The Partners and Project Team

The Partners for this project include community groups like Charleston Village Society and Lorain Growth Corporation as well as property owners like the Port Authority and other organizations who bring expertise, connections and enthusiasm to the project. Each partner is contributing to the success of the project and intends to continue to work on aspects of the project after the Lorain County Area-wide Planning Project is complete. Please review the information about each partner and feel free to reach out to get involved. More will be shared as the role and activities of each partner is defined.

(LGC) is dedicated to the revitalization of Lorain. They are focused on mobilizing resources for businesses to thrive in the Lorain Waterfront District. The four components of revitalization are organization, economic restructuring, design and promotion. They are the Main Street Program for Lorain Oho. They market and promote events, tourism, and economic development, within the Lorain downtown and Entertainment District.

To learn more about the LGC, visit their website or contact them at loraingrowth@gmail.com

LCGHD’s mission is to create a healthy place for all to live, work, and play by preventing disease in the community, empowering people to make better choices, and promoting overall health and wellness.

Their vision is to create programs and services that allow and encourage the healthy choice to be the easy choice, operate in a sustainable fashion that reflects responsible stewardship, lead by example in the community, and manage our organization to effectively face current and future public health challenges.

The Lorain County General Health District has 6 basic responsibilities:

• Inspection- inspect food service operations and other public institutions as part of the licensing requirements.
• Licensing- issue licenses for restaurants, vending machines, solid waste disposal sites, campgrounds, marinas, private water systems, manufactured home parks, public pools, spas, and beaches.
• Immunizations, Tests, and Treatments- Administers immunizations, tests, and treatments to fight against communicable disease.
• Regulatory- enforce all State of Ohio and local health regulations.
• Reporting- report the existence of contagious and infectious disease to the State Department of Health.
• Vital Statistics- maintain a record of births and deaths which occur in the district.

For more information, visit their website.

The Lorain County Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1988 and is currently 600 members strong. We act as the voice of the business community and our mission is to promote and support the success and growth of the Lorain County business community. We offer marketing and networking, training and informational seminars, and act as a liaison when needed for businesses with the municipalities and governmental agencies. We showcase our local manufacturing companies each October by highlighting Manufacturing Month, and promote business to business opportunities with our yearly EXPO. The Lorain County Chamber works with our local schools systems and institutions of higher learning to make sure our emerging workforce has the skills needed for the 21st Century work place. Lastly, we work hand in hand with our local non-profits, organizations and philanthropies to help make Lorain County a desirable destination for working, living, playing and raising families and opening up a business.

For more information, visit their website.

The Charleston Village society is a non-profit organization of volunteers, striving for preservation of the area of Lorain, Ohio – formerly known as Charleston, 1834. CVSI was founded in 1989 and became a 501c3 in 1993. The society relies on the kindness of volunteers to effect concrete change in the Lorain community. Read more about their initiatives here.

As the community and economic development representative for the Lorain County Board of Commissioners, Lorain County Community Development offers programs and services in Planning, Zoning, Housing, Community & Economic Development.

Their mission is to serve Lorain County residents through community development initiatives by striving to improve the quality of life; to foster smart growth; to promote economic vitality; to encourage development and redevelopment and to provide tools to community leaders for management and for making policy decisions.

For more information, visit their website.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Brownfields Area-Wide Planning (BF AWP) Program to assist communities in responding to local brownfields challenges, particularly where multiple brownfield sites are in close proximity, connected by infrastructure, and overall limit the economic, environmental and social prosperity of their surroundings. Through the BF AWP Program, EPA provides assistance to advance community brownfield revitalization efforts. The BF AWP program is part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities collaboration among EPA and the Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

To read more about the US EPA’s area wide planning process visit the website.

• Vita Nuova is a national redevelopment consulting firm focusing on the revitalization of distressed areas and redevelopment of complex properties. Vita Nuova has completed over 20 area-wide planning projects nationally including several prior to the advent of the current program. Vita Nuova conducted the “pilot” for USEPA which led to the design of the current program in Indianapolis, Indiana for USEPA Region 5 and has completed numerous other high-profile area wide planning efforts in the region including the Strong Cities effort in Gary, Indiana which has led to the creation of the new Lakefront District (www.lakefrontdistrict.com) and the Toledo Area-wide Planning project (www.toledoawp.com). In addition to work for public agencies, Vita Nuova has worked with numerous Fortune 500 corporations to disposition and bring about redevelopment at surplus properties. A recent example includes the former TIO2 plant in Wilmington, Delaware which will become a new container shipping facility for the Port of Delaware (www.edgemoorreuse.com) and many others.
• ICP is a regionally-based community involvement and stakeholder engagement firm. They are adept at working with all types of communities and doing outreach with difficult to reach stakeholders in distressed neighborhoods. They help engage and empower stakeholders to ensure that they become active participants in the process and contribute positively to the project outcome. As a disadvantaged, woman-owned business established in 2014, they bring a wealth of experience, energy, and wisdom to our stakeholder engagement approach.

  Their approach includes a mix of informal education, collective action and organizational development. It focuses on cultivating inclusiveness, mutual aid and building local networks. ICP consulting has worked in the toughest neighborhoods in Ohio. These distressed low income neighborhoods are inhabited by predominantly minority individuals. ICP consulting listens to residents, engages in data based discussions and help residents create strategic plans that they view as possible.