The Maine Coastal Program has moved to the new Maine Office of Community Affairs (MOCA). Please refer to the MOCA website for all information about Maine Coastal Program.
Questions received between July 6 and August 21, 2026
Eligibility reminder: Eligible applicants include municipalities, unorganized townships, and Tribal Governments in Maine’s Coastal Zone, as well as coastal Regional Councils. Coastal Regional Councils may submit applications on behalf of coastal municipalities, townships, or Tribal Governments.
Question: Can a community with an active Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Planning Grant (from the FY26 round) apply for a different and unrelated project in the FY27 round?
Answer: Communities with active grants are not eligible to apply for the current round, even if the proposed project is unrelated to the active project.
Question: If a project involves multiple towns, can the grant request be for up to $75,000?
Answer: Yes, groups of eligible applicants (like multiple municipalities), may submit applications for collaborative projects with a maximum award amount of $75,000.
Question: Would educational and outreach materials intended to inform coastal property owners about resilient shoreline stabilization practices be eligible for these grants? These materials would be distributed to participating municipalities as part of a broader community resilience and education effort.
Answer: Creating general education and outreach materials to share with municipalities and residents is an eligible activity. If the project and project outputs were specific to a particular property, that location would need to be a public property.
Question: How can we tell if our community has an active Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Grant, or that our community has received funds from these grants in the past?
Answer: Information about past Shore and Harbor Grants can be found here: Example Projects, Maps, and Funding Summary | Department of Marine Resources, and information about past Coastal Community Grants can be found here: Coastal Community Grant Case Studies | Maine Office of Community Affairs.
Question: Our community has been involved in, but has not applied for a Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Planning Grant in the past (e.g. part of a multi-community application in a previous year). If we are applying on our own for this round, do we mark this as our first application?
Answer: Since this is the first application from your community, you should mark this as the first application. Please mention the prior project participation in the project description.
Question: If our community has not applied to the Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Planning Grant in the past, but are now applying for multiple projects in different priority categories, would we select yes for each application, or only select yes for the first application submitted?
Answer: If your community has not applied in prior rounds, please select “yes” to show that this is your first application to the grant program for each application you are submitting this year.
Question: Our community received funding over 10 years ago but has not received funding in the previous five years. How do we answer the questions about previous grants?
Answer: If you have received funding in the past, you should indicate that this is not your first application to the Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor grant. If your grants were received more than five years ago, you do not need to enter information about those grants into the table in Submittable. If you received a grant less than five years ago, please enter information about that grant into the table in Submittable.
Question: We plan to apply for the grant for the purpose of developing a harbor management plan, and while we could complete the plan by the March 31, 2028 deadline, we likely wouldn't be able to adopt it until our annual town meeting in May 2028. Would this be acceptable from the perspective of the grant requirements?
Answer: It is acceptable as long as the process of adopting the harbor management plan doesn’t require grant funds, because reimbursements cannot be requested and match cannot be documented after the grant ends. Adopting the plan at the town meeting cannot not be a task in the proposed grant because it would happen after the grant ends.
Question: Are the following activities eligible for the Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Grant?
- Commissioning an alternatives analysis to compare the efficacy of a nature-based strategy, i.e., removal of a road crossing, with other potential mitigation strategies — with a focus on the impacts of the strategies on a nearby marsh
- Commissioning a benefit-cost analysis of a nature-based strategy, i.e., removal of a road crossing, with other potential mitigation strategies
- Commissioning a community engagement process to discern public acceptance of removing a tidal road crossing entirely
Answer: The three potential projects could be eligible activities for the Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Grant. Planning, design, and public engagement are eligible activities. Grant activities have to be on public property unless there is deeded public access through a conservation easement. If a community is trying to leverage these funds with another grant, it is very important that there are distinct tasks that our funding can be tied to – we can’t provide supplementary funding for a different project with overlapping deliverables to another grant.
Question: Our Town is currently in litigation regarding ownership of a right-of-way. Can grant funds be utilized to cover legal fees?
Answer: Grant funds are intended to “identify lost or contested public rights-of-way to coastal waters.” This could include activities like legal research, title/deed history review, and legal analysis, rather than litigation fees associated with an active lawsuit.
Questions received by July 6, 2026
Question: Can these grants be used to pay for riprap installation?
Answer: No. These grants are for planning and design purposes only and cannot be used to pay for construction in any form.
Question: Can these grants be used to pay for construction of a new wharf?
Answer: No. These grants are for planning and design purposes only and cannot be used to pay for construction in any form.
Question: Can these grants be used to pay for planning, design, or construction on privately-owned property?
Anwer: No. These grants can only be used on publicly owned properties, and only for planning and design work; the funds cannot be used for construction.
Question: Can one organization submit more than one application to the Coastal Community/Shore and Harbor Planning Grant?
Answer: Yes, a single organization can submit more than one application, as long as the proposed projects fall into different priority categories (see page 4 of the program statement). Each application must meet all program requirements and be independent of other applications.
Question: Can Community Resilience Partnership Service Providers, or other similar entities, apply to these grants?
Answer: Eligible applicants include municipalities, unorganized territories, and Tribal Governments in Maine’s Coastal Zone, as well as coastal Regional Councils. CRP Service Providers who are not one of these groups are not eligible to apply.
Question: Can municipal staff time be counted as match?
Answer: Municipal staff time can be counted as in-kind match to help meet the grant’s 10% match requirement. However, municipal staff cannot participate as an independent contractor/consultant for time spent outside of their regular hours of weekly staff time. Match requirements can be found on pages 6-7 of the program statement.