Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994 TAG: 9401150031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The areas approved by Gov. Douglas Wilder this week are around Dublin and Narrows.
In Pulaski County, the area includes the Pulaski County Corporate Center, Dublin Industrial Park, Bakersville community, the Volvo-GM Heavy Duty Truck manufacturing plant, Pulaski Furniture Co.'s Dublin plant and part of the former Burlington Mills site.
The Narrows site includes part of the downtown area up to the eastern end of Virginia 100 and into a section where several construction companies are located.
Enterprise Zones are economically-distressed areas that form a distinct geographical part of a locality. The designation remains effective for 20 years.
Various state and local incentives are offered within an Enterprise Zone to bring in new business and industry and to encourage what is already there to expand.
The General Assembly established the program in 1982. Since then, parts of 22 counties, cities and towns have had Enterprise Zones established within their boundaries.
They include the cities of Roanoke and Galax, the town of Saltville, and the Ivanhoe community in Wythe and Carroll counties. The program is carried out under the Virginia Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A bill introduced last year by Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, made it possible to add new zones for which Pulaski and Giles counties have now qualified.
Baker said Thursday he had been confident the two counties would qualify for Enterprise Zones if they were able to apply. But legislation was necessary to allow new designations under the program.
``We're very excited and very happy about this area being approved,'' Pulaski County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry White said Thursday. ``This will certainly give us a boost in our economic development efforts.''
Assistant Narrows Town Manager Mike Kirk said the designation was another building block to improve that area's economic prospects. ``We don't want a dead zone. ... We want a live zone,'' he said.
In designated zones, the state offers a decreasing general credit for10 years against state business income, franchise or license taxes and a five-year exemption from state sales taxes on items bought for business purposes.
Businesses must meet certain requirements for these benefits, including hiring 40 percent of its work force from applicants with family incomes below 80 percent of the area median incomes. Expanding businesses must increase their work forces by at least 10 percent.
Local incentives are worked out by the county, city or town involved. Pulaski County incentives include:
Offering industrial revenue bonds.
Expedited permitting procedures.
Reduced water and sewer charges for high-volume users with rebates of hook-on fees.
Local financing on publicly-owned land within the Enterprise Zones.
Pulaski County and the Virginia Department of Economic Development also have committed to construction of a shell building in the Pulaski County Corporate Center through the state's shell building initiative. Funding would be available after one of the three existing buildings constructed under the initiative has been sold.
Pulaski County applied for Enterprise Zones in two localities, the other being in the area of the former AT&T plant at Fairlawn. Only one was approved.
In preparing the applications, Assistant County Administrator Peter Huber said the county's experience over the past eight years has shown the cost of a project and the speed in which it can be implemented as the most important factors influencing economic development.
The package of county incentives therefore is aimed at reducing costs and streamlining plant expansions or locations.
Daniel Girouard, the state's Enterprise Zoning administrator, said Huber did an excellent job on the application. He said the state is considering the possibility of adding still more incentives to the program.
The incentives for business in the zones will be marketed throughout this country, Japan and Europe by the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance to complement marketing efforts by the state Department of Economic Development.
by CNB