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California opens OC2 nomination window June 15; GoBiz details submission steps, criteria and Sept. 28 federal deadline
Summary
GoBiz announced the OC2 application portal will open June 15 and close at the end of July; local governments may submit census tract recommendations, and the state plans to evaluate submissions in August–early September and forward nominations to the U.S. Treasury by Sept. 28.
Brian Coleman, project financing manager at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GoBiz), told attendees of the third OC2 informational webinar that California’s application window for Opportunity Zones nominations will open on June 15 and remain open until the end of July.
Coleman said the state will accept formal recommendations from local government entities—cities, counties, special districts, regional joint powers authorities and councils of governments—and encouraged educational institutions, community groups and private developers to coordinate with their local government partners before submitting. He said the web form will request, at minimum, the nominating jurisdiction, a formal primary point of contact and the 10-digit census tract number.
GoBiz’s timeline: Coleman said staff expect to spend August and the first part of September evaluating and scoring recommendations, with final nominations submitted to the U.S. Treasury by Sept. 28. He emphasized the nomination process is not first-come, first-served and urged jurisdictions to use the portal and scheduled office hours to prepare thorough, strategic submissions.
Selection priorities: GoBiz will prioritize tract recommendations that align with statewide and regional economic-development objectives (the Jobs First statewide economic blueprint and regional Jobs First plans), that demonstrate potential to attract private residential investment (affordable-housing components viewed favorably), that include shovel-ready sites per the state’s business-ready-sites criteria, or that show existing or planned public investment. Coleman said additional clarifications about shovel-ready definitions and scoring will be provided during office hours and in written materials posted to the OC2 web page.
Resources and next steps: GoBiz will host weekly office hours (likely Tuesdays) over the coming weeks, post webinar recordings and FAQs to the OC2 web page, and share registration links in GoBiz newsletters. Coleman encouraged local jurisdictions to take time during the roughly six- to seven-week window to identify the most competitive ‘‘Goldilocks’’ census tracts for nomination.
Coleman closed the session by thanking the Urban Institute presenter and reminding attendees that questions submitted through the webinar Q&A that cannot be answered live will be added to the posted FAQ.
