PCA Grant Program

PCA Grant Program

The Priority Conservation Area (PCA) Grant Program provides funding to cities, counties, park districts, utility districts and other agencies and non-profits to acquire, enhance or improve designated PCAs. Grant funding is provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the State Coastal Conservancy (Conservancy) and is administered by the Conservancy, in cooperation with MTC and ABAG.

Cycle 2

In 2016, MTC set aside $16.4 million within its One Bay Area Grant Program (OBAG) framework. Similar to the first cycle of the PCA Grant Program, MTC’s funds were split equally into two subcomponents:

North Bay Grant Program (Marin, Napa, Solano, Sonoma)

The four North Bay counties manage the PCA Grant Program within their counties, for a total of $8.2 million. Each County Transportation Agency (CTA) develops program criteria, conducts project solicitations, and sends their project recommendations to MTC for approval.

MTC adopted the Cycle 2 North Bay PCA Grants in April 2018:

Competitive Grant Program (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara)

For the rest of the Bay Area counties outside of the North Bay, a competitive grant program is administered by the Conservancy in partnership with the MTC and ABAG. A total of $10 million is available, with $8.2 million in MTC’s OBAG funds and up to $1.8 million in state bond measure funds from the Conservancy. Additional details on the Competitive Grant Program are available in the PCA Grant Program Guidelines.

MTC adopted the PCA grants awards for projects located in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties in November 2019; additional grant awards were added to the program in November 2020.

Cycle 1

The PCA grant program was first introduced in 2013, with $10 million in federal transportation funds provided through MTC’s OBAG program. Similar to the current cycle, the Cycle 1 PCA Grant Program was divided into two components:

North Bay Grant Program (Marin, Napa, Solano, Sonoma)

The four North Bay counties managed the PCA Grant Program within their counties, for a total of $5 million in Cycle 1. Each CTA developed program criteria, conducted project solicitations, and sent project recommendations to MTC for approval.

Competitive Grant Program (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara)

The remaining $5 million was administered by the Conservancy in coordination with MTC and ABAG. The Conservancy augmented the program with $2.5 million of its own bond measure funds, for a total of $7.5 million in grant funding provided through the first cycle of the competitive program.

Questions

For questions about the PCA Grant Program, please email: PCAGrants@bayareametro.gov