Climate Ready Communities: Crafting state and provincial policies

Вот отформатированный транскрипт вебинара: Robert Studerville: So, today we have climate-ready communities crafting state and provincial policies with Korkat Anarin, Camille Annette Cortez, Scott Bernstein, and Hazel Boris, moderated by myself, Robert Studerville. Robert Studerville: And consider joining us for CNU34. CNU34 will be in Northwest Arkansas in the late spring of 2026. This is the first time CNU will go to a region with a series of smaller cities rather than one large central city. There are some amazing things that are happening in Northwest Arkansas in terms of city and regional planning and urbanism, and you don't want to miss that. Go to CNU.org/CNU34 to find out more. Robert Studerville: And consider getting CNU accredited. The benefits of accreditation provide a remarkable, marketable credential to employers and clients: a CNU Accredited Professional Certificate, and listing on CNU.org public member directory as CNU accredited. Go to cnu.org/getinvolved/getCNUaccredited. Robert Studerville: Um, and again, today we have a discussion about climate-ready communities and, uh, um, and state policies that would enable that. Uh, the goal is to, uh, craft policies for the state and provincial level that can influence and strengthen urbanism and the built environment. Robert Studerville: Camille Annette Cortez is a designer at DPZ CoDesign, based in Portland, Oregon. She co-founded the PLACE Initiative, which focuses on solutions that intersect climate and equity, making urbanism and social justice top-level climate priorities. Robert Studerville: Korkit Anarin is co-founder and principal of Pelona Architects Nervanis, based in Boulder, Colorado. He is an urban architect with a broad knowledge of development codes and regulatory cultures, a subject he explored extensively through his practice, teaching, and research. His most recent book is *Urbanism for a Difficult Future: Practical Responses to the Climate Crisis*. Robert Studerville: Scott Bernstein is founder and emeritus president and chief strategy and innovation officer at the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. While there, he received the McCarthy Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Organizations. He is a CNU fellow and former board member who has spent four decades helping cities and regions rethink how they develop. Robert Studerville: Hazel Boris is the City of Winnipeg Director of Planning, Property, and Development. Before that, she was Managing Principal at Placemakers LLC, an Urban Design and Planning Firm that works from coast to coast. She has long been active in CNU, making a special study of codes and policies that influence urbanism. Robert Studerville: I'm Rob Studheville, editor of CNU's Public Square, and I welcome the panel and audience to "On the Park Bench." Robert Studerville: First, the panelists are going to present, then I will ask them perhaps some questions, uh, before opening it up to the audience. And since the goal is to generate ideas from the audience, uh, we're going to do things differently this time. Uh, we encourage you to speak directly by raising your hand. There's the function, uh, the hand, uh, click on that, and when it's your turn, we will allow you to talk. Please give your name and location. And, uh, we encourage you to speak for no more than 2 minutes or so. If you're going too long, I may have to interrupt, but we certainly will appreciate your input and your ideas. So, you know, with that said, we can get on to, uh, the presentation, and, uh, thank you all for participating. I'm going to, uh, pass it along to the panel. Korkit Anarin: Good morning, and thank you for participating. This is really exciting for us. Can everybody hear me well? Good. Korkit Anarin: So, CNU has been focusing on the climate, uh, for some time. And two years ago, in Cincinnati, there was a workshop, a Climate Action Toolkit workshop. And that created a lot of ideas, and this is a continuation of that. Last CNU, CNU33 in Providence, uh, four of us came together. The theme of the conference was regional planning, so that's why we said, okay, we'll focus on the state. What can states do, because there are a lot of interesting legislations from different states coming up, some mostly addressing housing and some climate. So that's why we thought maybe we focus on creating a model legislation synopsis for the states: how to address climate crisis and adaptation. Korkit Anarin: And, uh, four of us did brief presentations and actually put together a spreadsheet. You know, a spreadsheet heralds you more than a simple outline. It gives you some of the different dimensions of a proposal. Camille, in a minute, is going to go through our spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is open. That is, anybody in the audience can reach that spreadsheet and start typing in their ideas. Our purpose is to make that spreadsheet as comprehensive and inclusive as possible, so that's why we're doing this webinar: to open up our gears to everybody and receive proposals as much as possible. Korkit Anarin: And what we're also thinking, you know, some of these issues are complex. If you provide your name, we're going to follow up, we're going to call you and, you know, discuss further your ideas, so that that whole spreadsheet would work better. Without further ado, I'm going to, uh, let Camille go into the spreadsheet and explain, and give you the link, and all that. Camille Annette Cortez: Right, uh, can you all see my screen? The spreadsheet? Yes. Camille Annette Cortez: All right, so this is our model climate adaptation legislation framework spreadsheet. It's a working collection of model policies that we've been building out over the last few months. The goal is to create a shared resource that not only captures promising ideas, but helps us think about how they can be translated into state-level enabling legislation. And we hope it becomes a foundation others can build from as well. Camille Annette Cortez: What you're seeing on the screen is pretty dry in text, but we formatted it as visually interesting as we could for this stage of the initiative, which is the format we presented at this past CNU. Uh, this is completely open to public edits and additions. Camille Annette Cortez: So, to ensure these model policies reflected a holistic understanding of community resilience, we organized the document into five themes, which are listed in the top left: one, renewables and green energy and infrastructure; two, localization of energy and infrastructure through nesting; three, self-reliance through strong local economies and economic diversity; four, strong social support and social