| Established in 1994 by the Clinton Administration, Empowerment
Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/ECs) are the federal government's
most recent comprehensive approach for addressing urban and rural community
decline. The program focuses a combination of economic and community development
strategies on specifically designated areas of the country in order to
develop resources within those areas. Specifically EZ/ECs are meant to
create opportunities for zone residents and businesses, increasing the
number of employable and employed zone residents and the number of zone
businesses. A major emphasis has been placed on empowering residents and
including their ideas and voices in the process of rebuilding their communities;
this is referred to as the "bottom-up" approach to community planning.
Background
& History
The actual concept of spatially targeting economic development came from British planner Peter Hall. His idea was to encourage business growth in declining industrial and commercial centers in England's urban areas by providing tax incentives and reduced government regulations to businesses. The concept was elaborated on by Stuart Butler emphasizing small business job creation. The United States government expressed interest in Enterprise
Zones as early as the Reagan Administration. Political posturing
and distrust kept repeated bill proposals from being passed until 1987.
100 Enterprise Zones were designated but federal funding was minimal.
The result was that state governments initiated programs (up to 2000 zones
were identified) but without funding, were only marginally effective.
For a list of resources in print on Enterprise Zones The Clinton Administration recognized the potential of
this zone specific economic strategy and introduced the new and improved
Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities program go
to EZ/EC Homepage .
The program is meant to engage community members
in the creation of innovative strategies and plans. It is divided
into different levels of funding and program benefits to achieve its objectives.
For more information go to the program's
description.
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