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.

Source Note: The provisions of this §11.7 adopted to be effective December 31, 2023, 48 TexReg 7887