cohesion; five, disaster readiness. Each policy hits multiple themes, reinforcing that real adaptation isn't siloed, it's layered. Camille Annette Cortez: At the top right is about this session and contains a link to the initial CNU Climate Action Toolkit, which is the outline from CNU's Climate Workshop in Cincinnati that Korkit had mentioned. Um, and I will have Hazel, uh, walk us through a little bit about this document. Hazel Boris: Thanks, Camille. Yeah, so, uh, thank you to all the people on the webinar today who were part of that, uh, day-long workshop, or half-day-long workshop in Cincinnati. Uh, and so what you're seeing are the top 25 things that came out of that Cincinnati workshop, of the actions that folks at that time wanted to be considered within the CNU Climate Action Plan. Hazel Boris: So really what we're talking about today is the first action within this toolkit, which is policy advocacy for developing model legislation. And so, that is what then this year's CNU session with all of us on the line, uh, today, how did that initial session for that, and so today is more of a working session to dive more deeply into model climate adaptation legislation frameworks. Camille Annette Cortez: Great, thanks so much, Hazel. Um, alright, so the first column of the spreadsheet is "Participants." This identifies the author of each proposed policy. This includes the four of our names and emails, so anyone interested in learning more about our drafted policies can easily contact us. I promise we won't bite. Camille Annette Cortez: The second column, "Directives," lays out the "what"—what needs to happen. So that's anything from tools, policies, and regulations. Some of these will be covered by their author shortly. Camille Annette Cortez: The third column, "Justification," gets into the "why" these policies or regulations are critical based on lived experience, risk, or opportunity. It's really about the purpose and what the directives hope to achieve. Camille Annette Cortez: The fourth column, "Backings," shows precedent: real-world case studies or legislation we can learn from. And finally, the fifth column, "Conclusions," ties it back to the larger goals: why this matters now, and how it empowers local implementation. Camille Annette Cortez: Organizing the spreadsheet in this format helped us move from brainstorming to something real, something legislation-ready. We want all of you to leave this webinar today and just get down and dirty with this file. Please add more rows and columns, new directives, justifications, backings, etc. Comment on cells, or directly edit the cells as you find it appropriate. And shoot us an email if you want to talk through any aspects of the content or how to improve it. We don't want us four to be the only contributors to this initiative, so we ask that you please add more model policies to this, so we can have the most robust and rich set of examples to influence policymakers. Camille Annette Cortez: Now, we will each share some of our recommended tools, policies, or regulations. Alright, can you all see, um, my presentation? Perfect. Camille Annette Cortez: The model policy I wanted to highlight today is a state-level fund and technical assistance program designed to help communities move from resilience to renewal. It prioritizes nature-based solutions, regenerative land use, Main Street revitalization, and a just economic transition away from fossil fuels, meeting communities where they are and supporting the future they want to build. There we go. Camille Annette Cortez: The PLACE Initiative's work with Appalachian communities under the Appalachian Regional Commission grant. We've heard firsthand how many towns are still navigating the long shadow of coal's decline, while also facing growing climate risk. What stood out most was how often communities expressed a desire to build local strength and resilience, but lacked the resources or technical support to make that vision real. The biggest gap wasn't just infrastructure or economic development; it was local capacity. Some counties are trying to climb out of decades of disinvestment, and they need a path that starts where they are. That's what led me to explore this model policy. Camille Annette Cortez: A role-focused climate resilience policy should do these four things. First, promote land stewardship. Communities told us that land itself is their greatest asset, not just heritage, but the foundation of future resilience. By protecting forests, restoring floodplains, and supporting sustainable farming, we can heal landscapes, reduce disaster risk, and create local jobs. Camille Annette Cortez: Second, foster economic transition. Many places are ready to move beyond coal, but need an on-ramp. By investing in clean energy, local food, outdoor recreation, and restoration work, we broaden opportunity and reduce vulnerability over the long term. Camille Annette Cortez: Third, invest in Main Streets. Infrastructure matters, but so do the social and economic hubs of small towns. Revitalizing downtowns with adaptive reuse, green infrastructure, and energy retrofits creates vibrant centers for housing, small businesses, and community life. Camille Annette Cortez: And fourth, strengthen local governance. Rural towns want to plan for their future, but often lack staff and resources. This policy would provide grants, training, and technical assistance so local leaders can act on the vision their communities have already laid out. Camille Annette Cortez: The policy builds on momentum already underway. The Reimagined Appalachia Framework is a coalition-led roadmap tying climate-smart investments to good-paying jobs, especially for communities historically left out of development. The Kentucky Flood Resilience legislation came about after the 2022 floods. The state invested over $200 million in recovery while emphasizing nature-based solutions and rural planning capacity. And Tennessee's Main Street and Rural Development Programs have provided grants and technical support to help small towns revitalize downtowns, showing how targeted investments can restore economic and cultural cores. Camille Annette Cortez: These frameworks show what's possible when communities are supported, but they also make clear that more is needed. Communities already know what they need. They've laid out the vision and shown resilience. What's missing is sustained support to move from vision to action. That's where this policy comes in, and where others can too. Hazel Boris: Camille's slides were way more interesting than mine are going to be, uh, but I will, uh, share with you. I'm hoping that you can see my slides now. No, you cannot. Um, you probably can't see this at full screen, can you? I don't know, these... Present