Governmental inaction blocks use of brownfields law
Everybody claims to be searching for ways to stimulate the upstate economy, yet Albany is sitting on millions of dollars that have already been appropriated by the State Legislature for the redevelopment of contaminated lands known as brownfields in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and other Western New York cities. Local communities have identified more than 1,800 brownfield sites for economic development.
Reclaiming abandoned brownfields brings contaminated lands back into productive use, so a robust brownfield redevelopment program is critical to Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s upstate redevelopment strategy. This is what the State Legislature intended when it passed New York’s landmark law in 2003.
The Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) program, a visionary aspect of the law, is a unique area-wide planning and economic development tool designed with the recognition that an individual, property-only approach will continue to bypass low-income neighborhoods abandoned by the marketplace. Each year since the brownfields law was passed, the Legislature has appropriated up to $15 million for the BOA program.
In March 2005, 11 Western New York communities were awarded $1.8 million in the first round of BOA grants. These funds will impact more than 10,000 acres covering nearly 400 brownfield sites in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and other cities. Unfortunately, 2z years after the grants were awarded, only $241,000 has been received.
Fifty-two communities around the state, including 12 in Western New York, have been waiting — some for more than two years — to learn if they will receive BOA grants under the second and third rounds. BOA grants totaling nearly $2 million to advance 1,852 brownfield sites in these communities are being held up by the inability of Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to execute a legally required memorandum of agreement.
How to make the brownfields law more effective in Buffalo and Niagara Falls is one topic to be discussed at two community meetings taking place Tuesday in the two cities. The meetings, organized by State Sen. Antoine Thompson and other state and local officials, planners, developers and environmentalists, are being held to discuss ways to break the logjam.
State brownfield programs created by the 2003 law have yet to become effective tools for cleanup and revitalization. But with relatively minor corrections, the law could be used to promote the cleanup of thousands of potentially dangerous parcels of land, revitalize communities, inspire thoughtful and sustainable development and attract the critical private dollars needed for upstate’s economic renewal.
Judith Anderson is president of the Environmental Justice Action Group. Mathy Stanislaus is the founder and co-director of New Partners for Community Revitalization.