Reclaiming Brownfields: A Primer for Municipalities

This resource provides information about brownfields redevelopment targeted to municipal planners and decision-makers. The primer defines brownfields, identifies benefits and barriers involved in brownfield redevelopment, discusses related issues such as green building and equitable development, and describes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and federal brownfields funding and technical assistance resources. The primer is organized within a folder. The folder also contains case studies of brownfield redevelopment projects from the region, as well as two previously-published DVRPC resources on brownfields: the Brownfields Resource Guide: Funding and Technical Assistance for Remediation and Reuse (publication number 07052) and Municipal Implementation Tool #10: Reclaiming Brownfields

Municipal Implementation Tool #17: Planning and Zoning for Green Buildings

Green building is the design, construction, management, and operation of buildings in a way that minimizes negative impacts on the environment. This brochure discusses the benefits of green buildings, and demonstrates how green buildings are an important part of municipal efforts to promote sustainability and reduce greenhouse gasses. The brochure includes information about strategies for building green, green building guideline and certification programs, and promoting green building at the local level. Information about planning for green buildings using incentives, ordinances, and building codes is provided, along with examples of green building programs in the Delaware Valley

The use of transfer of development rights to manage growth: The adoption and performance of Florida county TDR programs

The existing literature on transfer of development rights (TDRs) focuses on the mechanics of the tool and a few exemplary programs. Understudied in the academic research is the use of TDR in a broader policy and geographic context. This research fills this gap with an analysis of the adoption and performance of Florida TDR programs used to manage growth. The dissertation documents the breadth and history of Florida local government use of TDRs, examining the geographic extent, evolution over time, common approaches, and outcomes of county-level TDR programs. The dissertation combines an exploratory scan, statistical analysis, and comparative case study research to test two hypotheses. First, it is hypothesized that Florida counties adopt TDR primarily to comply with state growth management and property rights policies. Second, it is expected that TDR programs will demonstrate variation in use and outcomes based on local political and contextual factors. The research identifies two phases in Florida TDR program use, each corresponding to a distinct approach to TDR. In the first phase, local governments adopted TDR in compliance with state growth management requirements. A second phase of TDR use emerged in the 2000s, when state property rights legislation as well as local factors including growth pressures in rural areas, development interests among large property owners, and political support for smart growth led to adoption of a new generation of TDR programs. The dissertation finds that the majority of Florida county TDR programs demonstrate a combination of market failure and government failure, with limited transaction activity and growth management outcomes overall. The research finds that development interests influence use of TDR, which can mask a pro-growth reality or present an unworkable tension between conservation and development. In particular, new generation TDR programs, which direct development to rural areas, increase sprawl and infringe on resource lands, while the promise of compact communities envisioned under these programs remains uncertain. The research finds evidence that, in Florida, smaller-scale TDR programs best facilitate open market transactions while pro-growth interests can appropriate large area programs. These findings indicate that market-based tools may be inadequate to achieve significant growth management outcomes

Assessment of Planning Risks and Alternative Futures for the Florida Transportation Plan Update

Transportation is in a period of transformation as technology offers new ways to travel, shop, ship goods, and do business. Rapid technological changes, along with changing demographics, extreme weather events, fluctuating revenues, and other potential disruptors, have increased uncertainty in long-range transportation plans and forecasts. To address this uncertainty and reduce risk, planners are attempting to anticipate alternative futures and the potential timing of technological changes so they may adapt policy and investment strategies to offer value across a range of alternative futures. This research project, entitled Assessment of Planning Risks and Alternative futures for the Florida Transportation Plan, involves faculty and graduate students from across the state of Florida in interdisciplinary research to address planning risk and alternative futures that can inform the update of the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP). The FTP is the single overarching statewide plan guiding Florida’s transportation future. It is a plan for all of Florida, created by, and providing direction to, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and all organizations that are involved in planning and managing Florida’s transportation system, including statewide, regional, and local partners. The overarching goal of this research is to help FDOT understand how risk and uncertainty can be addressed in long- range transportation planning processes with a focus on the FTP Vision and Policy Elements. FDOT is particularly interested in exploring risk and uncertainty related to population and demographics, economy and revenue, technology and energy, environment and natural disasters, and broader global issues

Assessment of Planning Risks and Alternative Futures for the Florida Transportation Plan Update

Transportation is in a period of transformation as technology offers new ways to travel, shop, ship goods, and do business. Rapid technological changes, along with changing demographics, extreme weather events, fluctuating revenues, and other potential disruptors, have increased uncertainty in long-range transportation plans and forecasts. To address this uncertainty and reduce risk, planners are attempting to anticipate alternative futures and the potential timing of technological changes so they may adapt policy and investment strategies to offer value across a range of alternative futures. This research project, entitled Assessment of Planning Risks and Alternative futures for the Florida Transportation Plan, involves faculty and graduate students from across the state of Florida in interdisciplinary research to address planning risk and alternative futures that can inform the update of the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP). The FTP is the single overarching statewide plan guiding Florida’s transportation future. It is a plan for all of Florida, created by, and providing direction to, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and all organizations that are involved in planning and managing Florida’s transportation system, including statewide, regional, and local partners. The overarching goal of this research is to help FDOT understand how risk and uncertainty can be addressed in long- range transportation planning processes with a focus on the FTP Vision and Policy Elements. FDOT is particularly interested in exploring risk and uncertainty related to population and demographics, economy and revenue, technology and energy, environment and natural disasters, and broader global issues