COLUMBUS -- Owners of Lake Erie shoreline properties in Lorain County will be among the first to benefit from the state's new Coastal Erosion Control loan program to help protect erosion-prone lakeshore areas. The Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) today released $264,649 to Lorain County Commissioners for erosion-protection loans in the county, the first such funds to be made available through the new program.
OWDA Executive Director Steve Grossman said that below-market interest rate loans will be available for the design and construction of coastal erosion-control measures on lakeshore properties located in designated coastal erosion areas. Offered by OWDA in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and Lorain County Commissioners, these loans are the first to implement legislation signed by Governor Bob Taft in 1999.
Similar loan agreements are being established in Erie, Lake, Lucas and Ottawa counties, Grossman said. Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Sandusky have not yet request to be part of the program.
To be eligible for a loan, a project must protect property lying in a designated coastal erosion area, as determined by ODNR in 1998 following extensive mapping of Ohio's Lake Erie shore. Design and location of all projects must also meet all local, state and federal requirements.
Properties in designated coastal erosion areas include stretches of coastline identified as being those most likely to erode more than nine feet within the next 30 years, or at a rate greater than 0.3 feet per year. Nearly 37 percent of coastal properties in Ohio meet those criteria.
Owners of properties lying within a coastal erosion area have already been notified of this designation. Information on coastal erosion areas may be obtained by calling ODNR's toll-free Coastal Help Line at 888-644-6267 or from county and municipal officers in each coastal county.
Lorain County property owners may obtain loan applications and further information from the Lorain County Community Development Department at 440-329-5302.