MILTON — Almost 70 representatives from local government and engineering and environmental consulting firms joined state and federal experts in Milton to learn more about the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Program’s economic and environmental benefits.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Northwest District, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the West Florida and Apalachee Regional Planning Councils partnered for the fourth consecutive year to educate attendees about grants and other incentives available to Florida communities for brownfields assessment and cleanup.
Through economic and regulatory incentives, the Brownfields Redevelopment Program encourages the restoration and redevelopment of contaminated sites, which helps create new jobs and boost the local economy.
For the program's incentives to be available to a community, a local government must designate a brownfields area by resolution.
More than $155 million has been invested in Florida’s communities through this program, according to a media release.
As of 2015, statewide, there have been 404 brownfield area designations, 258 brownfield site rehabilitation agreements and 88 site rehabilitation completion orders issued since the program's inception in 1997.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Brownfields redevelopment forum held in Milton