Statutorily Mandated Designation of Difficult Development Areas and Qualified Census Tracts for 2009

For reference purposes, this notice lists those areas treated as DDAs under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 (GO Zone Act) (Pub. L. 109-135; the GO Zone Act, as amended by the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007).

Specifically, the GO Zone Act provides that areas "determined by the President to warrant individual or individual and public assistance from the federal government under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act)" as a result of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, or Wilma:

(1) Shall be treated as DDAs designated under subclause (I) of Internal Revenue Code section 42(d)(5)(C)(iii) (i.e., areas designated by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development as having high construction, land, and utility costs relative to area median gross income (AMGI)), and

(2) shall not be taken into account for purposes of applying the limitation under subclause II of such section (i.e., the 20 percent cap on the total population of designated areas).

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