N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 9, § 1901.4 – Area eligibility.

(a) An eligible area may have an existing designation or must meet the criteria which establishes an area as an eligible area under the act and these regulations.
(b) An eligible area is one that 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, unsanitary, deteriorating or deteriorated conditions, an aged housing stock, or vacant nonresidential property, or other factors indicating an inability or unwillingness of the private sector, unaided, to cause the rehabilitation or conversion which is sought for under the act.
(c) Designated eligible area, for the purposes of these regulations, are areas which are designated pursuant to any Federal, State or local law, rules or regulations 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. The designations that will meet the criteria set forth in this section, include but are not limited to the following:
1. (1) areas which are designated under articles 15 and 16 of the General Municipal Law (the Urban Renewal Law and the Urban Development Action Area Act);
2. (2) areas which are designated by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of the United States 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 and preservation;
3. (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. (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 of the United States;
5. (5) neighborhoods in which neighborhood preservation activities are being carried out pursuant to article 16 of the Private Housing Finance Law (Neighborhood Preservation Companies);
6. (6) rural preservation and revitalization regions subject to the provisions of articles 17, 17-A and 17-B of the Private Housing Finance Law (Housing and Community Preservation in Rural Areas, Rural Rental Assistance Program for Rural Areas and Rural Area Revitalization Projects);
7. (7) neighborhood where median income does not exceed 80 percent of the median income of the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in which the neighborhood is located, or that does not exceed 80 percent of the median income in the county, if such county is not part of a MSA. (For purposes of this paragraph, neighborhood means an area that surrounds a project and tends to determine along with the condition and quality of the project, selling prices and/or rent levels of housing units); and
8. (8) economic opportunity zones.
(d) In addition, if a municipality in which the area is located designates, by the chief executive officer or 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, unsanitary, 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 cause the rehabilitation or conversion to be contracted for under the act, such area is, for the purposes of these regulations, an eligible area.
(e) An area is eligible for new construction if it otherwise satisfies the criteria of this section and it is also, at the time of application, located in an area in which rehabilitation opportunities are limited or where new construction would prove to be more effective as determined by the corporation.