in Teams, there we go. That working? Sorry. Oh, no, not in Teams. Sorry. As you can tell, I am more of it in the Teams room at the moment, instead of in Zoom, so I'm going to present from here, please forgive me. I'm assuming you can see this doc... this, uh, bucket 1 through 4? Yep. Perfect. Hazel Boris: All right, so then, um, I will just say that, um, the federal, the previous federal government of Canada, requires that in order to qualify for a number of federal funding—which for our city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, adds up to about half a billion dollars in federal funding—that we need to do this number of zoning initiatives that include suburban retrofit, uh, of malls and corridors, plus enabling more dwellings as of right, citywide. Hazel Boris: So right now, we are through, uh, the third kind of phase of this, and the fourth phase being the full zoning by-law rewrite to enable both more, um, housing density and walkable urban places, as well as completing existing single-use scenarios. Hazel Boris: So, for what we have done so far in order to, uh, access those funding streams includes a by-right suburban retrofit of our malls and corridors, which, um, includes form-based zoning bylaws along these malls and corridors, and frontage design standards, and heights that, as you can see from this map, are about a one-to-one ratio to the corridors. This also includes reduced parking minimums, which for two of these corridors include zero parking minimums, and reduced on the rest, and then mostly for properties over 5 acres. There's more nuance that I won't get into. Hazel Boris: There also are requirements for privately owned public spaces up to 8% of the property, and then private streets that have walkable street standards. So instead of a typical mall drive aisle, you would have a walkable urban street. Hazel Boris: Then, additionally, the rapid zoning by-law amendments included changes to the Winnipeg Zoning By-law to enable up to four dwelling units in single-family, two-family, and residential multi-family small zoning districts, and then taller four-unit homes up to 39 feet on certain lots that are within a half mile of frequent transit stops. Hazel Boris: So with that, I am going to attempt to unshare my screen, but this is complicated. There we go. All right, passing off to the next. Scott Bernstein: I think that's me. Oh, hang on here. Is that showing okay? Yes, it's not full screen. Okay, hold on. Is that working? Yes. All right, thanks. Um, a couple hard acts to follow, and one to follow me. Scott Bernstein: So, there have been two studies in the last few years to try and get at where this wonderful state of grace called "State Support for Local Climate Action" actually exists. This map is from the most recent one, published in '24 by the American Planning Association and the Pew Trust. And, uh, they had a complicated rating system, which I will not explain, but it's all open access. And, uh, they found that really only 13 states so far had, uh, ensconced in legislation affirmative commitments to support effective community resilience. Scott Bernstein: Now, in some cases, this simply is enabling legislation to remove barriers, for example, to use of funds and resources that already exist, as for stormwater management. In a lot of these cases, actual funding was made available and will continue to be made available, uh, for, in, uh, tangible investments for climate change readiness. It's an interesting list. While it includes a number of the usual suspects in terms of progressive states, it also includes Texas and Florida, for example. Scott Bernstein: And, um, so, um, then, let's see if I can advance this slide. The other study done a year before that was by, uh, something called CityScale.org—CityScale is all one word. And they did a one-time survey of all 20,000 local governments in the United States to get at the question: where are there actually climate action plans in place? The answer turned out to be in 3,000 of them. Scott Bernstein: And secondly, what did people find to be the most effective way, given the relatively small budgets for climate planning or, uh, for sustainability offices, or for sustainability, um, uh, average generally? And, uh, the answer that came across was, given limited resources, uh, they found that strong participation in peer-to-peer networks, uh, made it possible for them to do their jobs almost as important as having direct state appropriations and authority. Scott Bernstein: The problem, they found, was that, um, these maps, if you were more bionic, you could see the detail, but, um, show that, um, where the Climate Action Program seemed to be the strongest and most effective, were not necessarily where the strongest risk is. And the strongest risk tends to be in communities within states that can be somewhat hostile, uh, to, uh, local communities taking the lead. But again, when asked what to do about it, they said, this is one of the benefits of participating in peer-to-peer networks. You may have heard of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network; that's an obvious network. There are several networks supported by the Bloomberg Foundation, and, uh, and we have lists of others. Scott Bernstein: So, um, in terms of tangible things that people are trying, state policies exist already in a fairly large number of states, 31 today, to address excess energy consumption. And increasingly, these can be used to, um, finance, uh, climate resilience activities, particularly if the issue is extreme heat and trying to mitigate urban heat islands. There's roughly $10 billion a year and growing spent nationally by public utilities through these state-enabled uses of ratepayer funds. If you want to know more about those, go to ACEEE.org and click on "State Policies," and you can see where these are in action. Scott Bernstein: State policies can also be framed to support local resilience. A good example of this is CNU's own project for code reform in states such as Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, and I'm sure I'm, uh, forgetting or ignorant of a couple that are more that are on the way. Scott Bernstein: There are also a number of older solutions still on the books. Back during the City Beautiful movement, a very large number of states passed legislation to support local shade tree commissions. Uh, some of those are still in force in some places, uh, some are somewhat dormant, um, but those can be rediscovered, reestablished, modernized, and, uh, supported. Scott Bernstein: I'm picking on trees here because I'm in the early stages of starting up a program in New Jersey, which is one of these states that has Shade Tree Commissions, and it's hot and getting