Ohio’s county list undercounts Lorain: six zones, not five

ELYRIA, Ohio — Governor Mike DeWine’s November 5 announcement of Ohio’s new Opportunity Zones lists “Lorain (5)” in its county table. The CDFI Fund final list has six Lorain County tracts. The table adds to 259 tracts. The release headline, and the federal list, both say 260. Of the 75 counties named in the table, 74 match the federal list exactly. Lorain County is the only one that does not.

Lead photo: a historic postcard of the Lorain County Courthouse in Elyria, the county seat and the city at the center of three of the six designated tracts: two whose Census internal points fall in Elyria, plus a third (703) that straddles the city line. City-context photograph; it does not show a designated tract. Credit: Columbus Metropolitan Library, via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions; cropped and resized.

All six Lorain County tracts are marked Non-Rural. A Census Bureau internal-point check, which can miss a tract that straddles a city limit, places three in Lorain city, two in Elyria, and one outside any incorporated place (703, which straddles the Elyria city line):

Poverty rates and income ratios are from Treasury’s October 30, 2026 eligibility file, which uses American Community Survey data for 2020–2024.

Dawn Calvert, Elyria’s director of economic transformation and business services, told the Morning Journal on November 10, “We were told, ‘Apply for three, hope for one.’” The city says all three of the tracts it proposed were selected.

Anyone screening Lorain County sites from the governor’s county table would miss one designated tract. Use the federal list and run each parcel through the census tract lookup or the Census Bureau geocoder before underwriting. The six tracts include three in Lorain city and two tracts whose Census internal points fall in Elyria, plus a third (703) that straddles the city line, three in and around Elyria. A county name alone does not establish designation. See the Lorain County zone list and the Ohio Opportunity Zones page. Meet Lorain in our city profile of the West Bank lakefront, Riverbend and the east side, and Elyria in our city profile of downtown, the Midway Mall corridor and Leo Bullocks Parkway.

The six tracts take effect as Opportunity Zones on January 1, 2027, under Treasury’s November 5 designation announcement. Ohio’s earlier zones, designated in 2018 and listed in the CDFI Fund’s 2018 file, remain in effect through the end of 2028. The next test is whether later state materials use the six-tract federal count, and whether projects, financing or permits are named for specific Lorain County tracts.

Related. Lorain County’s designated Opportunity Zones · Lorain County tract list · Ohio Opportunity Zones · Midwest designation recap · Designated-tract map

Reporting note: County and tract counts were counted from the CDFI Fund final workbook (6,576 tracts nationwide; Ohio 260, 96 Rural, 75 counties) and compared with the county table in the November 5 DeWine / Ohio Department of Development release, which adds to 259. Poverty rates and income ratios were read from Treasury’s October 30, 2026 eligibility file (ACS 2020–2024). City assignments are from a Census Bureau internal-point check, which can miss a tract that straddles a city limit. The Calvert quotation is from the Morning Journal’s November 10 report. No outreach and no independently conducted interviews. Educational reporting, not tax, legal or investment advice.