5. a. There is created the “Brownfields Redevelopment Task Force.” The task force shall consist of seven representatives from State agencies and six public members. The State agency representatives shall be from each of the following State agencies: the Office of State Planning in the Department of Community Affairs, the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority in the Department of Community Affairs, the New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, the Department of Agriculture, the Economic Development Authority in, but not of, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Transportation, and the Site Remediation Program in the Department of Environmental Protection. The six public members shall be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The public members shall include to the extent practicable: a representative of commercial or residential development interests, a representative of the financial community, a representative of a public interest environmental organization, a representative of a neighborhood or community redevelopment organization, a representative of a labor or trade organization, and a representative of a regional planning entity.

The Office of State Planning shall provide staff to implement the functions and duties of the task force. The public members of the task force shall serve without compensation but may be reimbursed for actual expenses in the performance of their duties. The Governor shall select the chairperson of the task force.

b. The task force shall prepare and update an inventory of brownfield sites in the State. In preparing the inventory, priority shall be given to those areas of the State that receive assistance from the Urban Coordinating Council. To the extent practicable, the inventory shall include an assessment of the contaminants known or suspected to have been discharged or that are currently stored on the site, the extent of any remediation performed on the site, the site’s proximity to transportation networks, and the availability of infrastructure to support the redevelopment of the site. The information gathered for the inventory shall, to the extent practicable, be made available to the public by entering it into the Department of Environmental Protection’s existing geographic information system, by making this information available on the system and by making copies of any maps and data available to the public. The department may charge a reasonable fee for the reproduction of maps and data which fee shall reflect the cost of their reproduction.

c. In addition to its functions pursuant to subsection b. of this section, the task force shall:

(1) coordinate State policy on brownfields redevelopment, including incentives, regulatory programs, provision of infrastructure, and redevelopment planning assistance to local governments;

(2) use the inventory to prioritize sites based on their immediate economic development potential;

(3) prepare a plan of action to return these sites to productive economic use on an expedited basis;

(4) actively market sites on the inventory to prospective developers;

(5) use the inventory to provide a targeted environmental assessment of the sites, or of areas containing several brownfield sites, by the Department of Environmental Protection;

(6) consult with the Pinelands Commission concerning the remediation and redevelopment of brownfield sites located in the pinelands area as designated pursuant to section 10 of P.L.1979, c.111 (C. 13:18A-11);

(7) evaluate the performance of current public incentives in encouraging the remediation and redevelopment of brownfields; and

(8) make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on means to better promote the redevelopment of brownfields, including the provision of necessary public infrastructure and methods to attract private investment in redevelopment.

d. As used in this section, “brownfield” means any former or current commercial or industrial site that is currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or there is suspected to have been, a discharge of a contaminant.

L.1997,c.278,s.5; amended 1998,c.44,s.35; 2003,c.63.