Development of Opportunity Zones Utilizing Transportation Assets : Executive Summary Report

Executive summary report.PDFTech ReportFHWA/OH-2012/11ODOT state job number 134559Economic developmentEconomic analysisEconomic growthEconomic forecastingRoadsInfrastructureAssetsFinanceOhioOhio. Dept. of Transportation. Research SectionWashington, GregoryMerry, CarolynVan Volkinburg, KyleOhio State University. Intelligent Structures and Systems LabOhio. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Research and DevelopmentNTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-ECONOMICS AND FINANCENTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-FundingNTL-GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS-GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMSNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYUS Transportation CollectionThe challenge that spurred this project is that transportation is traditionally an afterthought when it comesto company site selection. This yields three chief problems:1. Ohio\ue2\u20ac\u2122s expansive transportation network (ex. roads, rails, ports, and airports) and associatedfacilities (ex. intermodal facilities) are marketable assets when compared to other states and arenot being leveraged properly2. Companies contacting ODOT with transportation infrastructure enhancement requests, after theysettled at a site that, sometimes, are not feasible3. The possibility for the local existing transportation infrastructure supporting a company\ue2\u20ac\u2122s logisticalnetwork to degrade more rapidly than projected if it was not designed to handle the extra loadingassociated with receiving and shipping goodsWith the creation of the Jobs and Commerce Office came the need for a framework to makerecommendations to assist in the site selection process, with assistance from agencies, such as JobsOhio, for incoming/expanding companies. The goal of this research project was to fulfill this need with thecreation and development of the Opportunity Zone Identification Program or \ue2\u20ac\u153OZ Program\ue2\u20ac? for short