The State of Ohio owns a great deal of land in locations scattered around the state. Although perspectives may vary, some of that land is certainly unused or under-utilized. Whenever such land is held without any clear plan for its use or development, that situation represents a missed opportunity for the surrounding community and can lead to problems of blight and its attendant negative consequences. Perhaps the land could be developed commercially, or annexed to surrounding property to give it a responsible owner, or reclaimed by the community for parkland or other public use. Or perhaps in some circumstances the best use of the property is in fact for the State to continue to hold it unused – but if that is so, at least the issue should be raised and the situation should be justified.

The problem we seek to address here is two-fold. First, we are working to provide a basis for compiling a comprehensive inventory of state-owned property. None of the existing “top-down” mechanisms in state government appears to provide any such complete and accurate inventory of all state lands. Therefore we have embarked on the mammoth task of creating a “bottom-up” list of state-owned properties, working from the property tax lists compiled in each county of all taxable and tax-exempt properties.

It may surprise Ohioans to know that there is no single comprehensive inventory of state-owned lands. The government of Ohio owns a great deal of real property (land) throughout the State. This property comprises roads, parks, prisons, armories, offices, and various other sites that either do now contribute, or at one time were thought to contribute, to the operations and functions of state government. Many of the individual properties are unimproved land (with no man-made additions) along roads and highways. Some of the other properties were once designated to house offices or storage facilities, but they may now sit vacant and unused. Some of them are so small or so peculiarly shaped as to be virtually unusable.

You can read our entire first interim report here.

The Second interim report can be read here.