commuity support (684) sectios. These resposes are the basis for estimatig the relative weightig of the differet attributes through applicatio of a coditioal logit model. 8 The geeral coditioal logit model is a probability model, which pre- 8. The approach to modelig the data with a coditioal logit model was developed by McFadde (1974) ad expaded upo by Be-Akiva ad Lerma (1985). It represets choice probability as a oliear fuctio of a latet uderlyig idex fuctio, which is usually estimated as a liear fuctio of idividual attributes i differet choice alteratives. Coditioal o idepedet variables, the error term is posited to follow the logistic distributio; hece, the model is called a coditioal logit model. Appedix A discusses the model i more detail.
578 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Table 2 Respodets Job Categories Job Category Frequecy Percetage Admiistrative/public works 33 7.4 Ecoomic/commuity developmet 22 4.9 Elected official 147 33.0 Parks ad recreatio 77 17.3 Other evirometal or atural resources 58 13.0 Plaig/zoig 65 14.6 Real estate 2 0.4 Other 42 9.4 Total 446 100.0 dicts the likelihood of a certai choice out of ay umber of alteratives, i our case, oe choice out of two. Each alterative cotaied differet values or levels of the six attributes i the case of the likelihood choice, or of the four attributes i the case of the commuity support choice. A ratio compariso of each pair of coefficiets from the coditioal logit model provides a sese of the preferece weightig or relative effect of each pair of attributes i choices stated i the survey. Figure 1 presets the six attributes for the likelihood choice scearios. We represet these as PROJECT, equals 1 if the project represets a recreatioal park, 0 if the project represets a ature park (ope space accessible to the public but with o developed facilities other tha trails); OWNERSHIP, equals 1 if the project site is already uder the owership of respodet s jurisdictio, 0 if site owership would be obtaied through tax foreclosure; GRANT, equals 1 if a state grat is available, 0 if o state grat is available; CONTAM, equals 1 if cotamiatio is preset at the site, 0 if the site is ot cotamiated; CAPCOST, a cotiuous variable represetig the expected capital cost; ad OMCOST, a cotiuous variable represetig the expected aual O&M costs. The questioaire also collects iformatio to costruct two idicators that reflect respodets familiarity with the developmet of greespace, previously used property, ad cotamiated lad:
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 579 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% Residetial Commercial Idustrial Previously Used Lad Greespace Cotamiated Lad 10% 0% Not At All Familiar Somewhat Familiar Very Familiar Figure 2 Familiarity with Differet Types of Developmet FAM1, equals 1 if the respodet is familiar with the developmet of cotamiated lad, 0 if the respodet is ot familiar with the developmet of cotamiated lad; ad FAM2, equals 1 if the respodet is very familiar with developig greespace, previously used properties, or cotamiated lad, 0 if the respodet is ot very familiar with ay of these. We will use FAM1 to examie whether familiarity with developig cotamiated lad iflueces how cotamiatio is weighted i the choice. FAM2 allows us to examie whether familiarity with these developmet types has implicatios for how heavily capital ad O&M costs weigh i respodets decisios. Table 3 summarizes the estimatio results. 9 Model 1 is a baselie model, which predicts the average effects of differet attributes. Model 2 adds FAM1 ad FAM2 iteractio effects, which cotrol for the respo- 9. I a prelimiary aalysis, we examied whether data from the two subsamples from our LLD database, elected officials ad muicipal officials, are sufficietly similar to be pooled. A likelihood ratio (LR) test clearly suggested that costraiig model parameters to be equal across these two subsamples does ot sigificatly reduce the model fit i a statistical sese (LR-test statistic = 1.96, critical value with six degrees of freedom = 12.69). Because of the parameter ivariace betwee elected officials ad muicipal officials, we ca pool their data (e.g., Hesher, Louviere, ad Swait 1999).
