On Safer Ground: Floodplain Buyouts and Community Resilience is the brand new resource from the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Resilience program. The new ULI publication explores floodplain buyouts as one method to facilitate relocation out of harm’s way due to the increasingly intense impacts of climate change, especially flooding. It showcases the Charlotte Mecklenburg Floodplain Buyout Program as a model for best practice.

Manager of Urban Resilience a the Urban Land Institute, Leah Sheppard, interviewed Tim Trautman to learn more about their program and the real estate/land use context in which buyouts fit in. His team also worked with ULI to develop a full case study on the program for inclusion on the Developing Urban Resilience website, which can be found here. The joint city and county utility use stormwater fees to fund perennial and coordinated buyouts for accessible parks and greenways. Therefore, property owners do not have to wait for the availability of federal disaster funds to move out of harm’s way.

Flooding is the most expensive and common natural disaster in the United States, and managing flood risk is critical to protecting homes, local and regional economies, and community well-being. On Safer Ground explores how floodplain buyouts are progressively relevant to the real estate sector as local governments across the United States are increasingly turning to buyouts as one strategy to reduce flood risk, offer relief to residents, and potentially improve access to open space in urban areas. The report showcases best practices for executing floodplain buyouts and models for partnerships with the private sector, in addition to citing examples of communities that have successfully implemented floodplain buyouts as part of a larger resilience strategy or open space plan.