Sec. 492-3.4. Approval of projects

(a) The department will issue, on a competitive basis, within amounts appropriated, state assistance payments towards the cost of eligible climate change mitigation or adaptation projects provided that the department determines that the municipality has considered future physical climate risk due to sea level rise, and/or storm surges and/or flooding, based on available data predicting the likelihood of future extreme weather events, including hazard risk analysis data if applicable.

(b) The department shall outline specific scoring criteria applicable to the eligible project types in a request for applications. These criteria shall include:

(1) financial hardship;

(2) project readiness;

(3) project criticality;

(4) effectiveness of the proposal;

(5) planning context;

(6) quality of the application; and

(7) reasonableness of cost.

(c) Climate adaptation and mitigation projects will be screened for eligibility and, if eligible, scored based on the criteria described in the request for applications. Funding will be awarded according to project rank from highest to lowest until funding is exhausted.