OHIO — The state is providing new funding to help communities clean up contaminated properties and prepare for new development.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik announced last week that $88 million in grant funding is now available to help communities clean up contaminated properties and prepare them for new development opportunities.
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The funding will be awarded through the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program, which was launched by the DeWine administration in 2021. The program is administered by the Department of Development.
The program is intended to help communities across the state clean up “industrial, commercial, and institutional brownfield sites that are abandoned, idled, or underutilized due to a known or potential release of hazardous substances or petroleum.”
“No community should be held back by a property that’s unsafe or unusable,” Gov. DeWine said. “Through the Ohio Brownfield Remediation program, we’re giving every county in Ohio the opportunity to tackle these brownfields head-on, restore pride in their neighborhoods, and lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity.”
Through the first 10 rounds, the Brownfield Remediation Program provided nearly $717 million to support 681 projects in 86 counties.
“For nearly five years, the Brownfield Remediation Program has turned liabilities into assets — transforming countless communities and paving the way for new opportunities all across Ohio,” Director Mihalik said. “No one knows the needs of our neighborhoods better than our local partners, and no one has worked harder to bring these lost properties back to life.”
The newest round of funding was made possible with support from the Ohio General Assembly in the most recent biennium budget bill, House Bill 96.
HB 96 allocated an additional $200 million toward the program. As required by HB 96, $1 million is reserved for applicants in each of Ohio’s 88 counties and will be awarded via a merit-based process.
Projects that assess or remediate brownfield properties are eligible for funding, but entities that contributed to the contamination of properties are not eligible to apply.
The Brownfield Remediate Program is part of Gov. DeWine’s Ohio BUILDS Initiative, which focuses on supporting targeted solutions that impact quality of life, such as water infrastructure improvements, broadband expansion, brownfield redevelopment, and the demolition of blighted buildings.
Applications for funding are open now through 5 p.m. on Dec. 5. You can learn more here.
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