Great Planned Communities

Book Description

Lavishly illustrated, this book features 26 innovative planned communities. Following an introduction by Alexander Garvin that describes how planned communities have evolved, you get an inside look at the concept, the plan elements, the design, and how the master plan reflects the vision for traditional and new urbanist communities, both established and just off the drawing board.

Book Description

Sustainable land development strategies based on scientific information

Land and Natural Development (LAND) Code offers a pioneering method to develop sites in harmony with natural processes that is solidly based on peer-reviewed scientific findings. While the LAND Code can be readily used in conjunction with LEED, EPA, and other guidelines, it features several unique characteristics, including:

Recommendations based on peer-reviewed scientific research
Rating scheme that weights each development and land use practice based on its environmental benefit and difficulty of implementation
Straightforward, step-by-step system that is accessible to non-experts
Focus on land rather than buildings
Extensive use of photographs and diagrams to illustrate practices and procedures

After an introduction, the book begins with chapters covering water, soil, air, living resources, energy, and materials. Throughout these chapters, the authors recommend tested and proven strategies that minimize disruption of the natural processes. Each chapter provides background, describes benefits for both developers and ecosystems, and recommends protective strategies in simple, non-technical language (a glossary is provided explaining all terms not in common usage). A toolbox of environmental engineering methods to implement the strategies follows, and the final chapter of the book provides a series of examples of actual development projects in which a variety of approaches have successfully attained sustainable development. With its emphasis on scientific understanding, the LAND Code offers you the information needed to make and implement decisions for ecologically sound land development.

Customer Reviews:

every developer should be given a copy of this book.......2007-08-04

Balmori and Benoit are visionaries on the all-important issue of land development. Their commonsensical approach should guide the behavior of all land policy people--real estate agents, bankers, regional and local zoning commissions AND developers. Doing the "green" thing is cheaper and better, always.

Trails for the Twenty-First Century: Planning, Design, and Management Manual for Multi-Use Trails

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Trails for the Twenty-First Century: Planning, Design, and Management Manual for Multi-Use Trails
Charles Flink , Kristine Olka , Robert Searns , and Rails to Trails Conservancy
Manufacturer: Island Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Complete Guide to Trail Building and Maintenance, 3rd
Lightly on the Land: The Sca Trail Building And Maintenance Manual 2nd Edition
Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance
Anatomy of a Park: Essentials of Recreation Area Planning and Design
Greenways for America (Creating the North American Landscape)

ASIN: 1559638192

Book Description

Communities across the country are working to convert unused railway and canal corridors into trails for pedestrians, cyclists, horseback riders, and others, serving the needs of both recreationists and commuters alike. These multi-use trails can play a key role in improving livability, as they offer an innovative means of addressing sprawl, revitalizing urban areas, and reusing degraded lands.

Trails for the Twenty-first Century is a step-by-step guide to all aspects of the planning, design, and management of multi-use trails. Originally published in 1993, this completely revised and updated edition offers a wealth of new information including.

discussions of recent regulations and federal programs, including ADA and TEA-21
recently revised design standards from AASHTO
current research on topics ranging from trail surfacing to conflict resolution
information about designing and building trails in brownfields and other
environmentally troubled landscapes

Also included is a new introduction that describes the importance of rail-trails to the sustainable communities movement, and an expanded discussion of maintenance costs. Enhanced with a wealth of illustrations, Trails for the Twenty-first Century provides detailed guidance on topics such as: taking a physical inventory and assessment of a site; involving the public and meeting the needs of adjacent landowners; understanding and complying with existing legislation; designing, managing, and promoting a trail; and where to go for more information. It is the only comprehensive guidebook available for planners, landscape architects, local officials, and community activists interested in creating a multi-use trail.

