Bill
HB 5286
Creates a state program providing grants and loans to local governments to investigate, clean up, and redevelop eligible brownfield sites with measurable economic and environmental
Status & procedural history
- Bill number: HB 5286. Introduced by Rep. Alabas Farhat.
- House introduced version electronically reproduced 11/13/2025; introduced and read first time 11/13/2025 and referred to the House Committee on Economic Competitiveness. (Bill text amends 1994 PA 451 and adds Part 192 to that act.)
Purpose / intent
- Establish a statutory Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and Revolving Loan Program administered by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to fund investigation, cleanup, and certain ancillary activities at eligible brownfield properties to enable redevelopment and economic reuse.
Key provisions
- Adds a new Part 192, defining program terms (e.g., “baseline environmental assessment,” “eligible activities,” “eligible property,” “measurable economic benefit,” and “measurable environmental benefit”).
- Creates the Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and Revolving Loan Program (the “program”) to provide grants and loans to local units of government for eligible activities at eligible properties with redevelopment potential.
- Eligible activities include:
- Baseline environmental assessments, investigations, due care and response activities;
- Underground storage tank removal and closure (parts 211 & 213);
- Removal of universal wastes, PCBs, refrigerants, batteries, mercury switches, hazardous materials; industrial cleaning;
- Removal/disposal of lake or river sediments that exceed residential cleanup criteria when related to an economic development project;
- Limited removal of uncontaminated surface debris and demolition/lead/asbestos/mold abatement (subject to caps tied to total project remediation costs).
- Eligible property: sites known or suspected to be facilities under Part 201 or sites under Part 213 that were used for commercial, industrial, public, or residential purposes.
- Applicant eligibility:
- Applicants must be a local unit of government (county, city, village, township, or public entities such as brownfield authorities or economic development corporations).
- Must demonstrate administrative capacity, identified source for future operation/maintenance (if applicable), recent audit within 24 months (or have an emergency manager), and no recent grant revocation or demonstrated inability to manage grants.
- Applicant may not be the party responsible for the contamination at the site (with limited exceptions per the bill).
- Funding sources (on appropriation): Clean Michigan Initiative Bond Fund, Revitalization Revolving Loan Fund, State Brownfield Redevelopment Fund, and other appropriate sources.
- Funding limits:
- Generally one grant and one loan per project, each capped at $2,000,000.
- Projects with significant economic and environmental benefits may be considered for additional grants/loans in separate fiscal years, subject to project-specific benchmarks and performance triggers.
- Award criteria:
- Grants: property must be eligible; proposed development must be expected to result in measurable economic benefit in excess of the grant amount; project must be or result in compliance with applicable state laws/rules.
- Loans: property known/suspected eligible and have economic development potential; project must be or result in compliance.
Who is affected
- Directly: local units of government, brownfield redevelopment authorities, economic development corporations, and local public entities that apply for grants/loans.
- Indirectly: property owners, developers, contractors, and communities in Michigan with contaminated or potentially contaminated sites seeking redevelopment.
- State agencies: EGLE (administration and oversight), and fiscal impact considerations for the identified funds and appropriations.
Potential impacts
- Facilitates remediation and redevelopment of contaminated sites by providing public financing to address environmental barriers to reuse.
- Prioritizes projects that demonstrate measurable economic and environmental benefits and requires administrative and financial accountability by public applicants.
- Caps per-project public funding ($2M grant and $2M loan, generally) while allowing larger phased funding for high-benefit projects tied to benchmarks.
- Restricts direct eligibility to public entities (local governments and certain public authorities), which may require public-private partnerships for many redevelopment projects.
Notes
- HB 5286 also amends multiple sections of 1994 PA 451 (MCL 324.19608a et seq., among others) to integrate the new Part 192 provisions into existing brownfield and cleanup law. The bill text available as introduced contains additional procedural and compliance details and eligibility exceptions not summarized here.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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