In the event there are Competitive HTC Applications that receive
the same number of points in any given set-aside category, rural regional
allocation or urban regional allocation, or rural or statewide collapse,
the Department will utilize the factors in this section, in the order
they are presented, to determine which Development will receive preference
in consideration for an award. For the purposes of this section, all
measurements will include ingress/egress requirements and any easements
regardless of how they will be held. The tie breaker factors are not
intended to specifically address a tie between equally underserved
subregions in the rural or statewide collapse.
(1) For Applications funded through the USDA Set-Aside
(A) Applications proposed to rehabilitate the property
with the earliest year of initial construction as a residential Development.
(i) Only the year of initial construction will be taken
into consideration. The specific date of construction or conversion
will not affect this tie breaker. A tie will persist if two Applications
have the same year. In the event that a Development was constructed
over a number of years, the earliest year will be used.
(ii) Year submitted must be evidenced by the initial
USDA loan documentation. If such documentation does not exist or cannot
be provided, the Application is ineligible for this tiebreaker.
(B) Once 5% or more of the State Housing Credit Ceiling
has been allocated to USDA developments, no further applications with
USDA financing shall receive preference under this tie breaker but
may receive preference under subsections (2) and (3) of this section.
(2) For all other competitive Applications
(A) Applications proposed to be located in closest
proximity to the following features as of the Full Application Delivery
Date:
(i) A park, or a parcel of land dedicated for public
use by a Municipal, County, State, or Federal entity and used as parkland
or for a recreational purpose. This feature must have been designated
by the relevant authority one year prior to the Full Application Delivery
Date.
(ii) The elementary school of attendance. In districts
with district-wide enrollment or choice, the Applicant shall use the
closest elementary. If a school is configured to serve grades that
do not align with the Texas Education Agency's conventions for defining
elementary schools, the closest campus of attendance that serves any
grade from kindergarten to fifth grade shall be used.
(iii) A full service grocery store of sufficient size
and volume to provide for the needs of the surrounding neighborhood
including the proposed Development; offering a wide variety of fresh,
frozen, canned and prepared foods, including but not limited to a
variety of fresh meats, poultry, and seafood; a wide selection of
fresh produce including a selection of different fruits and vegetables;
a selection of baked goods and a wide array of dairy products including
cheeses, and a wide variety of household goods, paper goods and toiletry
items.
(iv) A Public Library with indoor space, physical books
that can be checked out and that are of general and wide-ranging subject
matter, computers and internet access, and that is: Open 35 hours
or more per week in an Urban Area and 25 hours or more per week in
a Rural Area. The library must not be age or subject-restricted and
must be at least partially funded with government funding.
(B) The linear measurement will be performed from closest
parcel boundary of the Development Site to closest parcel boundary
of each feature. The Department may prescribe a specific form to be
used for the calculation of these distances using GPS coordinates
provided by the Applicant.
(C) In calculating this proximity, each feature's distance
will be required for submittal, with the sum of the three closest
features being used to produce the result. The Application with the
lowest sum of proximity will receive preference.
(D) In the event that one of the top three features
is disqualified due to not conforming to the definitions provided
or a substantial misrepresentation of distance from the development,
the fourth will be used as an opportunity to replace the disqualified
feature. If multiple features are disqualified, the Application will
not receive preference. If the competing application(s) also has multiple
disqualified features the tie will persist.
(E) In the event that the sum proximities described
under §11.7(2)(B) for two tied Applications differ by 100 or
fewer feet, the tie will persist.
(3) If the tie persists, preference will be determined
using this final tiebreaker. Applications proposed to be located the
greatest linear distance from the nearest Housing Tax Credit assisted
Development that serves the same Target Population and that was awarded
15 or fewer years ago. Years are measured in whole years, and are
calculated by deducting the year of the award from the "Board Approval"
column of the property inventory from the Site Demographics Characteristics
report from the current year. The specific month and date of the award
are disregarded for this analysis. Developments awarded Housing Tax
Credits but do not yet have a Land Use Restriction Agreement in place
will be considered Housing Tax Credit assisted Developments for purposes
of this paragraph according to the property inventory included in
the HTC Site Demographic Characteristics Report. The linear measurement
will be performed from closest boundary to closest boundary of the
Site presented at Pre-Application, if a pre-application is submitted,
or the Site presented at full Application, whichever is closest.
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