[Electronic-lan] Info on "Opportunity Zone" update at today's LAN meeting + proposed recommendations to the City of Lawrence for your consideration

[Steve Lopes]

‘Opportunity Zones’ Offer Tax Breaks and, Maybe, Help for Communities
By enabling investors to postpone paying the tax man, new funds may draw money into distressed communities. But succeeding at both may be challenging.

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F02%2F15%2Fbusiness%2Fopportunity-zone-tax-break-controversy.html&data=02%7C01%7Celectronic-lan%40lists.ku.edu%7C8dd06bcbd50c41ea963708d698f7b1d3%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C1%7C636864586998482777&sdata=R9n%2BZJ1PCeHz223HLd%2F%2F%2FEPmkhOU7izA1J9gZ2qlJ%2BY%3D&reserved=0


-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Kirkendall via Electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu>
To: electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: Wed, Feb 20, 2019 10:34 am
Subject: [Electronic-lan] Info on "Opportunity Zone" update at today's LAN meeting + proposed recommendations to the City of Lawrence for your consideration

Dear LAN friends,
At the January LAN meeting, we put together an informal "Opportunity Zone Study Team", which has met twice and done quite a bit of work in the last month.  We are on today's LAN agenda to provide an update on our work, and would appreciate your thoughts and if you agree, a discussion and vote on recommendations to the City of Lawrence.   
To give you a heads up on what we will present and raise for discussion:We documented our work in Opportunity Zones in Lawrence, Kansas: A Preliminary Summary of Possible Threats and Opportunities (linked and attached).As described in more detail in this document, virtually every expert analysis has concluded that Opportunity Zones pose a significant risk of gentrification and displacement of residents and businesses.  We believe the Opportunity Zone that encompasses the East Lawrence, Brook Creek, and Barker neighborhoods poses this risk, particularly in areas are already being eyed for development, and if the City of Lawrence approaches development in these neighborhoods in a reactive rather than proactive fashion, and without involving local residents and businesses.Our team concluded that:We would like to see Opportunity Zones used as a tool to maximize community benefit and minimize negative impacts in neighborhoods by creating significant permanently affordable housing stock, by softening or eliminating further economic strain on already existing affordable housing stock and neighborhood residents, and by creating new economic and employment opportunities for community members beyond those directly invested in the development properties within the opportunity zones. 
For example, several cities, including Minneapolis, have signaled to the investment community that they want opportunity zone projects to deliver a social good, such as affordable housing, and that they do not want opportunity zone funding to be used for luxury housing or other projects that displace residents.To make this happen, we believe the City of Lawrence should implement the recommendations for cities recommended in the Policylink Recommendations for Opportunity Zones Leveraging private investment for equitable economic development (linked and attached). Specifically:Cities should: 1. Engage residents in setting priorities for investment in the zones. 2. Design and advance local equity policies that govern investments within zones . 3. Dedicate local dollars to projects in Opportunity Zones which can deliver equitable growth, development without displacement, and healthy communities of opportunity. 4. Monitor and report outcomes of the Opportunity Zone investments, according to performance indicators such as: living wage jobs created, number of dedicated affordable housing units created or preserved (60 percent of area median income or less), and investments in minority/disadvantaged/women-owned businesses. 5. Explore opportunities to capitalize existing Opportunity Funds and / or establish publicly administered Opportunity Funds→ And a question for you - could you support a LAN resolution to request that the city implement these five recommendations?  Are there any that you think should *not* be implemented?I look forward to our discussion tonight.
Thank you!Eric Kirkendallkirkendall1 at gmail.com785-550-3408



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