How varying levels of community participation affect brownfield redevelopments : case study comparisons in Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, Dallas, TX, and Fort Worth, TX

Abstract

Brownfield developments offer cities and developers an opportunity to engage with the public in ways unavailable to greenfield developments as brownfield redevelopments are generally found in established neighborhoods where the site’s history has been deeply intertwined with the history of the neighborhood. However, the levels of public participation vary widely from state to state, city to city, and even project to project; resulting in an array of positive and negative outcomes for all the stakeholders. It is under these varying participatory requirements and engagement strategies this research is grounded. First, the research addresses how varying levels of public participation affect stakeholders’ definitions of success or failure and how it was measured. Secondly, stakeholder’s perceptions of each other are analyzed to determine whether projects that had higher levels of participation also had higher instances of cooperation and collaboration. Thirdly, the research examines how stakeholders perceive the outputs and outcomes of a project and whether varying levels of participation affect stakeholders’ satisfaction with the project. Specific sites for this research were the Summerset at Frick Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Watershed at Hillsdale, Portland, Oregon, the Alta Design District, Dallas, Texas, and Montgomery Plaza, Fort Worth, Texas.