Developers, LSPs ask Legislature to clarify brownfields tax credit eligibility for DEP‑required cleanup costs

Commercial real‑estate developers and licensed site professionals urged the Joint Committee on Revenue to clarify statutory language governing the Massachusetts Brownfields Tax Credit so that cleanup and redevelopment costs required by the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP) are clearly eligible for the credit.

Representatives of NAIOP Massachusetts, which represents commercial developers, said recent Department of Revenue interpretations exclude some remediation and redevelopment costs even when MassDEP requires those actions for a permanent solution, creating uncertainty that discourages investment. Anastasia Dow of NAIOP and Mary Ellen Morris of the Licensed Site Professional (LSP) Association said the bills (S.2007) would restore the program’s original intent and remove a disincentive to redevelop contaminated sites.

The witnesses said the Brownfields credit has a strong track record of enabling cleanup and redevelopment — supporting hundreds of projects and creating jobs and housing — and that consistent treatment of MassDEP‑required costs would improve predictability for financing. LSPs stressed that their professional assessments of the remediation scope under the MCP are an authoritative basis for defining necessary costs. Committee members asked whether the change is addressing a statutory ambiguity or a recent administrative interpretation; witnesses said the statutory text is consistent but that clarification would prevent DOR interpretation shifting project economics.

No committee vote took place at the hearing; proponents asked for a favorable report.