[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 145 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45227-45230]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-18626]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. 5774-N-03]


Promise Zones Initiative: Proposed Third Round Selection Process 
Solicitation of Comment

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and 
Development, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Through this notice, HUD solicits comment, for a period of 60-

[[Page 45228]]

days, on the proposed selection process, criteria and submissions for 
the Third Round of the Promise Zones Initiative.

DATES: Comments Due Date: September 28, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this proposal. Questions or comments should be directed by email to 
[email protected] with ``Third Round Promise Zones selection'' in 
the subject line. Questions or comments may also be directed by postal 
mail to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic 
Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 
Seventh Street SW., Room 7136, Washington, DC 20410 ATTN: 3nd Round 
Promise Zones selection.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bryan Herdliska, Office of Community 
Planning and Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, 451 7th Street SW., Washington, DC, 20410; telephone 
number 202-402-6758. This is not a toll-free number. Persons with 
hearing or speech impairments may access this number through TTY by 
calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background--Round 1 and 2 Promise Zones

    In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama announced 
the establishment of the Promise Zones Initiative to partner with high-
poverty communities across the country to create jobs, increase 
economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to 
quality, affordable housing, and improve public safety.\1\ On January 
8, 2014, the President announced the first five Promise Zones, which 
are located in: San Antonio, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, CA; 
Southeastern Kentucky, KY; and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, OK. On 
April 28, 2015, the Obama Administration announced eight more Promise 
Zones as part of the second round Promise Zone selection process, which 
are located in: Camden, NJ; Hartford, CT; Indianapolis, IN; 
Minneapolis, MN; Sacramento, CA; St. Louis County, MO; Barnwell, SC; 
and Porcupine, SD. Each of these communities (eight urban, one rural, 
and one tribal) submitted a plan on how it will partner with local 
business and community leaders to make investments that reward hard 
work and expand opportunity. In exchange, the Federal government is 
helping these Promise Zone designees secure the resources and 
flexibility they need to achieve their goals.\2\
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    \1\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/15/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-ensure-hard-work-leads-decent-living.
    \2\ See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/08/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-promise-zones-initiative.
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    The first five Promise Zones were selected through a competitive 
process following an invitation to eligible communities to apply for a 
designation, which was issued on October 30, 2013 with an application 
deadline of November 26, 2013.\3\ The urban designations were conferred 
by HUD while the rural and tribal designations were conferred by USDA. 
The pool of eligible applicants was limited to communities with 
demonstrated capacity in one or more areas of Promise Zone work that 
would prepare them to broaden their efforts to additional 
revitalization priorities. Specifically, urban eligibility was limited 
to communities encompassing a Choice Neighborhoods or Promise 
Neighborhoods Implementation grant, or a Byrne Criminal Justice 
Innovation grant, while rural and tribal eligibility was limited to 
communities encompassing a Stronger Economies Together, Sustainable 
Communities, Promise Neighborhoods Implementation, or Rural Jobs 
Accelerator grant.
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    \3\ See www.hud.gov/promisezones.
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    The second round Promise Zone selection process opened on August 
29, 2014 with an application deadline of November 21, 2014.\4\ This 
second round competition designated 8 more communities meeting the 
specified eligibility criteria without regard to their prior selection 
for receipt of federal grants. As with the first round, the urban 
designations were conferred by HUD while the rural and tribal 
designations were conferred by USDA.
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    \4\ See http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2015/HUDNo_15-049.
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Promise Zone Benefits

    The Promise Zones Initiative seeks to revitalize high-poverty 
communities across the country by creating jobs, increasing economic 
activity, improving educational opportunities, reducing violent crime, 
leveraging private capital, and assisting local leaders in navigating 
federal programs. Promise Zones will not receive grant funding. The 
Promise Zone designation partners the Federal government with local 
leaders who are addressing multiple community revitalization challenges 
in a collaborative way and have demonstrated a commitment to results. 
Promise Zone Designees will receive: The opportunity to engage Five 
AmeriCorps VISTA members in the Promise Zone; a federal liaison 
assigned to assist with navigating federal programs; preferences for 
certain competitive federal programs; technical assistance from 
participating agencies; and Promise Zone tax incentives if enacted by 
Congress.
    Altogether, this package of assistance will help local leaders 
accelerate efforts to revitalize their communities. The Promise Zone 
designation will be for a term of 10 years, and may be extended as 
necessary to capture the full term of availability of the Promise Zones 
tax incentives, if enacted by Congress. During this term, the specific 
benefits made available to Promise Zones will vary from year to year, 
and sometimes more often than annually, due to changes in an agency's 
policies and changes in appropriations and authorizations for relevant 
programs. All assistance provided to Promise Zones is subject to 
applicable regulations, statutes, and changes in Federal agency 
policies, appropriations, and authorizations for relevant programs. 
Subject to these limitations, the Promise Zone designation commits the 
Federal government to partner with local leaders who are addressing 
multiple community revitalization challenges in a collaborative way and 
have demonstrated a commitment to results.

