City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2018-2038

The City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2038 focuses on factors of growth and development including: public participation, development considerations, transportation, economic development, housing, and community facilities. The plan includes a Future Land Use Map, which increases development opportunities and indicates preferred or suitable land use for the city.The City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2038 provides a guide for the future growth of the city. This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the City of Buffalo. The document was developed through collaboration with Texas Target Communities (TTC) and a City Advisory Committee representing the City of Buffalo. The purpose of the collaboration was to assess current community conditions, develop goals, objectives, and implementation strategies related to future development & growth strategies, through a public participatory process, in order to help guide the future growth of the City

Waller County State of Community Report 2016

Waller County is on the northwest side of Harris County. It offers the best of a rural lifestyle and a short commute to the nation’s fourth largest city. Citizens of Waller County enjoy access to many social and economic opportunities already and the outlook for expanding access to opportunities is positive. Waller is set to grow ahead of the state and H-GAC 8 by 2050. The County expects an increasing Hispanic population, a trend seen throughout Texas. Approximately 34% of the population in Waller is college educated and 46% of residents are enrolled in schools and colleges. Waller County is a home to PVAMU and four (4) independent school districts (Hempstead, Royal, Katy and Waller). Proximity to Houston plays an important role in the economy of the County. Manufacturing and agriculture sectors lead the economy. These sectors are more specialized in the County in comparison to Texas. Education services follow in level of impact, due to the presence of many school districts and PVAMU. Employment ‘by place of residence’ has increased significantly, 40%, from 2004 to 2014. Texas in comparison increase by 25% over that span and the nation only increased by13%. Roughly, 19% of people in Waller County are living under poverty. Of those in poverty, the City of Prairie View has the most due to the student population at PVAMU. The County does not have many affordable housing units, but 40% of all homes are under $100,000. The City of Houston is rapidly encroaching upon Waller County, threatening to disrupt the rural lifestyle many County residents enjoy. As Houston expands, there will be an increase in impervious surface cover, which will increase the risk of flooding.In 1993 the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University, initiated the Texas Target Communities program (TTC) to provide technical assistance to small towns on issues related to land use planning and economic development. Today TTC, , in partnership with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, also works with rural counties and marginalized communities across Texas to provide technical support in keeping with Texas A&M’s mission as a land grant university. At the same time it serves as a “real world” learning laboratory for graduate students within coursework on campus. Students gain valuable planning experience while targeted communities receive valuable assistance they could not access otherwise and results in a positive difference in the quality of life for its residents. Communities are chosen for participation in TTC based on demonstrated need and their commitment to the planning process. The Waller County Strategic Planning Committee (WCSPC), with connections through Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), contacted The Texas Target Communities (TTC) program at Texas A&M University to develop the Waller County State of Community Report 2016 in anticipation of the development of a county strategic plan. In order to support the strategic planning efforts of Waller County, TTC program associates gathered data from a variety of disciplines related to the present state of the County. The TTC team then analyzed the data to identify potential areas for growth and development

City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2018-2038

The City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2038 focuses on factors of growth and development including: public participation, development considerations, transportation, economic development, housing, and community facilities. The plan includes a Future Land Use Map, which increases development opportunities and indicates preferred or suitable land use for the city.The City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan 2038 provides a guide for the future growth of the city. This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the City of Buffalo. The document was developed through collaboration with Texas Target Communities (TTC) and a City Advisory Committee representing the City of Buffalo. The purpose of the collaboration was to assess current community conditions, develop goals, objectives, and implementation strategies related to future development & growth strategies, through a public participatory process, in order to help guide the future growth of the City

Liberty County Strategic Plan 2016 - 2036

In the fall of 2015, the County of Liberty and Texas Target Communities partnered to create a task force to represent the community. The task force was integral to the planning process, contributing the thoughts, desires, and opinions of community members—as well as their enthusiasm about Liberty’s future. This fourteen-month planning process ended in August 2016. The result of this collaboration is the County of Liberty Strategic Plan, which is the official policy guide for the community’s growth over the next twenty years.Liberty Strategic Plan 2036 provides a guide for the future growth of the county. This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the County of Liberty

The Projected Impact of a Neighborhood-Scaled Green-Infrastructure Retrofit

Climate change and its related factors are increasing the frequency of hurricanes, coastal storms, and urban flooding. Recovery from disasters can be slow, with jurisdictions failing to rebuild better, wasting time and money without improving resilience for the next disaster. To help attenuate floods and mitigate their impact, Low-Impact Development (LID) and the incorporation of green infrastructure (GI) is gaining in popularity. LID includes more natural methods of absorbing, redirecting, retaining, and filtering water through GI installations such as rain gardens, detention ponds, and the reduction of impervious surfaces. LID is, however, primarily implemented and evaluated only on a local scale; few studies have assessed the broader impact of GI on a larger scale. In fact, most performance calculators that evaluate the effects of GI are only useful at the site scale. Further, most GI advocates propose its use in new developments without much attention to retrofitting existing suburban development. This article seeks to determine what the potential effects of retrofitting an existing suburban neighborhood with GI for flood protection at a larger scale could be, using Sugar Land, Texas, United States as a case site. First, low-impact facilities are proposed and schematically designed at a site scale for a typical single-family lot. The volume of rainfall that can be retained on site, due to each incorporated feature, was then derived using the Green Values National Stormwater Management Calculator. Using these data, the total volume of rainfall that could be retained if all residential sites in Sugar Land incorporated similar facilities was then projected. The results show that Sugar Land has the capacity to annually capture 56 billion liters of stormwater if all residential properties use LID. Additional benefits of the use of GI include reduced heat (37%), improved aesthetics and property values (20%), increased recreational opportunities (18%), improved water quality (12%), improved air quality (5%), increased green collar jobs (4%), reduced damage from harmful gas emissions (3%), and increased energy savings (1%), thereby surpassing conventional stormwater management techniques