hotter every summer there. And, uh, but, uh, too often, it's turning out that the responsibility for, um, replacing street trees, or accelerating the relocation of mature trees to save time, is the responsibility of a public works or engineering commission, which is oriented neither towards New Urbanism nor climate resilience at the moment. Scott Bernstein: And, uh, so, lest anybody think this is a check-the-box exercise, um, it's never a bad day to follow the "Don't Mourn, Organize" dictum in using these solutions. Scott Bernstein: And then, uh, we're now up to roughly for stormwater management districts. So that's, you know, 2,000 counties. This is, uh, surveyed every two years by the University of Kentucky, who has an excellent resource for this. And, uh, these, you can think of, sort of, as the equivalent of special service districts or business improvement districts, uh, for climate resilience purposes. So this is where money is coming from for substituting green infrastructure for what otherwise might be sewers and impoundments and all sorts of gray infrastructure. So this is, uh, practicing adaptation, um, in the interest of adaptation. Look at those mechanisms that have been, uh, you know, already enabled for something urgent, such as flood prevention. And, uh, you, you know, work with those to, um, uh, to make something better happen. Scott Bernstein: Uh, there's a short booklet four of us wrote back in 2020, *How State Governments Can Help Communities Invest in Climate Resilience*. Um, there is the URL, but if anybody has trouble getting it, um, as Camille said, our, uh, our email contact information is in the spreadsheet, and I'm happy to fulfill any orders at no cost for copies of this. Scott Bernstein: So, uh, thanks for listening, and let me add my belated thanks to everybody for sticking with this effort over the last couple of years, and turn it over to Korkit to put this into broader and next steps context. Korkit Anarin: Next. Stop sharing. There. Thank you. Let's see… All yours. Yep. Do you see the screen? Good. Yes. Yes. Korkit Anarin: So, I'll talk a little bit about the structure of the legislation, the possible ways to do this. And it's interesting that we have experienced some interesting initiatives and legislation in Colorado last two years. The first one was, uh, Colorado House bill, uh, which was mostly addressing the housing crisis. There's a lot of overlap between adaptation, enabling, and housing. So, I'll go into that very quickly, but, uh, that was a mandate, a top-down mandate asking local governments to adopt certain policies, and that bill failed. Korkit Anarin: And then, last year, we've seen several bills, and those were passed because the structure was different. Instead of mandating, they were asking local governments to prepare plans and work with the state. The state provided the technical support, the grants, especially for planning grants, and then asked each jurisdiction to prepare a housing need assessment, creating an action plan to address those, which is actually a better, uh, structure. Korkit Anarin: So, with that, I'm suggesting a voluntary compliance structure, which may be very convenient for certain states, depending on the political situation. And that is, if local governments adopt certain policies, then the state helps. Uh, and to go to details, you know, this is, again, all explained in the spreadsheet. Just to give you a teaser of, you know, how that particular row can transform to, uh, more like a, uh, chapter, actually. Korkit Anarin: So, if local governments adopt resilient zones within their, uh, zoning and comprehensive plans, then you get these three benefits: preferential tax program (again, I'm not going to go into details), tax deduction for rent, subsidized localized infrastructure. Helping to localize some of the infrastructure would be part of the help. The whole idea is that, you know, you need to do your part, and we'll help you to do other parts. And that's the kind of the subsidiary idea, that is to say, you know, the decisions need to be made locally, can be made locally, and those decisions that cannot be made locally can go to, uh, the state, and the state would provide that help. Korkit Anarin: And in terms of the zoning reforms, again, you know, I'm going to go very fast. Permit unrelated people to live in the same structure, occupancy. And this bill actually passed last year in Colorado, that is to say, local governments can no more, uh, regulate occupancy by means of family ties. So, we're working in several, uh, rezoning places, and we're taking the word "family" out of their codes. Korkit Anarin: Uh, permit multiple dwellings. Again, you know, we, uh, worked with City of Golden, especially. It's a leader here. We rewrote the, uh, zoning code, allowing multiple ADUs on the same lot, and different, uh, formulations. This is an image from my adaptation book. Again, the compounds are part of it. And I'm, uh, comparison of a single-unit versus multiple units that are in demand. Korkit Anarin: Permit small lots, subdivisions, that's also something that allows, enables the small. And these really create, uh, financial resiliency for the household. And not only that, permit cottage industry and retail, so it creates the kind of diversity we used to have in our land use 100 years ago, you know. A doctor can work from home a day a week, and that should be allowed. Now, it's most of the places illegal. And finally, permit rentals. Korkit Anarin: So, what we're trying to do here is to create the kind of diversity that really provides the essential services around you, and, you know, doing that through the zoning reform. So, that's it. This is, again, you know, just a teaser, more information is on the spreadsheet, but what we're trying to do here is that, you know, here's the spreadsheet, fill in the row, and then there is room to improve and go further than that. So, that's the whole idea. Okay, back to you. Robert Studerville: Okay. Thank you all, and, uh, I wanted to… I don't see any raised hands yet, so I wanted to encourage the audience out there to, uh, um, you know, raise your hands, and please give some ideas, um, uh, and feedback for these folks. I'm sure that you have ideas. Robert Studerville: In the meantime, I'll ask a few questions, I suppose, and get more discussion while people are thinking about, um, you know, what, how to word their, their suggestions. Um, I wanted to ask, uh, you for the kind… what do you think of the current state and provincial policy programs out there for climate adaptation? To what extent do they overlap with urbanism? And where do you think they're making significant progress, and where are they falling short the most? Anybody can respond. Scott