The Rural and Small Town Development Fund provides grants for capital and community planning projects in rural and small towns – towns with populations less than 7,000 or with a population density of less than 500 persons per square mile (measured by the 2020 US Census).
Donor Name: Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development
State: Massachusetts
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/02/2023
Size of the Grant: $50,000-$500,000
Details:
This competitive grant program awards funds based on the project’s nexus with housing, transportation, infrastructure, economic development, community development, and priorities identified by the Commonwealth’s Rural Policy Advisory Commission.
Rural and Small Town grants may be used for a variety of activities related to community planning, zoning revisions, feasibility, engineering, designs and construction of physical infrastructure and of existing and new buildings, rehabilitation, due diligence, plan designs, market studies, pre-permitting/permitting, engineering, acquisition, demolition, and site related upgrades of future development sites.
Examples of these projects include, but are not limited to:
- Planning and Zoning
- Create a housing production plan to better understand housing needs of the community and identify strategies to reduce gaps in existing housing relative to identified needs
- Create a multi-family zoning district near a transit station
- Create a corridor study of a commercial area that seeks land use alternatives to promote multi-modal access, introduce mixed-use, and achieve more compact commercial development
- Review current zoning to identify and remove language that excludes certain housing types
- Develop 40R/40Y Smart Growth or Starter Home districts
- Review zoning ordinances and create a plan to update zoning rules to unlock potential housing production and economic development growth.
- Site Preparation
- Conduct permitting and prepare engineering plans to address changes to existing water, sewer and stormwater in a development site
- Conduct pre-development site master plan on an underutilized commercial property with the intent to create mixed use that includes affordable housing
- Demolish a blighted building that cannot be recovered to prepare a portion of a parcel or an entire parcel for mixed-use redevelopment that includes affordable housing.
- Buildings
- Address town infrastructure through public building improvements that addresses a local need
- Provide further subsidies to an affordable housing project to directly create affordable housing units or increase the number of affordable units in a new housing project
- Rehabilitation of housing to bring an underutilized property back onto the market.
- Infrastructure
- Conduct permitting, and construction to existing water, sewer and stormwater
- Build pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure near public transit stations that connect residential and commercial areas to each other through alternative transportation modes
- Create engineering designs to replace an existing sewer pump station that will increase capacity to build additional housing
- Design or construction of a new water line connection to an adjacent town or making plans to consolidate water districts for an area served only by wells
- Improve an intersection near newly built or permitted mixed-use project that will yield new affordable housing
- Physical infrastructure improvements to increase safety and mobility between residential and commercial areas that increases and promotes alternative modes of transportation.
Funding Information
- For 2024, approximately $3 Million is available in grants.
- Grants in this category will likely be $50,000-$500,000
- Grants are expected to be awarded in the fall of 2023 and funded projects must be completed by June 30, 2025.
Eligibility Criteria
Massachusetts’ municipalities that meet the definition of a Rural or Small Town (population of 7,000 or less as of the 2020 US Census or with less than 500 persons per square mile), Regional Planning Agencies, and related municipal entities (Public Housing Authority, Redevelopment Authority, Water/Sewer or Service District, Economic Development Industrial Corporation, body created by legislative act to serve a municipality) serving a currently rural and small town, are eligible for consideration of an Rural and Small Town grant. Applications may be submitted by a single applicant, two or more eligible applicants in a joint application with one lead entity, and applications from a regional entity for projects in rural and small towns only. Further eligibility criteria for the Rural and Small Town Development Fund are as follows:
- Regional Planning Agencies and Related Municipal Entities:
- Related Municipal Entitles must be within, serve, plan to serve, and/or continue to serve a currently rural and small town
- Applications submitted directly by a Regional Planning Agency or Related Municipal entity must provide clear and evident support for their project by the rural and small town.
For more information, visit MEOHED.
