Research Article: The Geography of New York State's Brownfield Cleanup Program: Population and Land Value Characteristics of Areas Surrounding New York City Properties Enrolled in New York State's Brownfield Cleanup Program

Abstract

Over the past 30 years nearly every state has implemented a voluntary compliance program (VCP) to encourage development of lightly contaminated and abandoned properties also known as brownfields. Analyses of these policies consists primarily of either case studies or tabulations of site-specific characteristics such as the past, current, and future use of sites enrolled in programs. Often ignored in these analyses are the characteristics of areas surrounding these properties. This oversight is particularly problematic, because many commentators argue that VCPs encourage development in neighborhoods with strong real estate markets and predominantly White and wealthy residents while having little impact on poorer neighborhoods with primarily Black and Hispanic residents where brownfields tend to cluster. To date, however, little empirical research supports this claim. This article addresses this need by using tax-lot-level data in conjunction with data from the United States Decennial Census to examine the characteristics of the neighborhoods surrounding New York City properties enrolled in New York State's VCP: the Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP). I conclude that, for the city in general, even when controlling for the spatial distribution of brownfield sites, properties enrolled in the BCP are disproportionately located in neighborhoods with wealthier and Whiter residents and high property values. These results, however, obscure significant variability because projects cluster in a range of communities.