Statewide - Eligibility Guidelines for Inland Flooding and the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Implementation Projects supported through the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022
Public Notice
Eligibility Guidelines for Inland Flooding and the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Implementation Projects supported through the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022
The New York State Department of State (NYS DOS) will provide funding to eligible Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) communities through the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 (Bond Act) to implement projects addressing restoration and flood risk reduction projects included in existing LWRPs. The LWRP is the Office of Planning and Development’s primary grant program for working in partnership with waterfront communities across the state to address local and regional waterway issues, improve water quality and natural areas, guide development to areas with adequate infrastructure and services away from sensitive resources, promote public waterfront access and resiliency principles, and provide for redevelopment of underutilized waterfronts.
Priority will be given to projects that consider the NYS DOS Resilience Principles (https://dos.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/08/resilienceprinciples_…) when developing implementation projects.
Eligible Applicants
Villages, towns, or cities located along New York’s coasts or designated inland waterways as defined in Executive Law, Article 42, or counties (with consent and acting on behalf of one or more eligible villages, towns, or cities).
Eligible Projects
Project must be included in a complete or a substantially complete LWRP or a LWRP component (e.g., watershed management plan). A LWRP Component focuses on one or more topic(s) or section(s) of a LWRP or its waterfront, provided that the program constitutes a discrete and cohesive, yet comprehensive, treatment of the subject or subjects addressed, which may be related to environmental, social, regional growth management, or economic conditions. For the purpose of this solicitation, a substantially complete LWRP must include complete draft LWRP Sections 1-5 (see LWRP Guidance (https://dos.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/09/lwrp-preparation-guid…) which the public has been given two opportunities to review and provide comment.
Applicants may apply for implementation funding for:
- Projects that preserve, restore, and/or enhance natural landscapes (including but not limited to forests, floodplains and wetlands, dunes, estuaries, marshes, riparian zones, riverine systems, and shellfish restoration) that protect water quality and catalyze waterfront revitalization. These include:
- Natural and nature-based shoreline stabilization;
- Living shorelines;
- Vegetated buffers;
- Culvert rightsizing;
- Natural sediment transport restoration; and/or
- Runoff reduction and/or reduction of watershed imperviousness and preservation of groundwater infiltration.
- Stormwater Management Projects that reduce localized flooding and / or provide resilience to impacts from increased precipitation and increased flooding due to climate change including but not limited to:
- Green Infrastructure such as rain gardens, bioretention areas, stormwater green streets, and porous pavement; and
- Stormwater retrofit projects.
- Projects to make public facilities, including parks, trails, blueway trails, etc., more resilient to potential severe weather and flooding impacts.
- Restoration projects that mitigate barriers to diadromous species migration including but not limited to River Herring, American Eel, and Brook Trout.
Projects may include design/construction and construction. All projects must identify the current legal owner(s) for all properties where improvements will be implemented. Projects must be performed on public property, or where a permanent public interest, such as an easement (e.g., public access, conservation) has been established.
The Bond Act requires that disadvantaged communities shall receive no less than 35 percent, with the goal of 40 percent, of the benefit of total Bond Act funds ($4.2 billion). The term disadvantaged communities shall mean the same definition approved by the Climate Justice Working Group under the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (https://climate.ny.gov/Resources/Disadvantaged-Communities-Criteria). NYS DOS has established a 40 percent goal consistent with this requirement and will aim to ensure 40 percent of LWRP projects supported through the Bond Act benefit disadvantaged communities.
Public comments on the guidelines are to be submitted in writing to the contact listed below and will be accepted until Friday, August 2, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.
Alicia Candlen
NYS DOS - Office of Planning, Development and Community Infrastructure
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Avenue, Suite 1010
Albany, NY 12231
