Dive Brief:
- Cities, counties and tribes with populations of at least 25,000 can get between $300,000 and $15 million in federal funding for parks through the National Park Service’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program, said NPS Land and Water Conservation Fund Competitive Programs Manager David Goldstein during a recent webinar hosted by the City Parks Alliance.
- Goldstein said he hopes the notice of funding opportunity for the next round of ORLP grants will be released in June. Applications for the grants are expected to close Nov. 5, with recipients selected by May 1, 2027, Goldstein said.
- ORLP’s goal is to increase outdoor recreation opportunities in underserved urban areas, Goldstein said. The grants can be used for parks, campgrounds, playgrounds, sports fields and courts, picnic areas, trails, water-based recreation, nature preserves, community gardens, amphitheaters and other outdoor facilities, he said.
Dive Insight:
Since ORLP was established in 2014, the program has distributed 160 grants worth a total of $465 million to municipalities and tribes that want to acquire outdoor recreation land and develop or maintain urban parks or facilities, Goldstein said.
ORLP grants are paid for by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is financed through royalties from oil and gas companies drilling on the outer continental shelf.
Municipalities are required to match the ORLP grants one-to-one, although Goldstein said a city doesn’t need to have the money in hand when applying for the grant. Instead, it should show how it will obtain the matching funds — commonly through state grants, city and county budgets or bonds, philanthropic donations or federal funds like Housing and Urban Development block grants or the Department of Transportation’s Recreational Trails Program.
ORLP grants aren’t paid directly to municipalities, Goldstein said. Instead, cities and counties submit their applications to their state lead agency and then the agency submits the applications to the ORLP review board. ORLP grants are paid to the agency, which then distributes them to the municipality.
The process is competitive — on average, about 100 cities or tribes apply for ORLP grants for each funding round, and about 40 are chosen, Goldstein said. It’s also as onerous as it sounds, said webinar participants from cities that have received ORLP grants.
“The application is very complex-looking and bureaucratic, but your lead agency staff can help. Don’t let [the application process] turn you off of the grant before you even start,” said Lauryn Kabrich, a park planner for Raleigh, North Carolina.
Raleigh has received three ORLP grants in the last decade, Kabrich said. The key, she said, is to have a compelling narrative and plenty of community and city support.
Goldstein seconded the importance of local support. “The major weakness in past [applications] has been a lack of community engagement. We’d really like to see that shine through,” he said.
Kara Escajeda, local parks grant coordinator with Texas’ lead ORLP agency, Texas Parks and Wildlife, said along with community engagement, ORLP application reviewers look closely at how a project protects a community from gentrification, how much it addresses a lack of recreational opportunities in the community and how the community is partnering with private and public sectors on the project.
Escajeda said ORLP reviewers also expect that projects they choose will break ground within a year after the grant is awarded and will be open to the public within two to three years.
“While your project doesn’t need to be shovel ready, reviewers want strong evidence it can move forward without delay,” she said. It should include environmental reviews, concept design and an implementation timeline, she added.
