To: Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
Staff Name and Phone Number: Amy Ricard, 565-7261; Pamela Swan, 565-7348
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Ag + Open Space Matching Grant Program Revisions
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Receive a presentation of recommended revisions to the Matching Grant Program and provide direction to staff.
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Executive Summary:
Since 1990, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District has offered a
competitive Matching Grant Program to public agencies and nonprofit organizations for open space projects within and near Sonoma County’s cities and communities. The Board of Directors updated the Matching Grant Program Guidelines in 2009, 2011, and 2019. The primary goal of these revisions was to clarify language and improve transparency in the evaluation criteria and review process. With an ongoing commitment to program improvement to best serve Sonoma County communities, and to increase equity and accessibility for underserved communities in particular, this year staff coordinated an additional program evaluation process resulting in significant proposed revisions in the areas of program model, funding, technical assistance, evaluation and scoring, and administration.
Once program revision direction is received, staff will make such revisions and return to the Board of Directors to seek final approval and adoption of the revised program materials.
Discussion:
Background:
The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (Ag + Open Space) offers a competitive Matching Grant Program (MGP or Program) for projects within or near the County’s urban areas. The Program is borne out of Measure F and is described in paragraph 5 of the Expenditure Plan as follows:
“5. Other open space projects include but are not limited to, urban open space and recreation projects within and near incorporated cities and other urbanized areas of Sonoma County. Funds for these projects shall be available to cities, the County and other entities through a matching grant program, with preference given to acquisition and development of projects that link communities. Examples of these projects include creek restoration and enhancement, such as along the Petaluma River, Santa Rosa Creek and Laguna de Santa Rosa, trails, athletic fields, and urban greenspace.”
Since 1994, Ag + Open Space has accepted 68 projects across 49 properties into the MGP in each of the County’s nine incorporated Cities and numerous unincorporated areas, pledging over $50 million to community-based organizations, Cities, County departments, and other public agencies. Generally located in areas lacking open space, MGP funding has enabled the development and implementation of innovative projects that reflect the needs of Sonoma County’s unique and diverse communities. To date, the Program has protected nearly 550 acres of urban open space across 31 urban parks, farms, and nature preserves; and that amount of acreage will double when all active projects are complete. Further, nearly 480 acres of natural habitats, including oak woodlands, urban creeks, marshes and wetlands, and riparian habitats, have been protected through the MGP. See Attachment 1 for a list of all MGP projects to date.
As a condition of funding, Ag + Open Space achieves permanent protection of lands through a conservation easement. As the majority of MGP projects include a public recreation component, Ag + Open Space may also receive a recreation conservation covenant which enables and permanently protects public recreational uses.
Ag + Open Space staff coordinates the Program with support from an MGP Staff Subcommittee and a Subcommittee comprised of representatives from the Ag + Open Space Advisory Committee and Fiscal Oversight Commission. The Subcommittees assist in evaluating applications and recommending projects for funding, as well as in the review and revision of Program administration and materials, forwarding any recommended changes to the Advisory Bodies and Ag + Open Space Board of Directors (Board). For each funding cycle, the full Advisory Committee and the Fiscal Oversight Commission make recommendations for Program funding to be considered by the Board. The Board provides final approval for which projects are accepted into the Program, along with associated funding amounts and program revisions. Please see Attachment 2 for an overview of how the Matching Grant Program has evolved since its inception to meet the needs of the community.
2024 Matching Grant Program Recommended Revisions:
The 2024 update is in response to feedback received from community members, partners, program participants, the Advisory Committee and Fiscal Oversight Commission, and our Board of Directors directing staff to increase program equity and accessibility, particularly with underserved communities, and continue to improve transparency and community awareness.
With the objective of implementing the revisions prior to the 2024 funding cycle, staff initiated an intensive revision process in January 2023, engaging a wide range of stakeholders. This effort included soliciting feedback from Ag + Open Space staff and our advisory bodies; consulting the Office of Equity and County Counsel; interviewing community partners; surveying past and prospective applicants; and researching funding models and best practices from peer granting organizations. The findings and recommendations below reflect the outcomes of this effort. A summary of the feedback received is included in Attachment 3.
