Businesses Fight Blight
LORAIN — City officials may be checking into whether properties labeled blighted in a study done by a Cleveland consulting firm deserve the designation.
The blight study is part of the process the city is undergoing to create an urban renewal plan for the area along Broadway from East Erie Avenue along the Black River to about 12th Street.
The plan, if approved by council, would allow the city to qualify the area for tax incremental financing (TIF) — something municipalities do to redirect property taxes to a certain area to improve infrastructure in the interest of development.
Now that Kelo provides state law (in this case Ohio) to establish a ‘blight’ certification in order to redevelop an area, some local jurisdictions still have their chance at private redevelopment on the alleged basis that what is presently there is not good enough.
