LWCF Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program
Overview
The National Park Service (NPS) has announced the availability of $150 million through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program (ORLPP). This federal, nation-wide program enables urban communities to create new outdoor recreation spaces, reinvigorate existing parks, and form connections between people and the outdoors in economically underserved communities.
Applications must be submitted to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) through the Grants Gateway
.
General steps to apply for grants on the Gateway are available at: https://grantsmanagement.ny.gov/apply-grant. The grant opportunity opened on
Wednesday, June 30th at 12:00 noon EST and close on Friday, August 27th at 1:00 p.m. EST.
The highest scoring applications in the initial State-level selection round will be submitted to NPS for participation in the national competition. (Update: Due to the limited number of applications received, no NYS selection round occurred this round. All submissions meeting NPS requirements were submitted to the NPS.) All projects selected by OPRHP may require additional materials prior to submission to NPS. There is no guarantee that applications selected by OPRHP will ultimately be selected for award by NPS.
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must meet one of the two criteria below:
- Represent a jurisdiction of at least 50,000 people and – at least in part – be situated within the geographic boundary of the urbanized areas delineated by the 2010 Census. (OPRHP has produced a map showing the 2010 census urbanized areas in New York State.)
- Be a county government with a project proposal that would serve one or more of the urbanized area jurisdictions as linked above.
Although private individuals, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, planning and engineering firms and other non-public entities are not eligible, they are strongly encouraged to partner with eligible public entities to plan and submit proposals.
Project Criteria
All proposals must:
- create a new recreation space through acquisition or reinvigorate an existing recreation space through facility development;
- seek at least $1,000,000, but no more than $5,000,000 (larger proposals are preferred);
- be an eligible project as defined by the
Land and Water Conservation Fund Manual Vol. 71 (March 11, 2021); and, - advance the goals and recommendations of 2020-2025 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), Chapter 5.
Priority will be given to projects that:
- improve access to outdoor recreation for residents of communities that are underserved in terms of public outdoor recreation;
- target low-income neighborhoods;
- create short-term and/or permanent jobs and/or help stimulate economic development;
- involve and expand public-private partnerships;
- utilize non-public match sources; and,
- rely on a high degree of coordination among the public, multiple levels of government and the private sector to improve recreation opportunities.
This year's solicitation will prioritize urban park projects identified in a State-designated Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA). The Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) Program,
administered by the NYS Department of State (DOS) provides communities grant funding and technical assistance to develop area-wide, community-based plans to effectively redevelop brownfields and other vacant and abandoned sites, transforming them into catalytic properties that facilitate community revitalization, investment and improvement. Once a community completes the full BOA planning process and submits a nomination to the DOS, the Secretary of State then approves the BOA as a designated BOA. By statute and practice, several state agencies provide priority funding to projects in designated BOAs.
Timeline
| Grant Opportunity Opens: | Wednesday, June 30th at 12:00 noon EST |
| Application Deadline: | Friday, August 27th at 1:00 p.m. EST |
| NYS Selection Date: | Due to the limited number of applications received, no NYS selection round was held |
| NPS Pre-Application Due: | September 24th, 2022 |
| NPS Selection: | Final selections were announced by the Department of Interior on May 6th, 2022. |
| NPS Initial Award: | TBD |
Documents
Further information is available on the Grants Gateway and in the below documents.
NPS Opportunity Number: P21AS00509
CONTACT
Diana Carter
Diana.Carter@parks.ny.gov
518-474-8288