Oakland Brownfield Initiative

Brownfield Redevelopment Authority

The Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is the administrative board advancing the goals and accomplishing the tasks identified for the Oakland Brownfield Initiative.

Under state law, a BRA is required to access certain financing incentives and tax increment financing to recover remediation expenses. BRAs allow for the development of a revolving loan fund and a means for recovering administrative costs of the BRA.

Oakland County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority

On November 29, 2001 the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved the creation of the Oakland County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (OCBRA), and established the initial OCBRA Board and the Bylaws governing all aspects of the OCBRA. The OCBRA meets regularly to consider Brownfield redevelopments.

OCBRA will be utilized specifically:

• To assist key developments in communities that may be adverse to establishing their own BRA as part of the County's ongoing economic development efforts and/or to protect key environmental assets.
• To assist specific developments in communities that may have a very few number of parcels or limited capacity to administer a redevelopment project.
• To systematically administer and redevelop tax reverted property that the County may come to own.

Under state law, a Brownfield Redevelopment Authority is the way to access the following financing incentives.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF):

Capture of increased local and school property tax revenues on eligible property by a brownfield redevelopment authority to pay for the costs of the following eligible activities:

1) Environmental response, demolition, and lead or asbestos abatement statewide, plus
2) Infrastructure improvements and site preparation in qualified local governmental units.

Tax increment revenues are generated by investment in, and redevelopment of, eligible property which includes contaminated, blighted or functionally obsolete property. The eligible property must be approved in a brownfield plan.

Eligible activities are conducted on the property as part of the redevelopment project. As the property value increases, the captured tax increment revenues are used to reimburse the eligible costs. If captured school taxes will be used to pay for certain environmental response activities or all of the non-environmental activities, prior approval of a work plan by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality/Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MDEQ/MEDC) is necessary.

Anyone who incurs eligible costs under an approved brownfield plan is entitled to reimbursement with tax increment revenues captured by a BRA.