State Announces Over $16M in Additional Brownfield Grants

On September 20, Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Development announced 52 new projects in 31 counties are are to receive grant funds from the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Fund.

The grants were announced along with an additional round of Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program grants, bringing the total number of grants announced to nearly $50 million.

The Brownfield Remediation Program and the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization programs were both launched in 2021 and combined have invested nearly $1 billion in the clean-up, revitalization, and redevelopment of hundreds of blighted properties throughout the state of Ohio.

The Brownfield Remediation Program, which GOPC has championed for more than a decade, has now seen nearly $475 million in grants awarded to 426 projects in 84 of Ohio's 88 counties. These funds are being used to assess brownfield sites for potential contaminants as part of the process of determining steps for site clean-up, as well as funding the actual clean-up of sites. Once brownfield sites have been remediated, redevelopment of sites can occur.

Between the current Brownfield Remediation Program, and the former Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund, hundreds of former brownfield sites have been cleaned-up in Ohio since 2002. Today, these sites host homes, factories, commercial spaces, hospitals, and parks and recreation facilities.

GOPC is currently working with lawmakers to plan for the future of Ohio's brownfield remediation program through the enactment of House Bill 519, which would provide a permanent, dedicated source of funding for brownfield site remediation, while also instituting important programmatic changes to ensure that brownfield remediation remains a priority for the state of Ohio for years to come.