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LWCF
Manual
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Compliance
Responsibilities and Legal Protection
Post-Completion Compliance &
Legal
Protection:
Post-completion compliance responsibilities
apply to each area or facility for which Land and Water Conservation
Fund assistance is obtained, regardless of the extent of program
participation in the assisted area or facility and consistent with
the contractural agreement between National Park Service and the
State.
The State is responsible for compliance and
enforcement of these provisions for both State and locally sponsored
projects. Responsibilities cited in Title 36, Part 59 in
the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations apply to the area described
on the 6(f)(3) boundary map and/or as described in other project
documentation approved by the Department of the Interior.
TITLE 36, CHAPTER 1, PART 59 - Land
and Water Conservation Fund Program of Assistance to States; Post-Completion
Compliance Responsibilities:
You can also read more about post-completion
compliance responsibilities in the LWCF
Stewardship booklet
Legal Protection for Grant-Assisted
Recreation Sites
Section 6(f)(3) of the LWCF Act
Section 6(f)(3) of the LWCF Act contains strong provisions to protect
Federal investments and the quality of assisted resources. The law
is firm but flexible. It recognizes the likelihood that changes
in land use or development may make some assisted areas obsolete
over time, particularly in rapidly changing urban areas. At the
same time, the law discourages casual "discards" of park
and recreation facilities by ensuring that changes or "conversions
from recreation use" will bear a cost - a cost that assures
taxpayers that investments in the "national recreation estate"
will not be squandered. The LWCF Act contains a clear and common
sense provision to protect grant-assisted areas from conversions.
SEC.
6(f)(3) No property acquired or developed with assistance under
this section shall, without the approval of the Secretary, be
converted to other than public outdoor recreation uses. The Secretary
shall approve such conversion only if he finds it to be in accord
with the then existing comprehensive statewide outdoor recreation
plan and only upon such conditions as he deems necessary to assure
the substitution of other recreation properties of at least equal
fair market value and of reasonably equivalent usefulness and
location.
This
"anti-conversion" requirement applies to all parks and
other sites that have been the subject of Land and Water grants
of any type, whether for acquisition of parkland, development or
rehabilitation of facilities. In many cases, even a relatively small
LWCF grant (e.g., for development of a picnic shelter) in a park
of hundreds or even thousands of acres provides anti-conversion
protection to the entire park site.
To ensure the continued effectiveness of Section 6(f)(3) protection,
several management tools have been developed to monitor and correct
changes in assisted sites from year to year. For example, the NPS
requires on-site inspections of all grant-assisted areas and facilities
at least once in every five years most of which are conducted by
cooperating state agencies.
Another important tool to ensure good communication between grantors
and grantees is the "6(f)(3) project boundary map." With
each application, the grantee submits a dated project boundary map
showing the park area to be covered by Section 6(f)(3) anti-conversion
protections. This map need not be a formal survey document, but
it contains enough site-specific information to serve several purposes:
- it
ensures that both the grantee and the administering agency agree
on the proper boundaries of the covered site at the time of project
approval;
- it
provides location, size indicators and a picture of key facilities
and landmarks to help later project inspectors better identify
and evaluate the site.
Sometimes
the protective provisions of LWCF grants result in "win-win"
solutions to the problems of changing parks and changing communities.
An example of this is Shoreline Park in Long Beach, California.
After using a sizable LWCF grant for basic development of the 20
acre park, the community felt that the park was not meeting its
full potential. It was decided to replace the park with a commercial
aquarium, amphitheater and shopping mall, and to build a new community
park elsewhere in the neighborhood. National Park Service and the
State worked closely with Long Beach. Within a short time, a new
24 acre site was identified.
Shoreline Park never succeeded in meeting its usage goals, because
of reduced population in the downtown areas. Thanks to common sense
replacement provisions, the park site will effectively be relocated
and Long Beach residents will be able to enjoy new recreation opportunities
as well as a viable tourist and convention site that will aid downtown
economic recovery.
The conversion was approved, with the result that the "anti-conversion"
mandate of the law, instead of being a negative, helped bring business
leaders and community park users together for an improved Science
Center AND an entirely new public recreation opportunity in the
form of the riverfront park.
If you have concerns about threats
to a park area that you think might have received a LWCF grant, contact
one of the National Park Service field offices or your State Agency,
as listed in the "Contact List." Administrators have databases
of grant-assisted sites that will help them to determine whether Fund
protections apply; also some States have their own grant programs
that afford similar protection.
For
contact addresses and numbers, see:
Contact
List
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