580 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Table 3 Developmet Likelihood, Coditioal Logit Estimates Parameter Model 1 Model 2 Estimate t-value Probability Estimate t-value Probability PROJECT 0.2586 2.732 0.006 0.268 2.813 0.005 OWNERSHIP 0.5485 5.515 0.000 0.562 5.593 0.000 GRANT 0.3711 3.692 0.000 0.384 3.788 0.000 CONTAM 0.4825 5.104 0.000 0.595 5.451 0.000 CAPCOST 0.0583 7.288 0.000 0.040 3.781 0.000 OMCOST 1.8954 8.897 0.000 1.624 5.758 0.000 FAM_1*CONTAM 0.442 1.972. FAM_2*CAPCOST 0.042 2.534. FAM_2*OMCOST 0.593 1.398. Log-Likelihood 615.04 609.20 Pseudo-R 2 0.174 0.182 Note: Number of observatios is 1,074. For the pseudo-r 2, the likelihood fuctio with all parameters at zero is calculated usig a fifty-fifty chace of choosig either A or B. This model gives a log-likelihood value 744.44. det s familiarity with the developmet of greespace, previously used property, ad cotamiated lad. Estimates from Model 1 are statistically sigificat ad have expected sigs, suggestig that each attribute preseted i the survey correlates with the perceived likelihood of a respodet s jurisdictio i developig a specific project. More specifically, PROJECT, OWNERSHIP, ad GRANT have positive coefficiets, suggestig (everythig else beig equal) that 1. jurisdictios are more likely to develop recreatioal rather tha ature parks, 2. sites already uder a jurisdictio s owership are more likely to be developed tha those available oly through tax foreclosure, ad 3. the availability of a state grat icreases the likelihood that a project will get developed. The absolute weight of CONTAM is early as large as the weight of OWNERSHIP, implyig that cotamiatio ad the lack of site owership by the jurisdictio pose similar barriers to the coversio of browfields to greespace. The estimatio results also suggest that the weight of OWNERSHIP is about twice the weight of PROJECT (0.549/0.259) ad about 1.5 times (0.549/0.371) the weight of GRANT.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 581 The estimated CONTAM parameter suggests that 4. sites with kow cotamiatio are less likely tha ucotamiated sites to be chose for developmet, eve whe remediatio costs are cotrolled for. The estimates of the CAPCOST ad OMCOST parameters suggest that 5. icreases i capital costs ad aual maiteace costs decrease the likelihood of developmet. The parameter estimates of these two moetary attributes imply that $1 i aual O&M costs has a weight equal to $33 of total capital cost. Iterestigly, estimates from Model 2 suggest that respodets familiar with the developmet of greespace, previously used properties, or cotamiated lad differ sigificatly i a statistical sese i how they cosider capital costs i relatio to project developmet. This is suggested by the FAM2*CAPCOST coefficiet, which has a egative ad statistically sigificat coefficiet. The FAM2*OMCOST coefficiet also is egative but ot statistically sigificat. I additio, the FAM1*CONTAM parameter, which iteracts CONTAM with familiarity with developig cotamiated lad, has a statistically sigificat ad positive coefficiet. This suggests that 6. respodets very familiar with developig cotamiated lad view cotamiatio as a lesser barrier to developmet tha do other respodets. Figure 3 illustrates chages i the likelihood of developmet due to chages i each qualitative attribute (these are calculated usig equatio 1 i appedix A). For example, projects o ocotamiated sites are perceived to be developed with a likelihood of 61 percet versus a likelihood of 39 percet for projects o cotamiated sites. Stated differetly, ocotamiated sites are more tha 1.5 times (0.61/0.39) more likely to be developed ito greespace tha cotamiated sites, everythig else beig equal. Similarly, the resposes to the choice alteratives suggest that respodets perceive that sites already owed have a 63 percet likelihood of beig developed compared to a 37 percet likelihood for sites that eed to be acquired through tax foreclosures. We also ca estimate a moetary value for each of the omoetary attributes icluded i our choice experimet by examiig the ratio of the coefficiet of the attribute to the coefficiets of the moetary variables. The capital cost attribute presets the most straightforward meas for
