Office of Planning and Sustainable Development

To be eligible for funding, the proposed project must:

• Protect important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, ecological, historical, aesthetic, or recreation values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses.
• Be located within a state’s designated CELCP area (as defined in its CELCP plan) which is based on its coastal watershed or State Coastal Zone Boundary. If the state does not have an approved CZM Program, a project must benefit an approved NERR.
• Provide non-federal matching funds in the form of cash or in-kind contributions at a ratio of 1 to 1, with certain exceptions (visit the “Cost Share Requirements” section of the CELCP Final Guidelines for more information).
• Provide for non-federal public ownership in perpetuity. Note that in-kind match properties may be held by a qualified nongovernmental organization whose primary mission is to acquire and manage land for the purposes of conservation.
• Provide public access, or other public benefit, as appropriate and consistent with resource protection.
• Acquire property or conservation easements from willing sellers.
• Advance the goals, objectives, or implementation of the state coastal management program or plan or National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) management plan, or a local, regional or state watershed protection plan.
• Be consistent with the state’s approved coastal management program.
• Complement (not conflict with) working waterfront needs.

Phase 1 – State Competition: The state and territory CELCP lead contact runs the state-level selection process to determine which projects are eligible and best-suited for the national competition. Interested parties should contact their state or territory lead contact for information on submitting a project proposal to the state competition. The CELCP lead agency submits selected applications for the national competition through Grants.gov (Grants.gov, Applicant Resources). Hawai‘i may submit up to two (2) projects for this solicitation.

Phase 2 – National Competition: For the national competition, NOAA conducts a technical review and a merit-based peer review to rank the projects. The ranked list serves as a guide for selecting projects for funding. Once NOAA announces the list of winning projects CELCP staff will work with recipients to finalize their grant application for NOAA approval.

Applying for a grant: https://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/land/celcp_apply.html

For more information about the application process, contact Elaine Vaudreuil at (301) 713-3155 ext. 103.