Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to dissolve the existing Enterprise Zone Agreement (EZA) with Value City Department Stores and to end the inventory tax abatement provided for in the EZA. Columbus City Council approved the EZA by Ordinance No. 0007-01 on January 22, 2001. The project site is a facility located at 4300 East Fifth Avenue in Columbus. Value City Department Store had created twenty-two (22) permanent jobs and invested $5,666,354 at this site as of December 2002 whereas the EZA called for three hundred new jobs and an investment of $57.9 million. After additional review and discussions with the company, the Development Department agrees that dissolving the EZA and the associated tax abatements on inventory is an appropriate course of action. The lack of job creation and investment at the facility is the result of depressed economic conditions.
FISCAL IMPACT: No funding is required for this legislation.
Title
To authorize the Director of Development to dissolve the existing Enterprise Zone Agreement (EZA) with Value City Department Stores and to end the inventory tax abatement provided for in the EZA, with or without the written consent of Value City Department Stores; and to declare an emergency.
Body
WHEREAS, the Columbus City Council authorized the designation of the Enterprise Zone by Ordinance No. 779-85, dated April 25, 1985; and
WHEREAS, the Ohio Development Director approved this designation under State of Ohio Enterprise Zone law, by letter, dated June 12, 1985; and
WHEREAS, the Columbus City Council approved an Enterprise Zone Agreement (EZA) for Value City Department Stores January 22, 2001 by Ordinance No. 0007-01; and
WHEREAS, the City has determined that Value City Department Store has not met the job creation and investment called for in the EZA and will be unlikely to achieve those levels in the next several years; and
WHEREAS, the City has determined that the company's business needs and the EZA are no longer compatible;
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of the City in that it is immediately necessary to dissolve the existing Enterprise Zone Agreement (EZA) with Value City Department Stores and to end the inventory tax abatement provided for in the EZA, with or without the written consent of Value City Department Stores, all for the preservation of the public health, peace, property, safety and welfare; and NOW THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
Section 1. That the Director of Development is hereby authorized to dissolve the Enterprise Zone Agreement (EZA) between the City and Value City Department Stores and to end the inventory abatement provided for in the EZA, with or without the written consent of Value City Department Stores.
Section 2. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which hereby made a part hereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor, or ten days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.