The Small City Allotment (SCA) program is an annual allocation of state funds for local transportation projects. Incorporated cities with populations of 5,000 or less are eligible to apply. As the need for these funds far exceed the availability, grants are awarded per a competitive process. Projects are only compared against other projects within the same region.
Funding
The program is funded at $5 million per year, half from an appropriation of highway funds for cites and half from moneys 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.
2025 Grant Application Cycle
Applications will be accepted March 3rd through April 30th. Cities must have all previously awarded projects completed, and their final reimbursement request submitted, prior to May 1, 2025, to be eligible for consideration.
NOTICE: If you applied during the last cycle (June 1 through August 31, 2024) and your project was not selected for funding, it may be possible to resubmit the same application if no changes are necessary. Please contact the Small City Allotment Program Manager for additional information.
Project Evaluations
ORS 366.805 mandates that this funding source may only be used on streets;
- That are not part of the state highway system
- That are within cities with populations of 5,000 or fewer persons; and
- That are inadequate for the capacity they serve, or in a condition detrimental to safety.
Regional ODOT personnel perform on-site evaluations for each project submitted within their region of employment. Having one person perform all the evaluations within a region ensures consistency in scoring. Projects are scored on current conditions and proposed improvements. Additional points are awarded for 5-year population growth and how many have passed since a city last received program funding. To be eligible for the latter, cities must have applied during the last application cycle. Points will be awarded for last year and each previous consecutive year they submitted an application that was not funded.