FY25 GRANT ROUND NOW OPEN!
Costs associated with any land purchased (or design and construction work completed) before a signed contract is received by the municipal applicant from DCS are ineligible for reimbursement. Do not proceed with the project until you have a signed contract from DCS. Award announcements are generally made on or about 120 days from the application deadline. Keep in mind that this is an estimate and no award dates can be guaranteed.
FY25 Grant Round
- Application release date: February 26, 2024
- For PARC grant applicants, RSVP to Melissa Cryan at melissa.cryan@mass.gov
- For LAND grant applicants, RSVP to Vanessa Farny at vanessa.farny@mass.gov
- Grant workshops:
- May 6, 2024 at 11:00 am at the DFW Field Headquarters in Westborough. It is strongly recommended that interested applicants attend the in person workshop.
- May 9, 2024 at 2:00 pm a virtual workshop will be held via Microsoft Teams
- Workshops tend to run for one hour
- End of Open Question Period: Thursday, June 27, 2024
- Application Deadlines:
- Conservation Partnership: July 15, 2024 at 3:00 pm
- LAND and PARC: July 11, 2024 at 3:00 pm
- Site inspections: to be completed by late August
- Award announcements: approximately 120 days from application deadline
- Project completion:
- Some LAND, and some PARC projects: June 1, 2025
- Conservation Partnership: June 30, 2025
- Other PARC projects: June 1, 2026
Each grant program
- Is a reimbursement program requiring the applicant to raise, borrow or appropriate the total project cost, and then be reimbursed a portion of that cost by the grant
- Requires a local investment and therefore only reimburses on a sliding scale to each municipality, from 52% to 70% of the total project cost up to a maximum grant limit set by the Secretary
- Has regulations and guidance documents
- Involves a competitive project selection system
- Favors proposals that support the Secretary's focus as detailed in the grant workshop and in the BID
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for either PARC or LAND grants, your municipal Open Space and Recreation Plan must be up to date and approved, and there must be no current unresolved parkland conversion issues with EEA. To learn more about these items, please refer to the links below:
Open Space and Recreation Plan Status
The community applying is not in violation of EEA's Article 97 Policy