The proliferation of brown-fields—former industrial sitesthat remain vacant, polluted,and underutilized after they areabandoned by their original occu-pants—has contributed to metropolitansprawl, and has diminished livability,economic competitiveness, and humanand environmental health in metropol-itan areas throughout the United States.According to the U.S. General Account-ing Office, more than 400,000 brown-fields exist nationwide. Although themedia typically portray brownfields as auniquely urban problem, inner-ringsuburbs in metropolitan areas arefrequently littered with brownfields,and they often face greater brownfieldcleanup and reuse obstacles than docentral cities.As suburban cities in the UnitedStates have grown to cover a largergeographic area than central cities, thenumber of suburban brownfields hasgrown as well. The Superfund’s NationalPriorities List now contains 370suburban and 160 urban brownfieldsites. Of the 3,000 brownfield sites thatthe Minnesota Pollution ControlAgency (MPCA) estimates are located inthe Twin Cities metropolitan area, 54%are suburban, with this number repre-senting 37% of brownfields in the entirestate of Minnesota. A number offactors—including inadequate financialresources, limited redevelopmentcapacity, and competition from redevel-oped central-city industrial sites andundeveloped industrial sites inReusing Brownfields: Obstacles andOpportunities for Inner-Ring Suburbsby Jeffrey L. MillerCenter for Urban and Regional AffairsIn This Issue:n Reusing Brownfields: Obstacles and Opportunities for Inner-Ring Suburbs . . . . .1 q Dennis Ahlburg Appointed to Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10q Project Support Available from CURA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11n Minnesota’s Performance in Attracting Foreign Direct Investment . . . . . . . . . .12 n The Newborn Screen: An Underutilized Tool for Screening and Counseling for Thalassemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 q Project Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26q Update: The Minnesota Population Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 q CURA’s Trade Centers of Minnesota Project Receives Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27q New Publications from CURA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27VOLUME XXXI NUMBER 3OCTOBER 2001REPORTERouter-ring suburbs—have contributed toan environment in which inner-ringsuburbs struggle to address the problemof brownfield redevelopment and reuse.During the 1999–2000 school year, Ireceived a graduate internship throughCURA to work for the CommunityDevelopment Department at the City ofRoseville, an inner-ring suburb of theTwin Cities. My work at the departmentwas focused on the Twin Lakes Redevel-opment Area, a major brownfield reuseproject. Based on my experiences, thisreport will explore the primary causes ofsuburban brownfields, the land-reuseobstacles facing inner-ring suburbs, andthe differences between inner-ringsuburban and central-city brownfields.The Twin Lakes project will then beused as a case study of typical brown-field reuse obstacles facing inner-ringsuburbs. The report will conclude with adiscussion of lessons learned from theproject, as well as recommendations forimproving brownfield reuse planning inthe Twin Cities metropolitan area.Emergence of Suburban BrownfieldsMetropolitan land-use and developmentpatterns evolve over time through newsuburban development, infill projectswithin developed cities, and reuse ofunderutilized land. The Twin Cities’inner-ring suburbs, which developedbetween 1945 and 1965, started out aspredominantly residential “bedroomcommunities” at the metropolitan edge,but now occupy the inner ring of urbandevelopment around Minneapolis andSt. Paul (Figure 1). Following residentialmigration, post-World War II migrationof central-city industries to the suburbstook advantage of plentiful and cheaperundeveloped suburban land. However,as inner-ring suburbs eventually filled inand were surrounded by newer suburbs,their industrial sites carried higher landcosts, higher property taxes, andoutdated facilities and no longerprovided adequate space for firms’future expansion needs. Fifty years aftertheir original development, inner-ringsuburbs now contain minimal undevel-oped land and many outdated, polluted,and underutilized industrial sites.Industrial activities, technologies,and markets also evolve over time,causing industrial facilities to expand,decline, relocate, update, or deteriorate.The emergence of large suburbanbrownfields reflects the expanding scaleof industrial activities, increased use oftoxic chemicals, and more frequenttechnological advancements at the timeof major suburban industrial develop-ment (Table 1). In the postwar era,predominant industrial shipping modesalso shifted from railroads and water-ways to freeways and airways. Althoughindustries themselves evolve over time,basic industrial location criteria haveremained the same: low developmentcosts, low transportation costs for goodsand employees, skilled workforce avail-ability, and space for future facilitiesexpansion. Inner-ring industrial sites arenot easily reused for new industrialdevelopments or converted to otherland uses because they often have oldand obsolete infrastructure, buildings,technologies, and transportation access,and thus require restoration, updating,or removal prior to site reuse. Inner-ringindustrial sites typically meet with addi-tional zoning regulations, special assess-ments for upgrading urban infrastruc-ture, environmental assessments,contamination cleanup, and site designrequirements to ensure compatibilitywith nearby development, each ofwhich can increase development delaysand costs. When inner-ring industrialsites no longer meet basic industriallocation criteria, they fail to competewith other metropolitan industrial sites.Finally, federal and state environ-mental laws enacted in the 1980s, withtheir extensive cleanup standards andpolluter-must-pay approaches, serve asdisincentives for industrial propertyowners, potential buyers, and lenders toreuse brownfields. Higher costs anduncertainties relating to brownfieldassessment and cleanup often sacrificebrownfield reuse for environmentalenforcement. Many brownfields