The 2025 Florida legislative session has concluded, and several changes could pave the way for the redevelopment of certain impacted properties.
For the environmental assessment and remediation industry, one significant bill was passed (the Brownfield Bill), and ongoing funding provisions for the Petroleum Restoration Program (PRP) were approved.
Regarding the PRP, there are two significant announcements:
- The House and Senate approved $195 million in project funding through SB 2500.
- For eligible and compliant PCPP and PLRIP sites in Fiscal Year 2025-2026: no deductibles, or copayments, and monetary caps may not be enforced. (See SB 2502 for the specific language.)
The Brownfield Bill (HB 733 BF) passed efficiently through both the House and Senate without significant opposition. The bill was approved by the Governor on June 3, 2025, is now Chapter 2025-116, L.O.F., and will become effective on July 1, 2025.
The original bill that created the brownfield program was passed in Florida in 1997. Much has changed since then and many of the amendments in this bill were substantive in nature, to update the brownfield program based on common-sense revisions suggested by practitioners over the past three decades.
For real estate transactions, the most significant impact of this bill relates to smaller parcels that were once part of larger contaminated properties, such as historical agricultural properties. Achieving regulatory closure will now be easier on such sites. For example, many of the brownfield program’s procedures were streamlined to increase efficiency for claiming certain tax credits under the Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit program.
The following language is from the final House Staff Analysis dated June 10, 2025, and provides a relevant summary of this beneficial amendment:
Smaller Parcel Rehabilitation
The bill provides that if the person responsible for a brownfield site rehabilitation demonstrates compliance with the applicable contamination cleanup criteria, and the brownfield site is only a portion of a larger contaminated site, DEP or any delegated local pollution control program may NOT:
- Deny a “No Further Action” status for the brownfield site; or
- Refuse to issue a site rehabilitation completion order for the brownfield site, regardless of whether it has engineering and institutional controls. This applies even where similar contamination exists elsewhere on the contaminated site, which was the result of similar or related activities or operations that occurred both on the contaminated site and the brownfield site, provided that all soil and groundwater contamination emanating from the brownfield site is adequately addressed.
- This prohibition applies to ALL brownfield sites, irrespective of the effective date of the brownfield site rehabilitation agreement.
Contact ERMI for further information on how these initiatives can benefit your site.