Brownfields are not the developmental bogeyman they once were.
Through the work of legislators and companies specializing in handling these areas, brownfields have come to carry a far smaller stigma than in previous years.
Legislators like state Senator Cheri Jahn (D-Lakewood) have worked hard to make it as easy and economical as possible for developers to remediate brownfields.
In 2014, Jahn sponsored and passed Senate Bill 73, which made use of state income tax credits to help fund remediation projects.
“This was an issue that kept coming up, and it’s very important because of the economic development issues, especially in rural areas,” she said. “I did a lot of research and studied on brownfields, and working on it was great because it was an almost completely bipartisan issue. It’s an economic development issue, an environmental issue and a community issue, but not a party one.”
[Photo credit: City of Lakewood, CO]