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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of Charlotte, North Carolina: Pilot Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Subsidy Program

June 16, 2022

The City of Charlotte, North Carolina is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, and where the price of housing has increased exponentially in recent years. Like many large urban centers, Charlotte faces challenges in meeting the demands for affordable and available housing. In 2020, the Charlotte City Council adopted the Pilot Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Rental Subsidy Program (“Pilot NOAH Program”) to help preserve some of the city’s over 20,000 units of housing that are considered naturally affordable, i.e., without the assistance of government subsidies. Under the Pilot NOAH Program, the city provides financial assistance to private developers who agree to keep the units affordable rather than rebuild them or raise rent, which may lead to the displacement of current residents. Working in tandem with private investors who help subsidize the initial acquisition of NOAH properties, the Pilot NOAH Program has been created to help preserve the city’s affordable housing stock. The preservation of NOAH housing is one component of Charlotte’s broader strategy for preserving and creating affordable housing for low-and moderate-income residents, and can be illustrative for cities that seek to leverage additional public-private partnerships to improve housing affordability and availability in their jurisdictions. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.

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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of Richmond, Virginia: Maggie Walker Community Land Trust and Richmond Land Bank

June 16, 2022

The Maggie Walker Community Land Trust (MWCLT) in Richmond, Virginia, is the first community land trust (CLT) in the nation to be designated a land bank, the Richmond Land Bank. In creating the Richmond Land Bank in 2018 — via a formal Memorandum of Agreement with MWCLT —  the City of Richmond merged two separate yet complementary mechanisms for expanding affordable home ownership opportunities for low-and-moderate income residents: a land bank, which acquires and sells vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties; and a CLT, which conveys permanently affordable housing to residents in need. As of spring 2022, the Richmond Land Bank is the only formalized land bank and CLT partnership in the country. The land bank, which operates as a program under MWCLT, is one of three MWCLT initiatives working to produce permanently affordable housing in the Richmond metropolitan area. The Richmond Land Bank illustrates an emerging approach of combining two existing types of mechanisms to produce additional affordable housing options for low-and-moderate income residents, preserving community control over developable land, and collaborating with local stakeholders to integrate environmental and adaptation benefits in affordable housing development. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.

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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of Portland, Oregon: Planning and Zoning for Manufactured Housing Communities

June 16, 2022

In recent years, Portland, Oregon has experienced rapid population growth and demographic shifts, resulting in changing housing dynamics — most notably, a decrease in affordable housing. Manufactured Housing Communities (MHC) or manufactured homes, known also as “mobile homes” or “trailers” are a valuable source of unsubsidized affordable housing for thousands of households in Portland. This form of housing is, however, threatened by the effects of climate change and development pressures. In order to preserve MHC across the city, a campaign to change Portland’s comprehensive plan and zoning laws, led by the community-based organization Living Cully, resulted in amendments to the City of Portland’s comprehensive plan and the creation of the Manufactured Dwelling Park Zone in 2018. The Manufactured Dwelling Park Zone is a new base district that covers all existing MHC in Portland, precluding any other commercial or residential use on the properties and effectively protecting these communities and their residents from park closures. Portland has become a leader in MHC policy and can serve as an example for other cities looking to expand and protect their affordable housing options. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.

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Greauxing Resilience at Home — Town of Washington, Virginia: Rush River Commons Mixed-Use Development

June 16, 2022

The Town of Washington, Virginia is a small rural town that largely benefits from the service and tourism industries. Initially funded by private citizen Chuck Akre, Rush River Commons is a project of the Sherwood Fund, the Akre family’s operating foundation. Rush River Commons is a proposed mixed-use development project for the Town of Washington. The project prioritizes the historic character of the Washington community and respects the surrounding natural environment. The proposed plan includes building a community center, office space for nonprofits, and affordable rental housing on a nine-acre property located in the town. The project also includes a plan for restoring the land’s natural wetlands and amenities. Construction of Rush River Commons is set to begin in early 2022. The Rush River Commons project shows how mixed-use development can be designed in a way that is compatible with rural communities. It is also a good example of how local policymakers can help create comprehensive plans and ordinances that support both public and private affordable housing ventures. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.

