Impact
WARD: Wards 3 and 5
COMMITTEE: Community Development
$ IMPACT: N/A
Title
Adoption of Resolution 2014-11 to establish the Smyrna-Osborne Enterprise Zone for the purpose of encouraging small business growth and new investment.
Body
ISSUE: In collaboration with Cobb County, staff is proposing the creation of the Smyrna-Osborne Enterprise Zone, a state incentives program designed to encourage job growth and new investment in underperforming areas. A joint resolution establishing the proposed zone has been prepared for adoption by the City of Smyrna and Cobb County.
BACKGROUND: Cobb County approached the City of Smyrna with a proposal to jointly establish an Enterprise Zone for the purpose of encouraging job growth and investment in a targeted area that includes both incorporated and unincorporated parcels. The Smyrna portion of the proposed Smyrna-Osborne Enterprise Zone includes 2,409 parcels totaling 1.99 square miles in Wards 3 and 5. It focuses on areas along Windy Hill Road and South Cobb Drive.
The Enterprise Zone is a state incentives program that is locally approved and locally managed. The Enterprise Zone area must meet at least three of five criteria:
1. Pervasive Poverty
2. High Unemployment Rate
3. Underdevelopment
4. General Distress
5. General Blight
The proposed Smyrna-Osborne Enterprise Zone claims all these criteria except General Blight as the justification for its creation. A Justification Report has been prepared in collaboration with Cobb County that specifies the exact boundaries of the proposed zone and details the justifications referenced above.
Qualifying business or service enterprises within the proposed zone must create at least 5 new full-time jobs to be eligible for incentives that can include property tax savings and waiver or abatement of the occupational tax and other fees. State, county, and city ad valorem taxes may be exempted or reduced through this program. Scho...
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