Not a whole lot has happened in Jackson in the two years since the Legislature passed Gov. Phil Bryant's health-care zone law in 2012.

That legislation,formally called Mississippi Health Care Industry Zone Act, gives the Mississippi Development Authority the ability to dedicate "health-care zones." Inside those zones, businesses will be eligible for tax breaks and incentives. That includes clinics, medical-supply manufacturers and retailers and telecommunication companies.

So far, state officials have approved 12 zones around the statebut, oddly, none in Jackson or Hinds County despite the presence of University of Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist Health Systems and St. Dominic Hospital, all within a stone's throw from one another.

Recently introduced legislation, called the Mississippi Healthcare Industry Zone Master Plan Act, aims to provide additional incentives to Jackson and other cities to help get their health-care master plans off the ground. House Bill 1634, which the House passed unanimously and the Senate Finance Committee will consider, would create several grant and loan funds that could pay for job training, health-care facility payrolls, municipal bond payments and state new-market tax credit allocation to MDA-certified master plans.

"The city can be a unifying force," given all Jackson's health-care organizations, including the hospitals, clinics and the Jackson Medical Mall, said Jackson Ward 2 Councilman Melvin Priester Jr.

The master planning process would begin with stakeholder meetings, market analyses and mapping of existing community assets in the health-care businesses, including medical facilities, educational assets and industrial parks. Master planners would also consider how existing plans, including city comprehensive plans, might mesh with a health-care master plan.

For example, backers of HB 1634 hope that it would help plans that are under way for a Jackson Medical Corridor, for which Andrew Jenkins of AJA Management developed a plan for a proposed project that would stretch the length of Woodrow Wilson Avenue between Interstates 55 and 220.

The legislation also has the backing of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association. In a letter to stakeholders, urging them to support the master-plan act, Mississippi APA President Donovan Scruggs said:

"As Mississippi attempts to grow a statewide health care cluster, our state has a tremendous opportunity to transform its competitive landscape and at the same time promote a primary objective of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association to nurture and grow communities of lasting value and diversity with choices for living, working and enjoying life."

Bank Shot

The rest is here:

City Roundup: Health Care Zones, Land Trusts