Harvesting Hope in the University Area Community: Redevelopment Strategies for Turning Brownfields into Healthfields

Brownfields are properties whose land use history compromises redevelopment efforts because of past practices that may have contaminated soil and groundwater with environmental pollutants. Nationally, brownfields are overwhelmingly concentrated in underserved communities of color and often combine with the social determinants of health to produce poor health outcomes. Brownfields practitioners are increasingly working with community residents using participatory approaches to redevelopment that center on “healthfields”—former brownfields that have been redeveloped to provide health benefits such as those offered by recreational parks, community gardens, and health care centers. However, healthfields are difficult to create because local governments often perceive them to provide few benefits to the tax base and to be expensive in terms of operation and maintenance, thus a low return on investment. Our university-community partnership developed a successful healthfields redevelopment project that has catalyzed additional development including attainable housing. We describe the project’s history, highlight the outcomes and impacts, and critically reflect on lessons learned. We evaluate its contributions to public health using an established land reuse model to safely clean up and reuse contaminated brownfields. We argue for the importance of participatory processes in brownfields redevelopment, where equitability in planning and implementation enhances the sustainability of the project.