By Anna Gustafson
City Councilman James Gennaro’s (D-Fresh Meadows) work to revitalize thousands of contaminated industrial sites throughout the city landed him the 2010 Distinguished Lifetime Service Award from the New York City Brownfield Partnership, Gennaro announced last week.
The partnership, a voluntary association of organizations involved in the cleanup of former industrial sites, honored Gennaro in part because of a bill he sponsored, which was signed into law last year, that created the first municipally run brownfields program in the country.
Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial sites that are viable for re-use but often have not been because of the high costs to do so. The sites, which can often be contaminated, can pose human health and environmental concerns and contribute to the depression of local economic growth and job creation, according to city officials.
Gennaro, chairman of the Council Environmental Protection Committee, said he was “very gratified” by the award and noted the law that came out of his bill will benefit “thousands of sites throughout the city,” including hundreds or more than hundreds of areas in Queens.
The councilman authored the bill after the state created a brownfields program several years ago that did not help the city because the state provided incentives to developers to clean up sites contaminated by things like oil spills, while most of the city’s sites have been dirtied not by accidents but by construction materials used decades ago that are now proving detrimental to the environment.
The city program recently was given the go-ahead by the state, which it needed before launching any agreements between city officials and developers on sites. As part of the city program, developers can build on contaminated sites they clean up in exchange for the city not holding them liable for environmental damage committed by previous landowners.
“It paves the way for development because the developer gets what he or she wants, not to eat liability and the government gets property cleaned up with private money and put back on the tax roll. It puts people to work cleanup up the pollution and puts people to work building the new development,” said Gennaro.
The Fresh Meadows councilman’s legislation led the way for the city to announce at the end of June the launch of the city’s Brownfield Incentive Grant Program, which will provide funding to assist the investigation and cleanup of brownfield properties.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
