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Developers get brownfield reprieve

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Jul-02-09, 12:29 PM
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Under a new Connecticut law, developers of mildly contaminated properties no longer are liable for prior pollution of neighboring parcels of land, a measure some hope will unleash additional development of such brownfield sites.
The Connecticut General Assembly passed the bill with less than an hour to go in the regular session that ended June 3 and Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed the bill into law on June 25.


The new law removes a major source of doubt for developers contemplating brownfields projects, according to Lee Hoffman, an attorney in the Hartford office of Pullman & Comley which also has offices in Bridgeport, Stamford and Westport.


Such sites carry significant state incentives, but also risks of additional litigation from neighbors or people attributing health problems to exposure to chemicals at a brownfield site.


It is the first major overhaul of the state property remediation statutes in close to 15 years, Hoffman said.


“We have to realize there are a series of sites in Connecticut that are so polluted that no viable party is going to pay for it,” Hoffman said. “We have been putting our heads into the sand when it comes to these sites.”


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