A significant benefit of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) for North Carolina CED professionals is the availability of funding for investment in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure though the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRS). Where and how is that local govern … Read more

This headline from last week would naturally grab the attention of any CED professional: “Affordable mobile homes are disappearing in Asheville; code change could bring some back.” Housing is a basic issue for anyone interested in CED. Behind the headline are a host of issues that both foster hope i … Read more

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program has the power to transform communities. Since 1995, the federal program has assessed over 30,000 properties and designated 92,000 acres for anticipated reuse. North Carolina has been working in tandem under state statute since 1997, and has i … Read more

“[I]t is critical to learn from events such as Florence, to minimize the damages and streamline the response and recovery for the next storm…The growing economic and human costs of these events require that we not only change how we respond, but do so far more quickly than we have in the past.” This … Read more

By a unanimous vote in both chambers on Monday evening (October 15th), the General Assembly quickly approved and Governor Cooper signed legislation appropriating almost four hundred million dollars in disaster relief for communities and individuals impacted by Hurricane Florence.  The full text of S … Read more

$465 million. That is the estimated market value of real-estate lost between 2005 and 2016 in Florida’s Miami-Dade area. The cause? Rising sea-levels and the resulting tidal flooding and hurricane storm surge, according to a recent peer-reviewed study by Steven McAlpine and Jeremy Porter of Columbia … Read more

Located on the western edge of Charlotte, ReVenture Park is an underutilized 667-acre industrially zoned area currently being redeveloped by a team led by Forsite Development. The long-term vision sees the site – once occupied by a textile dyeing operation – turned to a thriving hub for renewable en … Read more

The UNC Environmental Finance Center (EFC) typically focuses on the role of local governments in directly providing and funding basic community environmental services such as water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste management. For example, the EFC recently released a set of resources related … Read more

There may be good reasons to culvert or pipe a stream. Culverts allow water to flow to the other sides of roads, buildings, or other obstructions. However, developers and city planners in the past have often installed culverts where they were not necessary, resulting in sub-optimal environmental and … Read more

In December 2017, the National Institute of Building Sciences published Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2017 Interim Report. This report shows that acting to reduce the impacts of floods, hurricane surges, wind, earthquakes, and wildfires is a sound financial investment. Such action, often called m … Read more