Call it the foul five.
In a new twist on his “First Five” program for economic development, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy plans to devote up to $20 million to clean up five state properties tabbed as brownfields, then sell them off to developers.
The initiative marks a departure from myriad other state programs to address polluted tracts of land. Those mostly have focused on bringing developers to the table through funding structures such as tax-increment financing, grants to jumpstart cleanups or by absolving them of liability against future legal claims from toxins seeping from properties, thought to be a major impediment to undertaking such projects.
In all, the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) lists 18 state, local and federal programs available in Connecticut to get projects going ”“ add in policies intended to provide regulatory relief and the figure passes 30 separate programs according to the state Office of Legislative Research.
According to a 2008 study by researchers at the University of Connecticut, the state listed more than 300 brownfields in its databases ”“ but the UConn authors added that likely grossly underestimated the true number of contaminated sites here.
The Malloy administration did not immediately identify the five sites that will be included in the program and did not say whether it expects the state to make a profit on the deals when all expenses are tallied.
The $20 million Malloy is committing to brownfield development will be used to clean up five yet-to-be-identified state-owned properties for sale to developers. The program does not include grants for private property owners to remediate contamination on their land. It was one of multiple proposals Malloy included in a jobs bill cobbled together this summer and fall.
“The most important and interesting idea we have here is working on a way where we”™ll take state-owned properties, go through a competitive process to determine which of these have legs from an economic development perspective, and then go through a process to get those cleaned and offered up for development,” said Catherine Smith, DECD commissioner, in testimony last month to the Connecticut General Assembly. “We think there are some very attractive properties within the state portfolio that this could be very good for.”
Malloy”™s First Five economic incentive program for companies adding at least 200 jobs has relied on a competitive analysis of projects, with more than 20 companies applying for funding. His jobs bill includes authorization for another installment of the First Five program.
Similarly, the brownfields funding will seek the most promising projects from any extensive list of applicants that may emerge. It was not immediately clear whether both state agencies and private developers could submit applications on plans for state properties.
“They will have to in their application identify what the use would be, how long it would take them to get it up and running, all those kinds of things,” Smith said. “We”™ll pick the best of the submissions.”
