Eligibility
Applicant eligibility
"Communities" are defined as counties, home rule charters, statutory cities or towns, townships, and counties. Ineligible applicants will not be considered unless they are sponsored by a community or other unit of government that can execute and honor a cooperative agreement with MnDOT (a necessary requirement for MnDOT to transfer funds).
Funds
Available district funds are awarded annually to approve partnership projects. Desirable or approved projects may be downsized or deferred for a year if available funding becomes insufficient.
Approval
For purposes of this program, “communities” are defined as counties, home rule charters, statutory cities and towns. Applicants not defined as a community must be sponsored by a community or other unit of government, capable of executing a binding agreement with MnDOT.
To be considered for approval, communities can follow one of two options:
MnDOT assisted design
If your community would like to have assistance from MnDOT to design and implement the project, please send a letter to your MnDOT district coordinator requesting design assistance. The letter must be on a City Letterhead, from an authorized city representative. Please include the location of the project, including the state highway it is on, and the proposed timeframe that the community would like to plant (spring or fall).
Community designed projects
If you have already designed the project, or have community volunteer organizations such as an Eagle Scout or 4H group that has designed a project, you can submit an application to MnDOT for consideration. Please make sure that you have the required supporting documents and have turned in the application by the deadline for the planting season that you are hoping to plant in. If the community is planning on planting as part of a larger project, the community must have all agreements in place prior to awarding the larger project. Please contact the Statewide Landscape Partnership Coordinator for more information.
Materials
MnDOT district trunk highway funds are provided on approved projects to cover the cost of planting materials procured by the eligible community partner.
Eligible material
- Trees
- Shrubs
- Vines
- Perennial groundcovers
- Wildflowers
- Grasses
- Soil amendments
- Herbicides
- Edging
- Weed fabric
- Wood fiber blanket
- Mulch (wood or rock)
- Rodent protection
- Staking and guying
- Seedling shelters
Non-eligible material
- Equipment rental
- Annual groundcovers
- Labor
- Planters
- Hanging baskets
- Community entrance monuments
- Walls
- Stones
- Sidewalks
- Trails
- Tree grates
- Benches
- Bike racks
Funds awarded under this program must be used for roadside landscaping located on state trunk highway rights of way, with fee or easement title. Many areas of interstate freeways and high volume divided highways, with controlled access are excluded from this program due to liability, safety and access problems. Your MnDOT district coordinator will help you determine if your location would be eligible. County State Aid highways are typically excluded since different funding mechanisms and procedural requirements apply to these roadways.
Installation
The community partner must install the landscape materials on MnDOT right of way. There are multiple options for installing the materials:
- Volunteers - the community uses volunteers, such as students, garden clubs, boy/girl scout troops, 4H, lions club members, etc.
- Community Public Works employees
- Contractors
- Any combination of the above