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Brownfields

The Council of Great Lakes Industries (CGLI) supports a cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach to the redevelopment of brownfields, which encourages a regulatory atmosphere that is beneficial to sustainable development.

Background

For many decades society has been developing suburban and rural landspaces, as a result of expansion of population and economic activity, which has consumed prime farmland and affected various ecosystems. Industry has expanded into previously undeveloped greenfield sites, while at the same time left vacant industrial properties in urban centers. The brownfield legacy includes erosion of city tax bases, localized unemployment, diminished property values and deterioration of supporting infrastructure.

Position

The CGLI believes that the reuse of brownfields is congruent with sustainable development and should be encouraged. A cooperative approach, which builds partnerships between public and private entities, must be nurtured to encourage regulatory change to assure brownfield redevelopment. An essential enabler for sustainable development is a regulatory atmosphere which will stimulate industrial redevelopment on vacant brownfields and encourage private investments. Providing resources to develop companion retail, housing, and recreational opportunities, support services and goods will further stimulate the economy by creating jobs, thereby increasing the tax base and a rise in property values.

Reuse of brownfields can be encouraged by a change in government policies to: 1.) minimize significant financial risks and uncertainty currently associated with these properties under existing environmental laws; 2.) provide incentives to encourage responsible parties, land developers, and financial institutions to economically remediate, develop and revitalize brownfields.

Recommendations

• Land-use planning must encourage sustainable land-use and community growth. City planning should manage community growth such that the present needs do not compromise the availability of suitable (land) resources, a healthy environment for, and the economic well being of future generations. The business and regulatory agenda must balance a commitment to the environmental protection in a manner that is cost-effective and consistent with sustainable community growth. The use of former industrial brownfields, remediated to a targeted industrial land-use standard, is protective of the environment and provides important community benefits.

• Remove barriers that inhibit prospective development of brownfields. The current interpretation of common law as well as various provincial statutory and regulatory schemes generally impose barriers for faultless developers and financial institutions to finance, remediate and develop contaminated brownfields. Potential purchasers, developers or lenders should not be held legally liable for past environmental pollution to which they have neither contributed nor caused.

• Provide financial incentive and/or minimize financial risk for brownfield redevelopers. In the United States, tax codes should be amended to provide tax incentives to parties who revitalize brownfields. Risk to financial lending institutions connected with these developments must be minimized to make funds readily available irrespective of the level of contamination at the site.

• Promote risk assessment in determining standards for end-use of the brownfield. Reasonable risk assessment methodology used to determine clean-up criteria should be based on sound science and be consistent with the end-use of the property; residential, commercial, industrial or recreational. CGLI supports clean-up standards that reflect land-use alternatives for brownfield redevelopment.

  
  Summary

  The Council of Great Lakes Industries supports the reuse and revitalization of brownfields since it represents a significant growth opportunity for both the present and long term economy and quality of life in urban areas. Environmental regulations should show remediation and reuse of currently contaminated or abandoned industrial sites as an alternative to continued development of greenfield areas. Incorporating the concepts of land use planning for sustainable development, financial/tax incentives and risk assessment based on site clean-up and environmental management standards will make this goal attainable in a manner that is protective of the economy, human health and the environment.

  September 1995