Every 10 years, the Colorado Enterprise Zone program, which provides tax credits to businesses in certain qualifying areas, re-evaluates its zoning across the state – meaning which businesses are eligible to receive credits may change.
January marks one of those once-per-decade overall zone re-evaluations, and La Plata County will be part of the reconsideration.
Region 9 Executive Director Laura Lewis Marchino and Program Administrator for Loan Servicing and Enterprise Zone Terry Blair-Burton discussed the program and its changes Tuesday morning at a community business meeting at El Moro Spirits and Tavern.
There are 16 designated enterprise zones in the state, all of which have high unemployment rates, slow population growth or low per capita income. Each zone is overseen by zone administrators. While the entirety of the state is reevaluated every 10 years, smaller evaluations are done every two years within that decade period, Lewis Marchino said.
Dolores, Montezuma and San Juan counties, as well as most of Archuleta and parts of La Plata counties, have been located within the Southwest Enterprise Zone boundary throughout the past 10-year cycle. All of those counties are overseen by the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado.
The zone represents a patchwork of socioeconomic disadvantages; in other words, parts of each county are experiencing high unemployment rates, slow population growth, low per capita income – or all three.
According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the program is designed to spur economic growth in geographic areas that have been designated as “distressed” by offering tax credits to businesses that engage in certain activities within the zone – like specific employee hiring practices or pursuing investments.
To qualify as a “distressed” area, a zone must meet at least one of three criteria defined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data or Colorado Department of Local Affairs data, according to the Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
These criteria include having a five-year population growth rate below 25% of the state average, an unemployment rate that is 125% or greater than the state average, or a per capita income below 75% of the state average.
How to certify
A business within the new enterprise zone can become pre-certified for tax credits by visiting www.oedit.colorado.gov/enterprise-zone-program and clicking on “Apply for a tax credit.”
Businesses must recertify annually to remain opted into the program.
To qualify as a rural enterprise zone, an area needs a population of 150,000 or less. The population of an urban enterprise zone must be 115,000 or less.
Businesses located in an eligible zone that have opted into the program by pre-certifying their business online can claim state income tax credits for qualified activities like hiring new employees, outsourcing job training, investing in property and rehabilitating vacant buildings.
The new zone maps determining which geographic areas qualify as Enterprise Zones were announced last month and will go into effect Jan. 1.
The rezoning may mean a business that lies within an existing Enterprise Zone could find itself outside the zone under the new boundary distinctions, or a business currently outside the zone could end up newly eligible.
All of Montezuma, San Juan and Archuleta counties and nearly all of Dolores County have been determined to be within the 2026 rezoning, but only some parts of La Plata County have been designated as “distressed” and in need of Enterprise Zone credits.
Pockets throughout the county were designated as being eligible for the program beginning in 2026, but the most concentrated need was determined to be in the northwest corner.
According to Office of Economic Development and International Trade, businesses that find themselves outside the Enterprise Zone in 2026 and “can demonstrate that they have demonstrably relied on Enterprise Zone credits for future planned investments prior to the announcement of a boundary no longer meeting the eligibility criteria” can apply for grandfathering: a system in which a business that falls outside the zone after previously being inside can preserve its eligibility under the former zoning rules.
A business must have opted into the Enterprise Zone tax credit program prior to a zoning change to be eligible for grandfathering.
Lewis Marchino said she encourages local businesses that are eligible to pre-certify and use the tax credit program.
More information
For information on the program and what’s changing, and to access an interactive map of Enterprise Zone areas, visit www.oedit.colorado.gov/enterprise-zone-program
To apply for “grandfathering,” visit www.oedit.colorado.gov/programs-and-funding/tax-credits/enterprise-zone-program/enterprise-zone-redesignation
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