Brownfields + greenfields = growth management gold: Integrating and connecting redevelopment and protection through state enabling law reforms

Since the mid-1940s, low-density, sprawling development patterns have been the hallmark of growth in most urban areas across the U.S. An array of problems has been attributed to this type of growth. In particular, the movement of the population and employment centers to the suburbs, coupled with a disinvestment in the urban core has caused an abundance of vacant, potentially contaminated land (brownfields) in many urban areas, while acres of previously undeveloped land (greenfields) are being consumed on the urban fringes and beyond. Programs and policies have been developed and implemented to combat these effects of sprawl; however, most brownfields redevelopment and greenfields protection initiatives suffer from a lack of integration into larger state/regional growth management and land use planning efforts.;This thesis will show that outdated planning and zoning enabling legislation in most states has hindered redevelopment and protection integration through a lack of addressing state and/or regional problems and a lack of required planning, disconnecting zoning from planning and providing an unclear role for the comprehensive plan. The evolution of planning and zoning enabling legislation in the U.S. is first discussed in order to pinpoint the origin of these deficiencies, followed by a comparison of Rhode Island's and Massachusetts' enabling laws, two states on the opposite ends of reform efforts. This evaluation demonstrates how reforms can be made to integrate brownfields redevelopment and greenfields protection, as well as the associated advantages. Drawing from this comparison, recommendations for state enabling law reforms are provided to better equip state and local governments to manage growth through the adoption of state/regional plans/goals, necessitating local comprehensive plan development and requiring consistency between state/regional plans/goals and local comprehensive plans, as well as between local comprehensive plans and local land development regulations.