Happy Holidays from everyone at the Greater Ohio Policy Center!

2019 has been a busy and productive year for all of us as we have maintained our mission to improve the communities of Ohio through smart growth strategies and research. 
 
The biggest event of 2019 was our biannual policy summit, hosted in Columbus on March 14. The 2019 Greater Ohio Summit: New Perspectives on Revitalization featured a full day of panels and guest presentations, as well as a bus tour of the Milo-Grogen neighborhood here in Columbus. The 2019 Summit brought together experts, policymakers, and local leaders to explore the opportunities and best practices for continuing comprehensive and sustainable growth in Ohio's communities. 

At the Statehouse, 2019 saw major progress on a number of fronts. In April, the Ohio Legislature passed, and Governor Mike DeWine signed into a law, a historic increase in funding for public transportation, earmarking $140 million over the next two years for transit agencies across the state. GOPC was a leading advocate for this funding, testifying multiple times throughout the budget process in support of transit investment, and appearing on "The State of Ohio" concerning our efforts to have funding for functional and innovative public transportation included in the budget. 
 
Brownfield redevelopment continued to be a top priority for GOPC in 2019. Our efforts to spur more redevelopment of brownfield sites resulted in the enactment by the legislature of House Bill 168 which addresses and important regulatory gap in Ohio law that puts Ohio at a competitive disadvantage to neighboring states with regard to brownfield redevelopment. The House of Representatives approved the bill in May unanimously, with the Senate following suit on December 17. Because the Senate added an amendment related to the Voluntary Action Program, the bill must return to the House for a concurrence vote before it moves on to Governor DeWine for his approval. This should happen just after the New Year.
 
This year, through GOPC’s stewardship, the Reinvention Cities Network (RCN) achieved its goal of connecting community leaders with peer learning opportunities. In 2019, GOPC hosted three roundtables and one webinar for Ohio’s legacy cities to partake in as opportunity to network and learn from their peers. The roundtables, which took place in Warren, Hamilton, and Zanesville, focused on retooling communities, the capital budget, and JobsOhio.
 
2019 also saw GOPC kick-off a series of new initiatives, including hosting a policy briefing along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on land installment contracts,  launching the Good Ideas initiative, highlighting smart growth in action around Ohio, and collaborating with the National Resource Network, Arnold Ventures, and the Just Transition Fund to launch the Ohio State Resource Network to provide nationally-renowned expertise to economically distressed communities in Ohio. OSRN partners will help local governments build capacity, develop a plan for multi-year fiscal sustainability, and provide guidance on how best to fulfill community priorities that improve quality of life and local economic competitiveness.

On November 5, Greater Ohio Policy Center received the prestigious William J. Graves Ohio Housing Excellence Award at the Ohio Housing Conference.  The award was given by Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in recognition of our work to strengthen Ohio’s communities; provide safe, affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families; and offer critical resources to the state of Ohio to prevent and end homelessness. 

We are extremely honored to be recognized for the work we are doing with and on behalf of communities across the state. Affordable housing is a quality of life issue in all places. 

Coming in 2020…
Early next year, GOPC will unveil our policy agenda for 2020-2021. The policy agenda will shape our advocacy strategy at the statehouse for the next two years. In 2020 we will continue to nurture the growing networks we steward, and deepen our commitment to helping Ohio’s large, medium, and small communities stabilize and revitalize.