 Hi Jennifer, thank you for asking me to present on the neighborhood empowerment zone program. The neighborhood empowerment zone program is. A program that the state of Texas. Past legislation for to say that entities. Municipalities could designate certain areas in their city. As a neighborhood empowerment sound and. The things the guidelines that you have to meet for that are here on the slide. It has to. The area has to promote the creation or rehabilitation of affordable housing. It has to promote economic development or improve the quality of social services, education and public safety for the residents of the neighborhood empowerment. So. Currently, we have 6. Neighborhood empowerment zones, we did have. At 1 point in time, 23, but they didn't take up. The score miles that the current 6, those areas have so this. Even though we have fewer areas, they are larger. Then they were as area 6, especially much larger. So this is. A little over 47 and a half square miles of the city. To certify and as project. The project must be located in this. The applicant has to submit a complete application. The project must meet design guidelines. Also, if there are strategic plan areas and certain areas. So, if you are in a strategic plan area, you would also have to meet that. You cannot be delinquent and paying your property taxes for any property that you own in the city of or. And you cannot have any city liens filed against any property that you own. So the exception to that city liens, because 1 of the things we do is release liens. If you purchase the pizza property that you are going to be seeking this certification on. If the person who sold it to you is responsible for city liens as part of you. Creating a project and building like a new home on that property, the city will release those lanes. So, but you can't have lanes on any other property you want. You cannot have been subject to a building standard commission order of demolition. And the project has to be in compliance with zoning and the adopted as plan. Certifications expire 5 years after the certification date. So, if you don't do your project in 5 years. Then you have to resubmit for certain certification. The design guidelines are pretty. Standard and very straightforward, no metal buildings except industrial projects. All new construction projects must contain 70% based on the product. The exceptions to that are for local historic districts. And the urban design districts that have design guidelines. So that's near South side can't believe in stockyards. Those applicants for the historic and the urban design districts have to provide a certificate of appropriateness and supporting documentation for their project. And submit that with their application. So, that exemption only applies to the mainstream product. All the other guidelines still, they must adhere to. So, compliance with the design guidelines for council adopted as strategic plans is required. Attached garages for single family homes may not extend more than 4 feet past the front building wall and that is air conditioned space. Industrial projects are still eligible for certification, but they must be appropriately zoned and import with the comprehensive plan. Ineligible projects in the next are sexually oriented businesses, non residential, mobile structures. And standalone bars bars as part of the mixed use project can apply for as incentives single family investor on projects. So single family rental property. Package stores, liquor stores or projects to be constructed on a property purchased or to be purchased under a contract for deed. The basic incentives that are waived with a certification are development certain development fee waivers impact fee waivers, the release of city lanes that you are not responsible for on a property that you are doing your project on. Municipal property tax abatement if approved by the city council and the basic incentives is offered to all proposed developments located in and as as long as the project is certified. The project will automatically receive the fee waivers. Lean releases and impact fee waivers tax statements are only granted if approved by the city council. So an applicant can request. To get their project certified and get the waivers. And not get the tax, they don't have to request the tax payment. A lot of people do not get the tax payment simply because. That takes a while to get on the council agenda. Part of that is that house bill 3143, which took effect September 1st of 2019 states that. Any tax abatement we give even on single family homes, we have to do a 30 day public notice. So the time that it takes to get on the council agenda. The 3 week period that the city manager's office wants that there. Before it goes on the agenda, it's 2. So, it's 10 to 12 weeks. For a tax abatement to be on the council agenda and be voted on. And some times people don't want that way. Time is money and it depends on. How much the abatement works to them. So. The fees that are waived are 100% of all building permit related fees, including plans review and inspections. There's a section that says the fees that are not waived and I'll go with those in a minute. But application fee, board of adjustment application demolition fee structure, moving fee community. Facilities agreement application fee zoning application. Street utility easement ordinance inspection consent encroachment agreement fees. Transportation impact the urban forestry application fee and sign permit fees. Other fees that are not listed in our policy are waived on a case by case basis by the city council and that requires an MNC. Since the program is a council adopted program. All guidelines in the policy must be adhered to any deviation from that requires an MNC for the city council. The fees that are not waived are park fees. Building permit, if the application is expired, the fee to