Putting some greenbacks into brownfields
By
Mark Schadenberg
Brownfield
properties can be identified in many forms and in many places around all
cities.
In
Woodstock, we have a large area on Tecumseh Street when the former Thomas Bus
factory and its large yard all now belong to the City do to tax arrears. What
to do with that area.
I
have a theory which I will dare to include here.
Smaller
brownfields are the dozens of vacated gas station corners around the community.
I can count at least a dozen very quickly.
Some
of these properties require significant remediation due to environmental
concerns as leeching can seep (nice words, eh) through the soil and into the
aquifer.
Whether
the municipality owns the land or a private person/company, dollars (from all
three levels of government) must be made available from some source to assist
in revitalizing the potential.
Also,
and on another subject, it never makes sense to take vacant land or certainly a
former pit mine, and transform it into a dump, but that’s a soapbox for another
day.
Here’s
a story from Waterloo Region Record about that area’s plans for some specific
brownfields.
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Waterloo Region
approves plan to assist brownfield projects
Paige Desmond, The Record
staff
Sun Feb 10 2013
WATERLOO REGION — If the
region has to spend some money to get people living in city cores and riding
the future rapid transit system, that’s all right with Regional Coun. Jim
Wideman.
Speaking about the Region
of Waterloo’s brownfield incentive program, Wideman said a bit of cash out of
pocket pays off down the road.
“If we can move a project
forward, by one year even, with these kinds of incentives, it does tremendous
things for ridership for the light rail transit and really the region just
can’t lose,” Wideman said.
Officials want to
intensify development in city cores to minimize urban sprawl and have approved
an $818-million rapid transit project to encourage the change.
Along the transit corridor
is where most local brownfields are. The former industrial sites are expensive
to redevelop and can take years to reach completion due to contamination from
past uses such as manufacturing.
“We had too many
properties just sitting, people were afraid to touch them,” Chair Ken Seiling
said. “They were blights on the community.”
It’s unknown how many
brownfields actually exist in the region, but planning, housing and community
services commissioner Rob Horne said it is safe to say there are hundreds.
The region recently
approved a long-term funding strategy to keep a 2006 brownfield pilot project
going.
Cities benefit by helping
developers with certain costs and, in turn receive increased tax revenue from
the previously unused lands.
The project is made up of
three programs.
Several steps projected
The first is an
environmental site assessment grant that pays up to half of the costs of an
environmental site investigation to a maximum of $40,000.
Second are regional
development charge exemptions up to a maximum of the total eligible remediation
costs.
Third is a tax increment
grant program. The value of a grant is determined before developers start the
project and is based on the cost of cleaning up the site and the anticipated
increase in assessment after redevelopment.
When the project is
complete, the region pays the grant, often over several years, using the
increased taxes generated by the development.
Since 2006, 14 site
assessment grants valued at about $350,000 have been issued and the region
estimates it could spend up to $5.7 million on projects eligible for tax
increment grants that are underway.
Projects to benefit from
funding include the Breithaupt Block in Kitchener and the Waterscape project in
Cambridge
“The Breithaupt project is
a great example of a project that’s been given new life,” Seiling said. “The
Waterscape — there’s been people trying to do that for years and years and
years and just couldn’t make it work.”
About $35 million was
spent to renovate the old factories and warehouses that once housed leather,
rubber and auto parts industries in the Breithaupt Block. The Waterscape land
was once home to a coal plant.
Kitchener and Cambridge
have brownfield incentive programs in co-operation with the region. Waterloo is
investigating the idea, with a decision expected in the spring.
Projects approved for
tax increment grants
2009 — The Tannery, 36 Francis St., Kitchener
2011 — Waterscape, 170 Water St. N., Cambridge
2011 — Carriage Lanes, 750 Lawrence St., Cambridge
2012 — The Breithaupt Block, 51 Breithaupt St., Kitchener
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Caring for the
community
Mark Schadenberg,
sales rep
Royal LePage
Triland Realty
Woodstock, ON
(519) 537-1553
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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