Special Improvement Districts: Ohio’s New Tool to Help Owners Fight Erosion

McDonald Hopkins' Kevin Butler will be speaking as part of this virtual event presented by the Ohio Township Association.

Aggressive storms and high water levels are causing millions of dollars of damage to properties along Ohio’s waterways, whether inland or on Lake Erie. And the cost of erosion control repair is high. Thankfully, in 2019 the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation to allow property owners to create special improvement districts (“SIDs”) and have their properties assessed over time, which in turn creates the necessary funding for erosion control projects and makes the financing less expensive  — and the repayment terms more flexible. In 2021, the Ohio General Assembly extended erosion control SID eligibility from Lake Erie to all the watersheds in the state. Local governments are not expected to participate in the financing of these erosion control projects, but they must pass local legislation to create the SIDs and enable the property owners to have the project costs assessed to their tax duplicates. In this webinar, McDonald Hopkins Public Law attorney Kevin Butler will describe the new funding mechanism, how SIDs are created, and how the financing proceeds can be accessed by property owners desperate to prevent erosion along the lakefront and other waterways.