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Brownfields Specialist
Eight years after he helped Miami-Dade County land a pilot grant to help clean up a site in Liberty City, Goldstein has become perhaps the state's most influential brownfields player. A shareholder with the law firm of Akerman Senterfitt, his clients have included everyone from Wal-Mart to the city of Miami. "I've represented almost every interested party you can imagine," says Goldstein.
In his second term as president of the Florida Brownfields Association -- a non-profit statewide coalition of private and public sector stakeholders working on brownfields-related issues -- he also is advocating changes to the state's brownfields program. The process, he says, is "not as streamlined," predictable or clear as it could be. He also favors including extended liability protection from lawsuits for property damage by adjacent owners and a more expansive interpretation by the DEP of what cleanup costs are eligible for tax credits. Currently, the Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit Program provides a tax credit of 35% for cleanup costs incurred, with a $250,000 cost cap in any given year. Goldstein would like to see that tax credit increased to 50% and the cap doubled to $500,000.
Ultimately, the biggest impediment to broader success for the state's brownfields initiative may be the word "brownfields" and its association with contamination. Goldstein favors scrapping the word altogether in favor of a more neutral term such as "land recycling. "We should change and amend the name of the program to Florida's Land Recycling and Restoration Act because that's what we're talking about. Land restoration. Land recycling."
Goldstein expects his outreach efforts to culminate in a bill during the next session of the state Legislature.
