ASSESSING SUCCESS FACTORS OF BROWNFIELDS REGENERATION: INTERNATIONAL AND INTER-STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVE.

• Author: Frantal, Bohumil

1. Introduction

   The issue of regeneration and redevelopment of underused, derelict and often contaminated lands and premises or so-called brownfields (Alker et al., 2000) remains one of the greatest challenges for urban planners, developers and local governments. Generally, brownfields have received increasing political credence in recent decades, since vacant agricultural or natural developable lands become less available, more expensive and more protected in densely populated areas. The increasing number of projects and research platforms demonstrates the increasing interest of policy makers, too (see the summary reports on activities, products and tools developed by previous brownfield projects by Tolle et al., 2009 or Frantal et al., 2012). However, the redevelopment has not been as effective as expected in many regions and it is still constrained by many barriers and associated with several dilemmas (Alexandrescu et al., 2014; Frantal et al., 2013; Ganser and Williams, 2007; Payne, 2013). Significant differences among national legislative, economic and procedural contexts also raise questions about the functionalities and effects of would-be 'universal' solutions and tools being produced by those projects.

   Many previous studies have investigated and conceptualized drivers and barriers of brownfields redevelopment--whether on the basis of stakeholder surveys (Alberini et al., 2005; Letang and Taylor, 2012), interviews with experts (Adair et al., 2000; De Sousa, 2000, 2003), assessments of a limited number of local case studies/sites (Coffin and Shepherd, 1998; Dixon, 2007; Dixon, Otsuka and Abe, 2011; Nijkamp, Rodenburg and Wagtendonk, 2002), or spatial analyses of differences in the distribution of existing and redeveloped brownfields (Frantal et al., 2013; Frantal et al., 2015; Longo and Campbell, 2007; Novosak et al., 2013). However, the absolute majority of these surveys and analyses were case studies concerning just few sites or groups of stakeholders from one city or a specific region within one country. If there is an international comparison of results reported, it was made post factum and was not verified by the usage of consistent survey methodologies. Also, very few studies aimed at exploring differences between the priorities and barriers concerning brownfield redevelopment as perceived by decision-makers (experts, planners, and local governments) and preferences and barriers as perceived by stakeholders (investors, developers, and local citizens) (see e.g., Brill, 2009 or Kunc et al., 2014).

   In this paper, the authors present selected results of international comparative survey carried out in 2012 with different groups of stakeholders from four countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and Romania. The main objective of the survey was to identify and classify success factors of brownfields regeneration and to detect significant convergences and divergences concerning the drivers and barriers of regeneration processes in different geographical, institutional and social contexts. Confronting perceptions and experiences of specific groups of stakeholders (urban planners and other experts, representatives of public administration, land owners, investors and developers) from countries with different political and economic backgrounds may help to better understand the complexity and multidimensionality of brownfield regeneration processes and to create a vision for change across the different constituencies, stakeholder groups, and administrative boundaries which constitute the scope of urban planning and decision making processes and land use policy.

2. Success factors of brownfields regeneration: theoretical and methodological foundations

   According to a general definition, a factor is anything that contributes to a result or a process. In the context of brownfields regeneration, the 'success factors' are considered facts (conditions, circumstances, actors, agencies) that are determinants and contributors to successful regeneration of brownfields. They are the causes of the fact that some brownfields have become objects of concerns of investors, politicians, experts or other actors, they have been prioritized as the most critical, urgent or profitable to invest money, time and energy, they have been regenerated and newly used, while other sites are out of attention, they stay neglected and derelict, or the process of their regeneration has not been successfully completed. In the existing brownfield literature, the success factors are alternatively called determinants, drivers, criteria or site parameters. The survey, identification and classification of factors which are significant for a successful regeneration process are required as a key precondition of the assessment of brownfields redevelopment potential, their effective prioritization, and marketing.

   Many success factors are more or less complex phenomena that can be expressed in general terms (e.g., spatial peripherality) as well as in number of measurable indicators (e.g., distance from the city centre, proximity to main road network, etc.). It has been suggested by previous studies (Bacot and O'Dell, 2006; De Sousa, 2000, 2003; Dixon, Otsuka and Abe, 2011; Filip and Cocean, 2012) that among the crucial success factors for redeveloping brownfields are decontamination and regeneration costs and acceptable return rates for investors, government incentives, focused urban development policy and political leadership, strong place branding, and local stakeholders' involvement and collaboration. It has been also demonstrated, however, that --in addition to general legislative, political and economic factors acting at national or regional scales--local geographical factors play an important role (Frantal et al., 2013). Brownfields do not exist by themselves, independently or in a vacuum, but they are products of the interrelationships between places and social and ecological processes (Bjelland, 2002). Brownfields are placed and rooted in a certain geographical space and time, which is hierarchically and functionally structured. Therefore, brownfields have to be perceived in their spatial context and we should take into account when assessing them not just their site-specific attributes (such as the level of ground contamination or property relations) but also contextual factors acting at higher hierarchical levels (Heberle and Wernstedt, 2006).

   It is not possible to say a priori which of the general factors, location factors or site specific factors are the most important ones; to identify and analyze the relative importance of each of them is a task for comprehensive research. The studies from the US, Canada and UK (Adair et al., 2000; De Sousa, 2000) demonstrated that the primary reason why the private sector invests in some regeneration areas is the perception of achieving some target rates of return. Conversely, the principal reasons for non-investment include the negative image of the locality or neighboring environments, lack of capital (funding), and the perceptions of bureaucratic grant regimes (Adair et al., 2000). Similarly, Coffin and Shepherd (1998) identified four key barriers to regeneration including legal liability, limited information, limited financial resources, and limited demand for the properties. In many cases even good conditions for prosperity of a locality and for brownfields regeneration may not be utilized if there are subjective problems and barriers, such as a weak local political involvement, deficit of information, bad communication and cooperation of stakeholders.

   With respect to the existing literature discussed above--even despite of the prevailing terminological, conceptual and methodological divergences--we can argue that there is a partial consensus in two aspects regarding the success factors of brownfields regeneration: first, the multidimensionality, which means that factors form certain dimensions or groups according to the spatial level (i.e., national, local and site-specific factors) and/or according to factors' character (i.e., political, economic, environmental, social and other groups of factors).

   Second, the relativity, which means that different individuals or groups of stakeholders within one country or across countries may perceive and assess different factors as important or irrelevant based on their personal or collective concerns, experiences or values (i.e., intra- and inter- stakeholder group variance). Therefore, the process of exploring and classifying success factors presupposes the following two key phases: first, the stakeholder segmentation, which means a segmentation of the general public to specific categories of stakeholders (see e.g., Doak and Dixon, 2005); second, the factors determination, which means an identification and categorization of specific factors and their measurable indicators. It is hypothesized that some factors being relevant in most geographical contexts can be identified (there are some basic factors generally agreed upon by the majority of previous studies even though sometimes different terms were used for their description).

   Various research strategies and methods can be applied for the identification and classification of factors, including spatial-statistical analysis, expert choice (e.g., the Delphi method) or more complex surveys. The strategy of our research involved a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. On the basis of existing literature review and information obtained by exploratory preliminary researches we created a standardized questionnaire form including a set of relevant factors and barriers respectively, which may potentially affect brownfields regeneration; each single factor and barrier were then assessed and rated by respondents on a ten-level rating scale.

3. Geographical context of the study

   Developed countries such as the US, Great Britain, France or Germany have long-term experience with the...