Roswell has joined several of its neighbors in a quest to draw more business by waiving fees that can total several thousand dollars.
The City Council passed a measure Wednesday that will offer economic incentives to certain businesses that set up shop or expand in the city. Details have yet to be finalized, but a working draft calls for waiving or reducing permit and impact fees and waiving business registration fees up to $7,130 a year.
To qualify, a business would have to locate or expand to add at least 50 full-time jobs with an annual salary above the area’s median or provide a new property investment of $15 million or greater.
The action comes in response to a flurry of inquiries by businesses interested in relocating, according to city leaders.
Last year, the state allowed Roswell to expand its Opportunity Zone into one of the largest in metro Atlanta. An Opportunity Zone is an economically depressed area in which businesses are granted state tax credits based on jobs.
“We’re getting a lot of activity now,” Steve Stroud, executive director of the Roswell Business Alliance, said Thursday.
Roswell now joins Sandy Springs and Alpharetta among north Fulton cities to have recently enacted local policies to attract commercial and job growth.
Alice Wakefield, director of Community Development, said the measure allows a panel of local government and business leaders to grant the incentives on a case-by-case basis, with final approval from the City Council.
But Mayor Jere Wood argued that he would like to eliminate as much discretion as possible, so businesses could know from the start whether or not they qualify for incentives.
“In business, you like to have some predictability,” Wood said.
The mayor also recommended city planners develop a sliding scale of incentives for smaller businesses.
“Incentives, even small incentives, show an attitude that you’re encouraging it,” he said. “Our major market is not the big guys. Our major market is the guy with 5, 10 or 15 employees.”
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