Anatomy of a Park: Essentials of Recreation Area Planning and Design
Average customer rating:

Esssential Reading for the Parks Professional and Commissioner

Anatomy of a Park

Anatomy of a Park: Essentials of Recreation Area Planning and Design
Bernard Dahl , and Donald J. Molnar
Manufacturer: Waveland Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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Great City Parks

Trails for the Twenty-First Century: Planning, Design, and Management Manual for Multi-Use Trails

Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture

Planting Design

Recreation Programming

ASIN: 1577662806

Book Description

Everyone from the professional to the layperson is affected by what a designer proposes for the development of parklands. The entire community has a stake in the results. Dahl and Molnar enable the reader to experience the aesthetic and functional aspects of park design through the eyes of the people for whom parks are planned, designed, and built. The book bridges the gaps that often exist between park designer and park user, between landscape architect and park board, between administrators and maintenance staff. Readers will enjoy the witty and lively presentation of the principles that govern skillful plan interpretation and effective site design, addressing the modern-day challenges facing landscape architects, park administrators and personnel, and the communities they serve. The third edition includes a detailed treatment of creative funding solutions, including the ins and outs of grant writing and application. Readers will be better able to identify opportunities and generate ideas for building partnerships to help conceive and implement park projects. The authors engage the reader in thought-provoking discussions about multiple-use concepts, nature preservation and energy conservation, the increasing importance of cost-conscious budgeting, the value of good design and durable construction, and the latest in computer-assisted park design and maintenance.

Customer Reviews:

Esssential Reading for the Parks Professional and Commissioner.......2007-03-12

This is a carefully crafted update of a classic primer that is essential reading for anyone engaged in park design or administration. The book would be especially useful to the new park commissioner who is looking for ways to add value to his/her park system through good design. The text is highly readable and is augmented by charming illustrations that makes for enjoyable reading of sometimes otherwise dull technical material.

Jerrold Soesbe, FASLA

Anatomy of a Park.......2007-01-10

This is a good book for city planners who don't know a lot about park planning, but need to in order to develop well-used parks. Easy reading.

"Land Trusts in Florida, 8E (+CD-ROM)" (Land Trusts in Florida)

Average customer rating:

THE book on Florida Land Trusts

"Land Trusts in Florida, 8E (+CD-ROM)" (Land Trusts in Florida)
Mark Warda
Manufacturer: Sphinx Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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How To Form A Limited Liability Company In Florida (Legal Survival Guides)
Complete Guide to Asset Protection Strategies
Complete Bk of Real Estate Contracts+CD (Complete Book of Real Estate Contracts)
Landlord's Rights & Duties In Florida, 10E
A Fortune in Free Real Estate: Holding Land Trust As a Money Making Tool

ASIN: 1572485817

Book Description

"Land trusts can be used as a way to ensure your privacy, a means of avoiding probate and an easy way to manage property. Land Trusts in Florida is the only book on the market for the state of Florida that focuses on this all-around great tool. It includes all of the forms necessary to set up a land trust and explains all of the pertinent Florida and federal cases. "

Customer Reviews:

THE book on Florida Land Trusts.......2005-11-08

Florida Land Trusts enable a property owner to keep his identity a secret and help keep liens and judgments from attaching. Learn about transactions that are exempt from documentary stamps! Learn how to avoid being re-assessed ! This book explains the operations of the Florida Land Trust and contains the necessary forms.

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Great overview
A no-nonsense guide to understanding what zoning is
Great Book
A Great Insiders Look at Zoning

The Complete Guide to Zoning
Dwight Merriam
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Land Use Planning and Development Regulation Law (Hornbook)
Community Planning: An Introduction To The Comprehensive Plan
Land Use in a Nutshell (Nutshell Series)
The Economics of Zoning Laws: A Property Rights Approach to American Land Use Controls
The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide To Decisionmaking And Investment

ASIN: 0071443797

Book Description

The only consumer's guide to making sense of land-use laws and regulations

Many property owners have no idea what their rights are when it comes to altering their properties, or protecting themselves from encroachment by developers and the misguided building and renovation plans of neighbors. Written by a leading national expert on land-use law, The Complete Guide to Zoning tells home owners, developers, and investors nationwide everything you need to know about getting approvals and protecting your property rights.