reactivate, renew or reapply is not waived in addition penalties and extension fees or repermitting fees are not waived. Inspection fees outside normal business hours, fire inspection and permit fees fees charged by third party inspectors fees for special services such as simultaneous plan. And flat review or expedited plan review infrastructure plan review center fees are also not waived. I guess that's IPRC. It's what they're commonly called water and wastewater impact fees are waived 100% for single family and multifamily projects. Commercial industrial mixed use or community facility projects the waivers 100% up to $55,000 or the equivalent of 2, 6 inch meters, whichever is less. If someone wants a water or wastewater impact fee way that's larger than that, it is approved by the city council by MNC. The release of city liens, we will release weed liens, weed or mowing liens, demolition liens up to 30,000, board up liens and paving liens. The liens are released once the project and the improvements are complete. Completion is defined as having an approved final inspection or final certificate of occupancy. We used to release the liens up front right after certification and then people didn't do the project. They turn around and sell the property. So, we no longer do that in terms of property tax evapement, all abatements that we do in Nez are five year abatements. So, they're for single family homeowner occupied residential projects, multifamily development, commercial or industrial development projects, mixed use and community facilities projects. In terms of the property tax abatements, the abatement applies only to the building or the improvements, not the land. It's based on the taxable value is determined by tarant, a personal district, the abatement applies only to the city or municipal taxes, not any other taxing entities taxes. Since we are one of six taxing entities that make up a tax bill in the city forward, we cannot abate anyone's taxes, but our own. The abatement start the year after the year of final inspection for a single family home or the year after the year of the final CEO for commercial, industrial, or mixed use property. And the reason for this is because. Tarent appraisal district determines the value of a project January 1, even though your bill does not come due until December. So, if you are building a home and January 1, you're still in the process of building that and it's not complete. Then come the end of the year, if we gave you your abatement, your, your abatement would only be on the portion that was complete. So we wait until the project is complete. And we do your abatement the year after that year to make sure that January 1. All of the improvements are accounted for and you're getting the full benefit of your tax abatement. Applicants must qualify each year for the term of the abatement through an audit process and this is by law. Those audit records that we do are permanent retention. We can never destroy them. So, the state can ask to see our audit records of tax abatements at any time. An example of the savings for abatement would be if you're building a new construction home, it's valued at 10 as $180,000. Then the tax savings. For the abatement would be $1,318.50 per year for a total of $65.92.50 for the 5 year abatement period. Homes or buildings that are rehabilitated or have additions are valued, the abatement is valued on anything that is over the amount on the tax rolls at the time of the application. So, we can't give tax abatements legally on anything that's already existing. We can only give an abatement on. The improvements that you make, so if anything over what is existing after the time at the time that you do the project. So, if you have a home that's currently valued at 10 as $120,000, an applicant applies for an abatement to add on a room and remodel. The house after the project completion, the new tag value is $185,000. Then the abatement is on that increase of $65,000, not the $120 that was there before. And the tax savings for that would be $476.13 per year for a total of $2,380.63 for the 5 year period. So, rehabilitations and add-ons are a little different simply because we cannot abate taxes on anything that's already existing. How do you apply for an abatement? Well, you go to the city of Fort Worth webpage and you click on departments. Find neighborhood services and then go to the neighborhood empowerment zone page from there. If you scroll down just a little bit, there are 3 boxes that say apply opt out and then there is a step-by-step instruction guide with pictures of how to register on a cell. And like your application, the application packets are there and then you can click that apply online and it takes you to the application process. We also have a cool tool that's on there now that didn't used to be is finding your address and and it's right there on that same page, which is pretty neat. So, this is the step-by-step on what you need to do the instructions, the application packets that you will need to fill out and then apply online and uploading your documents. If you want to opt out, the same thing, there's a packet for to opt out and step-by-step instructions on how to opt out on a cell. And then if someone has any questions, they can contact our office and call our main number or they can call me or email me. We're also available to conduct neighborhood workshops on applying for the NAS or any neighborhood. And that's it. That's wonderful. I do have a few questions for you. Okay. All right. So the first question is, how are the NEZ zones established? How often are they updated and can NEZ area be amended? Let me go to that for you. So the NAS areas are put in place for 5 years. They are, there's an internal as well as having the external document that the public sees for the NAS policy. We have 2 internal documents and that's our administrative