Catholic Perspectives on Urban Life and the Environment
Sprawl and Brownfields Letter to the House of Representativescont.
From the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
June 9, 1997

Enhancing Human Dignity through Participation

The affected communities have a right and a duty to participate in the development of cleanup and subsequent economic development plans. Participation in public life, both in its civic and political dimensions, is fundamental to helping people achieve their human dignity as well as maintaining and enhancing the cohesion of the social fabric of society. In our economic pastoral, "Economic Justice for All," we characterized this right and responsibility this way: basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons. Consequently, exclusion from social, political, and economic life is incompatible with the fundamental dignity of the human person.

All too often, the poor, minorities and people in the affected communities and neighborhoods do not have a seat or membership on planning boards, zoning commissions and other relevant regulatory bodies. They also are not often present in any significant percentage on corporate boards. A balance must be struck among the various stakeholders so that a more collaborative approach can become the basis of decision making. Business, government and the communities need to become partners in crafting appropriate solutions and in monitoring progress.

The proposed cleanup of brownfields should involve not just elected officials and representatives from the business community, but also people from the affected communities who can act as stakeholders planning their own futures in a way that will best serve their social, economic and environmental needs. It also should involve providing these communities with the requisite information to make informed judgements, respecting their right to know. However, it requires appropriate legislation to guarantee participation of informed people from the affected communities.

Job Creation and Training for Economic Growth

Third, the redevelopment and revitalization of brownfield sites should give job preference to affected community residents. The clean up of brownfields can be a great source of economic redevelopment for many blighted urban and rural communities. However, without a special effort to provide the training and outreach necessary to provide jobs for those in the affected neighborhood, a significant opportunity might be lost. By creating employment opportunities within these neighborhoods, brownfields cleanup could both provide employment for the poor without access to transportation, and be a first step in formulating solutions for regional urban sprawl problems.

Therefore, we strongly support initiatives to establish special training and recruitment programs to provide affected neighborhood residents with the requisite job skills to assume the jobs in the newly created industries that will be built on the rehabilitated sites. We recognize that the private sector as well as local governments may need special incentives to assist in the brownfields clean up program.