In plain English, Dwight Merriam explains how to:

Get fast approvals for building and renovation plans
Obtain building permits and variances
Fight development projects
Use land-use laws to protect and increase property values
Identify and work around laws that limit building and renovation plans
Deal with environmental-protection laws

Download Description

The only consumers guide to making sense of land-use laws and regulations

In plain English, Dwight Merriam explains how to:

Get fast approvals for building and renovation plans
Obtain building permits and variances
Fight development projects
Use land-use laws to protect and increase property values
Identify and work around laws that limit building and renovation plans
Deal with environmental-protection laws

Customer Reviews:

Great overview.......2007-01-12

This book is a great overview of zoning. It gives you the basics -- all of them, but it is definitely for people who know very little about zoning. If you are finding yourself in your first zoning battle, make this your first book. If you already have a general understanding of zoning and its processes, then you already know everything in this book.

Whether or not you will absolutely love this book or find it a waste of money is dependent entirely on your level of knowledge and what you are looking for. This is perfect for those who are just learning about zoning or those who need to brush up.

A no-nonsense guide to understanding what zoning is .......2005-02-03

The Complete Guide To Zoning: How Real Estate Owners and Developers Can Create and Preserve Property Value is a no-nonsense guide to understanding what zoning is and how to use it to protect one's property rights and interests. Zoning and Land-Use Law controls what can be done with land and how it can be developed; The Complete Guide To Zoning offers the lay reader a very short course in the law, the importance of knowing what one has, what one wants, and how to get it, the value of creating and leveraging relationships, when to reach out for support, preparing winning applications and making successful presentations, strategies for winning zoning battles, and much more. Chapters give equal focus to pursuing one's desire to develop land commercially, or the desire to see that adjoining lands to one's residential area are not developed commercially. Written in plain terms, The Complete Guide To Zoning is highly accessible regardless of the reader's legal background, and a "must-read" for property owners everywhere.

Great Book.......2005-01-27

As the Director of Planning and Development for a mid sized city in CT for the last 16 years, I highly reccomend this book. All planners and developers should read it.

A Great Insiders Look at Zoning.......2005-01-12

The Complete Guide to Zoning
By Dwight H. Merriam, FAICP, CRE
Review by Donald J. Poland, AICP

As planners, we tend to take the complexities of zoning and the land-use approval process for granted. Zoning is complicated system of government regulations that impact property rights and property values and more importantly the lives of any person who owns real estate. Dwight H. Merriam, in his new book, "The Complete Guide to Zoning" has successfully written a comprehensive account of zoning and the zoning game. Similar to Chris Matthews' book, Hardball, an insider's look at how the game of politics in played inside the Washington beltway, The Complete Guide to Zoning provides insiders look at how the zoning game is played. With over 25 year's experiences in planning and land use law, Dwight provides many lessons learned through his own experiences.

The Complete Guide to Zoning is formatted into six sections, "What is Zoning and Land-Use Law," "Getting Ready to Make Your Move," "Putting On Your Case," "Posthearing Follow-Up," "Winning Strategies," and "Protecting Your Property Rights." In a plain English and conversational voice, the book walks the reader through the basic law associated with zoning, the complex land-use approval process, and how to get what you want need out of zoning. From a variance for a backyard pool to developing a major expansion to a regional mall, The Complete Guide to Zoning shows the reader how zoning works and how to get the most out of your property and/or project.

While the book provides mostly a developer's perspective (the applicant seeking an approval), it also provides a unique insight and lessons to be learned by the neighbors or opposition groups who want to protect their properties and their rights. Most importantly, The Complete Guide to Zoning emphasizes the important of good communication between all parties, realizing that all or none approaches may not get either party what they want, and that all efforts should be made to avoid litigation.

