Why Callao, and why now

What an Opportunity Zone actually is

Two separate things travel under one name, and they point the same direction.

What changed this year

The map was drawn in 2018 and hasn’t moved since. Now it’s being redrawn for the first time. After this, it’s fixed until 2036.

The lines on the map

Callao isn’t an incorporated town. There’s no town line and no town government. So when the federal government counts people, it draws its own lines and numbers them. Those numbered areas are called census tracts, and they’re what the zone program works with.

Ours is tract 201, the orange boundary below. It runs from the Yeocomico down past the Coan, with Callao in the middle. The long number in the fine print, 51133020100, is just its full ID: 51 for Virginia, 133 for Northumberland County, 020100 for tract 201.

The zone would be the whole tract. Not just the crossroads. Everything inside the orange line.

Why Callao qualifies

A place qualifies when family income there runs below 70% of the state figure. Around Callao it runs at about 57%. That’s comfortably inside, and it comes from published federal numbers, not anybody’s opinion.

The part that actually matters for a small town

An investor used to have to spend at least as much fixing a building as they paid for it before the tax break applied. In a rural zone, that drops to half. On the small buildings we actually have, half is the difference between “no bank will touch it” and “somebody might actually do it.”

What it does not do

• It does not guarantee a dollar.
• It does not obligate the county to spend or match anything.
• It does not change zoning or any local rule.
• It does not make anybody build anything.

It is a label that improves the odds, and it is free.

Why we’ve never had one

When the map was drawn in 2018, no part of Northumberland County made it. We are not asking for anything our neighbors don’t already have.

Qualifying isn’t the contest

This is the part most people don’t know, and it changes what’s worth doing. About 607 places in Virginia pass the income test. The state is taking roughly 152 of them. It is cutting the total number of zones down from 212, which means some towns that have had one since 2018 are going to lose it.

The administration has said what it’s looking for when it chooses among places that all qualify. Two of the four are Callao almost word for word.

Who decides, and where the calls fit

The Governor signs the list, but she signs what’s put in front of her. The list itself is assembled by staff at two state bodies — the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. They asked for input from localities back in the spring, and Callao had nobody speaking for it then. That is what the calls and emails were for.

The county has filed its application. Delegate Kent and Senator Stuart are both behind it, which matters because a letter from a legislator reaches the administration in a way a resident’s email cannot. What’s still missing is volume from the people who actually live here — the evidence that the application has a town behind it rather than one supervisor.