 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
| ...back to the news menu | |||||||||||||||
| KOZ BACK IN HAZELWOOD by Dina Vargo The Keystone Opportunity Zone is coming back to Hazelwood - this time as a community partner to stimulate real economic development opportunities on Second Avenue. The City of Pittsburgh and the URA are proposing that the properties in the 4700 and 4800 blocks of Second Avenue be declared tax free as a part of the latest state program called Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones. The Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone (KOEZ) is an adaptation of the original Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ), giving municipalities that were not able to submit an application in 1998 another chance to do so. The state program is designed to revive economically distressed communities by abating all state and local taxes in certain designated areas.The City of Pittsburgh, working in conjunction with the Urban Redevelopment Authority, will be submitting an application to include properties in several neighborhoods in the City to create a Pittsburgh subzone that is a part of a larger Southwestern Pennsylvania Zone. The proposed Pittsburgh subzone would be comprised of properties in the neighborhoods of California-Kirkbride, East Liberty, Homewood, the Hill District, Mount Washington, Uptown and of course, Hazelwood. In order to minimize tax loss, most of the properties being proposed are owned by the City of Pittsburgh, the URA or the Board of Education. There will be a handful of privately owned properties submitted in Homewood where the focus will be on restoring the residential area. All of the other zones, with the exception of the South Hills High School in Mount Washington, are almost exclusively in commercial areas. The properties proposed in Hazelwood are a mix of privately and publicly owned land. However, those property owners who are not up to date on their taxes or do not have their buildings up to code will not qualify for the ten-year tax abatement. The goal of the KOEZ is to stimulate economic development in areas that haven't seen much activity in recent years by offering businesses a ten-year break on their real estate and business taxes. In return, it is required that any business that locates in the zone must increase their employment by 20% or make a significant capital investment. The program also ensures that after the ten year period is up, the area will be generating greater tax revenue than what was started with. To determine what kind of development will happen in the Hazelwood zone; the URA and City will be participating in the upcoming Master Plan to understand the types of development the neighborhood wants. As previously mentioned, the City and URA must submit an application to the state as part of the Southwestern Pennsylvania regional application. Resolutions from County Council, City of Pittsburgh Council and the Pittsburgh Board of Education must be included in the application as well as supporting letters from the community groups where KOEZ's have been proposed. The application is due on February 28, 2001 to be approved during March 2001. |
|||||||||||||||
| Link to search results for "KOEZ" on PA site | |||||||||||||||
| ...back to the news menu | |||||||||||||||
|
Search I Membership I Advertising I Links I Advertisers |
|||||||||||||||
| hi@hazelwoodhomepage.com | |||||||||||||||
| copyright 2001 Hazelwood Initiative Inc. | Please report site bugs to | ||||||||||||||