The Longmont City Council may apply to have areas of the city designated as a “CHIPS Zone” to boost the research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors locally.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed the “Creating Helpful Incentives for Producing Semiconductors and Science Act,” providing billions toward strengthening semiconductor production in the United States.

Semiconductors were invented in the U.S. and are the “brains of modern electronics,” according to the Semiconductor Industry Association’s website.

If approved in Longmont, the CHIPS Zone would be noncontiguous and largely located in the west and southwest regions of the city where some businesses are already working in the semiconductor industry.

“I do support it,” Longmont Mayor Joan Peck said of the proposed CHIPS Zone. “It will attract technology that we want and need.”

Longmont’s CHIPS Zone would include an area next to the Vance Brand Municipal Airport, another section near S. Fordham Street and a portion of the city just south of Pike Road.

“There is nothing in the statute that requires CHIPS Zones be contiguous areas,” Daniel Salvetti, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade semiconductor industry manager, said in an email. “In fact, the first and only established CHIPS Zone thus far, in Fort Collins, is of a similar structure, with three distinct and disconnected areas.”

In order to establish a CHIPS Zone, the city must apply to the state’s Economic Development Commission for designation.

If approved by the Commission, semiconductor companies in the CHIPS Zone will be able to access qualified investment tax credits, job training tax credits, commercial vehicle investment tax credits, business facility new employee tax credits and research and development tax credits, according to a council memo.

During its regular meeting Tuesday, the City Council is set to vote on a resolution that would approve the proposed areas of the CHIPS Zone to submit to the Commission.

“It lets the industries know that Longmont is a place that wants … (to) attract technology,” Peck said.