Brownfields

PlaNYC is a comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City’s future. Goal: Clean up all contaminated land in the city.

Brownfields are defined as vacant commercial or industrial properties that remain undeveloped because of real or perceived contamination that may complicate redevelopment. To measure progress towards this goal, we are tracking the number of brownfield sites that currently exist, and the number that have been successfully cleaned up through an official city, state or federal program. ### Brownfields in New York City

The NYC Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) was created to help identify brownfields and assist with their cleanup. As part of its efforts, OER has developed a Vacant Property Database (VPD) to help developers identify vacant commercial and industrial properties that may be available for redevelopment, and to provide basic data on past property usage and environmental features. As of 2011, NYC had between 1500 and 2000 potential brownfields, based on a review of vacant properties, historic filling patterns, and other environmental features in the VPD.

The VPD assesses potential or actual contamination on vacant properties, which are only a fraction of the total property stock in NYC. Thus, new brownfield sites will continue to emerge as buildings reach the end of their use cycle and are rebuilt. Our target is to ultimately reduce the number of brownfields in NYC to zero.

Brownfield Site Remediation

The PlaNYC goal is to provide the necessary resources to enable brownfields to be redeveloped as easily - or more easily - than equivalent non-contaminated properties. Several programs are currently available to assist landowners in cleaning up brownfields. These include the NYC Local Brownfield Cleanup Program (LBCP), NYC Hazardous Materials “E” - designation Program, and the NYC Hazardous Materials Restrictive Declaration Program. The amount of lots remediated is currently at zero, since the office has just been established.