Bernstein: I'll take a first crack. Um, can you hear me? Yep. Yeah. Scott Bernstein: So, um, it's interesting, as intriguing as those maps I flashed are, they don't give you the detailed profile you need in order to, uh, address your question. Kentucky isn't a top performer, for example, on this map. But the absolute knockdown best, um, heat island mitigation program I found was in Louisville, Kentucky, organized not initially by the city, but by the, uh, medical school there, who was looking for a way to show that people would live longer in the presence of mature urban forests, and, uh, came up with a way of doing it in real time by raising money and relocating 8,500 mature trees and shrubs. Uh, the city of Louisville, uh, belatedly, uh, adopted it, and they're hoping the state of Kentucky will come up with policies that would support it. Scott Bernstein: On the other hand, as with so many other things, there are top-down mandates in place such as California. And, uh, you do, um… I saw Howard raise his hand for something or another a little while, but he may have a comment on this. Um, but, uh, they do require people to address climate change readiness and adaptation, both, uh, on its own merits, and also to meet other goals, such as public health. Scott Bernstein: And, uh, so, um, I think, for the most consistent set of answers, places that support, states that support local responsibility by municipalities or support special nonprofits organized for these purposes are the ones most consistently doing the best. And, uh, if the municipality you're thinking of, the state you're thinking of, doesn't see the value of that, the data shows otherwise, and so building that capacity in is important. Once you have full-time staff around to convene people, you can more quickly figure out where the resources are that can be adapted to the purpose that you stated. Robert Studerville: Thank you, Scott. Um, anybody else have any comments on that before? I did… a couple of people have raised their hands. I don't know how to… Um, maybe Lauren can help. I don't even know how to sort of identify who has raised their hand among the attendees. Okay. Um, Liz Plater Zyberg. Um, I can click "Allow to Talk," and Liz, if you want to talk, go right ahead. You're… Liz Plater Zyberg: I found this very interesting, um, the kind of deep dive into policy. Uh, I'm sorry I didn't see you all presenting this, um, at the last CNU, but I had a group of, um, people, uh, carrying out or experiencing, um, the need, um, for resilience policies, as well as action, direct physical action, um, during one of my own sessions. Liz Plater Zyberg: Um, I had two… These are really comments. One is, I'm… I have long used the word "adaptation," and, uh, we're using it here from time to time, but, um, the Executive Order, um, which pushes the funding responsibility from the feds to the state on this, um, topic, uses the word "resilience." And we know there are some, um, bad words, and I think maybe "adaptation" is one of those at the federal level. And when institutions or governments apply for grants, they're already learning to avoid those things. Um, uh, so those 900 words… I don't think that's a joke; I think that it's actually real. Um, and so maybe our own work should move to use the word "resilience," um, or at least when guiding municipalities, um, in setting out legislation. Liz Plater Zyberg: Executive orders, um, apparently, their main power is to direct federal agencies what to do, and if we do expect any funding to originate there, this is where it might be relevant. I'm treading on Scott Bernstein's territory here, so you can correct me, Scott, if I'm wrong. Liz Plater Zyberg: Um, and then I wonder, um, whether collecting examples of, um, where these policies are in place, much in the way that Korkit had explained the learning process in Colorado, might not be useful. Um, I know we have a lot… everybody has a lot on their plate, but, um, it's so localized, uh, when you do really do adaptation or real resilience, not just the kind of keeping us all walking and green and less hot, and so on. But when you're dealing with some of the bigger issues, uh, flooding and fire and so on, um, actually showing what some of the New Urbanists are doing as part of our documentation might be useful. That's really not policy, that's kind of the physical acts of changing places. But that, you know, if we're interested in showing that the New Urbanists and the Congress as a whole is embedded in this action, or moving it forward in some way, um, I think those examples are important. Robert Studerville: Thank you, Liz. Um, I'm going to, uh, move on, uh, Patty Miller Crowley, if I pronounce that correctly. Uh, I'm going to allow you to talk, and please state where you're from. Patty Miller-Crowley: Okay, Patty Miller-Crowley. Um, I am from Washington State, and I'm a reservist with FEMA, um, and, uh, Community Planning Section. Anyway, um, I guess one of the questions I had, particularly with the presentation of Korkit—is that how you pronounce it?—and Hazel, where it was talking about the increased density, etc. Yeah. Is, are these being tied to, um, considerations, like, if you're going to get a tax, um, a tax benefit beyond building code, perhaps, that reduce or increase resilience of the ADUs? Um, for example, when you have those multiple smaller buildings on the same lot, there's going to be a tendency to want to have some kind of fencing for privacy. And yet they've shown that if you have fencing attached to the house, that is a conduit for fires to actually get to the house: when the embers land on the fencing, then it goes up the fencing, attaches to the house. So I'm just curious about, um, if there are connections to make sure the individual units are actually more resilient if we're encouraging increased density, or, oh, giving tax breaks for it. Korkit Anarin: I guess I can give a very brief answer to this. I mean, Bruce is asking a similar kind of question in the chat. Our experience in one particular city, the City of Golden, has been that the density, the way we measure the density, is interesting. The building code looks at the size of the building for all users, including residents. The zoning ordinances, however, look at the size of the building for all other users, but residential. When it comes to residential, it's units per acre. And, you know, it makes sense because our family, a small family, can have a really large house. Korkit Anarin: However, what we're experiencing, especially on the Front Range, uh, you know, uh, Colorado, New Mexico, and further up north, is that the new generation is having a hard time affording buying a house, especially large houses, and the supply is only large houses, so we