Overview

Investments in neighborhood features, including parks, recreation facilities, sidewalks, and healthy food access, can work to improve physical and mental health outcomes. Allowing people access to nature, including parks, has been connected to decreased levels of mortality and illness and increased well-being.  Urban park use during the COVID–19 pandemic may have declined among lower-income individuals.  Encouraging physical activity can also play a role in health outcomes, as a sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for chronic diseases and more severe COVID–19 outcomes.Parks, recreation facilities, and sidewalks can promote healthier living environments by allowing for safe and socially distanced recreation during the COVID– 19 pandemics.

The US Treasury final rule includes enumerated eligible uses in disproportionately impacted communities for developing neighborhood features that promote improved health and safety outcomes, such as parks, green spaces, recreational facilities, sidewalks, pedestrian safety features like crosswalks, projects that increase access to healthy foods, streetlights, neighborhood cleanup, and other projects to revitalize public spaces.

The final rule also recognizes that the public health impacts of the pandemic are broader than just the COVID–19 disease itself and include substantial impacts on mental health and public safety challenges like rates of violent crime, which are correlated with a neighborhood’s-built environment and features.

*Program Overview is the Final Rule rationale for allowing the State to create the eligible activity. Please see eligible activity section for specifics.

Please note that the grant application closes at 11:59pm on November 18, 2022. OPB Staff are available to assistance with inquiries until 5pm on November 18, 2022. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit in advance of the deadline.

Eligibility

All ARPA applicants must have an organization, or subrecipient, that will serve as the fiduciary agent and assume overall responsibility for the grant. Eligible ARPA applicants include:

• A unit of local government 
• County
• Non-profits
• The project must occur within a Qualified Census Tract
• Due to the timeframe of the grant preference will be given to projects focusing on revitalization and renovation.

Eligible Activity 

1. Development of or improvements/maintenance to parks or recreational facilities in Qualified Census Tracts in Georgia.
2. Funding for increased repair or maintenance needs to respond to significantly greater use of public facilities during the pandemic (e.g., increased use of parks resulting in damage or increased need for maintenance)

Policy Requirements: All applicants are subject to reporting and auditing requirements per federal guidelines and OPB terms and conditions.

Recipients of SFRF must alight to policy requirements under 2 CFR 200.

The following 2CFR policy requirements apply to 21.027 assistance listing for Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF), Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSFRF) and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CLFRF):

• Subpart B, General provisions
• Subpart C, Pre-Federal Award Requirements and Contents of Federal Awards
• Subpart D, Post Federal; Award Requirements
• Subpart E, Cost Principles
• Subpart F, Audit Requirements

*Additional requirements may be placed on awards are outlined in an executed terms and conditions agreement to accept the award.

Payment Method: Reimbursement Method

Updates: The Georgia Grants team and State Accounting Office are moving the SAO vendor process to Adobe Sign. Starting Monday, October 17, 2022, upon award of a grant awardees will receive an email from Adobe Sign with the subject “SAO Approval Agreement”. The agreement is required to create a vendor id number and/or connect to the specified bank account in the State’s financial system. You will complete and sign the form online and it will be sent automatically to OPB for review, then SAO for approval and setup.

You will no longer be required to complete the vendor management form or W-9 as part of the application. Awarded applicants will be able to complete this electronically in the Georgia Grants portal post award.