Page 109 - Beyond Decommissioning

90 Beyond Decommissioning

original features, while also refitting features to increase energy efficiency and reduce
the facility’s environmental impacts. Some power plants, which once polluted the sur-
rounding neighborhood, are now LEED-certified structures (see Glossary). The fol-
lowing subchapters describe important factors playing a decisive role in selecting
redevelopment options.
Given that selecting a specific redevelopment option will have to consider a num-
ber of factors, the organization in charge of this evaluation will have to run a cost-
benefit analysis or a broader multi-attribute utility analysis (MAUA). As this book
shows, the decision whether to demolish or redevelop a facility (and related variants,
such as partial demolition or deferred redevelopment) depends on a number of factors
of diverse character. Some are monetary, others are not. In cost-benefit analysis, non-
monetary factors will be assigned a monetary value to allow for a comparison of alter-
natives. Factors include cost, health, safety issues and environmental impact,
availability of resources, stakeholder involvement, socioeconomic impacts, etc. In
some situations, the lack of a single critical resource (e.g., funding or waste manage-
ment infrastructure) could result in the ruling out of some strategies. Vice versa,
certain constraints or overruling factors may impose one strategy. An application
of cost-benefit analysis to industrial redevelopment is given in Wilson (2000).
MAUA is an effective mathematical technique for showing the impact of each
strategy and reaching conclusions that address all influencing factors. MAUA consists
of assigning numerical ratings and weightings to the factors, followed by comparison
of the total scores for every option. If necessary (i.e., when two options have very close
scores), a sensitivity analysis can be conducted to check whether or not the preferred
option is a robust choice. It should be noted that strategy selection studies (even when
using formal methods such as MAUA) involve aspects that are judgmental and sub-
jective, potentially leaving the conclusions vulnerable. Increasingly this problem is
being addressed with public involvement (for a stakeholder dialogue) in the strategy
selection process. Workshop sessions can provide a practical and mutually agreed way
forward. In such sessions a panel of experts (including professionals but also qualified
members of the public) agrees on the list of influencing factors and then assesses the
impact of these factors for each option, assisted by MAUA or other decision aiding
techniques. As a support to the strategy selected, a report of the workshop sessions
should be produced, which describes the analysis, the factors addressed, and the
results obtained (International Atomic Energy Agency, 2005). Application to reuse
projects of MAUA-like techniques is given in Centre of Land Policy and
Valuations (2014) and Ferretti et al. (2014) (see also Section 2.5).
A study drafted for the City of Chicago presents screening tools to evaluate brown-
field sites that can be profitably cleaned up and redeveloped as mixed-income residen-
tial and/or mixed-use communities using smart growth principles (EPA, 2014a). The
brownfield screening tools utilize steps in assessing during early stages of the screen-
ing process and excluding sites with the potential of high remediation cost. This is
intended for the City of Chicago to channel resources toward the most promising sites.
The study authors also provided two categories of smart growth principles (see Glos-
sary) for brownfield redevelopment projects. The first is site-specific and includes
existing infrastructure; access to public transportation; and access to major social,