WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service announced today $13.3 million through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) program to assist 22 cities in 17 states with projects to plan, build, and enhance parks and other outdoor recreation facilities in underserved communities. These public-private partnerships leverage $13.3 million in federal funding with $21.2 million from local governments, private firms, and non-profit organizations to improve accessibility of playgrounds, create canoe and kayak launches and fishing piers, restore vacant industrial land for park uses, and make other important investments in parks across the country.
“Every kid deserves the opportunity to get outside and play. Whether it's downtown Detroit or rural Wyoming, investing in public lands is an investment in communities. The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program is an innovative public-private-partnership which revitalizes communities through improving infrastructure, creating jobs, and enhancing neighborhoods," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. “It connects people to the great outdoors by encouraging and enabling a variety of recreational opportunities in underserved communities."
The ORLP is funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). For more than 50 years, the LWCF has invested revenue from federal offshore oil and gas royalties into more than 40,000 outdoor recreation facilities and conservation projects in every state.
Congress created the ORLP program, in 2014 to complement the agency's existing LWCF State and Local Assistance Program. The program, administered by the National Park Service, seeks to identify and highlight new ways of providing opportunities for expanding outdoor play in areas with great need, as well as promoting the development of new or enhanced partnerships for outdoor recreation in urban communities across the nation. The grants must be matched at a minimum 1:1 ratio, at least doubling the impact of the federal investment in these communities.
The complete list of ORLP grants are listed below. For more information about LWCF and these grants, visit www.nps.gov/subjects/lwcf/index.htm.
Recipient State Project Title Federal Amount
Municipality of Anchorage Alaska Development of Muldoon Town Square Park $750,000
City of San Francisco California Bay View Park Playground Improvement Project $375,225
East Bay Regional Park District California Bay Point Wetland Restoration and Public Access Project $750,000
City of Hartford Connecticut Renovation of Colt Park Athletic Fields $750,000
City of Wilmington Delaware Father Tucker Park Playground and Spray Pad $306,447
City of Atlanta Georgia Enota Park Development $600,000
City of Dubuque Iowa Comiskey Park Development $508,000
City of Baltimore Maryland Youth Campground Improvements in Gwynns Falls Leakin Park $750,000
Michigan DNR (Detroit) Michigan Belle Isle Park Multi-Use Looped Trail Development $750,000
City of Duluth Minnesota Lincoln Park Restoration $750,000
City of Columbia Missouri Clary-Shy Park Urban Demonstration Farm $400,000
St. Louis Co. Port Authority Missouri Sparta Court Soccer Fields $450,000
City of Camden New Jersey North Camden Waterfront Park $ 750,000
City of Newark New Jersey Jesse Allen Park $750,000
City of Raleigh North Carolina Central Plaza John Chavis Memorial Park Revitalization $747,600
Metroparks of the Toledo Area Ohio Manhattan Marsh park Development $475,000
City of Austin Texas Edward Rendon Sr Metro Park - further development $750,000
City of Houston Texas Buffalo Bend Hidalgo Park Greenway $750,000
City of Burlington Vermont New Neighborhood Park on Burlington’s Waterfront Land Acquisition $500,000
King County Parks Washington Skyway Park Revitalization $369,626
Metro Parks Tacoma Washington Swan Creek Park Trail Network $750,000
Milwaukee Rec/Public Schools Wisconsin Burnham Park Redevelopment Project $399,255
Total $13,381,153
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About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