Pilot Rolling Application Model
To better respond to time-sensitive urban open space projects, bolster projects that are ready for implementation, and build more support in the process for applicants lacking capacity and/or serving disadvantaged communities, staff are proposing to pilot a rolling application model over the next two years. The proposed rolling application process will consist of a pre-application to assess eligibility and readiness, and a full application for funding once eligibility and readiness requirements are met. Staff will accept applications year-round, reviewing and scoring them as they are received, and then batch them once a year to make funding recommendations based on project scores and funding available at that time. Funding recommendations will be presented to our advisory bodies before going to our Board for final approval. Currently, staff open a finite application period every other year and no pre-application to determine eligibility and assess readiness is required.
This rolling model will allow applicants to submit projects at any time, and more specifically, when they are truly ready, resulting in more urban open space projects completed sooner, which provides greater benefits to the community. This rolling model is also more responsive to time-sensitive projects that may require urgent funding and are not able to wait up to two years for the next cycle. Lastly, this model reduces the “Active Project Tenure” time, where some projects linger longer than necessary due to pre-Acquisition and Improvement steps that could have been taken prior to application. Staff intend to survey program stakeholders annually to assess the effectiveness of the pilot and will report findings to our advisory bodies and Board of Directors.
Program Funding
To support the growing demand for urban open space projects, staff recommend increasing the annual funding allocation from $2 million to $3 million per year, which represents a 50% increase from the current funding level. Staff are recommending this increase because awarded funds for MGP projects have steadily increased over the past several cycles and current sales tax revenues and cash flow projections indicate that such an increase is feasible. This increase in funding remains consistent with paragraph 5 of the Expenditure Plan referenced above.
Even with increased funding, there may be more demand than funding available. As such, staff are requesting guidance on whether to set maximum funding requests, such as $1-1.5 million for improvement projects and $2-2.5 million for acquisition projects. Currently, the program does not have maximum funding requests, though most public grant funders set applicant expectations by establishing a maximum request amount, which can spread funding to more applicants and encourage applicants to leverage project funds from other sources.
Staff are also requesting guidance on whether to increase the grant funding and match allowed for project design and planning from 25% to 50% once a project has been accepted into the MGP. This would enable applicants to use more awarded grant funds to support the design and other eligible pre-development work, including consultants. This recommendation emerged from the interest in leveling the playing field for smaller and community-based organizations that lack the financial and internal staff capacity to conduct and contract for planning and design work.
Pre-Award Applicant Support
Many stakeholders, especially those in underserved communities, expressed the need for increased technical assistance to be competitive in the Program. In response, staff are proposing several options reflecting best practices in grantmaking to increase equity and accessibility in this area:
• Increase staff assistance with readiness and eligibility assessment, application, project conceptualization, and identifying other partners or funding sources.
• Include a simple pre-application in the process to check project eligibility, assess readiness, and determine technical assistance needs.
• Offer a series of workshops that may include but are not limited to grant-writing, project design and planning, community engagement and visioning, and real estate support for interested applicants and record proceedings to ensure all applicants have access.
• Offer full application-related technical assistance to those who need it.
o Pre-application would include a section where applicants could request technical assistance.
o Ag + Open Space would retain a suite of consultants to provide technical assistance to applicants who request it and have an eligible project. Typically, public grant funders provide a cap on the amount applicants are able to use for technical assistance, offering between $5,000 and $15,000 for these services.
o Types of application-related, pre-award assistance may include but are not limited to community engagement, preliminary project design/planning, site assessment, mapping/GIS, CEQA, permitting, and real estate support, all of which expedite project readiness.
Evaluation & Scoring
Staff are recommending several changes to the scoring matrix to ensure equity, enhance transparency, and reflect Ag + Open Space and County priorities. See Attachment 4 for the current Scoring Matrix.
The proposed changes include:
• To even the playing field for organizations that lack capacity to provide a match, staff recommend removing match level and match security from the scoring matrix and instead include it in the eligibility assessment. This suggested change confirms that providing a match is required but mitigates the disparity in generating match funds experienced between different types of organizations. Applicants would be required to self-certify they have some level of match to bring to the project and the Board could consider requiring a baseline level of match for all applicants.
• Include CEQA and/or permitting checklists in the pre-application/readiness assessment so applicants are aware of what is required. This will bolster project readiness prior to application.
• Remove applicant experience and quality of application from the scoring matrix, which is a best practice in increasing equity and accessibility.
• To support the long-term success of MGP projects, ask applicants to include a description of how they expect to ensure the successful completion and long-term operations and management of the project and score this “sustainability plan” in the matrix.
