Are you interested in helping Houston beat the heat?

ULI Houston is seeking suggestions from members on development sites that can be used as case studies in a technical assistance panel (TAP). This TAP will be focused on encouraging local property owners and developers to mitigate extreme heat at their project.

ULI Houston is partnering with Marissa Aho, the Chief Resilience Officer at the City of Houston (the City), and her team to pursue and execute this TAP.

The TAP’s purpose will be to assist the City to develop two case studies to evaluate the impacts and costs of implementing various heat resilience strategies such as cool and green roofs, cool pavement, tree planting, prairie restoration, green stormwater infrastructure, and shade structures. The findings and recommendations could help inform city policy related to extreme heat and encourage local property owners and developers to mitigate extreme heat at their projects and open spaces, ultimately contributing to a cooler and more comfortable Houston.

What do we need?

Development Site Suggestions
ULI Houston is also seeking members who can help identify and secure potential sites for each kind of case study. Sites within the Houston City limits that have the following characteristics could be considered:

• New Project Under Design
  • A site footprint greater than 50,000 SF (roughly 2/3 of a city block).
  • Owner must be willing to share site design and development plan and materials (such as photos, videos, spreadsheets, etc.) with the TAP panelists and relevant ULI staff.
  • Owners of all property types are welcome to submit their sites.
• Redevelopment Project
  • A site footprint greater than 50,000 SF (roughly 2/3 of a city block).
  • Development must be at least ten years old.
  • Owner must be willing to share design and redevelopment plan and materials (such as photos, videos, spreadsheets, etc.) with the TAP panelists and relevant ULI staff.
  • Owners of all property types are welcome to submit their sites.

If you are interested in submitting your site for consideration, please provide a short statement of interest making your case to ULI Houston and submit to [email protected]

To learn more about The Urban Land Institute’s recent work on extreme heat, read our recent report, Scorched.

ABOUT RLUC

The Houston virtual Technical Services Panel is part of a larger series of resilience technical assistance and learning opportunities, called the Resilient Land Use Cohort. The Resilient Land Use Cohort (RLUC) is a network of ULI District Councils, member experts and community partners in eight cities working together to identify strategies to be more resilient in the face of climate change and other vulnerabilities, including floods, extreme storms, drought, wildfire, and extreme heat, as well as the related social, environmental, and economic impacts. RLUC provides on-the-ground technical assistance through ULI’s flagship technical assistance models: Advisory Services Panels (ASPs) and Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs). These panels leverage ULI member expertise to advise on complex real estate and land use challenges related to climate resilience, addressing planning, zoning, land use, development strategy, housing and infrastructure. ULI’s Urban Resilience program convenes the cohort regularly to learn from national best practices and discuss peer cities’ next steps advancing resilience through land use policies and development strategies. Funding for this engagement and the cohort is provided by the ULI Foundation through support from JPMorgan Chase.

Let us know you’re interested!

If you have interest, questions or comments, please let us know! Please include “RLUC” in your subject line.

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