Cuyahoga County on Monday announced a new loan program to encourage walkable, transit-oriented development, or TOD, across a region long characterized by sprawling communities designed for automobiles.

The county’s Department of Development will offer loans between $150,000 to $2.5 million from its existing loan pool totaling roughly $15 million annually to help developers fill financing gaps in transit-oriented development projects.

“This is one more piece of a puzzle that can assist in building a more transit-friendly and walkable Cuyahoga County,’’ Patrick Hewitt, the county’s planning manager for strategy and development, said in an interview before the announcement of the new program.

Hewitt and Mary Cierebiej, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, said t

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