Dwight's experience and perspective provides insight and understanding to the neophyte or layman, while reaffirming what the seasoned planner, engineer, or land-use attorney knows. We have all been involved in those applications that appear bigger than life and become more than just a job or an approval, but personal parts of ourselves. Be it as the developer who wants the 12-lot subdivision approval, the neighborhood who is fearful of increased traffic on their street, or the planner who has assisted the commission in drafting a new regulation, we all have been personally vested in the outcome of a zoning decision. Dwight reminds us that, "To be successful in resolving these disputes, you need to leave your ego at home. Whether you are the developer, the property owner, the leader of the neighborhood group, the lawyer, or the engineer, it is never about you. It is about land, the objective is developing or saving it, and zoning."

The Complete Guide to Zoning is a must read for anyone who owns real property or is involved in zoning. From the neighbor to the developer, the engineer to the architect, the commission member to the zoning official, the planning student to the veteran planner, this book should be on your desk, night table and available in the planning office and/or local library for applicants to read. The time spent reading "The Complete Guide to Zoning" will save any applicant from many frustrating hours of trying to figure out the land use approval process and weeks if not months of time in gaining a zoning approval. As we all know, saving time saves money and when it comes to development and zoning, time is money.

And last, I assure anyone who reads this book, when you are done reading it you will want to say, "Dwight, you magnificent bastard!" (An inside joke you'll get in reading the book.)

Better Not Bigger: How to Take Control of Urban Growth and Improve Your Community

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Wonderfully Insightful
An Excellent Debunking of the Pro-Growth Myths
Free Book, Anyone?
Right on Target!
Right on Target

Better Not Bigger: How to Take Control of Urban Growth and Improve Your Community
Eben V. Fodor
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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There Goes the Neighborhood, Protecting Your Home and Community From Poor Development Choices
Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
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The Key to Sustainable Cities: Meeting Human Needs, Transforming Community Systems

ASIN: 0865713863

Book Description

Contrary to accepted wisdom, rapid urban growth can leave communities permanently scarred, deeply in debt, with unaffordable housing, a lost sense of community, and sacrificed environmental quality.

In Better NOT Bigger, Fodor explodes the fundamental myth that growth is good for us and that more development will bring in more tax money, add jobs, lower housing costs, and reduce property taxes. Lively and well-illustrated, Better NOT Bigger provides insights, ideas, and tools to empower citizens to switch off their local "growth machine" by debunking the pro-growth rhetoric. Highly accessible to ordinary citizens as well as professional planners.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully Insightful.......2006-06-14

Mr. Fodor has done an excellent job of exposing the ins and outs of urban planning and growth. His sources are prolific and complete with a well balanced presentation of the challenges of growth and development to any community. For me, this book was a "suspicions confirmed" expose' of why it becomes so much more expensive to live in a city. This book is an excellent read with many interesting case studies, charts, analyses, and graphics and I have reviewed it and quoted it often as I have prepared to address our local planning commission and city council. Most of my urban planning and growth questions were addressed in this book.

An Excellent Debunking of the Pro-Growth Myths.......2006-03-25

The public has come to accept growth as natural, or at least inevitable, as a result of unbalanced coverage in the media. Pro-growth forces, such as the building and real estate industries, are a significant source of advertising revenue, so there is little motivation to present alternative views. Fordor, in his book, presents carefully documented rebuttals to most of the common pro-growth arguments, making this an excellent book for readers who are concerned about environmental and municipal planning issues.

Free Book, Anyone?.......2002-02-27

A major underlying assumption in our society today is that growth is good. We need growth! Growth is good for business, good for the community, good for you and me.

Except, of course, that it doesn't work that way.

Who sez?

Eben Fodor, that's who. Fodor is a professional community planning consultant from Eugene, Oregon. He has written a book that defies the conventional wisdom, and backs it up with solid evidence. Its title is "Better Not Bigger: How to Take Control of Urban Growth and Improve Your Community" (New Society Publishers, 1999).

Chapter 3 is called "The 12 Big Myths of Growth". Most of these myths are so deeply entrenched that people never even question them. However, Fodor refers to authoritative studies showing that just the opposite is true in each case. ... I will buy a copy of this book for any Asheville area politician or business leader who asks me. If you would like to see your representative get a copy, please call him or her and tell them to get their order in! ...

