Meeting today on small business incentives

The City's Department of Community Development and Planning will be holding a roundtable meeting today to help identify additional incentives to small business that the City should be providing.

The reason for the meeting is the drop in Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) applications for commercial alterations processed by the City's Permit Center between 2005 (692) and 2007 (482, YTD).

Over the same period, yearly residential CRA applications have more than doubled.

Discussion at the roundtable will explore:

* Existing service gaps and how they can be addressed
* The promotion of service providers, such as those listed below
* How to minimize the duplication of services

Commercial CRA applications require more bureaucratic work because, unlike residential applications, they must be approved by City Council.

The panel will consist of members of the UC Small Business Development Center as well as local service providers the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, the Cincinnati Business Incubator, Smart Money Community Services and the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency.