Brownfields and the Urban Commons: Common Property Frameworks in Urban Environmental Quality

Abstract

"Environmental social and economic impacts and benefits can be seen as the shared resources of an urban commons. The institutions that protect and enhance this commons can be seen as common property institutions. Common property concepts offer useful frameworks through which to analyze the dimension of brownfield redevelopment in neighborhood and metropolitain contexts. This analogy allows us to analyze the appropriateness of instutional design and scale for the regualtion and protection of these commons and to reconsider the distribution of the private and public costs and benefits of development."