Interaction of public and private stakeholders to accelerate brownfield redevelopment

In the early phase of Brownfield redevelopment, key actors like market oriented developers and governmental stakeholders consider opportunities and risks for possible redevelopment. It can be stated that a serious need exists for acceleration of redevelopment of a large number of Brownfields in most Western Countries. Brownfield redevelopment, if well positioned and planned, provides a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits. Nowadays, often a traditional linear planning process shifts to an iterative, dynamic development process by public-private enterprises. The various forms of cooperative effort between local governmental representatives and private developers require a shift of governance from urban central planning to process management that accommodates strategic, flexible behavior of key actors. To establish such collaboration, specifically in open market economies, interaction between key actors, sharing information and knowledge is essential. However, due to a reactive attitude of public stakeholders, affecting private stakeholders, progress in redevelopment is often substantially delayed; chances and windows of opportunities are missed. This paper reports on the possibilities for accelerating brownfield redevelopment based on a framework for interaction between public and private stakeholders and the outcomes of three years of research to interaction of public stakeholders in a number of brownfield redevelopments in the Netherlands. Keywords: Brownfield redevelopment, Stakeholders, Public-Private Enterprise