CLEARFIELD – The commercial park out towards I-80 was the subject of much talk at the Lawrence Township Supervisor’s meeting between Keystone Opportunity Zone and taking care of upkeep at the Clearfield Firemen’s Commerce Park.
The Clearfield Firemen’s Commerce Park contains 206 acres of land split between three parcels of land. Two of which are owned by the Clearfield Foundation. The third, 25 acres, is owned by Clearfield’s Fair Board, but the Foundation is considering trying to buy it.
Both Foundation-owned partials have already reached shovel ready status by leveling off the areas, and the addition to other features such as roads and streetlights. The work to the northern lot cost around $13 million alone.
It is planned for these two lots to use the floating 10-year option of available for KOZ approval. If a business opens their doors, not start construction, within the next five years in either parcel they will have 10 years of tax relief.
This would need to be approved by the Clearfield County Commissioners and the Clearfield Area School District as well since the tax relief would also affect their income should any business go into the parcels.
The supervisors decided to look deeper into this at their next meeting. Other communities in the area are also applying for KOZ status and they want the work put into the north and south parcels not go to waste. The Foundation is also looking to get the third parcel added to the KOZ program for the first time.
Currently the barricade to the north parcel has been moved to allow people to get a look at the work that has been done.
The supervisors also agreed to have the township take on care of the streetlights and mowing up there. All but five of the streetlights will be turned off in order to save on electricity. It costs $9.61 a month to power a streetlight so this should save $163.37 a month. The five being left on are at spots where a lack of light could be a safety hazard.
