The City of Cambridge brownfield financial incentives program will no longer cover the indirect remediation costs starting next month.
The decision was approved at a recent council meeting during which staff brought forward a report that outlined the changes to the tax increment grant (TIG). The staff report says that such a grant is equal to the full amount, or a portion of the amount that municipal property taxes increase after a property is reassessed. The tax increment is calculated using the change in current value assessment following the completion of the remediation and redevelopment of the property.
Planning director Elaine Brunn Shaw told CambridgeToday via email, that the staff recommendation was to cover 100 per cent of the developer’s remediation costs of a brownfield project, rather than the previous 110 per cent. That previous amount also included 10 per cent in indirect remediation costs.
She wrote that currently, the city’s TIG program covers a developer’s direct and indirect costs related to the remediation of brownfield sites.
Indirect remediation costs include planning application fees, legal fees, financing costs, insurance premiums, assessment estimates and the preparation of a record of site, Brunn Shaw outlined in the correspondence.
The brownfield TIG program is administered jointly with the Region of Waterloo and as such, applications are reviewed by city and region staff concurrently to determine eligibility and to advance applications through the process, she explained.
The report submitted to council says that the regional brownfield financial incentive program was amended in 2019 to remove the 10 per cent indirect costs to the program. Both Kitchener and Waterloo are refining their programs as well.
The staff report also notes that this refinement still makes the TIG program attractive and exceeds many other related municipal TIG programs.
The changes to the program that applies only to city-wide former industrial sites, which are contaminated and need remediation, will come into effect on June 1.
More information around the city's financial incentive programs is available online, and details on the brownfield financial incentives program can be read here.
