[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Union 2-16-1994 by L.L. No. 2-1994. Amendments noted where applicable.]
ATTACHMENTS
210a Appendix A210b Appendix BA210c Exhibit A Empire Zone MapsA210c Exhibit B Empire Zone MapsA210c Exhibit C Empire Zone Maps
A. 
The Economic Development Zones Program was created by New York State in 1986 to stimulate economic growth in a number of the state's most severely distressed areas.
B. 
The Economic Development Zones Program encourages business development in designated areas by offering new and expanding businesses a combination of tax credits, reduced utility rates, authorization for special low-interest loans and priority attention from state agencies that have a role in economic development.
C. 
A locality with jurisdiction for a zone will be required to promote and facilitate the development of new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses in the zone.
D. 
Working through a local zone administrative board, the locality is expected to achieve these goals by enlisting the active support of local industrial development and public finance agencies.
E. 
The zone administrative board is expected to cooperate with local social service agencies, educational institutions, community-based organizations, labor unions and other bodies to establish, implement and coordinate job-training programs and other forms of assistance to ensure that unemployed, needy people in the local area will be able to fill jobs made available in the zone.
F. 
The City of Binghamton, on behalf of the County of Broome, the Town of Union, the Villages of Endicott and Johnson City and herself, intends to submit an application to have an area within the respective municipalities designated as an economic development zone.
G. 
The City of Binghamton has requested that the Town of Union consent to the establishment of the aforementioned economic development zone.
H. 
The Town of Union's consent to the establishment of the economic development zone will require the Town of Union, in conjunction with the aforementioned municipalities, to provide certain real property tax benefits.
The Town of Union hereby consents to and approves of the City of Binghamton, on behalf of the aforementioned municipalities, submitting to the Commissioner of Economic Development for the State of New York an application for the creation of an economic development zone within a certain area of the aforementioned municipalities.
[Amended 8-2-1995 by L.L. No. 8-1995; 8-21-2002 by L.L. No. 7-2002; 12-7-2005 by L.L. No. 8-2005]
The area of the Triple Cities Economic Development Zone, within the Town of Union, is set forth on the maps entitled "Triple Cities Empire Zone," Exhibits A, B and C.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Said maps are included at the end of this chapter.
The Town of Union hereby agrees, upon the approval of the aforementioned economic development zone, to provide local tax and other incentives, pursuant to Real Property Tax Law § 485-e, to properties within the economic development zone.
The zone certifier required by the Economic Development Zones Program shall be an employee of the Broome County Industrial Development Agency until such time as an Economic Development Alliance is established.
The Economic Development Zone Administrative Board shall have a membership of 13 individuals and shall include a representative of organized labor, a financial institution, an educational institution, an employee or officer of the Town of Union, the City of Binghamton and the Villages of Endicott and Johnson City. There shall be appointed from the City of Binghamton and the Villages of Endicott and Johnson City representative(s) from a community organization, a resident of the zone and a business owner.
[Added 9-20-1995 by L.L. No. 10-1995]
A. 
The procedures and criteria listed below are adopted to make economic development zone tax benefits available to businesses relocating to the Town of Union's portion of the zone (excluding portions in Endicott and Johnson City) from within the town.
B. 
The applicant business must submit to the Triple Cities Economic Development Zone Coordinator an application for zone certification with a brief narrative and evidence it has moved or is moving into the zone and meets one of the following criteria:
(1) 
A business is at a location which:
(a) 
Has been or is being acquired or is under threat of acquisition by eminent domain; or
(b) 
Is in an area undergoing changes in development or urban planning goals and that business is no longer a suitable or appropriate use in that area.
(2) 
An existing business is expanding and has insufficient or inappropriate space at its present location.
(3) 
An existing business is leasing or otherwise occupying space which it does not own and has acquired a facility within the zone.
(4) 
The existing business is operating out of a person's home and is seeking to relocate outside the home.
(5) 
The proposed location better meets the goals of the applicant's business plan.
C. 
The Triple Cities Economic Development Zone Coordinator is hereby authorized to approve certification eligibility for such businesses when they meet any one of those criteria.