Leveraging Opportunity Zones for Community Revitalization
Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. To help communities leverage their Qualified Opportunity Zone (OZ) designations, EPA delivered technical assistance and developed tools to assist economically distressed communities and increase their capacity to align, direct, and leverage private-sector capital.
These tools, created in 2020 and described below, are intended to help communities advance their plans and visions for redevelopment and revitalization, prioritize specific needs, preserve community character, and overcome project financing barriers to attract private capital. While geared towards communities with Qualified OZ designations, they may be useful for other communities that are interested in attracting investment and financing projects.
- Leveraging Development Finance Tools to Attract Opportunity Zone Investment (pdf) provides an overview of various development finance tools and how communities can use those tools to finance projects. Assembled together, these tools can help form a project's capital stack.
- Building A Community Prospectus: A Framework for Attracting Sustainable and Equitable Opportunity Zone Investment (pdf) outlines a 7-step process for developing a community prospectus with strategies and case study examples that promote equity, sustainability, and thriving communities. It is designed to help communities articulate their vision, priorities, and assets and develop incentives and guardrails for attracting investment.
- Five Strategies for Engaging Opportunity Zone Investors (pdf) includes key things to know about OZ investors and ideas for engaging with investors in equitable community development projects and helps communities get started in demonstrating readiness for investment.
- OZ Mapper helps identify Qualified OZs across the country. This mapping tool compiled data from several government agencies and allows users to explore and visualize environmental, health, social, and economic data. It also features data about each OZ, such as the presence of brownfields, flood plains, impaired waters, air quality nonattainment areas, walkability scores, environmental justice data, areas with limited access to food, and other data that might factor into a community's vision for redevelopment.