Sites suitable for mixed use development in Britain and America

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to evaluate the suitability and feasibility of the four most likely urban spaces for mixed use development – brownfields (contaminated lands); greenfields (open, undeveloped areas); greyfields (closed or dying shopping centers and empty parking lots); and redfields (underperforming, foreclosed commercial real estate).

Design/methodology/approach

Literature about and studies of mixed use development projects in America and Britain were reviewed, and so too were specific examples of the four candidate urban spaces. The authors then analyzed which spaces succeeded as mixite and which failed.

Findings

Brownfields are often not successfully transformed into usable mixite; nor are greenfields. The cost and regulatory complication of removing pollution from brownfields is too often prohibitive, and greenfields are too far away from urban core areas. By contrast, greyfields and redfields appear to be far more suitable spaces for mixed use development projects.

Originality/value

Most government policies urging redevelopment projects in America and Great Britain prefer brownfields as the space deemed most suitable for mixite. Contrary to this view, it appears that unpolluted spaces, such as redfields and greyfields, that do not need extensive environmental remediation, are typically better candidates for mixite.

Citation

Laitos, J.G. and Abel, T.M. (2013), "Sites suitable for mixed use development in Britain and America", International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 137-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLBE-08-2012-0012