hotel construction that’s been done. You went from Erie County back in the day when you had your onestory motels along the roadside, and now everywhere you look, there’s a four-story new hotel going up.”The revenue supports low tax rates for residents while funding amenities a community of 75,000 could not otherwise afford. Converting this economic momentum into sustained growth requires strategic thinking about land use.The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility is perhaps the county’s most underutilized asset. Occupying 6,400 acres in southern Erie County, the facility houses the world’s largest space simulation vacuum chamber and most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber. The site has supported missions from SpaceX to NASA’s Artemis program since its establishment in the 1950s. “Our NASA facility is probably arguably the best large-scale testing facility in the world,” Shenigo explains.“Through the leadership of NASA‘s General David Stringer and his team the Neil Armstrong Test Facility has literally been rebuilt into the finest space equipment test facility in the world. There’s 1,200 acres outside the gate that fronts Route 250. We’ve struggled with the federal agencies to be able to get that land to market. I think that would be a huge investment for our community as well as Ohio if we could bring 1200 acres directly outside the gate of a NASA facility. Other NASA facilities around the country, such as Huntsville Alabama’s Marshall Flight Center have attracted billions of dollars of technology industry’s desire to be adjacent to a Nasa facility. The combination of prepared infrastructure, strategic location, and diversified economy positions Erie County to build on its tourism foundation while creating opportunities across multiple sectors. 91 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 12 ERIE COUNTY, OH
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