Brownfields Remediation: Impact on Local Residential Property Tax Revenue

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Program provides grants to assess and clean up brownfields. There are few studies that estimate tax revenue impacts from cleanup beyond those generated directly from within the remediated site's property lines. This study estimates the increased residential property tax revenue attributable to brownfields cleanup at 48 sites remediated between 2004 and 2011 under the EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grants Program. Findings from a previous study of a 5% to 15.2% property value increase following cleanup at these sites are applied to the assessed values of nearby residential properties along with local tax laws, assessment ratios, and rates to estimate tax revenue gained as a result of brownfields cleanup. The estimated increase in residential property tax revenue for a single tax year from remediating 48 brownfields properties was between $29 million and $97 million (2014 USD).

A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence of the Impact of Surface Water Quality on Property Values

“…This contrasts with studies of the impact of other amenities such as parks and brownfields which have quantified the revenue gains to public agencies associated with their presence [61,62].…”

When climate meets real estate: A survey of the literature

“…Consistent with Superfund literature, this article also concludes that the returns to home prices are highly localized. Sullivan (2017), applying Haninger et al (2017) estimates to back out increased property tax revenues from brownfield cleanups, find returns of between 29 and 97 million dollars per annum for 48 such sites. These returns either slightly or greatly exceed the cost of the cleanups themselves.…”

The Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on Urban Land Green Use Efficiency and Its Spatio-Temporal Pattern: Evidence from 283 Cities in China

“…In addition, the urbanization process requires the effective governance of waste landscape and brownfield sites that do not generate economic benefits but cause environmental pollution. Thus this study also integrates waste landscape and brownfield sites into the land use system [13,14]. Therefore, this study defines the concept of urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE) as a land use system (land and other production factors, including drosscapes and brownfields) that under specific production technology conditions, generates the greatest amount of benefits (economic, social, and ecological) and the least amount of pollution effects, with the least amount of input costs in a city.…”