The County Commissioners gave their approval to expand the timeframes for two Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones at two business parks in the county.
The big expansion is for the Windy Ridge Business and Technology Park in White Township with the acerage for the expansion zone at just over 187 acres, and that extension goes into effect on January 1st of 2020. It’s for everything in the Windy Ridge park except for Creps Publications, who have already reaped the benefits of the KOEZ. The other extension will be for the Corporate Campus Business Park in Burrell Township, which goes into effect January 1st of 2019. Both extensions will run for ten years for each zone.
Byron Stauffer of the office of Planning and Development said that these are important extensions for the business parks, as it makes each park more marketable. The KOEZ will allow state and local tax abatement for the length of the zone’s time frame, to a maximum of ten years. A payment in lieu of taxes agreement may also be made between the governing bodies and the businesses.
In other business from Wednesday’s meeting, the Commissioners rejected bids for the Aultman 4th Street Storm Sewer and Street Improvement Project. The bids came in over budget, and Center Township was not able to come up with the money needed to cover the difference. The project will be rebid in March of 2019 after Center Township’s 2018 CDBG contract is executed with the Department of Community and Economic Development.
