Home > Planning > Greyfield & Brownfield Developments

GREYFIELD & BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENTS

Brownfield sites exist as part of our urban fabric and these once vital sites that contributed to the economy and growth of the community are now abandoned or are underutilized. Industrial development is now promoted to prestigious business parks and therefore left behind are the decaying buildings and the years of contamination from former industrial processes. Brownfield sites create a negative view of the urban landscape and it is this blight and stigma that needs to be overcome. This is a significant issue for almost every community. The key question is what strategies can be provided that will overcome this issue?

Other obstacles include the necessity of obtaining planning approvals, the proximity to existing industrial operations and the concerns of land use compatibility, the lack of park and recreation space, the closing of inner city schools and most importantly the significant costs of studying the scale and scope of the contamination and the costs to clean up to a suitable standard.

The renaissance of Brownfield sites provides significant new challenges to everyone in the community. Recently the Province and the Municipalities have made Brownfield sites a focus of their planning policies. Many municipalities now provide financial incentives to encourage the redevelopment of Brownfield sites. Other benefits of Brownfield sites are the availability of municipal services for sanitary, water, hydro and transportation facilities and the proximity to the commercial core of communities. These are the opportunities that the development community should seize to overcome the many challenges of redevelopment.

PEIL has the proven professional resources to manage and coordinate the successful remediation and rehabilitation of Brownfield sites. PEIL provides a comprehensive team approach and the coordination of resources to address the many Brownfield challenges. PEIL has a broad experience on behalf of our municipal and private clients. The multi-disciplinary team at PEIL can provide you with professional planning, engineering, water resources, landscape architecture and graphic services.

Brownfields do present challenges and with a coordinated and comprehensive approach they provide opportunities. The direction of future planning policy direction is to promote the redevelopment of our inner cities through infill, intensification and Brownfield sites. PEIL has the professional resources to work with you in building on our past.

Top of the page