Happy Holidays from everyone at the Greater Ohio Policy Center!
2020 has been an unconventional year. Most of us at GOPC have been working remotely since March 16, but that has not stopped us from continuing to pursue our vision of a revitalized Ohio..
Achieved Policy Wins
Ohio lawmakers unanimously passed HB168, with the Senate passing the bill on May 6 and the House of Representatives concurring to changes made by the Senate on May 13.The new law formally took effect on September 15, 2020.
The bona fide prospective purchase defense law is a policy GOPC has championed as a means to encourage brownfield redevelopment through regulatory reform. The law provides an affirmative defense for legal liability protection to prospective purchasers of a brownfield who take all appropriate steps to assess the property. An amendment accepted near the end of the bills deliberations clarifies that the affirmative defense offered by the bill is retroactive to January 11, 2002, when companion federal legislation look effect.
2020 also saw the introduction of the first bill to provide dedicated funding to the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund (CORF) in seven years. CORF was a highly successful program, providing the state with a four-to-one economic return. CORF is recognized as a community-responsive tool for brownfield redevelopment efforts. Therefore, public and private stakeholders agree that providing CORF with a dedicated funding source is the most logical solution to addressing the brownfield remediation need in Ohio’s communities. House Bill 675 (HB675) provides dedicated funding to CORF.
While HB675 has not received a hearing in 2020, we are optimistic that the introduction of HB675 in the first step in the process of establishing dedicated CORF funding in 2021.
To learn more about HB675 and the CORF program, please visit our website.
Provided Tools to Ohio’s Communities
The unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many organizations to rethink the way they operate and the services they provide to the communities they serve. GOPC was not immune to these changes.
In the weeks and months since the pandemic first disrupted the routines of normal life across Ohio, GOPC has provided a continually updated list of available resources to individuals and the communities that we serve on our website. We have also joined with many other statewide organizations in advocating for a number of important policies at the state and federal level, including rental assistance and increased funding and other resources for public transit agencies who have continued to provide vital service to communities, often times forgoing important fare box revenue in the process.
GOPC also hosted a series of webinars in the summer of 2020, along with our partners in the Ohio State Resource Network (OSRN, to discuss best practices and ways that communities can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. These webinars ranged from discussions regarding re-forecasting governmental budgets in times of economic uncertainty, planning for recovering from the impacts of COVID-19, and a discussion regarding strategizing to receive state- and federal-pass through money and how to effectively use those resources in the short-term to advance long-term community goals.
2020 has also seen an important discussion about racial equity in our state and nation rise to the forefront. We believe that it is important, as an organization, to do a better job acknowledging how racism has created and maintained neighborhood disinvestment in Ohio and that equitable redevelopment creates sustainable revitalization. GOPC has also pledged to do our part in dismantling structural inequities. We continue to work internally to determine how best to do this, and continue to update our progress.
Helped Ohio Make Data-Driven Decisions
Back in January, GOPC released its latest analysis of the economic and demographic performance of Ohio’s 22 legacy cities. GOPCs analysis concluded that many of Ohio’s small and mid-sized legacy cities are showing signs of improvement since 2014, but they will require support from the state to be as strong as they were in 2000.
To better understand the impacts that the COVID-19 Crisis is having on Ohio’s communities, GOPC started to track unemployment claims and WARN-reported layoffs. These numbers change quickly, and the organization’s current analysis is not reflective of all realities that Ohio’s residents continue to face on a daily basis. However, GOPC believes this information is still relevant to understanding the employment effects of the Crisis and beneficial to the communities we serve.
GOPC also partnered with Champaign County community leaders to release Open for Business: Comprehensive Housing Market Analysis for Champaign County, Ohio. This study was completed by GOPC in early March 2020 and released in April. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the market rate and affordable housing markets in Champaign County and its four largest communities: the City of Urbana and the Villages of Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg, and St. Paris.
GOPC was also part of a study—overseen by the Department of Community Development and the Equitable Community Development Working Group, a multi-sector advisory group— to better understand the historic usage of the tax abatement program in the City of Cleveland, the value the program generated for the City, and to recommend potential adjustments to the program.
Finding New Ways to Share Our Work
To help stop the spread of COVID-19, GOPC has been working remotely for the better part of 2020. This has also meant that we cannot travel around the state to share the work that we have been doing to fulfil our mission. 2020 saw GOPC introduce a new weekly feature on social media that we like to call "#GOPCThread". these fun, informative, and sometimes whimsical news threads that we post every Thursday at 12pm on Twitter highlight GOPCs work on a smart growth or revitalization topic. Each month, we also showcase an Ohio community that is an example of smart growth and revitalization in action, and these #OHCommunitySpotlight threads demonstrate ways cities are investing in their future.
GOPC Impact Recognized
The American Planning Association’s (APA) Small Town and Rural (STaR) Planning Division has recognized Ohio’s Reinvention Cities Network for excellence in planning. In summer 2020, the Network received the Merit Award for a Planning Initiative. An Awards Committee judged nominated projects based on their innovation, quality, implementation, transferability, collaboration, and long-term sustainability. The Network excelled in all categories. It is working to share best practices throughout Ohio and across the country for states who wish to create a similar network. GOPC is proud to be the steward of this important coalition of communities across Ohio.
If you too believe in creating vibrant, sustainable cities and regions in Ohio, consider supporting GOPC with a year-end contribution. We thank you for your generous support.
All the best for 2021,
Alison Goebel and the GOPC Team