City of Cleveland: Residential Property Tax Abatement for Green Buildings

The City of Cleveland, in cooperation with the Cuyahoga County Auditor's Office, provides a 100% tax abatement for residential properties built to the Cleveland Green Building Standard. Tax abatements are available to both homeowners and developers. The abatement is for 10-15 years depending on the type of project and is for the portion of the increased property tax that results because of the improvement to the property. The following types of projects may qualify:

New construction of single-family homes or multifamily investor-owned properties: 15 years

Conversion of nonresidential buildings to residential units with 1 or 2 units: 10 years

Conversion of nonresidential buildings to residential units with 3 or more units: 12 years

Rehabilitation of existing 1 and 2-family homes which increases the market value: 10 years

Rehabilitation of multifamily (3 or more units) structures costing over $15,000 per unit or $500,000 total: 12 years

Improvements costing over $2,500 of 1 or 20family homes that increase the assessed value of the property: 10 years

Cleveland's Green Building Standard is based on the "Enterprise Green Communities Initiative" and requires that projects meet all mandatory requirements of the Initiative's standards plus 30 points (with one exception, the Environmental Assessment mandatory requirement under Enterprise Green Communities is not required by Cleveland's Green Building Standard for single-family up to 4-unit residential rehab project).

The City of Cleveland also accepts the LEED Silver* as well as the National Association of Home Builders "National Model Green Home Building Guidelines"** as equivalents and acceptable substitutes. See the Cleveland Green Building Standard Handbook for more information. Effective at a date to be determined after July 1, 2011, the Cleveland Green Building Standard will transition to the 2011 Enterprise Green Communities Criteria.

*See the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System for more information on this rating system.



**See the NAHBGREEN - National Green Building Program for more information.