Section 5709.61. Enterprise zone definitions

As used in sections 5709.61 to 5709.69 of the Revised Code:

(A) "Enterprise zone" or "zone" means any of the following:

(1) An area with a single continuous boundary designated in the manner set forth in section 5709.62 or 5709.63 of the Revised Code and certified by the director of development as having a population of at least four thousand according to the best and most recent data available to the director and having at least two of the following characteristics:

(a) It is located in a municipal corporation defined by the United States office of management and budget as a principal city of a metropolitan statistical area ;

(b) It is located in a county designated as being in the "Appalachian region" under the "Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965," 79 Stat. 5, 40 App. U.S.C.A. 403, as amended;

(c) Its average rate of unemployment, during the most recent twelve-month period for which data are available, is equal to at least one hundred twenty-five per cent of the average rate of unemployment for the state of Ohio for the same period;

(d) There is a prevalence of commercial or industrial structures in the area that are vacant or demolished, or are vacant and the taxes charged thereon are delinquent, and certification of the area as an enterprise zone would likely result in the reduction of the rate of vacant or demolished structures or the rate of tax delinquency in the area;

(e) The population of all census tracts in the area, according to the federal census of 2000, decreased by at least ten per cent between the years 1980 and 2000;

(f) At least fifty-one per cent of the residents of the area have incomes of less than eighty per cent of the median income of residents of the municipal corporation or municipal corporations in which the area is located, as determined in the same manner specified under section 119(b) of the "Housing and Community Development Act of 1974," 88 Stat. 633, 42 U.S.C. 5318, as amended;

(g) The area contains structures previously used for industrial purposes, but currently not so used due to age, obsolescence, deterioration, relocation of the former occupant's operations, or cessation of operations resulting from unfavorable economic conditions either generally or in a specific economic sector;

(h) It is located within one or more adjacent city, local, or exempted village school districts, the income-weighted tax capacity of each of which is less than seventy per cent of the average of the income-weighted tax capacity of all city, local, or exempted village school districts in the state according to the most recent data available to the director from the department of taxation.

The director of development shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code establishing conditions constituting the characteristics described in divisions (A)(1)(d), (g), and (h) of this section.

If an area could not be certified as an enterprise zone unless it satisfied division (A)(1)(g) of this section, the legislative authority may enter into agreements in that zone under section 5709.62, 5709.63, or 5709.632 of the Revised Code only if such agreements result in the development of the facilities described in that division, the parcel of land on which such facilities are situated, or adjacent parcels. The director of development annually shall review all agreements in such zones to determine whether the agreements have resulted in such development; if the director determines that the agreements have not resulted in such development, the director immediately shall revoke certification of the zone and notify the legislative authority of such revocation. Any agreements entered into prior to revocation under this paragraph shall continue in effect for the period provided in the agreement.

(2) An area with a single continuous boundary designated in the manner set forth in section 5709.63 of the Revised Code and certified by the director of development as:

(a) Being located within a county that contains a population of three hundred thousand or less;

(b) Having a population of at least one thousand according to the best and most recent data available to the director;

(c) Having at least two of the characteristics described in divisions (A)(1)(b) to (h) of this section.

(3) An area with a single continuous boundary designated in the manner set forth under division (A)(1) of section 5709.632 of the Revised Code and certified by the director of development as having a population of at least four thousand, or under division (A)(2) of that section and certified as having a population of at least one thousand, according to the best and most recent data available to the director.

(B) "Enterprise" means any form of business organization including, but not limited to, any partnership, sole proprietorship, or corporation, including an S corporation as defined in section 1361 of the Internal Revenue Code and any corporation that is majority work-owned either directly through the ownership of stock or indirectly through participation in an employee stock ownership plan.

(C) "Facility" means an enterprise's place of business in a zone, including land, buildings, machinery, equipment, and other materials, except inventory, used in business. "Facility" includes land, buildings, machinery, production and station equipment, other equipment, and other materials, except inventory, used in business to generate electricity, provided that, for purposes of sections 5709.61 to 5709.69 of the Revised Code, the value of the property at such a facility shall be reduced by the value, if any, that is not apportioned under section 5727.15 of the Revised Code to the taxing district in which the facility is physically located. In the case of such a facility that is physically located in two adjacent taxing districts, the property located in each taxing district constitutes a separate facility.

"Facility" does not include any portion of an enterprise's place of business used primarily for making retail sales, unless the place of business is located in an impacted city as defined in section 1728.01 of the Revised Code.

(D) "Vacant facility" means a facility that has been vacant for at least ninety days immediately preceding the date on which an agreement is entered into under section 5709.62 or 5709.63 of the Revised Code.

(E) "Expand" means to make expenditures to add land, buildings, machinery, equipment, or other materials, except inventory, to a facility that equal at least ten per cent of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation.

(F) "Renovate" means to make expenditures to alter or repair a facility that equal at least fifty per cent of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation.

