It increases the local tax base, creates jobs, revitalizesneighborhoods and extends environmental protection for allcitizens. The benefits of brownfields redevelopment can be seenthroughout a community for years to come. It is not only aninvestment in a parcel of land, it is an investment in ourcommunities and in our citizens.

In 2002, the AIA strongly supported the federal Brownfields Act,which sparked a nationwide effort to redevelop forgotten buildingsin the heart of America's cities. However, there are still hundredsof thousands of brownfields sites that sit vacant or underused.This is a vital concern to both architects and political leaders ofurban and suburban communities across America.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 400,000to one million brownfields sites exist nationwide. New Jersey aloneis home to at least 20,000 contaminated sites, the majority ofwhich qualify as brownfields. For this reason, it is imperativethat the federal brownfields law be updated to better providecommunities with the necessary tools and resources to clean up andredevelop these potentially valuable sites. Without an update ofthe law, communities that have brownfields sites within theirboarders will continue to deteriorate and remain eyesores.