Sandusky stays very serious about housing
City commission keeps focus on improving neighborhoods, expanding opportunity
SANDUSKY — Years ago officials didn’t even have a count for how many homes and buildings in the city were blighted, abandoned or otherwise in disrepair beyond repair.
There were plenty — hundreds — and for residents who stayed those structures were a blight, a sign of hard times and a great cause for concern, every day, up against everything from vagrants to varmints, in smelly, dangerous buildings with overgrown yards, collapsed roofs and crumbling walls.
Some residents — including candidates running for city commission this fall — claim the city’s poured time and investment into revitalizing and rebuilding the downtown business district at the expense of neighborhoods, but that doesn’t exactly align with what’s been accomplished.
It’s understandable there is that impression, however, given the high profile renovations of the Jackson Street Pier, Shoreline Drive, Columbus Avenue, the new Hogrefe Building, and, hopefully, the repair and renovation at the Sandusky State Theatre. It is, indeed, a vibrant downtown district.
But there’s been plenty of work on the city’s housing inventory, and a continuing push from city commission and city staff. The need for affordable housing has fueled some of that, but city commission never ignored neighborhoods.
Survey says
About 15 years ago, the fire department did an inventory and graded conditions of abandoned structures. Some were so bad they were classified as properties to let burn if they caught fire because they were too unsafe for firefighters to try to save, or protect.
Remember the Apex Manufacturing building on First Street, the Esmond Dairy building on Campbell, American Crayon on Hayes Avenue … it’s a long, long list of properties reclaimed, repurposed, removed or renovated. The city has been extraordinarily busy in neighborhoods the last decade, or so, with more than 300 homes and properties demolished.
2025 Property Inventory and Conditional Assessment
The city partnered with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy this past summer to conduct a citywide property inventory and conditional assessment. A team collected and updated, parcel-by-parcel data on the condition of every property in the city, more than 13,000 total.
“The goal is to understand how neighborhoods have changed since the last inventory in 2015 and use this information to guide decisions on housing, code enforcement, and neighborhood investment,” a news release from the city states.
The effort is a key initiative in the city’s Strategic Plan.
“This project gives us real information we can act on,” Colleen Gilson, the city’s director of Community Development, said when the assessment was announced in May. “It’s about more than buildings, it’s about seeing where our neighborhoods are strong, where they’re struggling, and where we can step in and help. It’s also a way to bring residents into the process and create jobs along the way.”
Welcome Sandusky
One city housing program, Welcome Sandusky, aims to build 14 affordable homes for qualified residents, with the first two nearly finished. Construction of the new 2-story homes on Pierce Street moved along swiftly in August and they should both be ready for occupancy by the end of September.
One of the new homeowners was there in August when workers using a giant crane brought in the finished floors for each house and placed them on their foundations. Hannah Smith, who works for the city schools talked with sheer joy in her voice about how much it meant to her to be able to buy a home for her family.
4 neighborhoods?
This fall the city is initiating an ambitious public engagement plan in neighborhoods, asking residents what styles and types of housing they want to see — whether that’s accessory dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes, or traditional single-family homes.
Residents will be able to “look around” at a simulated development scenario for a specific site before any dirt is moved in virtual reality tours of different housing options.
The city will focus on three large sites it controls: the former G&C Foundry property off West Monroe Street, remaining parcels in the Cold Creek neighborhood off Venice Road the city owns, and parcels near Churchwell Park in the MacArthur Park neighborhood near West Perkins Avenue and Camp Street.
A fourth site could also be added, Arin Blair, the city’s chief planner, told city commission last month announcing the effort.
Sandusky to launch housing study with virtual tours, pattern books, zoning fixes
SANDUSKY — City planner Arin Blair says Sandusky’s next big housing push isn’t just about building more homes — it’s about making smarter, faster and more community-driven decisions on what gets built, where and how.