On March 6th the Clean Ohio Council approved major changes to the Clean Ohio program.  The changes are now effective and will govern the remaining $15 million in funding that was set aside in the last budget. 

After the $15 million has been exhausted, JobsOhio has indicated it will launch a new $43 million per year brownfield redevelopment program.  No word yet on what the details of that program may look like, however, it is safe to assume that the more streamlined structure and emphasis on jobs will be key aspects of the JobsOhio program.

Here are the major changes approved by the Council on March 6th:

  • Single incentive program- COAF and CORF Combined into one brownfield funding program:
  • Streamlined application process–  Requests for funding are now initiated by submitting a letter of interest to JobsOhio regional network.  This is a positive development for CORF projects that required applicants to invest $20,00 or more to file the application without knowing whether they will be funded;
  • All grants will be awarded on a rolling basis-  This replaces the CORF process of two rounds of funding with pools of applicants competing against one another.
  • Cleanup grants remain capped at $3 million–  The proposal had been to reduce them to $1 million;
  • Assessment grants are capped at $200,000–  compared to $300,000 under the old program.
  • Expanded eligible infrastructure costs under the grant
  • Eliminated the Redevelopment Ready Track- Grant applicants must have a committed end user of the property.