Monthly Planner
March 2020
City of Houston Planning & Development Department
Census 2020 Survey Coming Soon
Did you know that the census is key for the future of your community? Your invitation to participate in the 2020 Census is arriving soon, and your response is vitally important!
March 12-20: Initial invitations to respond online, by phone, or mail will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
March 16-24: Reminder letters
March 26-April 3: Reminder postcards
Your response to the census invitation will impact us and our communities for the next decade. As soon as your invitation arrives, please respond right away to the 2020 Census, online, by phone or mail. Information is available in English and 12 additional languages.
Your response is important because statistics from the census are used in distributing where hundreds of billions in funding go for school lunches, hospitals, roads and much more. Remember to include everyone living in the household in your response, whether they are related or not, and include young children.
The Planning Department hosted a panel discussion on HTV about the 2020 Census, why it matters and what's at stake. Click here to hear what our panel members had to say! #YestotheCensus #Houcounts #Htowncounts
Read more about the local program for the census.
Read more about the national program at 2020census.gov.
A Bright Spot in My Day
From the Planning Director: Houston now has a Resilience Strategy
Resilient Houston provides a framework to help the city mitigate flooding risks and improve climate readiness. The strategy links existing efforts with new ones that will work collectively to protect Houston against future disasters—from hurricanes and flooding to extreme heat waves—and chronic stresses such as aging infrastructure, poor air quality, and climate change.
The strategy frames five key visions for Houston’s future along with 18 goals and 62 actions. Our resiliency plan's goals and actions describe the path forward, time frame, partners, implementation opportunities, and corresponding U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Resilient Houston was forged during an 18-month process in collaboration with local stakeholders and regional, national and global partners.
One exciting aspect of our Resilient Strategy is that it is accompanied by the Mayor’s Resilient Houston Executive Order. The order directs all city departments and divisions to support the implementation of Resilient Houston, incorporate resilience in strategic planning and budgeting, and designate Departmental Resilience Officers (DRO) to work directly with the Mayor’s Chief Resilience Officer (CRO). Department Directors will have 60 days to appoint DROs who will work cross-departmentally on the implementation of Resilient Houston.
“The release of Resilient Houston is a pivotal milestone in resilience-building efforts after Hurricane Harvey, but there is much more work to do,” said Chief Resilience Officer, Marissa Aho. “Today is the beginning of implementing this ambitious, yet achievable, framework for resilience. I want to thank the hundreds of partners who contributed to this effort at workshops, in working groups, and one-on-one. I encourage every Houstonian to play a role in increasing our collective resilience.” Read more about Resiliency.
Margaret Wallace Brown, Director
Planning & Development Department
Charette Training for
Civic Engagement
In January, 32 of our Planners were trained and certified by the National Charrette Institute (NCI).
This training helps facilitate public involvement in planning.
NCI is dedicated to transforming the way people work together by building capacity for collaboration. The NCI charrette system is an accelerated, collaborative, design‐based process that connects all interested stakeholders to create and support a feasible plan. The training was focused on creating and managing a community engagement process and a project management system that uses design thinking and collaboration to break down barriers to resolving complex problems. The charrette process can also be used to develop public policy and organizational strategic plans. Read more about NCI and charettes.
Staff Spotlight: Preservation Officer
Houston has a new Historic Preservation Officer, Roman McAllen! As the city's Historic Preservation Officer, Roman works with the historic preservation team to preserve Houston's historic structures, neighborhoods and archeological sites.
Also, as the newly elected President of the Texas Preservation Board, Roman will oversee annual programs such as Preservation Day, Preservation Summit, and Most Endangered Places Program.
Roman previously served as the historic preservation officer for the City of Denton. He was a founding member of the Brownsville Preservation Society and is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Lower Rio Grande Valley AIA, and Texas Society of Architects. Roman holds a master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin.
He and his wife Lisa are happily celebrating the birth of their first daughter, Lucy, in February 2020! Read more about the Historic Office of Preservation.
