Small City Allotment Program

The program is funded at $5M per year, half of the funds are from an appropriation of highway funds for cities and the other half from funds available to the Department of Transportation from the State Highway Fund. To ensure an equitable distribution of funds across ODOT's five regions we use a formula that considers:

• % of total eligible city population by region
• % of total number of eligible cities per region
• % of total number of applications received per region

Each region's average of these three values is equal to their share of the available funding.

2026 Grant Cycle Timeline:

March 2nd through April 30th:

Applications will be accepted using the Cognito online application form. This is the same format we have used for the past 4 applications cycle. *Link will be available on this webpage prior to May 2nd.

May 1st through June 30th:
Regional ODOT personnel will conduct onsite project evaluations. One person from each region conducts all the evaluations within their region to ensure consistency in scoring. Projects only compete against other projects within the same region.

July 1st through mid-July:
Program manager applies the regional distribution formula to determine how many projects can be funded in each region and compiles a ranked list of all the applications received per region and presents that information to the SCA advisory committee for their input and approval.

Mid-July:
Applicants are notified of the award results and ODOT begins drafting the funding agreements with the goal of having all agreements released to the successful cities for signature by mid-September. Cities must return the appropriately signed agreement within 90 days of receipt or risk forfeiture of funding.

After Agreement Execution:

Cities are required to complete their projects within two years of the agreement execution date. Cities may request an advance payment equal to 50% of their awarded amount. Balance will be reimbursed after project completion with submission of necessary documentation and upon ODOT issuing project acceptance. Cities must have all previously awarded SCA projects completed prior to being eligible to reapply.