§209E-4 Enterprise zone designation. (a) The governing body of any county may apply in writing to the department to have an area declared to be an enterprise zone. The application shall include a description of the location of the area or areas in question, and a general statement identifying proposed local incentives to complement the state and any federal incentives.

(b) The governor, upon the recommendation of the director, shall approve the designation of up to six areas in each county as enterprise zones for a period of twenty years. Any such area shall be located in one United States census tract or two or more contiguous United States census tracts in accordance with the most recent decennial United States Census. The census tract or tracts within which each enterprise zone is located also shall meet at least one of the following criteria:

(1) Twenty-five per cent or more of the population have incomes below eighty per cent of the median family income of the county; or

(2) The unemployment rate is 1.5 times the state average. [L 1986, c 78, pt of §1; am L 1989, c 390, §2; am L 1993, c 341, §2; am L 1995, c 91, §3; am L 1997, c 262, §2; am L 2009, c 174, §3]

Attorney General Opinions

Act 262, L 1997, did not require city and county to offer county-level incentives to qualified businesses in new enterprise zone created legislatively by the Act. Att. Gen. Op. 98-1.

If extending survey and reporting requirements to new enterprise zone (EZ) created by the legislature would result in an increase in the level of service under city and county's existing program, then, unless department was willing to share in the cost, city and county was not required to submit initial survey or annual report on new EZ. Att. Gen. Op. 98-1.

Qualified businesses located in new enterprise zone (EZ) would be eligible for state tax incentives for seven-year period set forth in §§209E-10(a) and 209E-11, although a portion of that seven-year period extended beyond new EZ's five-year sunset date. Att. Gen. Op. 98-1.

Where legislature designated agricultural lands in Waialua district as an enterprise zone (EZ) in Act 262, L 1997, existing EZ at Waialua-Haleiwa was not affected because it was established prior to December 31, 1996, the retroactive effective date of the Act. Att. Gen. Op. 98-1.