Projects of land recycling, which means reuse or redevelopment of abandoned or underutilized sites (brownfields), comprise aspects of urban planning or landscape planning, environmental issues as well as ecomonic and social issues. All these facets of a project have different meanings and implications for the stakeholders who are involved in a specific project, because everyone has his special view and interest regarding these points.

Gaining buy-in and overcoming of barriers are crucial elements to successfully realize a redevelopment project. In order to achieve this, effective communication with all persons involved in the project is required. It should start with vividly describing the project vision.

The purpose of this document is to assist initiators of brownfields redevelopment projects in the preparation of a complete and understandable description / presentation of the specific project idea focussing the relevant target audience.

The document outlines the variety of different important issues and single interests and it emphasizes the interaction and crucial links between these individual aspects which are often overlooked. So, the document user can obtain first hints to prepare an understandable project description tailored for a target audience by selecting relevant aspects. Although this document contains the spectrum of the important subjects relevant for brownfields redevelopment, it is not designed to function as a comprehensive “Written Procedure for Land Recycling / Brownfields Redevelopment”.

This document discusses planning aspects, ecological, ecomonic, and social issues relevant for brownfieleds redevelopment, and should serve as a source for impulses and ideas on how to communicate tailored project documentations to different groups of stakeholders.

Target audiences (stakeholders) focused mainly on financial and economic aspects, such as e.g., property owners, developers, investors, creditors, banks

Target audiences (stakeholders) interested mainly in safety aspects, such as e.g., administrative authorities, residents, neighbors

Target audiences (stakeholders) interested mainly in aspects of quality of life and environment, such as e.g., citizen’s groups, residents

Section 3 “Redevelopment Vision” discusses the importance of a vision for the further development process of a project and the communication of that vision.

Section 4 provides an overview on aspects of site preparation and ecological issues related to brownfields redevelopment. In this context, the document distiguishes between redevelopment projects containing remediation of contaminants as defined by BBodSchG (German Federal Soil Protection Act) and the vast majority of projects characterized by soil contaminations which can lead to potential additional project-costs without posing a threat to receptors.

Section 5 describes issues and aproaches to address the economic viability of a brownfields project. Initially, aspects of a market analysis and the marketing o f the redevelopment “product” are discussed. Important subjects for investors and lenders are highlighted focusing costs and revenues. Possibilties of project financing are outlined as well as issues of risk management.

Section 6 deals with cutural and social aspects of brownfields redevelopment.

The bibliographical references in Section 7 list used literature and refers to futher useful sources for additional, more detailed information on selected subjects.

The hints provided in this document should help the user to describe his/her project idea to the target audience in an understandable and clear manner. Particularly, the description or presentation of a project should focus on the identified relevant aspects and key elements of the specific project. That means, the project descriptions/presentations should be prepared leaner than the basics provided in this document that cover a large or the entire spectrum of possible brownfields redevelopment issues in general.

This document was prepared under a Research and Development Project (FKZ 07 DUS 03) supported by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research).

START-UP-PLAN BRACHFLÄCHE
The guidance for development of project plans "START-UP BRACHFLÄCHE" is available for download (only in German).