51. In designating qualified municipalities for participation in the neighborhood empowerment program, the Urban Coordinating Council in consultation and in conjunction with the authority shall accord preference to neighborhood empowerment plans which:

a. have the greatest potential for success in stimulating primarily new economic activity in the area;

b. are designed to address the greatest degree of urban distress, as measured by existing levels of unemployment and poverty;

c. demonstrate the most substantial and reliable commitments of resources by empowerment neighborhood businesses, associations, voluntary community organizations and other private entities to the successful redevelopment of the empowerment neighborhood;

d. demonstrate the most substantial effort and commitment by the municipality to encourage economic activity in the area and to remove disincentives for job creation compatible with the fiscal condition of the municipality; and

e. demonstrate most convincingly how the proposed plan will increase jobs for neighborhood residents and ratables in the neighborhood, thereby lessening the need for municipal tax increases.

L.1996,c.62,s.51.