don't have a lot of, um, small units. What happens is, there are a couple of things: young families double up with parents; young families double up with other families and buy a large house; or buy a large house, and where it is allowed, rent the rooms. Which makes the reality, "bigger the house, more people live in it," a real thing, statistically speaking. Korkit Anarin: So, when we provide for small cottages, 800 square feet each, instead of one 3,000 square feet of a house, are we really quadrupling the density? No, we're not quadrupling, so we should really change the way we look at the density. That's what we pitched, and, you know, City of Golden accepted that, and that's how it passed. Korkit Anarin: And in terms of the way the cottage is organized and such, you know, our history is rich. We go 100 years ago, turn of the century. There are a lot of interesting examples all around how, on one lot, multiple small structures are organized. So that's kind of an open-ended design question in my mind, but in terms of the way we approach the density, that's very important. Korkit Anarin: One other part that is really connected to the adaptation, or resilience in my mind, you know, financial resilience, your rent, and, you know, residential property nowadays is, uh, that investment. It sucks money, and it doesn't produce anything. So, how can we change that and make it much more resilient, is one question. And also, it gives you opportunities to diversify the use of the land as well. One of those cottages may be a business, easily. And that has been the way we lived in the past, you know? So, anyway, that's the kind of, you know, simple design decisions and simple changes in the code may have serious implications. Scott Bernstein: I can just add to that, I think Patty asked an interesting question. I mean, for flooding, for example, FEMA requires communities to participate in something called the Community Rating System, uh, if their properties are going to be eligible for what may be available from the National Flood Insurance Program. I don't think we have coverage like that, with such top-down requirements when it comes to, uh, fire risk, for example. And, uh, in general, um, I think that there's room to come up with model legislation in the terms you originally put it to all of us, Korkit, of, uh, what might be an ideal way to incentivize the right kinds of action. Scott Bernstein: What should all homes need to do, or lots? If we're putting something new in, what standards should they meet? Um, are those the same things? Probably not. And, uh, and how can we get there? But, uh, I know there's a complicated interplay in California between the insurance industry and the state on this very question with respect to wildfires. And, uh, I would, uh, if you were operating, you said, I think you were in Washington state, Patty? I would ask the question, is there a forum where model legislation could be pitched and designed? Um, uh, because, uh, the last word problem hasn't been spoken on it. Yeah, um, but I think it's a great question. It should be asked for all these types of risk, uh, as well. Scott Bernstein: I mean, we… it's too easy to say it's "model." And, uh, definition number two, under… in Webster's dictionary of the word "model," happens to be a small imitation of the real thing, so we need to keep striving for the real thing that is broad enough to handle these different use cases, if it's going to be effective. And some of the resources we talked about today are sources for where to get answers like that. Robert Studerville: Okay, Howard Blackson has raised his hand. I'm going to allow you to talk, Howard. Please state where you're from, even though the panel all knows you. Howard Blackson: Uh, thank you, uh, uh, Howard Blackson, San Diego, California, as I have been for a very long time. And it's good to see everybody, yay! Thank you for, um, presenting this. Thank you for sharing the spreadsheet again. Howard Blackson: Um, the thing that I… I'm so glad that Patty's on, uh, because, you know, the idea that… I'm going to say the idea we haven't talked about at all, really, is the hazardous mitigation, uh, planning, um, the status quo. Every city, uh, has to have it. We have a huge engineering firm set up to do this. Nobody's getting paid, so they're falling apart in the last eight months, uh, because FEMA's not paying their bills, and there's a whole lot of, uh, destabilization of the hazardous mitigation planning process. Howard Blackson: My quick thought, my quick question to that is, hazardous mitigation planning has become very siloed, much like the California Environmental Quality, or NEPA. It's its own entity, it's its own, and it doesn't integrate well with any of us panelists here that are more in the planning, uh, design, uh, uh, architecture, building, uh, part. How, how are you all thinking about hazardous mitigation planning and disrupting or changing, uh, right now, how this, how your initiative can help change that, because I think, I think the ideas of climate-ready infrastructure and grants and funding that are set up at the state level will, would make those kind of changes, but I haven't seen it brought in. And I think Patty from FEMA would probably have some good ideas on that, too, but she's not a panelist, so any thoughts, I appreciate, and thank you for the scramble question. Korkit Anarin: I'll answer that. I'll turn the question to you, Howard. How would you, how would you address that? And maybe you can work with Patty, and then give us a proposal. Howard Blackson: Okay, I wouldn't… I think, I think, because the other part of my question is, the thing that I've been trying to do is… Jeff Speck's walk audits are really very interesting. They open the door, they allow for the changing of the conversation of how your downtowns work, and the walk audit really is, you know, a baseline data or due diligence of what's going on, what's good, what's bad, what's working, what's not working. Howard Blackson: I think that if we had a climate adaptation audit, and had, you know, as New Urbanists, these are the things that we do, and we can offer towns and say, "Look, we'll come in, we'll bring the architecture, we'll bring the planning, we'll bring the grant, um, the funding, uh, to show you what you can do to prepare yourself for whatever," you know, and Scott's done all the work across the nation to show you're at risk for high winds, you're at risk for high fire, you're at risk for high flood, whatever it is. You can take that and look at the… do an audit, and then make your climate-ready infrastructure hazardous mitigation planning based on that kind of collective vision that goes before, that's presented as a report, that's presented