Effective: June 9, 2004
Latest Legislation: House Bill 427 - 125th General Assembly
As used in sections 122.65 to 122.659 of the Revised Code:
(A) "Applicable cleanup standards" means either of the following:
(1) For property to which Chapter 3734. of the Revised Code and rules adopted under it apply, the requirements for closure or corrective action established in rules adopted under section 3734.12 of the Revised Code;
(2) For property to which Chapter 3746. of the Revised Code and rules adopted under it apply, the cleanup standards that are established in rules adopted under section 3746.04 of the Revised Code.
(B) "Applicant" means a county, township, municipal corporation, port authority, or conservancy district or a park district, other similar park authority, nonprofit organization, or organization for profit that has entered into an agreement with a county, township, municipal corporation, port authority, or conservancy district to work in conjunction with that county, township, municipal corporation, port authority, or conservancy district for the purposes of sections 122.65 to 122.658 of the Revised Code.
(C) "Assessment" means a phase I and phase II property assessment conducted in accordance with section 3746.04 of the Revised Code and rules adopted under that section.
(D) "Brownfield" means an abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial, commercial, or institutional property where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by known or potential releases of hazardous substances or petroleum.
(E) "Certified professional," "hazardous substance," "petroleum," and "release" have the same meanings as in section 3746.01 of the Revised Code.
(F) "Cleanup or remediation" means any action to contain, remove, or dispose of hazardous substances or petroleum at a brownfield. "Cleanup or remediation" includes the acquisition of a brownfield, demolition performed at a brownfield, and the installation or upgrade of the minimum amount of infrastructure that is necessary to make a brownfield operational for economic development activity.
(G) "Distressed area" means either a municipal corporation with a population of at least fifty thousand or a county that meets any two of the following criteria:
(1) Its average rate of unemployment, during the most recent five-year period for which data are available, is equal to at least one hundred twenty-five per cent of the average rate of unemployment for the United States for the same period.
(2) It has a per capita income equal to or below eighty per cent of the median county per capita income of the United States as determined by the most recently available figures from the United States census bureau.
(3)(a) In the case of a municipal corporation, at least twenty per cent of the residents have a total income for the most recent census year that is below the official poverty line.
(b) In the case of a county, in intercensal years, the county has a ratio of transfer payment income to total county income equal to or greater than twenty-five per cent.
"Distressed area" includes a municipal corporation the majority of the population of which is situated in a county that is a distressed area.
(H) "Eligible area" means a distressed area, an inner city area, a labor surplus area, or a situational distress area.
(I) "Inner city area" means an area in a municipal corporation that has a population of at least one hundred thousand, is not a labor surplus area, and is a targeted investment area established by the municipal corporation that is comprised of block tracts identified in the most recently available figures from the United States census bureau in which at least twenty per cent of the population in the area is at or below the official poverty line or of contiguous block tracts meeting those criteria.
(J) "Institutional property" means property currently or formerly owned or controlled by the state that is or was used for a public or charitable purpose. However, "institutional property" does not mean property that is or was used for educational purposes.
(K) "Integrating committee" means a district public works integrating committee established under section 164.04 of the Revised Code.
(L) "Labor surplus area" means an area designated as a labor surplus area by the United States department of labor.
(M) "Loan" includes credit enhancement.
(N) "No further action letter" means a letter that is prepared by a certified professional when, on the basis of the best knowledge, information, and belief of the certified professional, the certified professional concludes that the cleanup or remediation of a brownfield meets the applicable cleanup standards and that contains all of the information specified in rules adopted under division (B)(7) of section 3746.04 of the Revised Code.
(O) "Nonprofit organization" means a corporation, association, group, institution, society, or other organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the "Internal Revenue Code of 1986," 100 Stat. 2085, 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3), as amended.
(P) "Property" means any parcel of real property, or portion of such a parcel, and any improvements to it.
(Q) "Public health project" means the cleanup or remediation of a release or threatened release of hazardous substances or petroleum at a property where little or no economic redevelopment potential exists.
(R) "Official poverty line" has the same meaning as in section 3923.51 of the Revised Code.
(S) "Situational distress area" means a county or a municipal corporation that has experienced or is experiencing a closing or downsizing of a major employer that will adversely affect the county or municipal corporation's economy and that has applied to the director of development to be designated as a situational distress area for not more than thirty months by demonstrating all of the following:
(1) The number of jobs lost by the closing or downsizing;
(2) The impact that the job loss has on the county or municipal corporation's unemployment rate as measured by the director of job and family services;
(3) The annual payroll associated with the job loss;
(4) The amount of state and local taxes associated with the job loss;
(5) The impact that the closing or downsizing has on suppliers located in the county or municipal corporation.