Crown Land Restoration Branch

False Creek 1939 False Creek After Renewal
Before: False Creek 1939
After: Current Day False Creek

Background on Brownfield Renewal

The Crown Land Restoration Branch (CLRB) is leading the development of the B.C. Brownfield Renewal Strategy, a cross-government initiative that is being implemented in partnership with the ministries of Agriculture and Lands, Advanced Education, Community Services, Environment and Finance. The purpose of the strategy is to identify ways to stimulate brownfield renewal across British Columbia.

Brownfields can be defined as “abandoned, vacant, derelict or underutilized commercial or industrial properties where past actions have resulted in actual or perceived contamination and where there is an active potential for redevelopment” This is consistent with the definition provided by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

Brownfields are often located in or near established urban areas and can include decommissioned refineries, former railway yards, old industrial waterfronts and riverbanks, abandoned gas stations, and former drycleaners. Left as they are, brownfields can pose threats to human health and environmental quality, and they have little economic value.

Redeveloped and returned to productive use, Brownfield sites can generate significant economic, social and environmental benefits, protect green space and reduce provincial liabilities.

Read the B.C. Brownfield Renewal Strategy.