1. (a) Who may apply. Application may be made by any city in Texas whose population is less than 50,000. An application form may be requested from the Texas Main Street Project of the Texas Historical Commission, P.O. Box 12276, Austin, Texas 78711.
2. (b) Deadline. Application forms are made available by the commission after April 1 of each year. The deadline for their delivery, in acceptable form, to the commission's offices is the final business day of July of the selection year.

3. (c) Content. Each application form shall be accompanied by:

   1. (1) a city street map with an outline of the central business district;
   2. (2) a copy of the resolution passed by the municipal governing body showing intent to fund three years' salary for a Main Street local project manager, and to pay his or her travel expenses to required training sessions. A city with a population under 5,000 will qualify by employing a half-time local project manager;
   3. (3) 25 color slides of downtown streetscapes and buildings; and
   4. (4) letters of support from merchants, organizations, and citizens.

4. (d) Evaluation.

   1. (1) The interagency council will meet to review applications within one week of the deadline for receiving them. Additional work sessions of the council will be held as needed.
   2. (2) The council may require additional information from the cities as deemed necessary, which is to be supplied to the council at the Texas Historical Commission before October 1 following the application deadline.

   3. (3) All applying cities are evaluated according to the following criteria:

      1. (A) community attitude;
      2. (B) commitment to downtown revitalization by private and governmental sectors;
      3. (C) commitment to conservation by private and governmental sectors;
      4. (D) progress in historic preservation and downtown revitalization;
      5. (E) amount of historic fabric surviving in the inner core of the community;
      6. (F) amount of private investment in the community's economic development;
      7. (G) amount of per capita expenditure by city government;
      8. (H) effectiveness and capability of city staff;
      9. (I) number and quality of major community plans and studies completed in the preceding five years;
      10. (J) number and quality of architectural, economic, and demographic surveys completed; and
      11. (K) geographical location.
5. (e) Ranking the applications. The applying cities will be ranked according to the preceding criteria by ballot at a meeting of the interagency council no later than 90 days after the application deadline. The interagency council will submit the ranked list to the Main Street Committee. The Main Street Committee will, in turn, submit the ranked list to the Texas Historical Commission.
6. (f) Announcement. Announcement of the five cities chosen will be made no later than 95 days after the deadline for receiving applications.
7. (g) Cities not selected. Cities not selected will be so notified in writing by the director of the Main Street project. Such cities will be given an evaluation upon request of their application with suggestions for improvements.

Source Note:The provisions of this §19.3 adopted to be effective December 31, 1984, 9 TexReg 6315; amended to be effective February 24, 1986, 11 TexReg 801; amended to be effective February 26, 1991, 16 TexReg 859.