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Mississippi Urban Forest Council: Terry, Mississippi Arboretum Project
2011
Terry, Mississippi is a small town of less that 1,500 people 15 miles southwest of Jackson Mississippi that is home to two small parks. In 2011, in collaboration with the Mississippi Forestry Commission and the Mississippi Urban Forest Council, the Mayor’s Office announced an initiative to plant trees throughout the town in order to maintain its “Americana” feel. As part of this plan, the city worked to identify and inventory potential planning sites, determine which types of trees would best benefit the community, and develop a campaign to encourage citizen contribution and buyin to the project.
Resource Category: Planning
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Overview of Selected Parishes’ Freeboard, Fill, and Open Space Rules and Projects within Louisiana’s Region Seven Watershed
May 18, 2022
As coastal erosion and the threat of major hurricanes and other flooding events continue to threaten Louisiana, parishes have begun to adopt jurisdiction-specific approaches to mitigating those risks. The establishment of freeboard requirements, no-net fill practices, and the incorporation of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), such as open spaces and native vegetation, are three major ways to prepare for and mitigate flooding. This brief entry provides a non-exhaustive overview of some of the ways five Louisiana parishes are using these approaches: Ascension, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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State of North Carolina: North Carolina Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment (RISE)
May 19, 2022
Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment (RISE) is a program created by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) and the North Carolina (NC) Rural Center. RISE supports resilience efforts in eastern North Carolina regions that have been impacted by recent storms. RISE promotes community-led resilience efforts, provides guidance to community members, builds local capacity, and brings leaders together to develop regional networks. RISE is funded by a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant and the Duke Energy Foundation. One initiative under the RISE program is Homegrown Leaders, which is a leadership and economic development training program created by the NC Rural Center. RISE and Homegrown Leaders are noteworthy examples of regional-scale approaches to overcome local resource challenges and comprehensively address future economic development and equity in rural communities as a part of resilience initiatives.
Resource Category: Organizations
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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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State of Iowa and State of Texas: Regional Water Planning
May 18, 2022
This entry summarizes some approaches to regional watershed management and flood mitigation in Texas and Iowa. This research was conducted to inform Georgetown Climate Center's work in Louisiana's Region Seven Watershed.
Resource Category: Organizations
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Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, Flood Risk Assessment and Reduction Community Guidebook
April 6, 2021
The Flood Risk Assessment and Reduction Community Guidebook was developed as part of an initiative led by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) of North Carolina, with support from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Flood Apex Program, to help communities nationwide to adapt to flooding. Based on years of developing the CMSWS flood mitigation program and tools, the Community Guidebook details the process of acquiring data to assess flood hazards and risk, and to evaluate and prioritize strategies to mitigate that risk.
Resource Category: Planning
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Ascension Parish, Louisiana and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana: Conservation Planning and Zoning
May 20, 2022
Ascension and St. Tammany Parishes are two parishes or counties in Louisiana that are using planning and zoning to promote floodplain management and conserve green spaces. Each parish is contemplating how to preserve suburban and rural character through planning processes. In addition, each parish has crafted code language that allows it to conserve rural spaces by discouraging sprawl and floodplain development and by downzoning or decreasing developable density outside commercial centers. Ascension Parish Master Land Use Plan In 2019, Ascension released an updated version of its Master Land Use Plan, which was approved by the parish’s Planning Commission.
Resource Category: Planning
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Main Street America and Louisiana Main Street America
May 20, 2022
The Main Street America program offers financial and technical support to help revitalize older and historic downtowns and commercial districts in both rural and urban environments. Many states have Coordinating Programs to implement Main Street America across the country. Louisiana Main Street is Louisiana’s Coordinating Program and works with local governments in the state to preserve and maintain historic districts in Louisiana.
Local governments can look to Main Street America and state-specific programs to enhance local resilience in downtown and commercial districts by investing in municipalities and economies, including by restoring and preserving vacant lots and degraded buildings. Program grants and federal and state historic tax credits can also be used to supplement other types of funding to support overall community revitalization efforts.
Resource Category: Organizations
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New York State Climate Smart Community Coordinators
May 2021
Beginning in 2021, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) initiated the New York State Climate Leadership Coordinator Services. In 2022, the program name was updated to Climate Smart Communities (CSC) Coordinators. The program is a $3. 5-million initiative to select relevant organizations to serve as contractors to provide technical assistance to local municipalities on climate change adaptation and mitigation projects. Selected contractors will work in one of three territories in New York 一 Western, Eastern, and Downstate territories 一 and will help local governments and communities with “outreach, education, planning, capacity-building, and assistance with project implementation.
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
