The City of Lorain engaged the CSU Center for Community Planning and Development to assist with developing a rationale for defining Blighted Properties and Blighted Areas within the City. These definitions will be incorporated into the City’s Code of Ordinances in order to provide criteria for allocating funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). The criteria and analysis method can also be useful to the City in prioritizing neighborhoods at the block group level which are in need of rehabilitation.

The full report outlines the key issues, and explores alternative approaches for defining Blighted Properties and Blighted Areas based on property condition. This analysis was conducted using GIS to conduct spatial analysis of property condition data.