Sec. 2161.2. Designated eligible areas

(a) Designated eligible areas are, for the purposes of these regulations, areas which are designated pursuant to any Federal, State or local law, rule or regulation as blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating or as having a blighting influence on the surrounding area or as being in danger of becoming a slum or blighted area. Among the designations that will meet the criteria set forth in this section are the following:

(1) areas which are designated under articles 15 and 16 of the General Municipal Law;

(2) areas which are designated by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development as areas where concentrated housing, physical development, and public service activities are being or will be carried out in a coordinated manner, pursuant to a locally developed strategy for neighborhood improvement, conservation or preservation;

(3) census tracts in which at least 70 percent of the families have an income which is 80 percent or less of the statewide median family income;

(4) areas of chronic economic distress as designated by the State and as approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;

(5) neighborhoods in which neighborhood preservation activities are being carried out pursuant to article 16 of the Private Housing Finance Law; and

(6) rural preservation and revitalization regions subject to the provisions of articles 17, 17-A and 17-B of the Private Housing Finance Law.

(b) In addition, if a municipality in which the area is located designates, through the appropriate legislative body, that the area is blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating, or has a blighting influence on the surrounding area, or is in danger of becoming a slum or a blighted area because of the existence of substandard, insanitary, deteriorating or deteriorated conditions, an aged housing stock, or vacant nonresidential property, or other factors indicating an inability or unwillingness of the private sector, without governmental assistance, to invest in homes for the area, such area is, for the purposes of these regulations, an eligible area.