March 18, 2024
Annapolis, US 38 F

Chesapeake Bay Trust announced $1.4 million in grants for Green streets, jobs, and towns

The Chesapeake Bay Trust, manager of the funds from the “Protect the Chesapeake” license plate program, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announce $1,429,161 in funding for the Chesapeake Bay Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns Grant Program (G3). These awards help communities develop and implement plans that reduce stormwater runoff, increase the amount of green spaces in urban areas, improve the health of local rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay, create “green jobs,” and enhance livability in cities and communities.

This announcement highlights awards made to 25 innovative green infrastructure projects that span Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia with almost half of the recipients being new applicants to the program.

The work of the G3 program is intended to facilitate and encourage community integration of green techniques into traditional “gray” infrastructure projects. As communities have to, for example, repave roads, reconfigure intersections, or implement other gray infrastructure projects, the G3 program encourages them to add green elements at little additional up-front cost for cost effective savings on stormwater treatment, flooding abatement, and other community benefits.

“The EPA congratulates all of our grantees for putting forth Green Infrastructure projects that will support clean water and strong neighborhoods,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “We are proud to assist communities in their efforts to reduce pollution to local waters and the Chesapeake Bay while improving their economy and quality of life.”

The awardees announced today will not only implement projects that include enhanced community safety and quality of life, the removal of impervious surfaces, expansion of urban tree canopies, inclusion of bioretention and other stormwater treatment practices, vacant lot retrofitting, and other green infrastructure practices throughout the region’s watershed, but also share their plans and projects to ensure that others in the greater Chesapeake Bay watershed community can benefit from their lead.

“The communities and organizations receiving awards today serve as models for the entire Chesapeake watershed and beyond,” Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio said. “By supporting these green infrastructure initiatives, we will continue to foster innovation and acknowledge the multiple benefits of meeting our water quality goals.”

Eligibility for application extends to communities within Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and West Virginia thanks to the collaboration of funding partners within Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region.

“This year, perhaps more than ever, communities are seeing the importance of providing green spaces and green features that encourage their residents to walk, recreate, and just ‘be’ outdoors,” stated Dr. Jana Davis, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. “During these times of the pandemic, so many more residents are realizing the aesthetic, health-related, and even economic power of being outdoors, and grants like these will enhance their ability to do so.”

Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns Awarded Since Inception: See the map here.
Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns Program Overview: Read here.
Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns Program Award Numbers Since 2011: Read here.

The full list of the Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns Grant Program awardees include:

Borough of Marietta, $237,515
Marietta Borough Green Streets Construction
Marietta, Pennsylvania
To implement the green street that was part of comprehensive green infrastructure plan to treat stormwater, increase greenspace, and increase pedestrian safety.

Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, $200,748
Implementation/Construction – Glenmont Forest Green Streets
Silver Spring, Maryland
For construction of eight rain gardens and tree box filters in the Glenmont Forest community coupled with outreach and education activities provided by the Rock Creek Conservancy.

City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $100,000
Highland Avenue Green Street Project
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
To improve pedestrian safety and slow traffic along Highland Avenue on the southern edge of Lancaster City utilizing vegetated and bioretention bump-outs to filter stormwater.

Prince George’s County, Maryland, $100,000
Implementation – Publick Playhouse Stormwater Management Retrofit Project
Landover, Maryland
For four micro-bioretention projects at the Publick Playhouse to provide stormwater quality control as a part of a community-wide green street installation.

ShoreRivers, $100,000
Greening the Washington College Campus: Inaugural Stormwater Retrofits
Chestertown, Maryland
For the installation of six bioretention projects near a stormwater detention pond retrofit with high demonstration value to treat stormwater at Washington College.

ShoreRivers, $97,084
A Patriotic Commitment to Protecting the Choptank River, A Parking Lot Restoration Project at American Legion Post 91
Cambridge, Maryland
To retrofit an existing parking lot with green infrastructure vegetated swales to manage and treat polluted stormwater runoff with visible demonstration value for educational purposes.

Ridge to Reefs, $50,000
Urban Farm Expansion and Ecological Restoration at BLISS Meadows
Baltimore City, Maryland
For urban agriculture expansion, ecological restoration, and implementing stormwater management practices at Baltimore Living in Sustainable Simplicity Meadows.

The 6th Branch, $50,000
Broadway East: Montford Corridor Greenscape
Baltimore City, Maryland
For a vacant lot greening project in the Broadway East community to include lot and debris cleanup, impervious removal, and native tree and perennial seed plantings.

