BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Bowling Green City Council is moving ahead with a planned 117-lot workforce housing subdivision on the city’s north side, backed by a $1 million state grant that will run water and sewer lines to the site. The development, to be called the Green Acres Subdivision, would rise near the intersection of Brim and Bishop roads, according to the Ohio Department of Development’s grant announcement, and Mayor Mike Aspacher highlighted the council’s action in his monthly interview with the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce.
The money comes from the state’s Residential Economic Development District program, known as REDD. In its September announcement of the awards, the Ohio Department of Development said the City of Bowling Green, in Wood County, will receive a $1 million grant to support the planned development of 117 workforce housing lots at Green Acres, and that the project supports housing demand created by investments from Amazon and others. Bowling Green’s award was part of $14 million in REDD grants announced by Governor Mike DeWine to support workforce housing in 10 Ohio counties, BG Independent News reported.
According to a legislative package prepared for council and reported by BG Independent News, the grant will pay for public water and sanitary sewer mains and related road work at the site, at the northwest corner of Brim and Bishop roads. The grant was awarded Oct. 1, and construction is expected in 2027, BG Independent News reported. The infrastructure comes first by design: without water, sewer and road work in the ground, the 117 lots cannot be built on.
Council took the next formal step at its Monday, Oct. 19 meeting, giving a first reading to the ordinance that authorizes Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter to sign the grant agreement, according to BG Independent News and the Sentinel-Tribune. The final two readings, with an emergency clause requested, are expected at council’s Nov. 2 meeting. “This is a fantastic opportunity,” Tretter told BG Independent News after the meeting. “Spurring housing developments has long been a goal of council and the mayor.”
The REDD program is built around a simple pressure point in Ohio’s economy: when a major employer invests in an area, the workers who fill those jobs need somewhere to live nearby. The state program directs grants to communities near major economic development projects so they can fund the housing-related infrastructure — roads, water and sewer service — that new neighborhoods require before a single home goes up. Bowling Green’s Green Acres project was funded on exactly that logic, tied in the state’s announcement to housing demand from Amazon and other area investments.
For Bowling Green, the subdivision answers a long-running local need. City leaders have made spurring new housing development a stated goal, and a 117-lot subdivision is a significant addition for a city of Bowling Green’s size — new homes aimed at the workforce rather than student rentals, in a college town where much of the housing conversation has historically centered on Bowling Green State University. Lots aimed at working households could help employees of area employers put down roots inside the city instead of commuting in from surrounding Wood County communities.
What happens next is procedural, then physical. If council completes the remaining readings on Nov. 2 as expected, Tretter will be authorized to sign the grant agreement with the state, locking in the $1 million. Design and construction of the water, sewer and road work would follow, with construction expected in 2027, according to BG Independent News’ reporting of the council package. Only after that infrastructure is in place can builders move on to the 117 homes themselves — making Green Acres one of the larger housing additions Bowling Green has lined up in years, and one residents will be able to watch take shape on the city’s north side.
Photo: Tma169, CC BY-SA