New York City Incentivizes Reuse of Brownfields
New York City launched SPEED, a searchable database of brownfield properties, a “real estate search engine”, that has gotten great traffic from the local developer community. Dan Walsh, Mayor’s Office of Operations, New York City government, said SPEED includes historical maps so developers can “toggle through time” and explore some 3,150 vacant commercial and industrial brownfield sites spread throughout the city. The idea is to use some of these sites for solar power plants.
To make it even easier for developers, the city launched a $9 million brownfield reinvestment fund. Each developer of a brownfield site gets $60-140,000 “fast” if they commit to cleaning-up a brownfield or redeveloping for energy uses. The grants can be used to cover expenses involved in design, investigation, clean-up, or insurance, says Walsh.
For brownfield sites that will be used by the public, the city has also launched a Green Property Certification program, which can be shown on site as proof that the area is fit for its intended use. “This is a voluntary, not regulatory program.”
Interestingly, none of these urban policymakers discussed how to turn parts of these new solar facilities into public spaces. Solar facilities need not be cut-off from neighboring communities. If designed well, they can also offer green space or even wildlife habitat. As an example, see Walter Hood’s model solar campus project at the University of Buffalo, which will be both public art installation and 1.1 MW solar power facility.
http://dirt.asla.org/2011/04/13/cities-use-brownfields-to-go-solarWelcome to the Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation's Searchable Property Environmental E-Database (SPEED) Portal. SPEED enables users to examine environmental and other data on properties in New York City. You can find information about certain sites in City, State, and Federal environmental remediation programs. You can also search for individual vacant tax parcels and view historical information, such as past land uses and historical and topographical maps. Further, the site has the general features of NYCityMap - map tools, aerial photos, political and geographic districts, and building footprint maps.
Users can browse by navigating with the map interface or by searching for desired properties or locations, create reports, or print maps showing spatial information. Registered users can save properties of interest, make notes, and be notified of updates. If you are new to SPEED, please visit the User Guide/Help Document for more information about how to use the portal.
For the SPEED Portal, OER developed one data set, the Vacant Property Database (VPD), which focuses on privately-owned lots that are zoned for commercial and manufacturing uses and that are unimproved, i.e. they had no structure or use on them according to 2009 PLUTO (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output) data that are compiled for governmental use by the NYC Department of City Planning. Lots that are known to have been developed since the collection of the 2009 PLUTO data are not included in the database. If you wish to inform us of any updated information about the lots in the database or to provide any other feedback, please contact us.
https://gis.nyc.gov/moer/speed/login.jsp;jsessionid=EF3E1CEB67B48A5942171771EBD906D9NYC Finds Solar Energy Gold in Old Landfills
Landfill gas recovery is becoming a familiar fixture in the alternative energy scene, and now New York City has added a new dimension to the idea of extracting valuable resources from seemingly useless parcels of land. The city plans to build utility-scale solar installations on its old landfills, to the tune of about 50 megawatts. Admittedly, that’s a drop in the bucket in terms of the city’s overall electricity use. However, the solar program is focused on achieving a clean air goal, which has its own public health value. The new solar installations will reduce emissions from petroleum-fueled generators, which the city currently has to use on hot summer days to meet peak demand. That raises an interesting point for a company with decommissioned landfills or other derelict property on its hands: aside from producing clean (and potentially cheaper) energy, what additional value could a solar installation have?
Brownfields, Green Jobs and Community Relations
Aside from helping to improve local air quality, the first thing that comes to mind is job creation. New York City’s plan is actually a local version of a federal program called RE-Powering America’s Land, which seeks to develop brownfields and Superfund sites for renewable energy. Many of these sites are located in or near populated areas, sucking up real estate. The program has a strong emphasis on putting that land back into economic circulation, by creating green jobs for local residents. In contrast to company-sponsored green volunteer projects, solar energy installations enable companies to create green job opportunities for local installers, electricians and other skilled trades. That’s a powerful community relations tool in today’s tough economy.
Communities and Nature Conservation
In urban areas, a brownfield-sited solar installation can turn a former eyesore into a source of local pride. It could also help communities preserve natural open space from development. The Nature Conservancy has pointed out that there is ample room in the U.S. for wind turbines on land that has already been developed and is inhospitable to endangered and threatened species. In other words, less natural habitat would need to be disturbed for renewable energy, if we focus attention on land that has already been disturbed. Though there isn’t necessarily going to be a direct trade-off, the availability of brownfields could factor into a local planning board’s decisions, and it could put a company in the position of helping to preserve open space by offering its property as a site for renewable energy.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/04/new-york-city-digs-renewable-energy-gold-landfills/
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