(G) "Occupy" means to make expenditures to alter or repair a vacant facility equal to at least twenty per cent of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation.

(H) "Project site" means all or any part of a facility that is newly constructed, expanded, renovated, or occupied by an enterprise.

(I) "Project" means any undertaking by an enterprise to establish a facility or to improve a project site by expansion, renovation, or occupancy.

(J) "Position" means the position of one full-time employee performing a particular set of tasks and duties.

(K) "Full-time employee" means an individual who is employed for consideration by an enterprise for at least thirty-five hours a week, or who renders any other standard of service generally accepted by custom or specified by contract as full-time employment.

(L) "New employee" means a full-time employee first employed by an enterprise at a facility that is a project site after the enterprise enters an agreement under section 5709.62 or 5709.63 of the Revised Code. "New employee" does not include an employee if, immediately prior to being employed by the enterprise, the employee was employed by an enterprise that is a related member or predecessor enterprise of that enterprise.

(M) "Unemployed person" means any person who is totally unemployed in this state, as that term is defined in division (M) of section 4141.01 of the Revised Code, for at least ten consecutive weeks immediately preceding that person's employment at a facility that is a project site, or who is so unemployed for at least twenty-six of the fifty-two weeks immediately preceding that person's employment at such a facility.

(N) "JTPA eligible employee" means any individual who is eligible for employment or training under the "Job Training Partnership Act," 96 Stat. 1324 (1982), 29 U.S.C. 1501, as amended.

(O) "First used in business" means that the property referred to has not been used in business in this state by the enterprise that owns it, or by an enterprise that is a related member or predecessor enterprise of such an enterprise, other than as inventory, prior to being used in business at a facility as the result of a project.

(P) "Training program" means any noncredit training program or course of study that is offered by any state college or university; university branch district; community college; technical college; nonprofit college or university certified under section 1713.02 of the Revised Code; school district; joint vocational school district; school registered and authorized to offer programs under section 3332.05 of the Revised Code; an entity administering any federal, state, or local adult education and training program; or any enterprise; and that meets all of the following requirements:

(1) It is approved by the director of development;

(2) It is established or operated to satisfy the need of a particular industry or enterprise for skilled or semi-skilled employees;

(3) An individual is required to complete the course or program before filling a position at a project site.

(Q) "Development" means to engage in the process of clearing and grading land, making, installing, or constructing water distribution systems, sewers, sewage collection systems, steam, gas, and electric lines, roads, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, storm drainage facilities, and construction of other facilities or buildings equal to at least fifty per cent of the market value of the facility prior to the expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation.

(R) "Large manufacturing facility" means a single Ohio facility that employed an average of at least one thousand individuals during the five calendar years preceding an agreement authorized under division (C)(3) of section 5709.62 or division (B)(2) of section 5709.63 of the Revised Code. For purposes of this division, both of the following apply:

(1) A single Ohio manufacturing facility employed an average of at least one thousand individuals during the five calendar years preceding entering into such an agreement if one-fifth of the sum of the number of employees employed on the highest employment day during each of the five calendar years equals or exceeds one thousand.

(2) The highest employment day is the day or days during a calendar year on which the number of employees employed at a single Ohio manufacturing facility was greater than on any other day during the calendar year.

(S) "Business cycle" means the cycle of business activity usually regarded as passing through alternating stages of prosperity and depression.

(T) "Making retail sales" means the effecting of point-of-final-purchase transactions at a facility open to the consuming public, wherein one party is obligated to pay the price and the other party is obligated to provide a service or to transfer title to or possession of the item sold.

(U) "Environmentally contaminated" means that hazardous substances exist at a facility under conditions that have caused or would cause the facility to be identified as contaminated by the state or federal environmental protection agency. These may include facilities located at sites identified in the master sites list or similar database maintained by the state environmental protection agency if the sites have been investigated by the agency and found to be contaminated.

(V) "Remediate" means to make expenditures to clean up an environmentally contaminated facility so that it is no longer environmentally contaminated that equal at least ten per cent of the real property market value of the facility prior to such expenditures as determined for the purposes of property taxation.

(W) "Related member" has the same meaning as defined in section 5733.042 of the Revised Code without regard to division (B) of that section, except that it is used with respect to an enterprise rather than a taxpayer.

(X) "Predecessor enterprise" means an enterprise from which the assets or equity of another enterprise has been transferred, which transfer resulted in the full or partial nonrecognition of gain or loss, or resulted in a carryover basis, both as determined by rule adopted by the tax commissioner.

(Y) "Successor enterprise" means an enterprise to which the assets or equity of another enterprise has been transferred, which transfer resulted in the full or partial nonrecognition of gain or loss, or resulted in a carryover basis, both as determined by rule adopted by the tax commissioner.

Effective Date: 03-11-2004; 05-06-2005