Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program

Assistance is available for a wide range of outdoor recreation uses and the facilities needed to support the use and enjoyment of these areas. These include, but are not limited to:

• community parks,
• campgrounds,
• sports fields and courts,
• picnic areas,
• tracks for walking or biking,
• water-based recreation facilities such as for swimming or boating, etc., and
• pools.

Ineligible ORLP Project Types and Limits of Awards Per Site

• Most indoor recreation and other buildings, such as nature centers or education centers (however facilities to support the use of the recreating public, such as restrooms, can be eligible)
• Parks/sites that are currently receiving an LWCF formula grant, or that received an LWCF formula grant that closed within the last 7 years, at the same park, even if the scope of the project is different
• Parks/sites that have already received two previous ORLP awards or additional ORLP funds to cover cost increases of a previous ORLP grant project

Because 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 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 included, 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 businesses 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.

The LWCF Act requires that any park or other outdoor recreation area benefitting from assistance from the LWCF, whether for acquisition or development purposes, and regardless of the amount or extent of assistance, not be covered to any use other than public outdoor recreation (see 54 U.S.C. 200305(f)(3)).

Therefore, as a condition of the grant, the NPS requires that language be recorded against the deed of the assisted park/recreation property advising that the property was acquired and/or developed with federal funds from the LWCF, and that the property must be preserved for outdoor recreation uses in perpetuity and cannot be converted to any use other than public outdoor recreation use without the written approval of the Secretary of the Interior. This approval is contingent upon the project sponsor replacing the area to be converted with a new recreation area involving land of at least equal fair market value and reasonably equivalent recreation utility, and the conversion and its replacement are consistent with the state's SCORP.

The perpetuity requirement is applied to the assisted park or other recreation area as a whole. Exceptions for boundaries that would apply to a lesser unit of a park will be considered only if the unit is a standalone recreation area (i.e., its borders do not include other areas of the park) and is self-sustaining (i.e., it does not rely on nor serve adjoining park area(s) for access, utilities, support facilities, etc.). The state and the NPS must agree to any boundary that does not comprise the whole park. The NPS may eliminate from consideration any proposal that is not consistent with this policy.