procedures and then the policy statement or how to create a NAS. Those documents govern and I'll pull one up here. Sure. Stop sharing that. So this is the policy statement on the creation and elimination of the local neighborhood. So we have to follow what the law says we can do, which is chapter 378 of local government code. And then this document says what we look at. And how we put it in place and the requirements are requirements, which are more than what the state requires. So for us to be in accordance with chapter 378, some of the easiest, we want to make that an easily recognizable thing. So we make sure that every NAS area is 100% community development block grant eligible. And that to be CDBG eligible that area, that's a. National thing. It's not something that a city decides that information is determined by the census data. So we use the census data for that. We make sure that the NAS has clearly defined boundaries. You can encompass an existing multiple neighborhoods. Has a high concentration of population at or below poverty level. Has low median income household and per capita income. It contains a predominance of substandard homes or aged housing stock has a higher than average vacancy rate. A higher than average crime rate against persons or property has low commercial permit values and contains areas that are targeted for revitalization. So all of those things are considerations when we put a NAS area in place. And so we follow those, we put the NAS in place and it's put in place for 5 years. We do not. Change those boundaries outside of that 5 years. If there is a project that. Is outside the NAS. Outside in this area that the council would like to see. Or a director department would like to see and thinks is a good project and should be eligible for the same type. Of fee waivers that the NAS affords, then. That department would have to do an M and C and take it before the city council, which has been done. In a multiple times. So if there's a project that's deserving of fee waivers and they're not in a NAS. Then the department can move forward and ask the city council to. Mirror the NAS. The waivers for that project, even though they are outside in this, so the fee waivers would be done by that M and C. The next update. So we put these areas in place in 2019. So 2024. Okay. So next year 2023 will be, we will be looking at. Because it takes a while to do this. So next year in 2024, we will start the process of. You know, looking at the areas. The current. As areas and then any new areas because, and this will make a. We may see a big difference because we have news. There are new CDBG maps. So. The CDBG eligible areas. Could be the same or they could be vastly different from what they are right now. That makes sense. So some other questions I had jotted down where. Can you have a tax abatement and a homestead exemption? Yes. There are 2 different things. We require actually we require people with. Single family homes. That seek a tax abatement we require them to file a homestead exemption. Because that way we know the property is owner occupied and those are the only single family projects that are eligible for nascent incentives at all. So the homestead exemption. Gives you discounts on more than just your city taxes. It's also. I believe your school district. And is it the county to. I'll go blank on that, but yes, so they there are 2 different things that and a homestead exemption is. You file it 1 time. It's good for as long as you live in your home. You don't ever have to file it again. Unless you move and get a different home. The tax abatement is only good for 5 years. You are audited every single year that you get that tax abatement. So. Yeah, it's a different a different animal. But yes, good question. And then the last question I had was, why would someone want to opt out of an anything. Sometimes people think the amount of time that it takes like the example that I gave on doing a rehab. On a house. Adding a room. And rehabbing some other stuff. That was worth a little over $400 a year. By the example that I used. Time is money and sometimes people don't have that time to wait if you have a note, for example. With a bank. To do your project. And if you have to wait for 12 weeks. Then you're paying interest on that note from the bank. And you're having to make payments alone before you've even started your project. Because there is a but for clause. With tax abatement that says, but for having a tax abatement that project is not going to happen. It is not as restrictive. It's not as restrictive of a law or term. As far as single family housing goes, but because of that. Our policy states that you may not submit for a building permit until after your tax abatement has been approved by the city council. So I have to have your tax abatement approved and have a signed contract from you. Before you can even submit for a building permit. So you have to wait approximately 12 weeks. To get your tax abatement in place. And then you have to wait that whole period, however long that is. To get your building permit to start building. So if you have a note. And you're waiting 12. Let's say it's another two months. So if you wait. 4 to 6 months. And you're paying interest on it or you're making payments for 4 to 6 months. It's time versus money. And if the tax abatement is only going to save you $400 a year. But for that 6 months period. It's going to cost you more than it's going to save you. Then. You don't want to do a tax payment. That makes sense. So it's just dollars and cents and then some people just don't want to mess with it. It's not, you know, I don't care. It's not enough for them depending on what they're doing. Well, cool. Well, that makes every sense to me. Well, those are all the questions I had. Okay. Well, I've enjoyed it. Thank you. You're very welcome. I'm happy to do it anytime.