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Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision

June 16, 2022

Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision is an innovative legal, planning, and policy resource to promote community resilience through housing and nature-based solutions in places where flooding, extreme weather events, and other factors are driving population changes and transitions. It was developed by Capital Region Planning Commission and Georgetown Climate Center, in collaboration with policymakers, community members, and other stakeholders in Region Seven of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative located in southeast Louisiana.

Authors or Affiliated Users: Katie Spidalieri, Rachelle Sanderson, Suhasini Ghosh, Annie Bennett, Katherine McCormick, Jennifer Li

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Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond

June 16, 2022

This report is composed of 24 individual case studies developed by Georgetown Climate Center to support, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision, a collaborative partnership effort with Capital Region Planning Commission in Louisiana. These case studies describe best and emerging practices, tools, and examples from Louisiana and other U.S. jurisdictions to make progress on the complex and interrelated challenges of housing, flooding, and resilience. These case studies are intended to provide transferable lessons and ideas for regional and local governments addressing housing and mitigating flood risk as integrated parts of comprehensive community resilience strategies. Collectively, these case studies present a suite, although not an exhaustive list of tools and approaches that can be used to facilitate any of these efforts.

Authors or Affiliated Users: Katie Spidalieri, Suhasini Ghosh, Katherine McCormick, Jennifer Li

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Toward a Rainproof NYC

July 2022

During Hurricane Ida, New York City was caught off guard in its inability to handle intense and prolonged rainfall. Media and elected officials could not understand how NYC could deal with these issues. Against this backdrop, in July 2022, Rebuild by Design and One Architecture released a report, “Toward a Rainproof NYC. ” It demonstrates how systematically-implemented green solutions and infrastructure strategies can be less expensive and still beneficial in dealing with significant weather events.

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Montgomery County Council Bill 3-22

July 2022

On July 12, 2022, the Montgomery County Council passed Council Bill 3-22, requiring climate assessments for future legislation. The aim is to provide decisionmakers with information on climate implications (emissions and resilience) of decisions they may make. The legislation responded to the Council’s Resolution 18-974 in 2017, which declared a climate emergency and set emissions goals.

Resource Category: Law and Governance

 

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Jefferson Parish, Louisiana: Jefferson Parish Watershed Management Plan and Balancing Water Campaign

May 20, 2022

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana lies on a coastal floodplain of the Gulf of Mexico and has more water than land area. The parish is innovating to adapt to rising sea levels and more extreme flooding in the region, and created the Balancing Water Campaign to mitigate flood risk and improve its communities’ resilience. The approach to balancing water levels focuses on rethinking how to manage the impacts of stormwater and land subsidence to live with more water, while increasing natural drainage across the floodplain. The Jefferson Parish Watershed Management Plan was developed as a part of the Balancing Water initiative, to guide local decisionmakers with resilient floodplain management strategies for capital improvements, regulatory revisions, and land use, while emphasizing the use of green infrastructure and low-impact development. In addition, the parish is undertaking other complementary efforts like elevating flood-prone homes with the support of federal grants, and participating in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS) program and a Jefferson Parish CRS Users Group to further local flood resilience initiatives.

 

Resource Category: Planning

 

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City of Mexico Beach, Florida: Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code

May 20, 2022

Mexico Beach is a small, coastal community in Bay County, Florida that has begun to adopt resilience measures following climate-enhanced disasters from hurricanes and flooding. Following Hurricane Michael, Mexico Beach amended its zoning regulations to require that new structures be elevated at least a foot and a half higher than the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s base-level flood predictions in both the city’s 100-year and 500-year floodplains. The city also partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement specific stormwater management projects, such as bioswales and retention projects, on certain streets. Smaller communities, such as in rural areas, and local governments can look to Mexico Beach as an example of how to incorporate resilience measures into zoning ordinances, especially in a post-disaster context.

Resource Category: Planning

 

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