582 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law 70% 61% 70% 59% 50% 39% 50% 41% 30% 30% 10% 10% -10% No Cotamiatio Cotamiatio -10% Grat No Grat 70% 63% 70% 58% 50% 37% 50% 42% 30% 30% 10% 10% -10% Owed Not Owed -10% Rec Park Nature Park Figure 3 Attribute Levels ad the Relative Likelihood of Developmet doig so, isofar as it allows us to estimate a lump sum amout of moey equivalet to the worth of the attributes as assessed by respodets. 10 Figure 4 presets these equivalet values categorized by the respodets familiarity with the developmet of greespace, previously used properties, ad cotamiated lad. The very familiar category which represets 45 percet of our sample comprises respodets who idicate that they are very familiar with at least oe of these developmet types. As the figure highlights, the estimated values of the attributes appear to relate to respodets familiarity with the developmet of greespace, previously used properties, ad cotamiated lads. For example, the moetary value of the PROJECT attribute that represets park type is less tha oe-half as high for those very familiar with such developmet tha for those less familiar with it. This suggests that respodets i the veryfamiliar subgroup perceive that their jurisdictios value recreatioal parks 10. Oe also could assess the moetary trade-offs by usig the operatio ad maiteace (O&M) cost parameter, but this calculatio would ot capture the et preset value of the stream of O&M costs. Aspects such as the perceived difficulty of esurig reveue streams for O&M expeses, a ukow discout rate, ucertai project timelies, ad possible locallevel fiscal costraits make it impossible to estimate our O&M costs i preset value terms. However, the size of the differece of the capital ad O&M cost parameters suggest that O&M costs would outweigh capital costs, dollar for dollar, with ay realistic discout rate ad project horizo. Moreover, our examiatio of the Wiscosi ad Miesota iitiatives revealed that capital ad O&M costs are perceived differetly at the local level. Therefore, separatig these costs i the experimetal desig was importat to facilitate reliable estimatio of trade-offs betwee capital costs ad differet site coditios.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 583 Thousads of Dollars $1,600 $1,400 $1,200 $1,000 $800 $678 $692 $1,418 $969 $732 $1,502 $600 $472 $400 $331 $200 $0 Rec vs. Nature Park Owership Grat No Cotam. Very Familiar Not Very Familiar Figure 4 Estimated Trade-offs betwee Project Coditios, Capital Cost, ad the Developmet Likelihood, Relative to Respodets Familiarity with the Developmet of Greespace, Previously Used Properties, or Cotamiated Lad $331,000 more tha ature parks, while respodets i the less-familiar subgroup value such parks $678,000 higher tha ature parks. Aother iterpretatio is that while both subgroups perceive that recreatioal parks are more likely to be developed tha ature parks whe costs are idetical, the very-familiar subgroup perceives that with a relatively low-cost differetial ($331,000) betwee the two types of greespace, they are equally likely to be developed. Similar differeces betwee the two subgroups appear i the other bars i figure 4. They are perhaps most strikig for the cotamiatio attribute. Estimates of moetary trade-offs suggest that site owership is valued at approximately $730,000 for those very familiar with the listed developmet types ad about $1.5 millio for those less familiar. As our earlier results idicated, the mere presece of cotamiatio imposes a sigificat barrier to greespace coversio potetial remediatio costs are already icluded i each project s capital costs, so the perceived reluctace to take coversio projects with cotamiatio suggests a residual risk ot accouted for i project ecoomics eve for those very familiar with this type of redevelopmet. However, this subgroup idicates that if
584 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law project costs associated with a browfield-to-greespace coversio were roughly $730,000 lower tha the costs associated with a greespace developmet o ucotamiated lad, the projects would be equally likely to be developed. Such savigs could come i the form of lower acquisitio costs, for example. For those respodets less familiar with such developmets, the cost savigs would have to icrease early $800,000 for the two projects to be equally likely. Discussio of Estimatio Results: Likelihood of Commuity Support The choice questios that asked respodets to idicate their views o expected commuity support for differet projects cotai four attributes: ENDUSE, equals 1 if the project would develop a recreatioal park, 0 if a ature park; RESIDENTIAL ad COMMERCIAL, dummy variables equal to 1 if the project is located i residetial or commercial eighborhoods, respectively, 0 if otherwise; FUNDINGMIX, equals 1 if the project ivolves both private ad public fudig, 