as a fact to a city council or a board of supervisors. That's my thought. And that's how I kill conversation, too, I guess. Korkit Anarin: No, no, no, there are two hands, actually. Hazel, I think, you were first. Hazel Boris: Great, excellent question, as usual, Howard. Good to hear your voice. I think that, you know, for us in the City of Winnipeg, it is a multi-layered approach with a lot of folks across the community contributing to it in a big way. Hazel Boris: One of the pivotal, uh, policy standards is our Climate Action Plan, so that kind of lays out the general overall framework. But then also, at the moment, we are creating a new green space and biodiversity master plan and by-law and co-development, uh, with five regional Indigenous nations and groups, in order to really talk about how to protect what we have, as well as remediate and connect it, and then also how to grow that. So that's, like, a second leg of the stool. Hazel Boris: And then a third leg of the stool in the zoning reforms that I was just briefly presenting: we have, you know, for the four rivers in our city, and as well as the four creeks, we have created less density along those important biodiversity corridors. And, uh, and so, you, you know, those are the multi-layers of policy that are trying to address that. But it is an ongoing process, and, you know, certainly is being addressed from a number of different perspectives in our city. Scott Bernstein: Got it. Yeah, um, so, you mentioned the hazard mitigation plans, Howard, which are required of, uh, cities above a certain size, um, counties above a certain size, and the state for everybody else. There are about 22,000 of them prepared every five years, some with annual updates. There is a wealth of information, and if people haven't gone to look at theirs, or used it as a resource when scouting out a potential planning assignment, I urge you to get familiar with them. In almost every state, the State Emergency Management Agency has a website that allows you to get to all of them pretty well. Scott Bernstein: Now, having said that, if you look at the history of state policy in an analogous area of public health, it was a long time before public health agencies adopted prevention as a goal. Uh, in the early years, they were there to help allocate resources for expected epidemics of one sort or another. And that's sort of where we're at right now. And, uh, climate change readiness. The emergency management agencies are, tend to be the one agency, along sometimes with the part of the environmental agencies that gets to program capital funds, that can expect money. Uh, and so those same 13 states that I showed the map of, with a little exception, tend to be the states where innovation and planning are happening. Scott Bernstein: And in both cases, the plan… There's this old saying that a good idea, unlike fine wine, doesn't get better the longer it sits on the shelf. You need a culture of implementation. So, for those of you on this call interested in thinking about creating and adapting model legislation, you know, by all means, tighten the planning requirements. I love your idea about the walk audit, Howard. That should certainly be part of how a state could help communities get in better touch with what's needed. But it needs to be linked to resources as well. Scott Bernstein: Climate change isn't theoretical. States and communities don't need a five- or ten-year commission, uh, to, uh, study whether it's happening. They need to be asking the question: how can they implement? And, uh, I think, uh, as with so many other fields, making that little shift about "how" rather than "whether" will get very quickly to the issues of support for what kinds of resources. Where if it's treated as theoretical, or communities are seen as legitimate implementers, there's a real problem. Scott Bernstein: And then to belatedly answer Liz's question, um, you're quite right. Executive orders are only as good as the authority the person signing it is. Um, and most of the executive orders that have been signed out of Washington are things that the President has no authority to implement, and states are not very happy right now, including red states, about how much of that authority is actually being used to remove funding that was already in place, that they were, um, counting on. So, um, I… there's an aspect of this that's not only about knowing how to go about the planning business, but how to protect the right for effective partnerships between states and localities to get the job done as well. Robert Studerville: I'm going to, uh, allow Bruce Donnelly to talk. Bruce, state where you're from? Bruce Donnelly: Hi, um, where I'm from, Cleveland, Ohio. I'm an Urban Planner. Uh, so, I put in a list of things that… most of them we've talked about. And, um, the last two were sort of, like I said, error correction. Um, and, uh, I have a couple of things I'd like to ask Hazel and Scott to talk about. Bruce Donnelly: But also, um, lately, I've been looking at, uh, different kinds of subsidies for filling in the gaps in pro formas, basically. Um, there's no, uh, there are very little, um, large, family-sized apartments being built, because there's no market for them. So, you wind up paying so much less that it never makes sense to build large units. So, um, it would be helpful to fill the gaps, as some cities have for, um, townhouses that, you know, Cleveland has, uh, or did in the 90s. So they would subsidize or do tax abatements for, um, you know, in order to develop a market for a certain building type. And the, the, I'd appreciate a little discussion on that. Bruce Donnelly: And also, um, Hazel, I don't know if you've worked with… I think you did… I think you have, um, ground-based housing types, and it would be good to hear about how that works. And Scott, uh, please talk about preemption. Robert Studerville: Before you do, I just wanted to say we are at the hour, and, uh, for those of you who have to move on, we will be posting the video tomorrow on the CNU website. Um, I'd like to take Bruce's question about preemption first. Scott Bernstein: It exists. There are states where, um, the hostility between state legislators and local mayors and the like is just… it's everyday discussion. Arizona's a good example. The, uh, and, uh, and you can beat it by being organized and building partnerships, even if, uh, your partners may not be of the same political persuasion as you are. It's hurting, um, it's hurting Republican-dominated localities, as well as, um, as those of us who think of ourselves as progressive. And there are organizations, uh, most prominent one is called "SIX," which stands for the State's Innovation Exchange, that, uh, help localities put together