Earlier this week, the Ohio Senate introduced its substitute budget bill. It makes changes to the Ohio Brownfield Remediation and Building Demolition & Site Revitalization Programs, and how communities may use residential tax abatement in the future.

These changes will make it more difficult to undertake redevelopment projects in Ohio.

Changes to Brownfield Remediation + Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Programs

The Senate changed the brownfields grant program so that only county commissioners can submit project applications. Under the program that has operated since 2021, anyone could apply to the program, as long as they had a county cooperative agreement. This shift to designating counties as the only eligible applicants will create burdens on county staff and disadvantage rural and smaller counties with limited staff.

The other significant change to the program is that private sector entities are not named in a newly established list of eligible sub-recipients. GOPC interprets this omission as meaning private sector-led projects will need to create an agreement with a eligible sub-recipient first, before the application then goes to the commissioners.

These changes create inefficiencies and introduce unnecessary risk. The net result will likely be fewer brownfield redevelopment projects.

Here are talking points you can use when you call your Senator to express your concerns.

Changes to Residential Tax Abatement

The Senate has specified that *newly created* Community Reinvestment Areas, Urban Renewal Areas, and TIF districts, cannot offer “tax incentives” (e.g. abatements) to residential rental projects for the next five years. Nor can rental projects in Opportunity Zones apply for the state Opportunity Zone tax credit until 2028.

New rental housing in converted buildings or new builds on vacant lots has led the successful revitalization of most downtowns and neighborhoods in Ohio. Tax abatement has been the only way these projects “pencil out” in untested or modest markets.

The Senate’s changes will significantly slow efforts to reinvent Ohio’s communities and put further pressure on already tight local housing markets by reducing the production of new housing.

We encourage you to tell your Senator how these changes will negatively impact needed and desired development in your community.

The Time to Call your Senator is NOW

Please call your senator and senators you have relationships on Thursday or Friday (6/8-6/9/23). The next version of the budget, the Senate’s omnibus bill, will come out early next week and be voted on by the end of the week.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about these proposed changes. Please consider using the above talking points as part of any messages you share with your elected officials in Columbus when contacting them about these changes.