Third Round Promise Zones Selection Process

    A third and final round of Promise Zone designations is currently 
in the selection process planning stage with announcements of the 
designees expected in spring 2016. HUD anticipates making at least 
seven designations in the third round in the urban, rural and tribal 
categories, depending on resources available. As a result of the third 
round competition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development 
(HUD) intends to designate five urban communities and the Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) intends to designate one rural and one tribal 
community. This third round of selections with bring the total number 
of Promise Zone designations to 20, including the five designations 
announced in January, 2014, and the eight announced in April, 2015.
    Due to the nature of the Initiative, Promise Zone activities are 
likely to be carried out by a variety of organizations and organization 
types. Eligible lead applicants for Urban Promise Zone designations 
are:

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    1. Units of General Local Government (UGLG or local government); 
\5\
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    \5\ Unit of general local government as defined in section 
102(a)(1) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 
U.S.C. 5302(a)(1)). See definition (a)(1) Unit of General Local 
Government.
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    2. An office or department within local government or a county 
government with the support of the UGLG;
    3. Non-profit organizations \6\ applying with the support of the 
UGLG;
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    \6\ Including Workforce Investment Boards (WIBS) and Community 
Action Agencies (CAA). Examples are illustrative and not exhaustive.
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    4. Public Housing Agencies, Community Colleges, Local Education 
Agencies (LEAs), or Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) applying 
with the support of the UGLG.
    For eligible lead applicants for Rural and Tribal Promise Zone 
designations please refer to the Rural and Tribal Promise Zone 
Application Guide located at https://www.hud.gov/promisezones.
    The selection process under consideration is that any community 
meeting the community eligibility criteria set forth in the Third Round 
Application Guide would be eligible to apply for Promise Zone 
designation. All of the following must be present in an application for 
a proposed Promise Zone to be eligible for designation:
    i. Proposed Promise Zone must have one contiguous boundary and 
cannot include separate geographic areas;
    ii. The rate of overall poverty or Extremely Low Income rate 
(whichever is greater) of residents within the Promise Zone must be at 
or above 32.5 percent;
    iii. Promise Zone boundaries must encompass a population of at 
least 10,000 but no more than 200,000 residents;
    iv. The Promise Zone application must affirmatively demonstrate 
support from all mayors or chief executives of UGLGs that include any 
geographical area within the proposed Promise Zone boundary, where such 
city(is), county(ies), parish(es), or county equivalent(s) is(are) the 
sole UGLG(s) providing general government services for such 
geographical area(s), subject to the following conditions:
    a. The chief executive of a city, county, parish, or county 
equivalent may only affirmatively demonstrate support for the Promise 
Zone Plan of one proposed Promise Zone containing a geographical area 
in which the city, county, parish or county equivalent is the sole 
provider of general public services;
    b. Subject to the limitation in paragraph a. above, the chief 
executive of a county, parish, or county equivalent may affirmatively 
demonstrate support for the Promise Zone Plan of any proposed Promise 
Zone located in the county, parish, or county equivalent where another 
UGLG also provides general government services;
    c. With the exception of paragraph b. above, if the Mayor or chief 
executive of a county, parish or county equivalent demonstrates 
affirmative support for the Promise Zone Plan of more than one proposed 
Promise Zone in which the UGLG he or she represents is the sole 
provider of general government services, all of the applications from 
that UGLG will be disqualified from the competition;
    d. Where the proposed Promise Zone boundaries cross UGLG 
boundaries, one Lead Applicant must be identified for the Promise Zone 
application, and commitment must be demonstrated by the mayors or chief 
executives of all of the UGLGs that are sole providers of general 
government services for any part of the proposed Promise Zone 
geographical area; and
    e. If a Promise Zone designated in Round 1 or 2 is located within a 
UGLG in which a new application is being submitted, the applicant must 
include an explanation of how, if a second Promise Zone designation is 
made, the UGLG that is the sole provider of general government services 
plans to work with both of the Promise Zone designees at the same time 
and sustain the level of effort, resources and support committed to 
each Promise Zone under its respective Promise Zone Plan for the full 
term of each Promise Zone designation. This explanation must be 
evidenced by commitments from the UGLG in materials submitted by the 
mayor or chief executive in support of the application.

