As discussed in my prior post, in September Ohio EPA announced that it would be sending “hundreds of letters” to property owners that have trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination, including property owners that cleaned up their property under the Voluntary Action Program (VAP). At the September meeting of VAP professionals the Agency announced that it could take
Brownfields/Transactions
Ohio EPA to Issue Letters Regarding TCE to Property Owners
At a recent meeting of brownfield cleanup professionals, Ohio EPA announced plans to issue letters to owners of property contaminated with TCE. Ohio EPA says it reviewed thousands of sites and will be issuing letters to "hundreds" of sites where it has information in its files that TCE is present. Based on this review, the…
JobsOhio Launches Site Selection Search Database
JobsOhio launched a new site selection tool called SiteOhio designed to provide easy access to businesses looking for locations to either develop new facilities or buy/lease existing buildings. The easy to use web based tool allows you to search by the following parameters:
- Available buildings of a certain size
- Vacant land based on acreage
- Businesses
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Cuyahoga County May End Brownfield Program
After more than ten years of building a brownfield redevelopment program, Cuyahoga County Officials are currently contemplating bringing the program to a close. Over the last few years significant staff cuts have reduced the amount of resources dedicated to the program. Now it appears that in 2017 the various incentives available to attract redevelopment to…
State of Ohio Pursues Recovery of Incentives
Companies expanding onto brownfield sites need public incentives to make their projects viable. However, the days when cleanup of contamination by itself could attract public incentives are long over. Under the new local and State brownfield programs companies must make job commitments and/or improvements to the property to attract government assistance.
When companies work with…
Like Ohio, TCE Gets Attention in Massachusetts
Ohio is not the only state that is reviewing all sites that have trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) recently announced that is was going to review 1,000 closed sites with TCE contamination. MassDEP will evaluate the sites "based on the current understanding of health risks, even if the site was previously…
What Ohio Can Learn from the New Kansas Brownfield Law
In my four part blog post series- Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio- the final post advocated for a new Ohio liability protection law for buyers of contaminated property. The new law would provide brownfield redevelopers liability protection faster and at a lower cost than the current Ohio Voluntary Action Program (VAP).
I suggested looking to…
Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio: Part 4 of 4
This is the final post discussing the current state of brownfield redevelopment in Ohio. It provides suggested changes to the regulations and incentives in Ohio to accelerate brownfield redevelopment. The prior posts in this series discussed the following:
- The Issues Presented by Brownfields- In particular the impact to Urban Centers
- The Current State of Brownfield
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Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio- Part 3 of 4
This is the third post in a series of four assessing the current state of brownfield redevelopment in the State of Ohio. This third post will evaluate the progress Ohio has made in the last twenty years with regard to addressing brownfields.
Current Options for Addressing Environmental Liability
As discussed extensively in the prior posts…
Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio- Part 2 of 4
This second post in the series discussing brownfield redevelopment in Ohio will provide an overview of the extent and nature of Ohio’s brownfield problem. First, the post will discuss Ohio’s progress in spurring brownfield versus greenfield redevelopment. Second, the post will provide an overview of public information regarding the number of brownfields in Ohio …