0 if oly public fudig is ivolved; ad COST, a cotiuous variable represetig the expected capital cost of the project to the local jurisdictio. Table 4 presets the estimatio results from the commuity support model. Agai, the coefficiet estimates are statistically sigificat with expected sigs. Oly the coefficiet ENDUSE is ot uequivocally statistically sigificat at the covetioal level (p = 0.055). These results suggest that respodets believe a local commuity is more likely to support projects i commercial rather tha idustrial eighborhoods ad that yet more commuity support is expected for projects i residetial eighborhoods tha for projects i commercial areas. They also suggest that (everythig else beig equal) a mixture of private ad public fudig is viewed as more likely tha oly public fudig to geerate public support. Trade-offs betwee differet attributes are assessed similarly as i the developmet likelihood choice. Figure 5 illustrates the moetary tradeoffs betwee differet project coditios associated with this public support. For example, the respodets idicate that the public is as likely to support a project with a mixture of public ad private fudig the bar
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 585 Table 4 Commuity Support, Coditioal Logit Estimates Parameter Estimate t-value Probability ENDUSE 0.2268 1.9200 0.0548 COMMERCIAL 0.5397 3.8360 0.0001 RESIDENTIAL 1.1149 7.3400 0.0000 FUNDINGMIX 0.4251 3.8140 0.0001 COST 0.0760 7.3400 0.0000 Log-Likelihood 393.95 Pseudo-R 2 0.167 Note: Number of observatios is 684. A model with all parameters at zero gives a loglikelihood value -474.11. o the right side of the figure as a alterative project with $559,000 lower capital costs but oly public fudig. We also see the same kid of gap for commuity support for recreatio versus ature parks that we observed i our developmet likelihood scearios. Based o their choices, the respodets idicate that the commuity is equally likely to support a recreatio park as a ature park that costs early $300,000 less. If the cost differece were more tha $300,000, the commuity might be more likely to support a ature park with few developed facilities, but this could be a steep price differetial to overcome. Thousads of Dollars $1,600 $1,400 $1,200 $1,000 $800 $600 $710 $1,467 $559 $400 $298 $200 $0 Rec Park vs. Nature Park Commercial vs. Idustrial Residetial vs. Idustrial Fudig Mix Figure 5 Estimated Trade-offs betwee Project Coditios, Capital Costs, ad Potetial Commuity Support
586 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Fially, although we have preseted estimates of both relative ad dollar trade-offs betwee differet attributes, these results are best iterpreted with a eye toward geeral idicative treds ad relative rather tha absolute magitudes. Two primary factors call for this cautio i iterpretatio. First, the survey relied o hypothetical scearios, collectig iformatio o stated rather tha actual prefereces ad reflectig perceptios rather tha empirically observed behavior. Secod, it is ot feasible to comprehesively assess how well our respodets represet the etire target populatio of officials iterested i local issues. Coclusios The literature o greespace ad browfield developmets has idetified a umber of factors that ca ifluece the coversio of cotamiated properties to recreatioal parks ad ope space. I this study, we combie qualitative iterviews ad a survey of officials to estimate the relative importace of some of these factors to the likelihood that local jurisdictios would be willig to udertake differet browfield-to-greespace coversio projects. We also have assessed the relative importace of the differet factors i attractig commuity support for these coversios. Some of the factors discussed i the literature that impede redevelopmet efforts are hardly uique to browfield-to-greespace projects straied public budgets, limited techical capacities, competig priorities but cotamiatio appears to impose a particular burde. Our survey results suggest that eve whe projected cleaup costs are accouted for i a prospective coversio project, local officials, particularly those who are less familiar with redevelopig cotamiated lad, may remai leery of takig o the higher risks associated with a cotamiated property. Liability at browfield sites remais complex, eve as statutory reforms have mitigated its reach (see, e.g., Chag ad Sigma 2007), ad our results are cosistet with literature that suggests it also remais a cocer for private developers with less experiece workig with cotamiated sites (Werstedt, Meyer, ad Alberii 2006). Notwithstadig possible cocers over such liabilities, greespaces cotiue to be developed from cotamiated lad, as both our survey results ad our vigettes of Wiscosi ad Miesota coversio iitiatives highlight. Several site-specific factors appear to icrease the likelihood of such coversios ad commuity support for them. These iclude existig public owership of the site ad locatio i a residetial or, to a
