While these are some of the final steps in the Houston Incentives for Green Development, the City’s efforts to achieve the goals set out in Resilient Houston – 100 GSI projects by 2025 – are ever-continuing.
The City will now work to implement the final incentive – creating an integrated set of rules and regulations for GSI. The Mayor launched the GSI tax abatement program in December of 2020.
To apply visit www.houstontx.gov/igd, where applications and additional information for each program can be obtained.
Through funding from Houston Endowment, the City’s Chief Recovery Office commissioned a one-year study to identify and recommend incentives to encourage the use of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) in private land development, leading to economic, social, and environmental benefits as well as resilience. The Incentives for Green Development Report and Recommendations were released in August 2019.
Green infrastructure strives to mimic how rain falls on undeveloped, green landscape while minimizing the impact of development. Typical design elements include green roofs, rain garden bio-retention systems, permeable pavements, rainwater harvesting, urban forests, constructed wetlands and other strategies to manage rainwater. Green stormwater infrastructure improves the performance of drainage systems and can make real estate projects safer and more attractive to buyers, while providing a wide array of benefits including heat reduction, air and water quality improvement, conservation of native habitats, and improvement of quality of life among others.
For more information and to download program details, visit www.houstontx.gov/igd or contact the City’s Chief resilience Officer www.houstontx.gov/mayor/chief-resilience-officer.html |