(1) A grant may be awarded to a local government that is qualified pursuant to this section.

(2) A grant may be awarded to a county or city that is required to or has chosen to plan under RCW 36.70A.040 and that is qualified pursuant to this section. The grant shall be provided to assist a county or city in paying for the cost of preparing a detailed environmental impact statement that is integrated with a comprehensive plan or subarea plan and development regulations.

(3) In order to qualify for a grant, a county or city shall:

(a) Demonstrate that it will prepare an environmental analysis pursuant to chapter 43.21C RCW that is integrated with a comprehensive plan or subarea plan and development regulations;

(b) Address environmental impacts and consequences, alternatives, and mitigation measures in sufficient detail to allow the analysis to be adopted in whole or in part by subsequent applicants for development permits within the geographic area analyzed in the plan;

(c) Include mechanisms in the plan to monitor the consequences of growth as it occurs in the plan area and provide ongoing data to update the plan and environmental analysis;

(d) Be making substantial progress towards compliance with the requirements of this chapter. A county or city that is more than six months out of compliance with a requirement of this chapter is deemed to not be making substantial progress towards compliance; and

(e) Provide local funding, which may include financial participation by the private sector.

(4) In awarding grants, the department shall give preference to proposals that include one or more of the following elements:

(a) Financial participation by the private sector, or a public/private partnering approach;

(b) Comprehensive and subarea plan proposals that are designed to identify and monitor system capacities for elements of the built environment, and to the extent appropriate, of the natural environment;

(c) Programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the permitting process by greater reliance on integrated plans;

(d) Programs for effective citizen and neighborhood involvement that contribute to greater certainty that planning decisions will be implemented; and

(e) Plans that identify environmental impacts and establish mitigation measures that provide effective means to satisfy concurrency requirements and establish project consistency with the plans.