campaigns to beat back those preemption efforts. Scott Bernstein: Um, on the, uh, on the, on the family housing, uh, side of things, it seems to me that part of the problem—I can't give you a total answer—is that there's a perception that there's less capital available, because the spreadsheets that are drawn don't pencil out. I mean, at the moment, capital's expensive, but it's not in short supply. Um, so there's a delicate dance here. If I was, uh, in a position—I've been in at various times—of coaching developers at the moment, uh, while it's still on the books, I would get involved in some upcoming Community Reinvestment Act reviews of major lenders, who are quite responsive to proposals to fill in the missing gaps in housing types, and to have an affirmative obligation if they want to pass their regulatory review as federally chartered institutions, and use that kind of leverage, which exists everywhere. It's a federal law, and sometimes it's backed up by state laws, uh, as well. Scott Bernstein: So, um, Hazel, you had some other answers to this question? Hazel Boris: Uh, Bruce, I'm not 100% sure I understand exactly your question regarding talking more about ground-oriented infill, but I'll just share, like, from our perspective. I think you can probably see this slide. Do you see some, some, uh, four-unit dwellings here? Yeah. Okay, so, you know, for us, um, we don't have specific financial supports that are in place to help folks build these at this point, although the Winnipeg Foundation, which is our community foundation, is starting to roll out, um, some funding sources for this sort of development. Hazel Boris: But so for us, being able to enable this development by right, instead of going through the very time-consuming public hearing process, has been, you know, our biggest incentive in a, you know, "time-is-money" sort of perspective. And it was helpful for us to be able to sit down with the infill housing development community, as well as with neighbors, to say, you know, what are the sorts of forms that the market is demanding and that you have interest in building? Hazel Boris: And so for us, you know, even though the federal government wanted us to allow up to four stories as of right within a half mile of frequent transit corridors, the truth is, the developers were like, "Yeah, but if we can build those four dwelling units in a format, you know, like this, where we don't need to go to four stories, and then, you know, need to start to put in elevators and that sort of thing," then they certainly would. So, for us, those are our current incentives, you know, from a financial perspective that are mainly time-oriented. Hazel Boris: Um, I loved many of Korkit's illustrations that were talking more about how to enable lots to subdivide more easily without having street or alley access. That's something that we haven't yet done here, but it's worth consideration in our full zoning by-law rewrite that will happen over the next couple of years. Uh, but for us at the moment, it's predominantly, um, a primary single structure. Robert Studerville: Okay, well, I think that I don't see any more raised hands, and, um, Bruce, did you have another question? Bruce Donnelly: No, well, more of a clarification. Um, the ground-based building type: the idea is that you don't have interior common spaces. So that, even if it's, you know, three-stacked units, they all have doors on the street. Um, and, uh, somebody in the Netherlands was telling me about how they work really well socially, even though the actual buildings are usually crap. Bruce Donnelly: Um, but the, um, about the subsidy, I also want to clarify that I'm not saying that there isn't capital. That's a real problem, but it's a different problem. What I'm saying is that if you figure out how much more you make for adding a bedroom and changing the bathroom facilities and stuff, uh, that costs more to add than you can get in rent. So there's a gap there. You can get additional in rent. So, you have a gap opening up there where even, you know, studio and one-bedroom apartments are, uh, profitable, uh, two bedrooms and three bedrooms become increasingly unprofitable because the cost of providing those extra rooms is more than you can ask for in rent. Bruce Donnelly: But that was a… it's… Townhouses faced an analogous problem, uh, like, 30 years ago. And, uh, gap financing helped to build a market for that, at least in the Cleveland area. And that took the form of tax abatement. So it's not really financing, but it's tax expenditure. Um, so that by building that market, you do what a lot of businesses do, which is to invest or lose a little bit of money at the beginning until the market develops. And if cities could figure out a way to do that, states should let them. Uh, right now, uh, limits are tightening, at least in Cleveland, on the kind of tax abatements you can, uh, you can give. Bruce Donnelly: And, oh, as far as, and getting back to the, um, ground-based housing, um, it works… it's often considered to work better socially. That's the reason for it. And, um, it gives people more of a feeling of ownership, even if they're not literal owners. So, um, that's why. But, uh, the housing subsidy isn't that there's no, uh, you know, credit available. It's that it just may not pencil out to add that space. Scott Bernstein: Oh, just super fast, Rob. I mean, I think, Bruce, your, um, your points are well taken, and states, uh, like Minnesota are doing things like, um, you know, funding Backhouse Cottage Finance. You might want to look at, uh, National Conference of State Legislatures' annual summary of, uh, housing finance innovations. I think you've made a good point here, Bruce. But that hasn't stopped states from trying to use their housing finance authorities, uh, to either fill the gap or partner differently, sometimes with foundations such as the one that Hazel mentioned in, uh, in Winnipeg. Um, the equivalents in the United States, community foundations, are everywhere, and belatedly, they've all added housing to their, uh, their guidelines as priority issues. And, uh, I'll bet you very few of them know that there's a network called the Congress for New Urbanism out there, ready to roll up our sleeves to help them, uh, calibrate those innovations so that they can work. So that was… that might be a good thing to follow through on. Robert Studerville: So, thank you, everybody. Thank you, the panel. Thank you to all the people who attended and spoke up, and I really appreciate it. Once again, this will be posted, uh, tomorrow on the CNU website. Camille Annette Cortez: Great. Hey, and a reminder, our emails are all in the spreadsheet, so if you'd like to continue the conversation, let any of us know.