Cohosted by ICMA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the conference included 130 educational sessions discussing the latest developments in dealing with contaminated properties, several mobile workshops highlighting unique Philadelphia brownfield projects, the Economic Redevelopment Forum, and keynote addresses from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Tom Murphy, a senior resident fellow at Urban Land Institute and former mayor of Pittsburgh.
The opening plenary session of the conference was a roundtable discussion moderated by the Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman and featured Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Carlos Romero of East Palo Alto, Dayne Walling of Flint, Jay Williams of Youngstown, Virgil Bernero of Lansing, and Dan Malloy, governor of Connecticut and former mayor of Stamford. The participants held a wide-ranging discussion on brownfield redevelopment, possible budget cuts to the EPA, and what the modern American city ought to look like.
The headline speaker of the conference, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, discussed the reality of diminishing budgets and the tough choices ahead for the EPA in the current economic climate. Jackson acknowledged that some members of Congress are trying to cut funding to the EPA, but stressed that there is a responsible way to scale back. The EPA will “continue to do its job, which is to protect the health of the American people, while moving forward,” she said.
Jackson also said that brownfields cleanup is a point of pride within the EPA and it creates jobs. As of March 2011, the EPA National Brownfields Program had assessed or cleaned up more than 17,500 properties, created approximately 70,000 jobs, and leveraged more than $16 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funds, according to Jackson. She pledged to make brownfield redevelopment a continued priority for the agency.
One of the exciting features of the National Brownfields Conference was the Economic Redevelopment Forum. It provided communities, redevelopment agencies, and property owners with a unique opportunity to market their brownfields directly to developers looking for the right redevelopment opportunity. The forum featured informative presentations, display areas, opportunities for individual consultations, and other services all calibrated to assist developers, site owners, and other brownfield stakeholders.
Conference attendees also had the opportunity get out of the exhibition hall and view several successful Philadelphia brownfield redevelopment projects up close through the conference’s mobile workshop series. The mobile workshops included tours of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which is now home to the LEED-certified Tasty Baking Company and Urban Outfitters’ corporate headquaters; Greensgrow Farm, which was the former site of a galvanized steel plant and is now home to a nursery and farmers market; and Northern Liberties, a blighted neighborhood that has transformed into Philly’s version of SoHo.