Ohio Vacant Property Impact Study 2006

ReBuild Ohio

ReBuild Ohio is a consortium of local government, nonprofit and civic organizations concerned with the debilitating effects of vacant and abandoned property in Ohio. ReBuild Ohio's vision is to promote reclamation and redevelopment of vacant and abandoned property for enhanced quality of life in neighborhoods, towns, and cities throughout the state. To reduce the number of problem properties in the state, ReBuild Ohio works to prevent the cycle of abandonment and to remove barriers to the redevelopment of residential, commercial, and industrial land. Through research, education, and advocacy, ReBuild Ohio seeks to improve existing code enforcement, land use, data information, and other preventative tools and to develop new state and local policies for expeditious acquisition and disposition of properties.

ReBuild Ohio intends to conduct two major studies in 2006 and 2007 that will support its policy agenda. One study will be a needs assessment to survey existing laws and tools that address problem properties in the state and to recommend specific state policy reforms. The second study will document and quantify the vacancy and abandonment problem in select communities across the state and estimate the economic costs borne by local governments and neighborhoods within those communities.

ReBuild Ohio asked Community Research Partners (CRP) to design a study to research the economic and community impact of vacant property in selected Ohio cities. The research design project includes a review of literature and research models and analysis of data from 13 Ohio cities to assess data availability and select communities to be used in the impact study.

The research design project was funded by Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing.

CRP worked with Rebuild Ohio and its Advisory Committee to review demographic data on 94 Ohio communities. Based on this data, CRP and Rebuild Ohio selected 13 cities to include in the research design: Chillicothe, Dayton, Euclid, Ironton, Lima, Middletown, Norwood, Springfield, Toledo, Youngstown, and Zanesville. Rebuild Ohio and the Advisory Committee determined that a more in-depth analysis of specific neighborhoods in Columbus and Cleveland should also be conducted. A separate neighborhood selection process has been established in each city to identify two to four neighborhoods for which this additional analysis will be conducted.