Last August the City of Houston released the report "Houston Incentives for Green Development". The intent of the report was to look at how 'greener' stormwater management approaches and techniques could be adopted and integrated into Houston's effort to achieve greater flood resilience, and at the same time enhance environmental health and quality of life.  The City is now working on developing and adopting the related ordinances and tax abatement strategies to encourage the use of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) in private development projects. A timetable for that process is included in the report (pages 24 & 28).  The full report is linked below.

 

Below are some excerpts from the Report:

 

City of Houston Vision (page 4)

 

"The City of Houston aims to set the stage for the implementation of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to become an integrated part of “business as usual” for private property developers in Houston. To accomplish this, the City seeks to create a suite of incentives aimed at motivating developers to use GSI as well as recognize and celebrate five marquee private developments that utilize GSI within the next five years. The GSI incentive programs are the focus of this paper. The City’s hope is that recognition of the five marquee projects, in combination with a suite of incentives aimed at motivating developers to use GSI, will set the stage for the private use of GSI to become an integrated part of “business as usual” for property developers in Houston. The City envisions the GSI program as related to and compatible with other current initiatives, including the Resilience Strategy (in development) as part of the 100 Resilient Cities Program and the Climate Action Plan (in development)."

 

What is Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI)? (pages 8-15)

 

"Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is a design philosophy and a toolbox of techniques for stormwater management that can be applied in real estate development projects (including redevelopment and retrofitting projects). GSI techniques aim to help minimize the downstream impacts of development and mimic how rainfall behaves when it falls onto an undeveloped, green landscape. These techniques include green roofs, rain gardens, bioretention systems, vegetated filter strips, permeable pavements, rainwater harvesting, urban forests, constructed wetlands, soil amendment practices, and other strategies to manage rainwater on or near the site where the rain falls. The techniques that are most applicable to Houston are described in more detail in the following pages. This report uses the term green stormwater infrastructure (GSI); however, the term is synonymous with other terms such as low impact development (LID), green infrastructure (GI), sustainable urban drainage (SUDs), and natural drainage systems."

 

 

Link below for the full report.

Houston Incentives for Green Development: