Beginning in Brooklyn, City Takes on Brownfields

The site of a former gas station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will be the first to be remediated under a new city program meant to speed development of contaminated land across the five boroughs. The parcel of land, which has been vacant for years due in part to contamination, is set to be turned into a $15 million residential complex. City officials and developers broke ground on the project Monday.

There are more than 7,000 acres of brownfields in New York City, according to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The Brownfield Cleanup Program, passed last year, was designed to eliminate red tape for developers. Daniel Walsh, who heads the mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation, said the city would provide $60,000 to $140,000 in subsidies to developers.

"The goal is to make sites like this a little more competitive, with cleaner sites, and to attract developers to these sites," said Walsh. "So they clean the sites up, render them safe, protective. And then they can be re-used for developments like this."

According to Columbia law professor Michael Gerrard, who edited the four-volume "Brownfields Law and Practice: The Cleanup and Redevelopment of Contaminated Land," many of the contaminated parcels of land in New York City are in poor neighborhoods, and tend to retard development by serving as long-standing eyesores.

"The presence of a vacant lot with 'Keep Out: Toxic Waste' signs isn’t good for economic development," he said.

While lauding the principle of the city program, Gerrard said it would take more time to assess its effectiveness.

"We’ll need to know how many projects are able to get through the process and how long it takes them," he said. "Will it really be a faster method than the old state program?"