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Derelict Sites Conceal Economic Potential Brownfield Redevelopment Supports Sustainable Growth Strategy
July, 2007
By Doug Dolby
A redevelopment scheme for an abandoned industrial site in the City of Kawartha Lakes should result in new residential, commercial, institutional and light industrial uses in keeping with the sustainable growth plan for Ontario's booming Greater Golden Horseshoe. The owner/developer, Terrasan Corporation, envisions a community that will meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards and forge connections to nearby parkland, a historic cemetery and the neighbouring campus of Sir Sandford Fleming College.
The former Dominion Arsenal, Lindsay site, has had a long history of industrial use. Originally built around 1914 as a small arms manufacturing facility to supply Ross Rifles and associated munitions to the Dominion troops for World War I, it was subsequently retrofitted to produce varying sizes of munitions to supply Dominion and Allied troops in World War II.
In the mid-1950s the facility was sold to the Firestone Rubber Company to manufacture rubber products. Since then, ownership changed a number of times but the site remained a rubber manufacturing facility until June 2005 when the last occupying business ceased operation and went into receivership.
Terrasan Corporation purchased the vacant 61-acre property in September 2006 - acquiring nine interconnected buildings totaling 200,000 square feet, three out buildings, one partially submerged concrete munitions test firing range, and eight former munitions storage cells.
Former owners had received cost estimates in excess of $5 million to abate the various designated substances, demolish the site structures, and remediate the subsurface soil and groundwater impacts. Terrasan Corporation, drawing on knowledge derived from redevelopment of a portfolio of brownfield sites, completed a pre-purchase due diligence review that indicated remediation costs could be a fraction of those initial estimates.
ON-SITE SOLUTIONS
As part of the property's proposed revitalization and as per Ontario Regulation 102/94 Waste Audits and Waste Reduction Plans, Part V Large Demolition Projects, a detailed waste audit was completed to determine the amount of material from on-site structures that could be reused and recycled. The audit concluded that approximately 99% of the demolition material, including all concrete, brick, concrete block, ferrous and non-ferrous metal and wood could be processed on-site using various separation and product reduction techniques to either redeploy the material in the new development or sell it to third parties as processed recyclicate.
Due to the nearly 100 years of industrial usage, the site contains a variety of contaminants of concern such as chlorinated solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and select heavy metals. Since the owner/developer does not support excavation and off-site disposal as a viable remedial approach, remediation is proposed via a number of techniques ranging from ex-situ bioremediation in constructed bio-cells, in-situ chemical oxidization, groundwater pump and treat through installed extraction wells, and solidification/stabilization of the surficial soils impacted with select heavy metals.
To expedite the development process, the subject site has been sub-divided into separate 20-acre and 41-acre parcels so that two separate Records of Site Conditions (RSC) can be obtained. (The RSC is a document from Ontario's Ministry of the Environment that summarizes the environmental condition of the site. The RSC demonstrates that the site meets applicable MOE standards for the proposed use or that the site has been subject to a risk assessment.)
In this case, the 20-acre parcel located at the northwest of the property is the section of the site where the industrial buildings were located. Subsurface soil and groundwater impacts are more predominant in this area of the site, while the 41-acre parcel located to the south of the property has remained primarily untouched by industrial usage.
Two RSCs allows for a tiered approach to the project. Development can begin on the clean 41-acre parcel while contaminated soil and groundwater are remediated within the 20-acre parcel. The projected timeline indicates that soil remediation on the smaller site should be complete at about the same time that development wraps up on the 41-acre parcel, creating a seamless development schedule for the entire 61 acres.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Rezoning of the site will be necessary, but the City of Kawartha Lakes has been supportive of the new development proposals. In particular, Terrasan and the Kawartha Innovation Centre Management Board have established a public-private partnership (P3) to build a 50,000-square-foot business incubator. The proposed light-industrial structure would be constructed adjacent to Sir Sandford Fleming College to provide longer-term leases to the newly launched companies graduating from the Innovation Centre.
In addition to the slated Innovation Centre, Terrasan Corporation with support from City of Kawartha Lakes Economic Development Department and Sir Sandford Fleming College is endeavoring to develop an ECO Research Park or "Davos of the Environment" that would work with both the City of Kawartha Lakes and Sir Sandford College. The proposed ECO Research Park would attract world leading researchers in varying disciplines to explore an environmental focus on enhancing, modifying or developing new manufacturing/engineering techniques and solutions to current manufacturing, agricultural, and soil and groundwater contaminant problems.
Doug Dolby is with Terrasan Corporation, an environmental services and development company now carrying out several brownfield redevelopment projects throughout Ontario. For more information, see the web site at www.terrasan.com.
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