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 587 lesser extet, a commercial area (rather tha a idustrial area). I additio, the availability ad type of fudig appears to ifluece the prospects for covertig a cotamiated property ito a greespace. Not surprisigly, more state fiacial support icreases the probability of a coversio takig place, but eve after cotrollig for the exteral amout of moey available, coversios seem more likely to happe simply because the state is see as a parter i the project. Our examiatio of projects i Wiscosi cofirms this. Moreover, both our case examiatios ad our survey idicate that a mix of private ad public fudig seems to boost commuity support for coversio. O the flip side, fudig limitatios work i the opposite directio, particularly with respect to loger-term O&M costs. Much of the literature that discusses these costs idicates that they ca be more problematic tha iitial capital costs. While the evidece from our iterviews is mixed o this score, our survey results are ot. They imply, with ay realistic assumptios about the appropriate discout rate, that higher maiteace costs are more likely to decrease the likelihood of coversios tha a equivalet amout of higher capital costs. The results from our choice experimets are best iterpreted as poitig to geeral, atiowide factors ifluecig coversios. While the reliace o geeralized hypothetical scearios is iformative, its ecessary cosequece is that potetial lessos from idividual cases remai less well examied. Clearly, a umber of differet factors ot examied by our survey will shape browfield-to-greespace coversios i some situatios icludig, for example, political ifightig ad bargaiig over coversio projects. I fact, a cetral lesso from our brief vigettes of the Wiscosi ad Miesota experieces is that ecouragig the iteractio of differet coversio propoets i broad coalitios is sometimes essetial. I the Miesota ature sactuary site i particular, this iteractio has moved the project forward by substitutig broad-based egagemet for difficult-to-secure dollars. Such political dyamics ad other potetially importat subtleties warrat future research, but they are more ameable to ivestigatio through detailed case studies rather tha through a survey approach. Fially, although our iterviews ad survey do ot emphasize the activelivig features of browfield-to-greespace coversios per se, our study results are directly relevat to active-livig efforts. Survey respodets idicate clearly that greespace coversio projects icludig recreatio facilities are more likely to be developed ad to gai commuity support
588 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law tha ature parks without developed facilities for recreatio. Although the latter ca furish active-livig opportuities such as trails for hikig ad some literature suggests that gree areas ca improve psychological health ad reduce stress simply by beig visible i a commuity (see, for example, Kapla 2001) recreatioal facilities provide a more direct tie to physical activity. 11 Commuities with cotamiated properties ca follow the lead of the scores of browfield-to-greespace projects that already have bee implemeted aroud the coutry. This is ot a easy task because, eve with potetially lower site acquisitio costs, the combiatio of the extraordiary costs of cleaup ad the limited job beefits throw off by such coversios may pale i compariso to more traditioal browfield redevelopmets. However, there is ample evidece that greespace ca icrease the value of surroudig properties, thus providig a ecoomic argumet for coversio, ad a umber of federal ad state grat ad tax icetive programs are available that ca help offset cleaup costs. Takig advatage of the opportuities of browfields offers a potetial wi-wi solutio for helpig to trasform distressed eighborhoods ito healthier, walkable, more vibrat eviromets. 11. I a set of cocludig questios i our survey, more tha 85 percet of respodets idicated that their jurisdictio was supportig recreatioal programs that ecouraged physical activity. I additio, early 75 percet oted that active livig was a importat or emergig policy issue i their jurisdictio.
