Such innovative approaches as Akron's use of land banking and annexation and Saginaw's use of tax increment financing are indicative of the impact of local leadership. Within the constraints imposed by state policies and economic conditions, local leaders made important choices relative to how state programs are implemented, and what additional local incentives are offered, resulting in different development strategies. Toledo metropolitan construction activity is 2.7 times greater than the area's household growth. Since the 1950s, a diminishing rate of household growth coupled with an increasing proportion of suburban housing construction occurring in the Toledo MSA has been leading inevitably to excess housing units in the city and consequent decay of large sections of the city. Normal vacancies occur when there are short periods between occupancy.
Excess units is the difference between total vacant units and normal vacancies.
The study also projected a loss of 60,177 people in Toledo between 1980 and 2000 as a result of suburban housing construction. The figure is surprising to Toledo citizens, but it should not be, given the fact that metropolitan housing construction is 2.7 times higher than the rate of household growth. Given the degree to which capital and wealth have already migrated from the central city to the suburbs, it is expecting too much from central-city councils in Ohio to retard or reverse the trends. Their authority is limited, and when they try to exercise it in the interests of the central city at the expense of suburban growth, they generate powerful opposition form numerous quarters, including developers who find easier profits in the suburbs, and even from the affluent in their own central city who wish to escape central-city problems. Specific steps should be taken to manage growth in unincorporated areas.