[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 74 (Thursday, April 17, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21785-21787]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-08772]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. 5774-N-01]
Promise Zones Initiative: Proposed Second Round Selection Process
Solicitation of Comment
AGENCY: Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Through this notice, HUD solicits comment, for a period of 60-
days, on the proposed selection process, criteria and submissions for
the second round of the Promise Zone initiative.
DATES: Comments Due Date: June 16, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding
this proposal. Questions or comments should be directed by email to
[email protected] with ``Second Round Promise Zone selections'' in
the subject line. Questions or comments may also be directed by postal
mail to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic
Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451
Seventh Street SW., Room 7136, Washington, DC 20410 ATTN: 2nd Round
Promise Zone selections.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brooke Bohnet, U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Washington, DC,
20410; telephone number 202-402-6693. This is not a toll-free number.
Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this number
through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at (800)
877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background--Round 1 Promise Zones
In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama announced
the establishment of the Promise Zones initiative to partner with high-
poverty communities across the country to create jobs, increase
economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to
quality, affordable housing, and improve public safety.\1\ On January
8, 2014, the President announced the first five Promise Zones, which
are located in: San Antonio, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, CA;
Southeastern Kentucky, KY; and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, OK. Each
of these communities (three urban, one rural and one tribal) submitted
a plan on how they will partner with local business and community
leaders to make investments that reward hard work and expand
opportunity. In exchange, the Federal government is helping these
Promise Zone designees secure the resources and flexibility they need
to achieve their goals.\2\
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\1\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/15/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-ensure-hard-work-leads-decent-living.
\2\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/08/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-promise-zones-initiative.
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The first five Promise Zones were selected through a competitive
process following an invitation to eligible communities to apply for a
designation, which was issued on October 30, 2013 with an application
deadline of November 26, 2013.\3\ The urban designations were conferred
by HUD while the rural and tribal designations were conferred by USDA.
The pool of
[[Page 21786]]
eligible applicants was limited to communities with demonstrated
capacity in one or more areas of Promise Zones' work that would prepare
them to broaden their efforts to additional revitalization priorities.
Specifically, urban eligibility was limited to communities encompassing
a Choice Neighborhoods or Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant,
or a Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant, while rural and tribal
eligibility was limited to communities encompassing a Stronger
Economies Together, Sustainable Communities, Promise Neighborhoods
Implementation, or Rural Jobs Accelerator grant.
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\3\ See www.hud.gov/promisezones.
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Promise Zones Benefits
The Promise Zones designation enables the Federal government to
partner with local leaders who are addressing multiple community
revitalization challenges in a collaborative way and have demonstrated
a commitment to results. Specifically, Federal staff will be stationed
in each designated community to help navigate the array of Federal
assistance which Promise Zones can access, subject to the availability
of appropriations and Federal agency rules and statutes. This level of
engagement will help communities make the most of funding that is
already available to them. In addition, organizations contributing to
Promise Zone strategies will receive preference for certain competitive
Federal programs, as permissible under the rules and statutes of the
individual programs and agencies, and subject to appropriations.
Organizations contributing to Promise Zone strategies will also receive
technical assistance and other non-competitive support, again subject
to available funding and as permissible under individual program and
Federal agency rules and statutes. Businesses investing in Promise
Zones or hiring residents of Promise Zones will also be eligible to
receive tax incentives for these activities, if the tax incentives are
enacted by Congress. Altogether, this package of assistance will help
local leaders accelerate efforts to revitalize their communities.
The Promise Zone designation will be for a term of 10 years, and
will be extended as necessary to capture the full term of availability
of the Promise Zone tax incentives, if the tax incentives are enacted.
During this term, the specific benefits made available to Promise Zones
may vary from year to year, and sometimes more often than annually, due
to changes in Federal agency policies, and changes in appropriations
and authorizations for relevant programs.
Second Round Promise Zones Selection Process
A second round of Promise Zone designations is now being planned to
open for solicitation in 2014 with announcements expected in early
2015. A total of 20 Promise Zone designations will be made by the end
of 2016, including the five designations announced in January, 2014. We
anticipate making at least five and as many as 15 total designations in
the second round in the urban, rural and tribal categories, depending
on resources available.
Due to the nature of the initiative, Promise Zone activities are
likely to be carried out by a variety of organizations and organization
types. Eligible lead applicants for Urban Promise Zone designations
are: Units of General Local Government \4\ (UGLG or local government)
including an office or department within local government; or non-
profit organizations, housing authorities or school districts applying
in partnership with local government. Eligible lead applicants for
Rural and Tribal Promise Zone designations are: Local or tribal
governments (which includes county, city, town, township, parish,
village, governmental authority or other general-purpose political
subdivision of a state or tribe or any combination thereof); offices/
departments within local government; non-profit organizations applying
in partnership with local government; housing authorities applying in
partnership with local government; or school districts applying in
partnership with local government.
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\4\ Unit of general local government as defined in section
102(a)(1) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42
U.S.C. 5302(a)(1)). See definition (a)(1) Unit of General Local
Government.
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The selection process under consideration is that any community
meeting the qualifying criteria set forth in the Second Round
Application Guide would be eligible to apply for Promise Zone
designation. All of the following must be present in an application for
a proposed Urban Promise Zone to be eligible for a designation: (1) The
Promise Zone must encompass one or more census tract(s) or portions of
census tracts across a contiguous geography; (2) The rate of overall
poverty or Extremely Low Income rate (whichever is greater) of
residents within the Promise Zone must be over 33 percent; (3) Promise
Zone boundaries must encompass a population of at least 10,000 but no
more than 200,000 residents; and (4) Local leadership, including the
mayors of jurisdictions represented in the Promise Zone, must
demonstrate commitment to the Promise Zone effort. No substantive or
technical corrections will be accepted or reviewed after the
application deadline. The draft Second Round Application Guide can be
found at www.hud.gov/promisezones.
Under the second round process under consideration, only one
Promise Zone application may be submitted within a UGLG per application
cycle. If more than one application is submitted for a Promise Zone
meeting the qualifying criteria, the one submitted with local
government support will be accepted. If more than one application is
submitted with local government support, all of the applications from
that UGLG will be disqualified for the current application cycle. If a
Promise Zone designated in Round 1 is located within a UGLG in which a
new application is being made, the applicant is directed to include an
explanation of how, if a second Promise Zone designation is made, the
UGLG plans to work with all of the Promise Zone designees at the same
time and sustain the level of effort, resources and support committed
to each Promise Zone under its respective Promise Zone plan for the
full term of each Promise Zone designation. This explanation should be
evidenced by commitments from the UGLG in materials submitted by the
mayor or local official in support of the application.
Solicitation of Comment
Prior to commencement of the second round of designations, HUD
seeks to take advantage of experience with the first round applicants
to develop aspects of the Promise Zones initiative, so that the
initiative can support other communities more effectively in future
years. In this regard, HUD welcomes feedback from first round
applicants, and comment from other interested parties and the public
generally, on the first round of the Promise Zones initiative, and on
the proposed selection process for the second round of the Promise Zone
initiative. HUD specifically seeks comment on the draft Second Round
Application Guide, which can be found at www.hud.gov/promisezones.
After fully considering comments, a final draft Second Round
Application Guide may be posted at least 30 days before final
application materials are posted.
[[Page 21787]]
Dated: April 10, 2014.
Valerie Piper,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development.
[FR Doc. 2014-08772 Filed 4-16-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P