OH HB524

Ohio Development Services Agency must develop the Lakefront Ohio Economic Development and Tourism Plan within 16 months to increase commerce and tourism in counties bordering Lake Erie.

Plan shall include recommendations for vacant land, commercially available land, and land currently in use with potential for increased commerce and tourism, but exclude industrial use proposals.

Eight regional institutions of higher education must jointly develop a proposal for land use within 12 months and submit to the Development Services Agency, including identification of developable land and funding recommendations.

Upon receiving the institutions' proposal, the Development Services Agency completes the plan and submits it to the Office of Tourism Ohio, JobsOhio, and local officials in Lake Erie border counties.

$3,000,000 appropriated from the General Revenue Fund for fiscal year 2015, with $375,000 distributed to each of the eight specified higher education institutions.