Cumberland County adopts land partnership plan, authorizes revised grant guidelines and releases $650,000 for projects

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution accepting the county’s Land Partnership plan and authorized the release of revised program guidelines for the 2025–26 Land Partnerships Grant Program, county staff said.

Stephanie Williams, senior planner, told the board that the plan had been released for 30 days of public comment and that the county received feedback from 21 respondents — five organizations and 16 individuals — with generally positive input. Williams said the most substantive feedback came from the Land Partnership steering committee, which recommended formatting changes to chapter 6 and the implementation section. She said those edits were incorporated and that the document otherwise remained largely unchanged.

Williams said adopting the plan is a formality required by the DCNR grant program and will allow the county to proceed with farmland preservation, natural resource protection, and parks, trails and greenways work that the plan prioritizes. Julia Chane, who identified herself as program manager for the Southcentral Partnership and a Land Partnership steering committee member, and Cameron Weiser, land protection director for Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, both told the commissioners they supported the plan.

The board also authorized releasing the updated grant guidelines for the Land Partnerships Grant Program. Williams said the county had previously banked $650,000 from Act 13 funds during the planning process and proposed removing two categories from the grant program — water resource management and ordinance assistance — because similar or more appropriate funding sources exist (the county’s clean water grant program and the Cumberland Plans grant program, respectively). She said the changes aim to avoid duplication and focus the grant pot on acquisition of open space, new parkland and trails, which emerged as high priorities during the planning process.

The revised grant notice would be released with two application deadlines this cycle — a December deadline and a June deadline — to allow projects at different readiness levels to apply and to accommodate a likely additional Act 13 allocation on July 1st. Williams said last year’s July allocation was $175,000 and that the county will know future amounts when the funds are allocated.

Commissioners moved and approved both the resolution to accept the Land Partnership plan and the authorization to release the revised grant guidelines.