Land Use Roundtable Series:

Promoting Brownfields Redevelopment and Greenfields Protection Linkages

Briefing Paper: State and Provincial Land Use and Smart Growth Trends in the Great Lakes Region

Overview
Between 2002 and 2007, the Great Lakes Commission conducted a series of state land us policy roundtables. Working with key stakeholders in individual states, each roundtable was designed to build on progress in individual states as well as past work by the Great Lakes Commission that identified a suite of strategies to address urban revitalizatin and open space protection.

With funding from U.S. EPA, state roundtables were conducted in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York. More information is available by going to the individual web pages for each roundtable or by contacting Victoria Pebbles at the Great Lakes Commission; vpebbles@glc.org.

An briefing paper on Smart Growth in the Great Lakes Region was prepared as a complement to the roundtable series and includes summaries of state and provincial smart growth-type programs and related policy trends.

Background

In 2001, the Great Lakes Commission released a report entitled Linking Brownfields Redevelopment and Greenfields Protection for Sustainable Development. Known as the “Bridges Report,” it includes a series of 32 “strategic actions” for promoting brownfields revitalization, greenfields protection and ways to link them for more sustainable land use. The Great Lakes Commission adopted a resolution to conduct policy roundtables in Great Lakes jurisdictions to facilitate a meaningful dialogue about implementation of these strategies. 

Roundtable Fact Sheet (pdf.)