The Community Legacy program provides local governments and community development organizations with funding for essential projects aimed at strengthening communities through activities such as business retention and attraction, encouraging homeownership and commercial revitalization.
Donor Name: Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development
State: Maryland
County: Allegany County (MD), Garrett County (MD), Somerset County (MD), and Wicomico County (MD)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/29/2023
Size of the Grant: $6 million
Details:
Community Legacy, a program of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (the “Department”), is implemented in close coordination with local community partners and other State agencies. Community Legacy is a tool that catalyzes new investment in older neighborhoods and business districts in support of local revitalization plans for designated Sustainable Community Areas. Community Legacy funds assist leaders from urban and suburban communities, and small towns that have a comprehensive approach to encourage community reinvestment, economic development, and resource conservation. Over time, these strategies achieve and maintain vibrant places for Marylanders to live, work and prosper.
Leaders are taking on revitalization opportunities throughout Maryland’s traditional towns and older communities, and their projects clearly demonstrate the economic, civic, and cultural importance of reinvestment strategies. With new investment in housing and small businesses, Maryland’s historic towns and cities can once again support vibrant centers of community, and better protect their surrounding farmland and open space from sprawl development. Such reinvestment also better utilizes existing infrastructure and reduces the burden on all State taxpayers for the cost of new and unsustainable growth.
Funding Information
Grant Amount: $6 million capital
Eligible Projects
- Project should capitalize on the strengths of a community while addressing its challenges to revitalization and should help to achieve a local government’s Sustainable Communities Action Plan. Many Sustainable Communities have demonstrated a need for reinvestment and Community Legacy projects should therefore aim to stabilize a community, reverse social, economic or physical decline or encourage sustainable growth.
- Projects/activities typically include, but are not limited to:
- Mixed-use development consisting of residential, commercial and/or open space
- Business retention, expansion and attraction initiatives
- Streetscape improvements
- Increasing homeownership and home rehabilitation among residents
- Residential and commercial façade improvement programs
- Real estate acquisition, including land banking, and strategic demolition
Eligibility Criteria
- Lead applicants will be local governments or community development organizations. Local government applications should be lead-sponsored by the Community and/or Economic Development agency, or, in the absence of such an agency or staff, the local agency designated by the jurisdiction’s chief executive. Supporting applicant team members can and should include housing agencies, planning departments, local non-profits, civic institutions and private sector companies and lenders.
- Projects must be within certain eligible areas:
- Sustainable Communities
- Opportunity Zones in Allegany, Garrett, Somerset, and Wicomico Counties
- Community Legacy funds support a wide range of local initiatives aimed at both attracting new residents and businesses and encouraging existing residents and businesses to remain and reinvest in a community.
For more information, visit MDHCD.
