Environmental benefits of brownfields cleanup and redevelopment Brownfields cleanup and redevelopment represent an enormous opportunity to protect and enhance the environment. Cleanup of brownfield sites can improve soil and water quality and protect human health by removing existing environmental contaminants.
Redevelopment provides opportunities to manage development pressures.
Brownfields are usually located in well serviced areas where infrastructure already exists. By bringing abandoned commercial or industrial sites in the cities back to life, unused land in the suburbs and rural areas that would otherwise be dug up and paved over can be preserved. Redeveloping brownfields encourages community building and revitalizes neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood eyesores can be turned into attractive developments, parks, open green spaces and new employment and housing opportunities that greatly enhance a local community and contribute to a better quality of life. The proposed legislation would incorporate many of the recommendations made by a panel of brownfields experts appointed by the province in September 2000.