New Jersey’s New Brownfields Redevelopment Act
On January 12, 2006, outgoing New Jersey Governor Richard J. Codey signed an act to expedite the redevelopment of brownfield sites in New Jersey. See Assembly, No. 1633, State of New Jersey 211th Legislature, available at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2004/Bills/A2000/1633_R2.pdf. The “Act concerning identification of brownfield sites” (the Act) defines a brownfield as “any former or current commercial or industrial site that is currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or is suspected to have been, a discharge of a contaminant.”
The Act requires the state’s Department of Community Affairs’ Brownfields Redevelopment Task Force to prepare an inventory identifying brownfield sites and to present an annual report of its progress to the state legislature. The brownfields inventory must include, at a minimum, the following information for each listed property:
1) the street address, lot and block number, municipality and county
2) the size of the site
3) the municipal zoning classification for the site
4) the name and address of the owner of record for the site
5) an assessment of the contaminants known or suspected by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to have been discharged on the site
6) the extent and status of any remediation performed on the site
7) the planning area designation as shown on the state plan policy map prepared by the State Planning Commission
The inventory of brownfield sites will be listed on the New Jersey Brownfields Site Mart (available at http://www.njbrownfieldsproperties.com/), an online database of properties. The Brownfields Site Mart is designed to make it easier for developers to locate available land in New Jersey, and will provide information to facilitate the listed property’s sale and redevelopment. It will also provide a priority list of properties identified in communities eligible for assistance from the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority.
The New Jersey Brownfields Act appropriates $285,000 to fund development of the site inventory and to pay for other Department of Community Affairs’ initiatives that promote the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated sites.