August Landbank Meeting

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Land Reutilization Corporation held its monthly meeting to discuss the various projects that are currently taking place. 

Land Bank Executive Andy Roberts shared some of the details that included newly acquired properties as well as the progress that is taking place with some of their existing projects.

“We’ve been doing active demolition out at the former Waterworks Building on the Triple Sixes,” Roberts said. “That project’s moving along well. The structure had not been used since the early 2000s, when they built the new water treatment facility. Due to EPA guidelines, you’re not allowed to have commercial uses within a certain footprint of the water treatment facility. So the building had just fallen in disrepair and was not able to be used for any other purpose. So we’re just taking it out to minimize the liability.”

The former Holiday Inn located on the East Pike has recently been demolished and will be combined with the former Howard Johnson property, which needs asbestos removed before its demolition, to provide a 40-acre commercial property with Interstate frontage.

“Over the past five years, we’ve gained approximately $14 Million Dollars in grant funding to address Brownfields and derelict properties in Muskingum County. Currently, we’re running 14 projects right now, we have a few applications out for a few others. We just received a half-a-million dollar USEPA Assessment Grant so that we can go out and assess other properties to find out if they need cleanup work done,” Roberts said.

Over the past few years, the Land Bank has increasingly gained a prominent role in the city and county’s image improvement agenda, leading Roberts into a full time role as its Executive Director.