(1) Prior to applying to the board to use local infrastructure financing, a sponsoring local government shall:

(a) Designate a revenue development area within the limitations in RCW 39.102.060;

(b) Certify that the conditions in RCW 39.102.070 are met;

(c) Complete the process in RCW 39.102.080;

(d) Provide public notice as required in RCW 39.102.100; and

(e) Pass an ordinance adopting the revenue development area as required in RCW 39.102.090.

(2) Any local government that has created an increment area under chapter 39.89 RCW and has not issued bonds to finance any public improvement may apply to the board and have its increment area considered for approval as a revenue development area under this chapter without adopting a new revenue development area under RCW 39.102.090 and 39.102.100 if it amends its ordinance to comply with RCW 39.102.090(1) and otherwise meets the conditions and limitations under this chapter.

(3) As a condition to imposing a sales and use tax under RCW 82.14.475, a sponsoring local government, including any cosponsoring local government seeking authority to impose a sales and use tax under RCW 82.14.475, must apply to the board and be approved for a project award amount. The application shall be in a form and manner prescribed by the board and include but not be limited to information establishing that the applicant is an eligible candidate to impose the local sales and use tax under RCW 82.14.475, the anticipated effective date for imposing the tax, the estimated number of years that the tax will be imposed, and the estimated amount of tax revenue to be received in each fiscal year that the tax will be imposed. The board shall make available forms to be used for this purpose. As part of the application, each applicant must provide to the board a copy of the ordinance or ordinances creating the revenue development area as required in RCW 39.102.090. A notice of approval to use local infrastructure financing shall contain a project award that represents the maximum amount of state contribution that the applicant, including any cosponsoring local governments, can earn each year that local infrastructure financing is used. The total of all project awards shall not exceed the annual state contribution limit. The determination of a project award shall be made based on information contained in the application and the remaining amount of annual state contribution limit to be awarded. Determination of a project award by the board is final.

(4)(a) Sponsoring local governments, and any cosponsoring local governments, applying in calendar year 2007 for a competitive project award, must submit completed applications to the board no later than July 1, 2007. By September 15, 2007, in consultation with the department of revenue and the department of commerce, the board shall approve competitive project awards from competitive applications submitted by the 2007 deadline. No more than two million five hundred thousand dollars in competitive project awards shall be approved in 2007. For projects not approved by the board in 2007, sponsoring and cosponsoring local governments may apply again to the board in 2008 for approval of a project.

(b) Sponsoring local governments, and any cosponsoring local governments, applying in calendar year 2008 for a competitive project award, must submit completed applications to the board no later than July 1, 2008. By September 18, 2008, in consultation with the department of revenue and the department of commerce, the board shall approve competitive project awards from competitive applications submitted by the 2008 deadline.

(c) Except as provided in RCW 39.102.050(2), a total of no more than five million dollars in competitive project awards shall be approved for local infrastructure financing.

(d) The project selection criteria and weighting developed prior to July 22, 2007, for the application evaluation and approval process shall apply to applications received prior to November 1, 2007. In evaluating applications for a competitive project award after November 1, 2007, the board shall develop the relative weight to be assigned to the following criteria:

(i) The project’s potential to enhance the sponsoring local government’s regional and/or international competitiveness;

(ii) The project’s ability to encourage mixed use and transit-oriented development and the redevelopment of a geographic area;

(iii) Achieving an overall distribution of projects statewide that reflect geographic diversity;

(iv) The estimated wages and benefits for the project is greater than the average labor market area;

(v) The estimated state and local net employment change over the life of the project;

(vi) The current economic health and vitality of the proposed revenue development area and the contiguous community and the estimated impact of the proposed project on the proposed revenue development area and contiguous community;

(vii) The estimated state and local net property tax change over the life of the project;

(viii) The estimated state and local sales and use tax increase over the life of the project;

(ix) An analysis that shows that, over the life of the project, neither the local excise tax allocation revenues nor the local property tax allocation revenues will constitute more than eighty percent of the total local funds as described in *RCW 39.102.020(29)(b); and

(x) If a project is located within an urban growth area, evidence that the project utilizes existing urban infrastructure and that the transportation needs of the project will be adequately met through the use of local infrastructure financing or other sources.

(e)(i) Except as provided in this subsection (4)(e), the board may not approve the use of local infrastructure financing within more than one revenue development area per county.

(ii) In a county in which the board has approved the use of local infrastructure financing, the use of such financing in additional revenue development areas may be approved, subject to the following conditions:

(A) The sponsoring local government is located in more than one county; and

(B) The sponsoring local government designates a revenue development area that comprises portions of a county within which the use of local infrastructure financing has not yet been approved.

(iii) In a county where the local infrastructure financing tool is authorized under RCW 39.102.050, the board may approve additional use of the local infrastructure financing tool.

(5) Once the board has approved the sponsoring local government, and any cosponsoring local governments, to use local infrastructure financing, notification must be sent by the board to the sponsoring local government, and any cosponsoring local governments, authorizing the sponsoring local government, and any cosponsoring local governments, to impose the local sales and use tax authorized under RCW 82.14.475, subject to the conditions in RCW 82.14.475.

*Reviser’s note: RCW 39.102.020 was amended by 2020 c 280 § 2, changing subsection (29)(b) to subsection (30)(b).

Application—Severability—2007 c 229: See notes following RCW 39.102.020.