| From: | "Bruce-Sean Reshen" <reshen@mindspring.com> |
| Date: | Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:57:24 -0800 (PST) |
| Reply: | cpeo-brownfields |
| Subject: | Re: [CPEO-BIF] Connecticut reforms |
|
Title: RE: [CPEO-BIF] Connecticut reforms
I agree the failure to develop the Steel Point peninsula is partially due to contamination issues and regulatory impediments. However, one should not forget the impact of official corruption on deterring development of the Steel Point sites. Required kickbacks to local Bridgeport officials were more important in deterring development than all the environmental issues. Having participated in an RFP process for Steel Point a decade ago, I know that institutional investors will be most reluctant to participate unless they can be assured that their reputations will not be sullied by similar antics on the part of city officials.
Bruce
-----Original Message----- Change in state brownfields laws could stimulate development Vinti Singh Connecticut Post January 14, 2012 BRIDGEPORT -- One day, Steel Point will be Steelpointe. The pollution and the contamination on the prime peninsula in the city will be replaced with houses, stores and restaurants. It's a dream that's been deferred for more than a decade, partly because of the state's confusing requirements for cleaning up post-industrial waste sites, experts said. Steel Point and the other unused contaminated sites in Bridgeport could bring in as much as $50 million in property taxes, said Ed Lavernoich, the city's deputy director in the Office of Planning and Economic Development. But before these sites can be used again, they must be scrubbed of all their pollution and meet standards set by the state. But those standards are so convoluted and inconsistent that often developers will shy away from investing in a brownfield at all. "The problem is not that a developer's proposal for a brownfields site failed," said Carl Wagener, director of the Council on Environmental Quality. "It's that when executives hear how long it might take to clean the site and the potential uncertainty of if it will ever be approved for development, they say `we can't do that. Give us something ready to go.'" ... For the entire article, see http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Change-in-state-brownfields-laws- could-stimulate-2530126.php -- Lenny Siegel Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight a project of the Pacific Studies Center 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 _______________________________________________ Brownfields mailing list http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org _______________________________________________ Brownfields mailing list Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org | |
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