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Urban In-fill Development
(continued)
In each of these cases, the soil under the pre-existing
buildings was contaminated. This is the first distinction
between in-fill redevelopments and peripheral developments.
Corn fields may have some residue of farm chemicals, but they
rarely have anything like the petroleum spills, industrial
chemicals, mercury or dry cleaning solvents that often are found
in urban properties. Therefore, someone interested in
redeveloping a commercial or residential property will have to
factor in the huge costs of cleaning up the contamination.
In each of the examples cited herein, part of that cost was
borne by grants from the State of Wisconsin for "brown fields"
redevelopment. But, the remaining costs were borne by the
developer and the cities involved.
The next obstacle to
redevelopment is the cost of demolishing existing properties and
replacing the infrastructure.
Many older buildings have asbestos
and other hazardous chemicals. Those hazards make
demolitions significantly more expensive than otherwise would be
the case. Further, most of the sewer laterals, roads and
other public services serving existing development must be
replaced and upgraded, a task which is often much more expensive
than constructing those facilities on previously undeveloped
property.
The Town of Madison, which is fully urbanized, has been
working for years to upgrade dilapidated or blighted buildings
and areas. The area lying along Badger Road was a prime
target, with good transportation access and underutilized land.
Randy Alexander came forward and worked with the Town to develop
a campus for high tech businesses which will add more than $80
million to the tax base - of not only the Town, but also the
school district and county. The Town's efforts succeeded
despite active hostility from the City of Madison, and served
not only to boost the Town, but to accommodate a significant
amount of growth without requiring the use of farmland.
In the case of the Nakoma Plaza redevelopment, the
shopping center that existed on the premises had a large Kohl's
store, a strip mall, and a few remaining tenants, as well as a
Walgreens drug store. All of these structures except the
Goodwill store at the northern end of the plaza were demolished,
and the road network serving the property |
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