Mothballed Sites and Local Government Acquisition

While there is widespread political support for the use of eminent domain and other aggressive measures to address brownfields and mothballed sites, there are still a series of obstacles that tend to thwart public entities in the use of the most aggressive tools. The obstacles fall into three categories: liability concerns; inability to account for cleanup costs within the condemnation process; and lack of cost recovery authority. This report further describes these obstacles and explores how some states have enacted reform measures to assist public agencies in overcoming the barriers of using aggressive strategies to address brownfields and mothballed sites. This paper examines only the legal and regulatory side of the equation; other Northeast-Midwest Institute research has looked at the incentive side.

2008 Mothballed Sites Local Govt Acquisition