Land Revitalization Success Stories | EPA 560-F-16-174
November 2016
Planning for Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment
LAND BANK STRATEGIC PLANNING
CONNECTICUT. EPA REGION 1
The Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. (Land Bank) is a fee-based, non-profit
corporation offering brownfields support to Connecticut municipalities. The Connecticut
land bank is a non-profit Land Bank devoted to brownfields transactions. Land banks are
becoming an increasingly important part of the brownfields revitalization landscape in
New England, The lessons learned and success stories set by the Connecticut Land
Bank hopefully will encourage and inform other New England states to follow Connecticut's
example, in 2016, EPA's Land Revitalization Team provided support to the Connecticut
Land Bank to help it become fully operational and initiate its first cleanup and
redevelopment project, The Land Revitalization Team also provided the Land Bank with
technical assistance to develop a set of business practices and an outreach strategy.
EPA's technical assistance focused on providing strategic consulting to evaluate and
strengthen the Land Bank's business practices through a series of six virtual working
meetings. The Land Revitalization Team developed worksheets to assist state official
with establishing and organizing the Land Bank. EPA's technical assistance centered
on encouraging land bank officials to organize its serves based upon an understanding
of the audiences it serves, the services it will provide, and the opportunities it can
create for its partners. The strategic planning support focused on identifying and
organizing the services the Land Bank could provide to its potential clients, and
developing outreach materials that would clearly communicate the land bank's services
to municipalities and other brownfield development stakeholders.
The Land Revitalization Team also developed outreach materials to support the Land
Bank during its startup and in initial discussions with targeted partners. Outreach
materials included a general Land Bank overview fact sheet and a PowerPoint
presentation explaining Land Bank services and opportunities.
The Connecticut Land Bank is pursuing state legislation that will allow the land bank to
operate as a quasi-governmental organization. As such, it would be able accept federal
funds and it would be eligible for environmental liability under federal and state statutes,
similar to municipalities. Such legislation would greatly increase the opportunity to support
brownfields redevelopment. In the near term, the Land Bank will focus on direct outreach
to municipalities and support its first cleanup and redevelopment project planned for the
Town of Southington,
For more information, please contact Frank Gardner, EPA Region 1,
gardner.frank@epa.gov.
Figure 1. An example of one of the
brownfields in Connecticut that has an
opportunity for redevelopment.
LESSONS LEARNED
•	Access to national experts and
dedicated strategic planning
brings fresh ideas and structure to
new organizations,
•	Investment in outreach tools helps
build credibility and business
opportunities.
•	Land Banks can provide unique
brownfield redevelopment
services to assist municipalities
that may lack the capacity to
support the redevelopment of
complex sites.
PLANNED POST-TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES	
•	Conduct outreach to
Connecticut municipalities and
other potential partners using the
products developed through this
technical assistance.
•	Pursue Land Bank Liability Relief
legislation.
•	Implement project services and
identify brownfields projects to
support, beginning with a project
in the Town of Southington.
Many municipalities and communities do not have the organizational expertise and capacity needed to
successfully assess, clean up, and redevelop brownfield properties, Given the many challenges faced by these
communities, a group of state and local brownfields experts, with support from U,S, EPA Region 1, the
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and the
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD),
collaborated to create the state of Connecticut's first brownfields land bank—a one-stop
shop to help Connecticut municipalities facilitate the cleanup and reuse of brownfields
and promote brownfield redevelopment policies and programs as effective community
and economic revitalization strategies.

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