Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Overview

The National Park Service (NPS) has announced the availability of $224 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 for:

• Round 7 Federal Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) issued November 8, 2023.
• Round 7 Grants Gateway Opportunity Opens Monday, December 11, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. EST.
• Round 7 Grants Gateway Opportunity Closes Friday, March 11, 2024 at 11:45 p.m. EST.
• Round 7 Federal Application submission into Grants.gov Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Complete and highest scoring applications in the State-level selection process will be submitted to NPS for participation in the national competition. 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.

Multiple-Step Application Process

The application process for ORLP is multi-step:

1. Each State solicits proposals from eligible project sponsors and selects and submits abbreviated applications, as described in the funding opportunity, to NPS for projects they find to be eligible and meet the goals of the ORLP program.
2. Each proposal is reviewed and scored by an independent merit panel and technical reviewers.
3. Based on the reviews of an independent merit panel, the Director of the NPS determines which projects are selected and invited to submit a full application for NPS review.
4. States work with the project sponsors of the NPS selected projects to prepare a full application for NPS’s final review and funding determination.

Final applications (listed as Step 4 above) must be submitted to NPS within one year of the NPS public announcement of the project's selection to remain eligible for funding.

Eligible Applicants

OPRHP has been designated by the Governor as lead agency to implement the LWCF Program for New York State. Only OPRHP is eligible to submit applications for ORLP Grants. OPRHP will submit applications on behalf of eligible sub-recipients (aka project sponsors). Sub-recipients/project sponsors can include state agencies, local units of government such as cities, towns, counties and special purpose districts (park districts) and federally recognized Indian Tribes.

Sub-recipients/project sponsors must be:

• An incorporated city or town of at least 30,000 people
• A county or special purpose district that serves a city or town of 30,000 people or more. The park or recreation area and the disadvantaged community(ies) must all be within the city or town.

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.

Park/sites that are currently receiving an LWCF formula grant, or that received an LWCF formula grant that closed within the last seven years (even if the scope of the project is different) and, parks/sites that received more than one previous ORLP award are not eligible.

Project Criteria

The purpose of the ORLP Program is to provide new or significantly improved recreation opportunities in urban, disadvantaged communities, consistent with the purposes and requirements of the LWCF Act and LWCF Manual. To meet ORLP objectives and goals, projects must be:

• located within an incorporated city (or town) having a population of 30,000 or more in the 2020 Census, and
• located within a community (Census tract) that is determined to be disadvantaged per the Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool at https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/ (includes tract of project site and community(ies) served).

This competition will prioritize the selection of projects that:

• As green and blue spaces, and tree cover help to cool the air, reduce pollution, and have positive effects on mental and physical health, nature-based park projects will earn a 5-point bonus. Nature-based projects are those where nature is a major element of, or strongly supports, the proposed recreational activity.

Additional benefits beyond the above may assist a project in standing apart from other projects, but they cannot be used as a replacement for the stated priority.

Additional benefits may include, but are not limited to, projects that:

• expand public-private partnerships to leverage matching share resources (e.g. money or donated lands, supplies or services);
• provide economic benefits to the local community (e.g. short or long-term jobs or stimulation to local business near the park);
• use sustainable design/materials; include site features that consider the needs of all demographics, and/or;
• involve the redevelopment of a blighted or distressed property.

Timeline

Documents

Further information is available on the Grants Gateway and in the below documents.

• 2023 ORLP NPS Notice of Funding Availability (PDF)
• LWCF Federal Financial Assistance Manual Vol 72 (PDF)
• Grants Gateway Guidance (PDF)

NPS Opportunity Number: P24AS00498

CONTACT

Diana Carter, Director of Planning and Analysis/LWCF Alternate State Liaison Officer
Diana.Carter@parks.ny.gov
518-474-8288