COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday signed an executive order immediately putting rules in place allowing $500 million in state grants to be awarded to clean up contaminated industrial sites and demolished blighted buildings.
The executive order speeds up the distribution of the money appropriated in the latest state budget. It includes $350 million for Brownfield Remediation Program grants and $150 million for Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program grants.
DeWine’s executive order also creates several rules for the Ohio Department of Development, the state agency administering the grants. The order states it will last 120 days or until the legislative Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review adopts permanent rules.
There are 307 brownfield sites listed on the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfield Inventory Database, including 29 in Cuyahoga County. They include abandoned industrial and commercial buildings contaminated with asbestos, noxious chemicals, or other pollutants that need to be removed to redevelop the site.
The demolition and revitalization grants are meant to improve neighborhoods by razing or refurbishing vacant, abandoned, and unsafe buildings.
The money for the grants comes from higher-than-expected state tax revenues.