The Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) has announced that $19 million in grants in FY 2020 will be made available to local governments (includes towns, cities, counties, economic and industrial development authorities, broadband or wireless authorities, planning district commissions, etc.) to extend broadband service to currently unserved areas. To be eligible the local government must include a private-sector provider as a co-applicant.
All applicants are required to issue a Public Notice detailing the proposed VATI project no later than Tuesday, August 6, 2019, at 5 p.m. Applicants must submit a copy of the Public Notice to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) at: vati@dhcd.virginia.gov. All notices will be posted by DHCD no later than Friday, August 9, 2019.
Applications are made through the DHCD Centralized Application Management System (CAMS) online web portal. For more information on CAMS go to https://dmz1.dhcd.virginia.gov/camsportal/Login.aspx.
Final proposals are to be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on September 3, 2019.
For more information on VATI, including Program Guidelines and Criteria and an archived How to Apply Webinar, go to https://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/virginia-telecommunication-initiative-vati.
VACo Contact: Joe Lerch, AICP