Solicitation of Comment

    HUD is soliciting public comments on the proposed selection 
process, criteria, and submissions for the third round of the Promise 
Zone Initiative that has been announced through this Federal Register 
Notice. The draft Third Round Urban Application Guide and the draft 
Third Round Rural and Tribal Application Guide can be found at 
www.hud.gov/promisezones.
    Comments are due by September 28, 2015 and may be submitted at 
[email protected] with ``Third Round Promise Zone selections'' in 
the subject line.
    HUD has created a MAX Survey stage site in order to allow both 
applicants and other stakeholders an opportunity to experience the 
proposed intake mechanism for the third round selection process and 
provide specific feedback on its operation and functionality. To access 
the MAX Survey platform, please go to: www.hud.gov/promisezones.
    Questions or comments may also be directed by postal mail to: 
Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, U.S. 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW., 
Room 7136, Washington, DC 20410, ATTN: Third Round Promise Zone 
selections.
    In addition to providing comments on the proposed selection 
process, criteria, and submissions for the third round of the Promise 
Zone Initiative, commenters are encouraged to address any or all of the 
following questions.

A. Overarching Questions

    For communities considering a Promise Zone application:
    1. Are the programs that provide preferential access for designated 
Promise Zones helpful? Are there policy areas or issues that you need 
to address that are not represented?
    2. If your community is not designated, but you and your partners 
intend to continue community revitalization efforts, please explain 
what particular types of information, technical assistance, peer 
exchange, introductions or other non-competitive assistance would be 
helpful to you as you move your work forward?
    3. Do you find the MAX SURVEY sufficiently easy to use compared to 
other federal application systems (e.g. Grants.Gov)?
    4. Would you be willing to provide the type of information 
requested in the Goals and Activities template for purposes of 
potentially connecting you to federal and private partners/peers that 
could facilitate your community's development work if it were not part 
of a competition for a federal designation? (See MAX SURVEY at 
www.hud.gov/promisezones.)

B. Community Development Marketplace

    For users of the Community Development Marketplace (a database of 
strategy and activity information Second Round applicants permitted HUD 
and USDA to share):
    5. What kind of potential user are you? HUD has heard from 
foundations, investors, communities, researchers and national 
intermediaries and stakeholder networks, but there may be others who 
can use this data.
    6. Does the Third Round template capture information that would be 
useful to you? (See MAX SURVEY at

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www.hud.gov/promisezones.) If yes, how is this information useful to 
you?
    7. Are there additional pieces of information that would assist you 
in filtering and searching for information you would like to have?

C. Promise Zone Web site

    8. Is the Web site clear and easy to use? If not, what elements 
would be more helpful? (See www.hud.gov/promisezones and linked program 
information.)
    9. Is the interagency program information presented on the Web site 
well-matched to your community's needs? If not, what type of 
information would be helpful to add?

D. Communications and Stakeholder Engagement

    10. Do you find Promise Zone communications, through emails, 
webinars, written documents and other means, useful to organizations 
working in your community? Please elaborate on what is useful or what 
could be done to make it more useful.
    11. How can HUD communicate more clearly/effectively with residents 
and community based organizations about the way that the Promise Zone 
Initiative operates and how it supports local work?
    12. How can the Promise Zone Initiative better engage new Americans 
and immigrant stakeholders?

E. Data Collection, Research and Evaluation

    13. How can the Promise Zones make use of the EPA Smart Location 
database?
    14. Does the Promise Zone framework for tracking data address the 
issue of burdening designees in terms of data access and reporting? Are 
there other ways we could accomplish this?
    15. Is the Promise Zone table of core indicators, measures, and 
data sources useful for community development outcome tracking? Are 
there other measures that should be added?

    Dated: July 23, 2015.
Harriet Tregoning,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and 
Development.
[FR Doc. 2015-18626 Filed 7-28-15; 8:45 am]
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