Bill
HB 3073
Establishes a Predisaster Flood Resilience Grant Program to identify flood vulnerabilities and fund hydrologic restoration projects in flood-prone Illinois communities.
Status & key dates
- Introduced: Feb 6, 2025 (Rep. Sonya M. Harper). Companion: SB 1432.
- Enacted: Signed by Governor June 20, 2025. Effective date: September 1, 2025.
Purpose / intent
- Establishes a state Predisaster Flood Resilience Grant Program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to identify flood vulnerabilities, evaluate resiliency options, and implement hydrologic restoration projects that reduce flood risk and damage in flood-prone communities.
Program structure and administration
- DNR must create and run the program, adopt implementing rules, and operate on an annual grant cycle.
- Funding balance rule: in each fiscal biennium, for every $1 awarded for assessment grants, DNR may award no more than $0.67 for implementation grants (i.e., funding for assessments is prioritized relative to implementation).
Grant types and key provisions
1. Assessment grants (Section 15)
- Purpose: generate data on watershed/stream-reach vulnerabilities and priorities.
- Eligible activities include vulnerability and erosion assessments, culvert inventories using methods at least as effective as the Great Lakes Stream Crossing Inventory (considering structural risk and aquatic organism passage), and hydrologic/hydraulic studies to support modeling.
- Award cap: up to $300,000 per assessment grant.
- Cost share: grants cover up to 75% of project costs; recipients must secure remaining funds (cash or in-kind, including administrative costs).
- Data requirement: assessment data are not proprietary and must be shared with entities preparing local hazard mitigation plans.
Eligibility and application requirements
- Eligible applicants: one or more local governmental units; nonprofits or private consulting firms applying on behalf of local governmental units.
- DNR will consider applications only if at least one of these applies:
- Project area experienced a Presidential disaster declaration for flooding in the years preceding the grant cycle (as specified in the Act);
- Project area experienced a Governor-declared state of emergency for flooding in the 10 years preceding the grant cycle;
- The local governmental unit has a DNR-approved hazard mitigation plan identifying localized flood exposure.
- Application must include: written authorization from the local government’s main decision-making body to participate, documentation of committed funds or in-kind contributions from the local unit, and details of other funding sources for costs not covered by the grant.
Who is affected / expected impacts
- Direct beneficiaries: local governments in flood-prone areas, their contractors, and communities that gain better data, planning, and on-the-ground hydrologic restoration projects.
- Indirect benefits: improved local hazard mitigation planning (datasets must be shareable), enhanced ecological outcomes (stream/wetland restoration), and potentially reduced future flood damages.
- Constraints: modest per-project award caps and 75% cost-share mean recipients must secure significant local or other funding; program eligibility favors areas with recent flood disaster/emergency history or approved hazard mitigation plans.
Notes
- The Act defines terms and gives DNR authority to adopt detailed rules governing program operations.
- Procedural history shows the bill moved through committees, amendments, and both chambers before being signed into law; effective Sept 1, 2025.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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