• Increase score for acquisition of new land, reflecting the MGP’s prioritization of adding new open space land.
• Move currently unscored “Other Considerations” to the scoring matrix:
• Community Support would be scored based on narrative, letters of support, and the level of community engagement (per the Office of Equity’s Community Engagement Continuum).
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) would be scored based on the project’s location and standardized metrics frequently used in Sonoma County, including the Portrait of Sonoma County’s Human Development Index (HDI), California Enviroscreen 4.0, and our Sonoma County Parks Gap Analysis. Note: The Parks Gap Analysis will be presented to the Board in a future meeting.
• Projects in a Fire and/or Flood Area will be incorporated into Climate Resiliency scoring and will be evaluated based on the project’s location relative to such data sets as California Enviroscreen 4.0 and Sonoma County fire and flood vulnerability map layers.
Program Administration
Staff heard from stakeholders that the application and guidelines are lengthy and onerous. To address this, staff are proposing to simplify the process by minimizing document length, reducing the amount of documentation required, and including checklists and online maps to help applicants through the process. Staff also recommend creating a user-friendly online application to make it easier for applicants, while also removing the requirement to submit a hard copy application.
Lastly, staff recommends renaming the Matching Grant Program to better reflect what the program does and the benefits it provides to the community. If supported by the Board, staff will bring a recommended program name for Board approval along with the revised MGP program materials.
Revision Recommendations Public Review
Staff presented proposed revisions at the September 5, 2023 public workshop of the Matching Grant Program Revision Ad Hoc Subcommittee, which is comprised of members of the Fiscal Oversight Commission and Advisory Committee. Refined revision recommendations were then presented to the full Advisory Committee on September 28, 2023, and Fiscal Oversight Commission on October 5, 2023. The input from these meetings has been incorporated into these recommendations.
Recommendation
Receive this presentation of recommended revisions to the Matching Grant Program and provide direction to staff.
Next Steps
Following Board discussion and direction, staff will revise the guidelines, application, and evaluation matrix and bring the final revised materials back to the Board for approval in January or early February 2024. Staff plan to initiate the pilot rolling application model either in conjunction with that Board date, or shortly thereafter. The launch of the new program will include targeted outreach to Sonoma County’s underserved communities and workshops for potential applicants.
Racial Equity Analysis - Matching Grant Program
Supported by the Office of Equity, staff used the Government Alliance on Race and Equity’s (GARE) Equity Toolkit to craft a racial equity analysis of the Matching Grant Program. Please see Attachment 5, Racial Equity Analysis of Ag + Open Space Matching Grant Program, for more information.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Climate Action and Resiliency
Goal: Maximize opportunities for mitigation of climate change and adaptation through land conservation work and land use policies
Objective: Objective 2: Develop policies to maximize carbon sequestration and minimize loss of natural carbon sinks including old growth forests, the Laguna de Santa Rosa, and rangelands. Encourage agricultural and open space land management to maximize sequestration.
Prior Board Actions:
November 12, 2019: Ag + Open Space Board of Directors approved an update of the Matching Grant Program Guidelines.
December 6, 2011: Board Action #31 Ag + Open Space Board of Directors approved an update of the Matching Grant Program Guidelines.
August 11, 2009: Resolution 09-0739 Ag + Open Space Board of Directors approved an update of the Matching Grant Program Guidelines.
February 6, 2007: Resolution 07-0110, Ag + Open Space Board of Directors approved an update of the Matching Grant Program.
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The current annual Matching Grant Program allocation is $2 million per year, with the funding cycle occurring every two years. Should the Board of Directors increase program funding aligned with staff recommendations, the impact would be a 50% increase in annual Matching Grant Program Funding to $3 million annually. Funds for the Matching Grant Program would continue to come from Measure F sales tax revenue.
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
1. Matching Grant Program Projects List
2. Matching Grant Program Revision History
3. Matching Grant Program Revision Meeting Notes
4. Matching Grant Program 2022 Round 2 Funding Evaluation Matrix
5. Matching Grant Program Revision Racial Equity Analysis
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
1. Matching Grant Program Guidelines
2. Matching Grant Program Guidelines (Spanish)
3. Matching Grant Program Application
4. Matching Grant Program Application (Spanish)
5. Matching Grant Program Readiness Assessment Form