Siikamäki ad Werstedt Turig Browfields ito Greespaces 589 Appedix A We examie the elicited choice data by usig a logit model (McFadde 1974). The geeral coditioal logit model is a probability model, which predicts the likelihood of a certai choice out of ay umber of alteratives. I our case, respodets idetified oe choice out of two particular alteratives, A ad B. I the followig, let x A i ad x B i be the vectors of m attributes of alteratives A ad B preseted to respodet i. Attributes ca be measured as either cotiuous or discrete variables. The probability that respodet i selects alterative A is determied as exp(vi P(A) = A ) exp(vi A ) + exp(vi B ) (1) where V A i = b 1 x A i1 + b 2 x A i2... + b m x A im ad V B i = b 1 x B i1 + b 2 x B i2... + b m x B im. Although this model views each choice as a fuctio of attributes oly, idividual specific variatio ca be examied by iteractig idividual characteristics with differet attributes. Usig the method of maximum likelihood, the vector of coefficiets b = [b 1, b 2...b m ] ca be estimated for idetifyig the relative weights of differet attributes. Lettig y is equal 1 whe respodet i prefers choice A, ad 0 otherwise, the log-likelihood fuctio with I respodets ad S experimets per respodet is logl(y i ; b) = I i=1 S s=1 y is log P(A)+(1 y is )log(1 P(A)) (2) Usig the estimatio results, the weight a respodet places o attribute k relative to attribute l is estimated as kl = b k (3) b l Estimates of relative weights betwee differet attributes give a sese of how idividuals, o average, trade off two attributes agaist each other. Ratios greater tha oe suggest more weight is placed o attribute k, with the magitude of the ratio reflectig the stregth of these relative weightigs (e.g., Louviere, Hesher, ad Swait 2000).
590 Joural of Health Politics, Policy ad Law Appedix B Statistically, the survey desig was based o a full factorial (i.e., all possible combiatios of differet attributes ad their levels were examied) desig for omoetary (qualitative) attributes combied with orthogoally (idepedetly) selected moetary attributes (capital ad operatio ad maiteace [O&M] costs). Cosequetly, our full experimetal desig allows i priciple the estimatio of all mai effects ad their iteractios. Havig four attributes with four levels, costructig a full factorial desig requires elicitig data cocerig 120 differetly cofigured pairs of alterative redevelopmet projects. (A total of 16 [2 4 ] differet alteratives ca be costructed from four attributes with two levels per each attribute. The umber of uordered subsets of 2 alteratives from 16! a total of 16 alteratives is: = 2!* 14! 120.) These pairs cotrast every possible combiatio of our qualitative attributes. Capital ad O&M costs were the radomly assiged for each alterative so that capital costs were draw from six levels ($100,000, $250,000, $500,000, $1,000,000, $1,500,000, ad $2,000,000) ad O&M costs from five levels ($5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, ad $75,000). Give that three choices were preseted to each respodet, this desig requires usig forty differet questioaire versios. Refereces Be-Akiva, M., ad S. Lerma. 1985. Discrete Choice Aalysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Braswell, B. J. 1999. Browfields ad Bikeways: Makig a Clea Start. Public Roads, March/April, 32 39. Broue, D., A. D. Jog, ad K. Koedijk. 2004. Corporate Fiace i Europe: Cofrotig Theory with Practice. Fiacial Maagemet 33 (4): 71 101. Burger, J. 2000. Itegratig Evirometal Restoratio ad Ecological Restoratio: Log-Term Stewardship at the Departmet of Eergy. Evirometal Maagemet 26:469 478. Chag, H. F., ad H. A. Sigma. 2007. The Effect of Joit ad Several Liability uder Superfud o Browfields. Iteratioal Review of Law ad Ecoomics 27:363 384. De Sousa, C. 2003. Turig Browfields ito Gree Space i the City of Toroto. Ladscape ad Urba Plaig 62:181 198.
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