Right on Target!.......2000-07-20

This book was terrific! I had bought this book to help enhance my understanding of a controversial $1 billion plus expansion project in my community. Eben Fodor's comments and insights were 100% right on target. This book was like a blueprint as to how this mega deal is being forced down the throats of the citizens of my community. From the elistist few of the "urban growth machine" that would benefit from this project, to the creation of a false sense of urgency to push through our city council for a 30 year tax break for the developer, to the p.r. blitz offering up false either/or choices...everything discussed in "Better not Bigger" is happening in my hometown. This is absolutely "must reading" for anyone who wants to understand how the "urban growth machine" can ruin community. What Eben Fodor teaches is that smart growth is better then stupid growth. If you care about the community you call "home".....read this book!

Right on Target.......2000-07-18

This book was terrific! I bought this book to help enhance my understanding of a controversial over $1 billion mall expansion project in my community. Fodor's comments and insight were 100% right on target. From the elitist few who would benefit from it pushing this mega deal, to creation of a false sense of urgency to rush through a 30 year tax break to the developers, to offering up false either/or choices......this book was like a blueprint to how this project is being forced on the taxpayers. I found it extremely insightful and enlightening and would recommend it as absolute "must reading" for anyone who wishes to understand the urban growth machine and it can ruin a community. The bottom line is that smarter growth is better then stupid growth, and that is what Eben Fodor teaches those of us who truly care about our community.

Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate

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Great Overview
Throughly presents sustainable land development

Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate
Rocky Mountain Institute , Alex Wilson , Jenifer L. Uncapher , Lisa McManigal , L. Hunter Lovins , Maureen Cureton , and William D. Browning
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover

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Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
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ASIN: 0471188786

Book Description

"Green Development is good for business. Tenants, owners, purchasers, and brokers are all becoming more sophisticated and are realizing the financial and social benefits of green product." --Gerald Hines, Chairman of Hines.

Environmentally responsible real estate development makes dollars and sense. Green Development describes an exciting new field in which environmental considerations are viewed as opportunities to create fundamentally better buildings and communities--more comfortable, more efficient, more appealing, and ultimately more profitable.

If you're a developer, architect, planner, contractor, lender, or city official, this book speaks your language. Every stage of the development process is examined in detail: market research, site planning, design, approvals, financing, construction, marketing, and occupancy. Also included are lists of project statistics and contacts, books and other information sources, and development strategies.

Based on 80 case studies drawn from Rocky Mountain Institute's extensive worldwide research and consulting work, Green Development distills proven procedures and practical lessons that work in the real world.

Customer Reviews:

Great Overview.......2007-01-25

An excellent overview of the evolving movement towards green development. The book is somewhat dated and lacks in-depth coverage in some areas. Regardless effectively gets you into the space.

Throughly presents sustainable land development.......1998-12-02

This book throughly presents sustainable real estate development. It answers the basic questions of how, what, when, why and who with text and photos illustrating numerous case studies.

It is written for a wide and concerned audience, composed of real estate professionals, financiers and designers. This book is not technical. It is a conceptual book and guides the reader toward sustainable solutions.

This subject is very large and this book is necessarily a summary, which includes recent projects.

Book Description

Over the past two decades, great strides have been made on a wide variety of environmental fronts. Air and water quality have improved significantly, certain endangered species are on the road to recovery, and there is a marked increase in environmental awareness among the general population. Yet at the same time, little has changed in our approach toward how land is used.

Henry L. Diamond and Patrick F. Noonan, two preeminent figures in the modern conservation movement, examine that unfortunate circumstance as they provide a broad overview of major land use issues of the past twenty-five years and a ten-point agenda for future action. They look at key trends and patterns of the past two decades, and consider what can be done to help communities throughout the country accomodate growth in better, more environmentally sound, more fiscally responsible ways.

