OFFICIAL SITE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Grants
On December 11, 2024, National Park Service (NPS) released its Notice of Funding Opportunity for Round 8 of the Land and Water Conservation Fund’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program. Applications must be submitted to NPS by the State; in New Jersey, the NJDEP Green Acres Program is the lead agency. States are required to conduct an internal competitive review process and select proposals that best meet the ORLP program’s intent, based on the federal guidelines, prior to submitting pre-applications to NPS for the nationwide competition. Participating states are not guaranteed an award. The national review committee will grant awards to the most competitive applications received nationwide. The Notice of Funding Opportunity is open for 5 years with an anticipated number of awards ranging from 25 to 40 per calendar year nationwide.
Round 8 is comprised of a two-step process with a pre-application and final application. See details below.
Program Intent:
ORLP funds the acquisition or development of new parks, or substantial renovation of parks, in economically disadvantaged cities or towns of at least 25,000 people. ORLP focuses on providing new or significantly improved nature-based parks in urban, disadvantaged communities lacking access to walkable outdoor recreation (a.k.a. park deserts).
ORLP Round 8 Priorities:
- Improve parks, recreational opportunities, and conservation areas in urban and underserved communities.
- Projects should be developed in collaboration with the communities they serve. This ensures that planning and land development decisions do not place unfair burdens on underserved groups.
- Projects support public-private partnerships to leverage project support. In many instances the most successful outdoor recreation projects include cooperation and partnerships among governments, property owners, developers, financial institutions, and the public to secure equitable results
- Projects empower communities through local public greenspace investment, fostering resilience and sustainable landscape development. They aim to restore ecosystems, protect biodiversity, and provide recreational and economic benefits. These initiatives also enhance public health in underserved areas through active living, land conservation, water resource protection, cultural preservation, native landscape restoration, and disaster mitigation.
- Projects should promote, protect, and incorporate the distinctive character of a community and its unique contexts. Geography, natural features, climate, culture, historical resources, and ecology each contribute to the distinctive character of a community’s sense of place, comfort, and belonging.
- Advance goals of, or meet, priority recreation needs identified in New Jersey’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, Outside, Together!, and local, regional, state plans and/or initiatives.
Anticipated Award Amounts:
ORLP is a dollar-for-dollar matching grant program, with a minimum award of $300,000 and maximum award of $15M.
Eligible Applicants:
Municipalities, counties, state agencies, federally recognized Native American Tribes, Joint Powers Authorities where all members are otherwise eligible under the LWCF, Park Commissions, and special districts with authority to acquire, operate and maintain public park and recreation areas
* Nonprofits are not eligible applicants, although partnerships with nonprofits are highly encouraged.
Eligibility Requirements:
Project must be:
- located within an incorporated city or town having a population of 25,000 or more in the 2020 Census
- located within a census tract determined to be disadvantaged per the Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool or the Environmental Protection Agency’s EJ Screening and Mapping Tool.
- If the project is not located in a disadvantaged tract determined by the above tools, please provide documentation describing the demographic and environmental factors that indicate the community’s status of need.
- located in a park desert, whereas there are no existing parks within the community, the existing parks are obsolete or underdeveloped, or existing parks are inaccessible to the community due to physical barriers, such as transportation infrastructure, rivers, etc.
The Most Competitive Projects:
- Are shovel ready by the time the grant is awarded. Projects that have extensive environmental remediation or have not yet started a remediation process will be more competitive for a later ORLP round.
- Create new parks or substantially renovate existing parks that significantly increase the number of people and types of user groups who could be served in a way that would be equivalent to a new park.
ORLP Round 8 Process:
- Each state solicits proposals from eligible project sponsors and selects and submits preliminary applications to NPS for projects they find to be eligible and meet the goals of the ORLP program.
- Each preliminary application is reviewed and scored by an independent merit panel and technical reviewers.
- Based on the reviews of an independent merit panel, NPS determines which projects are selected and invited to submit a full application for NPS review.
- States work with the project sponsors of the NPS selected projects to prepare a full application for NPS’s final review and funding determination.
ORLP Round 8 Timeline:
For the next five years, there will be two preliminary application deadlines to the NPS each year: June 1st and November 1st.
Timeline for June 1, 2025, Preliminary Applications:
- March 7, 2025: Proposals due to Green Acres. (Refer to the submission checklist)
- Mid-March 2025: Based on NPS consultation, Green Acres will authorize and guide the most competitive proposals to complete the preliminary application.
- May 5, 2025: Preliminary applications due to Green Acres.
- June 1, 2025: Preliminary applications due to NPS.
- September 1, 2025: NPS is expected to announce selected projects from the June 1st submissions. Selected applicants must submit a full application within one year to remain eligible for funding.
- September 1, 2026: Full application deadline to NPS. Awards will be granted following NPS’s final review and approval.
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Timeline for November 1, 2025, Preliminary Applications:
- August 1, 2025: Proposals due to Green Acres. (Refer to the submission checklist)
- Mid-August 2025: Based on NPS consultation, Green Acres will authorize and guide the most competitive proposals to complete the preliminary application.
- October 3, 2025: Preliminary applications due to Green Acres.
- November 1, 2025: Preliminary applications due to NPS.
- February 1, 2026: NPS is expected to announce selected projects from the November 1st submissions. Selected applicants must submit a full application within one year to remain eligible for funding.
- February 1, 2027: Full application deadline to NPS. Awards will be granted following NPS’s final review and approval.
NJDEP Green Acres Program Contacts:
Vincenzo Ferriola – Vincenzo.Ferriola@njdepwptest.net, 609-940-5139
Preliminary discussions with Green Acres are strongly encouraged to cultivate the best projects for national competition. Please reach out to us with questions about the ORLP funding round and proposal development.
Webinars
City Parks Alliance, with NPS staff, hosted an ORLP technical assistance webinar on November 20, 2024. NPS staff provided details on applicant and project eligibility, gave tips on writing a strong ORLP application, explained the application and selection process, and answered questions. We encourage you to follow the link below to watch the recorded webinar.
Urban Park Grant Opportunity (ORLP) Technical Assistance – City Parks Alliance
Links:
ORLP Round 8 Notice of Funding Opportunity
The photo above showcases Comiskey Park in Dubuque, Iowa. Comiskey Park received an ORLP grant in 2018 and is a great example of a project that an ORLP grant can support. Photo courtesy of the City of Dubuque.