Redeveloping brownfields and promoting local employment in Burlington

The Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), in collaboration with the City of Burlington, is developing a Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to redevelop brownfield sites across the city with an emphasis on promoting local employment. The sites under consideration are primarily located along the Queen Elizabeth Way, Highway 403, Highway 407 and Canadian National Railway corridors. A brownfield CIP will meet the city’s demand for vacant land to attract new employers, keeping jobs within the municipality. The CIP will also ensure the financial feasibility of brownfield redevelopment (which currently has to compete with residential development and rising land prices) by creating opportunities for private-sector land owners to redevelop contaminated lands. Revitalizing existing land has several environmental benefits. It decreases soil and water contamination caused by past heavy industrial use. It also cuts down on urban expansion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with less distance to travel between residential and employment areas. The CIP will use a community improvement needs analysis to assess where redevelopment is most needed. After setting initial goals and targets and creating a financial incentive model, BEDC will engage with stakeholders and hold two public consultations. The first will invite the public to review the initial strategy, goals, targets and preliminary areas, and participate in the development of the draft. The second consultation will be to review the final version of the plan. Support for the proposed plan is rooted in studies and city policies established over the last 10 years, including the 2018–2022 editions of Burlington's Corporate Plan: From Vision to Focus; the Mayor's Red Tape Red Carpet Task Force Report; the Current Official Plan; and the Integrated Mobility Plan. Innovative aspect(s): • The CIP’s goals include employment generation, high quality urban design, promoting energy and water-use efficiency, addressing climate change, and promoting a sustainable community • The BEDC will lead preparation of the CIP in cooperation with various city departments—an innovative, arm’s length approach to project management as opposed to more typical municipal department–led approaches to brownfield redevelopment • BEDC will develop a plan that meets sustainability principles, rather than allowing private business to buy and redevelop lands ad hoc; therefore the city will be able to meet community needs, follow principles of environmental and sustainable development, and gain community acceptance for the land use Replicability: • The resulting arm’s-length process can inform or be a template for other mid-sized municipalities with steady population growth and high demand for employment land, both in Ontario and across the country (Project description from original funding application)