All real estate development, whether on formerly contaminated sites or not, benefits from efficient, clear, expedited entitlement processes. Communities can encourage either greenfield or brownfield development by making applications for building permits, site plan approvals, zoning changes, and other entitlements smoother and easier. Communities concerned about smart growth should therefore give thought to which type of development—greenfield or brownfield—they are favoring through their entitlement processes.

A look at the portfolio of properties purchased and redeveloped by LandBank, a brownfield company in Lakewood, Colorado, can be instructive in this regard. LandBank buys and redevelops brownfields nationally, with a focus on the major real estate markets on both the East and West Coasts. Since 1995, LandBank has evaluated brownfield properties in most of the country’s major population centers. LandBank is interested in real estate transactions that quickly put obsolete properties back into productive use, and that work economically. The successful transactions have been those where zoning designations have allowed for higher densities, and where public agencies have actively assisted in expediting entitlement processes. ...

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