The Brownfield Remediation Fund (BRF) brought the most significant investment in brownfield grant dollars to Ohio in nearly a decade. Over the past decade, the Greater Ohio Policy Center (GOPC) has served as Ohio’s lead advocate for policies that encourage brownfields redevelopment, which includes a dedicated grant funding program. GOPC research has shown that accessible grant dollars significantly increase productive redevelopment projects on former brownfields by supporting local communities and brownfields practitioners with additional resources to assess, remediate, and revitalize brownfields sites across the state of Ohio.
The Brownfield Remediation Fund provided nearly $350 million in grant dollars to assess and cleanup/remediate brownfields in the state, through three rounds. The Ohio Department of Development awarded the first round of grants in two batches, in April and June of 2022. The other two rounds have not been announced, as of October 2022.
GOPC has published a white paper, “The Benefit of Brownfields: Analysis of the Brownfield Remediation Fund’s Round 1 Awards & Preliminary Programmatic Recommendations,” in October 2022. This white paper analyzes the $252 million awarded in the first round of the BRF and makes the case for another $500 million in state funding in the next state Operating Budget. The paper also recommends one adjustment to the current program to help communities, especially smaller and more rural communities, successfully compete for funds.
In total, Round 1 awarded 72% of the available grant dollars of the Brownfield Remediation Fund. Fifty-eight (58) of Ohio’s 88 counties were awarded grant dollars. Expected end uses on the sites vary from senior housing, riverfront recreational space, and new manufacturing sites.
The full report can be accessed here; the location of the sites with a selection of case studies can be found here. As additional rounds are announced, GOPC will continue to update this data.