Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) - Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program

Grants to Alabama local and state government agencies and tribal entities to improve recreational opportunities and promote the acquisition and development of public parkland in underserved communities. Applicants must submit a letter of intent prior to submitting a full application. Funding is intended to benefit communities that are severely lacking in walkable, publicly accessible, outdoor recreation (park deserts).

Projects must:

• Meet recreation goals as identified in, and align with, at least one priority of, the State’s Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.
• Be located within or abutting an incorporated city (or town) having a population of 30,000 or more, and
• Serve the specific needs of a community that is considered a park desert and that has a poverty rate of at least 20% or that is at least 10% higher than that of the project city, county, and state rates.

For the purposes of this competition, for a community to be considered a “park desert,” there must be:

1.  No existing parks within a .5-mile radius of the community(ies) to be served by the park (not the radius of the proposed park); or
2.  One or two small parks within a .5-mile radius of the community(ies) that is/are not large enough to support the size of the population of the service area, or otherwise unable to provide a variety of recreational opportunities; or
3.  One or two existing parks (potentially of adequate size), including the park that is being addressed in this project, that is/are so obsolete or underdeveloped that a major redevelopment or rehabilitation is necessary to be able to significantly increase the number of people or user groups who could be served in a way that would be equivalent to a new park; or
4.  Existing parks that are inaccessible to the target community due to physical barriers such as transportation infrastructure, rivers, etc.

The competition will prioritize the selection of projects that:

• Provide new recreational opportunities, particularly those that will increase access to nature’s benefits, such as green spaces, shady areas (via tree cover), and natural landscapes that help cool the air and reduce urban heat island effects, reduce pollution, and have positive effects on mental and physical health;
• Empowered and engaged members of the target community in the project development and design of the plans for the park;
• Create or expand public-private partnerships that leverage matching share resources (e.g., money or donations of land, supplies, or services, etc.);
• Benefit from a high degree of coordination among the public, multiple levels of government, and the private sector; and
• Advance goals of, or meet, priority recreation needs identified in numerous local, regional, and state plans and/or initiatives.