Publications

Historically a hub of manufacturing and industry, Connecticut serves as home to a significant number of abandoned or partially used industrial properties. Plagued or stigmatized by either real or perceived environmental contamination, these legacy properties constitute Connecticut’s “brownfields.” Factories and mills throughout the state that once made clocks, pins, thread, hats, guns, tools, and other products now lay idle and unused, suffering from the specter of environmental contamination. Converting and restoring these generally undervalued properties presents a significant economic opportunity for private developers. Such development also serves the important public functions of remediating historic environmental contamination, alleviating hazards to human health, preserving prized undeveloped “greenfields,” revitalizing towns and cities, and expanding the state’s economic base. Private sector brownfield development, therefore, has the potential to meet needs that the public sector currently lacks the resources to address. It follows that encouraging and facilitating brownfield development can harness the profit motive to promote the public good.