Blue Water Baltimore, $49,892
Supporting Community Greening in the Brooklyn and Curtis Bay Neighborhoods of Baltimore
Baltimore City, Maryland
For planting 150 native trees in the Curtis Bay community with strong public engagement.

Civic Works, Inc. $45,000
West Baltimore Vacant Lot Greening
Baltimore City, Maryland
To convert three vacant lots into community parks and gathering spaces with green infrastructure in Upton, Panway-Braddish, and Irvington communities.

Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, $38,735
Engineering Design for Green Streets in Seaford, Delaware
Seaford, Delaware
For engineering design for green streets to achieve improved stormwater management and protect water quality.

Anacostia Watershed Society, $32,878
Greening Fairmount Heights
Fairmount Heights, Maryland
For a community greening project addressing stormwater runoff, increasing urban tree canopy, native plant gardens, and educational signage along with resident clean-up efforts and events.

City of Portsmouth, $30,000
Engineered Design – Water Street Green Street and Park
Portsmouth, Virginia
To advance the conceptual design to design plans for the “Water Street Green Street and Park” project, including permeable pavement, bioretention, and underground storage chambers.

Fauquier County, $30,000
Fauquier High School Green Infrastructure Design
Warrenton, Virginia
For engineered designs to construct wetlands on the grounds of Fauquier High School to reduce nutrient pollutants from a significant drainage area within the County’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System area.

Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street, Inc. $30,000
“The Lot” at 4500 Harford Road
Baltimore City, Maryland
For a vacant lot revitalization and maintenance project offering farmer’s markets, community activities, and green space.

Joe’s Movement Emporium/World Arts Focus, $30,000
Green Street Engineered Design: Story of Water and Art
Mount Rainier, Maryland
To design visible stormwater treatment train for the Joe’s facility integrating art, storytelling, and creative placemaking practices to engage and educate visitors; address public safety; and treat stormwater runoff.

Parks & People Foundation, $30,000
Cecil Elementary School Campus Revitalization
Baltimore, Maryland
For engineered design drawings for the Cecil Elementary School campus revitalization project that includes the re-invention of an impervious surface schoolyard.

City of Romney, $29,985
Green Street Engineered Design for West Birch Lane
Romney, West Virginia
To develop engineering designs for green infrastructure practices including the installation of street side bioswales, bioretention, and includes tree plantings/boxes in pervious areas on the Romney Senior Center property.

Town of Colonial Beach, $29,935
1st Street Right of Way Engineered Design
Colonial Beach, Virginia
To develop final engineered designs that will incorporate stormwater management along a main student pedestrian corridor adjacent to a school.

Capon Bridge Revitalization Group, Inc., $28,880
Capon School Street Revitalization
Capon Bridge, West Virginia
To redefine the civic core of Capon Bridge by upgrading the safety, environmental quality, and aesthetic appeal with re-planning traffic flow, parking patterns, and significant greening elements.

Baltimore City Department of Planning, Baltimore Office of Sustainability, $27,768
Creating a Ribbon of Green to Protect the Chesapeake Bay
Baltimore City, Maryland
For engineered designs to improve stormwater management through the removal of 14,610 square feet of impervious surface at the Cab Calloway Legends Park.

Town of Emmitsburg, $17,538
North Seton Avenue Green Street Conceptual Plan
Emmitsburg, Maryland
To create a high-performing green street conceptual plan to reduce the stormwater runoff and pollution while incorporating flood hazard mitigation.

The Community Ecology Institute, $15,000
Walkable Watershed: Using a Neighborhood’s Storm Water Challenges to Build Community and Enhance Education
Columbia, Maryland
To develop a green stormwater infrastructure concept plan for Atholton High School taking a “walkable watershed” approach integrating improved access and connection between school and the Community Ecology Institute farm.

The Commissioners (Town) of Barnesville, $14,960
Barnesville Storm Water Management Concept Design
Barnesville, Maryland
To develop a green infrastructure concept design addressing one inch of stormwater run-off by incorporating rain gardens, bioswales, and street trees to reduce discharge into local waterways, eliminate property damage, and improve aesthetics.

Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States, Inc., $13,243
Permeable Walkway to Learning Garden and Outdoor Classroom
Chevy Chase, Maryland
For a permeable brick pavers, pre-treatment swale, and rain garden project at Woodend Nature Sanctuary to prevent flooding and reduce pollution.

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