Could former Coral Springs industrial sites help ease Broward’s housing crisis?
Broward County’s once-contaminated properties could become residential housing — including at least two parcels in Coral Springs.
The Infill Redevelopment Act, a new bill sponsored by State Rep. David Borrero (R-Doral) and Sen. Alexis Calatayud (R-Miami), nullifies local restrictions on residential construction on these sites, allowing developers to build housing “up to the average density allowed in any adjacent residential zoning district within the same jurisdiction.”
Design and architectural standards will remain in place.
“The legislation essentially allows for redevelopment of brownfield sites that are in more urban areas specifically to address the housing shortage,” Dr. E. Christian Wells, a professor and director of the Center for Brownfields Research and Redevelopment at the University of South Florida, told the Coral Springs News on Wednesday, March 11.
“It really facilitates housing construction and development, particularly in urban areas, and that’s a good thing, because most brownfield sites in urban areas tend to be in underserved communities, and so this could be a real, tremendous benefit.”
He added that despite the benefits, the policy could also lead to gentrification as new, higher-quality housing is added. This can be offset by a community benefits agreement, which residents can use to ensure that developers create affordable housing, use local labor or contribute funds for various projects.
Wells is also a member and former president of the Florida Brownfields Association, which works to gather and spread information about reuse of former industrial sites. One of the group’s major projects was building the Florida Brownfield Redevelopment Atlas, which tracks local, state and federal cleanup sites.
The act currently only applies to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Properties eligible for the new policy must fit the following criteria:
- Contain at least five acres
- Are adjacent to a residential zoning district
- Are environmentally impacted — defined as containing an detectable level of pollution above applicable cleanup levels, subject to cleanup or rehabilitation requirements, or located in a designated brownfield area
It excludes agricultural land and public parks, properties recently owned by a utility company, and those outside of urban growth boundaries or within a quarter-mile of a military installation.
Two parcels in Coral Springs appear to fit the bill, having been treated for presence of industrial chemicals and byproducts in the past two decades.
The largest is a 16-acre parking lot at 12640 Wiles Road. Public records state that in January 1997, officials documented a “discharge” of benzene, a carcinogen, vinyl chloride, and cis-1,2-dichloroethylene.
Following a 2018 tax sale of the property, Sawgrass Development Partners spent about a year bringing groundwater contaminant levels down to the state standards.
The Pan American Coral Springs Brownfield Site, which spans 12400, 12404, and 12408 NW 35th St., also appears to have been remediated. Public filings state that the owners spent over a decade treating its soil and groundwater for perchloroethene, trichloroethene, vinyl chloride and cis-1,2-dichloroethylene.
According to a 2024 Broward County Brownfield Redevelopment Program report, the property was resold in 2020 and is now a commercial warehouse and refrigerated storage space.
The Florida Brownfield Redevelopment Atlas also identified 4000 NW Coral Ridge Drive, a parking lot that once housed a Westinghouse torpedo factory, as a remediated Superfund site. Its eligibility for the Infill Redevelopment Act is unclear.
As for the safety of the potential new development, Wells said that Florida’s current policies protect residents from exposure to known chemical leaks.
“There are a lot of really great statewide laws and regulations in place to do a really good job of taking care of public health and safety. When it comes to brownfield redevelopment, there’s really good regulatory oversight to make sure that soil and ground water and and just the environment in general don’t become further or the contamination doesn’t spread further,” he said.
The bill has passed votes in the Florida House and Senate. If Gov. Ron DeSantis signs it, the Infill Redevelopment Act will become law.