Diamond and Noonan base the synthesis and analysis featured in the first part of the book in large part on a series of papers from leading scholars, public officials, and practitioners that are included in their entirety in the second part of the book. The contributors provide and in-depth look at important topic, including:

Howard Dean, governor of Vermont, on Vermont's experience with growth management plan.
Douglas P. Wheeler, secretary of the California Resources Agency, on the implementation of ecosystem management in Californi.
Jean W. Hocker, president of the Land Trust Alliance, on what land trusts are and how they wor.
John A. Georges, chairman and chief executive officer of International Paper Company, on management of forest resource.
Jerold S. Kayden, professor at Harvard University, on private property rights and the "takings" issue

Brownfields: Redeveloping Environmentally Distressed Properties

Average customer rating:

Revitalizing underutilized industrial sites---how it's done

Brownfields: Redeveloping Environmentally Distressed Properties
Harold J. Rafson , and Robert N. Rafson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Redeveloping Brownfields: Landscape Architects, Site Planners, Developers

ASIN: 0070527687

Book Description

The most practical, up-to-date guide for turning Brownfields into Greenfields

This ready-to-use, how-to manual--edited by active developers who have bought, remediated, and sold brownfields--gives you a commanding look at one of today's leading environmental issues. Filled with the latest hands-on tools, Harold and Robert Rafson's step-by-step book simplifies the task of removing the barriers to redevelopment that plague environmentally distressed properties.

Brownfields goes beyond the legal and technical issues that preoccupy other current books, to focus on all the critical aspects of putting together a successful brownfields project--mortgages, marketing, and more. Complete with case studies drawn from the authors' own experience, this guide is required reading not just for owners or developers, but for every stakeholder--from environmental regulators, to bankers, realtors and prospective buyers.

Customer Reviews:

Revitalizing underutilized industrial sites---how it's done.......1999-10-29

The authors clearly present the factors that, on one hand, allow industrial and commercial property eyesores to exist, and on the other hand, those factors that can redevelop them into valuable modern real estate. The NST/Engineers, Inc. reviewers have participated in brownfields remediation designs and in the development of estimated costs for remediation, sometimes extending decades into the future. Brownfields are, according to an EPA definition, "...abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination that can add cost, time and uncertainty to a redevelopment project."

A few decades ago industrialists eyeing real estate for acquisition would be concerned about the use they could foresee, the asking price, zoning potential, the neighborhood, and a few other particulars. Rarely were they deeply concerned about what had gone on at the property in past years. Now, one of the first things a prospective buyer wants to know is "what might have gone on here in past years that has resulted in contamination of structures, the grounds, subsurface, or any water bodies." Property owners have similar concerns, but they have more information. So that both buyers and sellers wonder what magnitude of environmental remediation costs would be required for various redevelopment projects. The authors take the reader through the major considerations of both buyer and seller. They treat both the private and municipal redeveloper.

Their case studies, though largely drawn from their Chicago experiences, emphasize the careful planning and execution steps required in redevelopment anywhere. Based on data from less than 200 sites, the cost of brownfields redevelopment has been estimated to be just under $60,000 per acre. Cleanup of contamination, where it occurs, has been estimated at 8% of the total cost of redevelopment. The authors make an excellent point that much more cooperation is needed between interested parties to expand brownfields redevelopment. Venture groups are needed consisting of environmental scientists and engineers, capital providers, insurance specialists, real estate experts, and an experience project management team. Not to be forgotten is "due diligence". For a brownfields purchaser this means an in-depth analysis of the physical, economic, and legal conditions of any property in question. The authors describe how this analysis must have much more depth to it than the due diligence involved with purchase of an uncompromised industrial property. Federal, state, and local environmental officials, and governmental officials must appreciate the importance of rejuvenating unused brownfields as opposed to converting more fertile farms to industrial properties. And finally those officials must have the will to find ways to make a remediation happen. Individuals in all of the above occupations are well-advised to read this book.

As a model of an up-to-date state initiative to hasten brownfields remediation, the authors provide the details of the Illinois Pollution Control Board's Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives ("TACO").

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