Officials hope to establish CRA

Incentives would be offered for revitalizing properties in area

Perry Village is hoping to encourage the revitalization of residential and commercial properties by establishing a Community Reinvestment Area.

Village Council and Mayor James Gessic, during a recent council meeting, considered what parts of the village could comprise a CRA and discussed how to gain state approval to operate this kind of program.

“Our goal is to identify the streets that we want to include in this area,” Gessic said at the Nov. 8 council meeting. “We have to do a survey of the properties … then we’ll submit that to the county and they’ll write a report and submit it to the state for approval.”

To establish a CRA, a local government entity submits an application to the Ohio Development Services Agency. The ODSA must

confirm that the geographic target area is one in which investment in properties has traditionally been discouraged, according to a fact sheet on the state agency’s website.

Once an area is confirmed as eligible for a CRA a community can offer real property tax exemptions to property owners who renovate existing buildings or construct new ones in that area, the website explains.

Gessic said Perry Village would like to establish a CRA “to eliminate our blight in certain areas, especially our downtown area.”

In regard to what parts of the village should be included in the proposed CRA, Gessic and council members mentioned such streets as Main, Maple, Harper, Thompson, Green

and Depot.

“Based on the age of the houses, and the criteria I saw with Mentor-on-theLake and Fairport Harbor, the age of the houses are basically within that realm and a lot of the condition of our houses fits the CRA criteria,” he said. “(The county) is going to do a report with all of the logistics behind it. Basically, (the village) has got to get information of the condition of these places and the streets we want to incorporate.”

A housing survey that a community conducts for a CRA application “must include specific evidence of disinvestment in the structures there,” according to the ODSA.

“For example, houses that are in disrepair (… poor roofing, siding falling off and porches coming off of houses). Basically, evidence that the structures have not been kept up,” the ODSA states.

Perry Village leaders are hoping that if a proposed CRA is approved, residents could use tax credits to complete projects such as installing new windows, siding or roofs, or constructing new driveways or porches.

Gessic said that Perry Village also could include commercial properties in its CRA.

“When businesses are trying to come in, they can use that CRA to invest in and upgrade a property,” he said.

The next step in creating a proposed CRA would be to put together a list of addresses of homes and buildings in need of repair.

After council reviews the proposal in December, Gessic hopes to submit a final list of addresses and other required information in January to the county, which would then prepare and send in the village’s CRA application to the state.