Resilient Communities and Watersheds 1
The Growing Water Smart Workshop
The Sonoran Institute and the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy have successfully provided Growing Water Smart as a training and assistance program in Arizona and Colorado since 2017. Now, we are partnering with CivicWell and Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL) to offer a California- tailored program.
You will learn about public engagement, planning, communication, and policy tools to ensure your team can realize its water conservation, watershed health, and community resilience goals.
Location: San Bernardino Valley, CA
Date: June 13-15, 2023 (tentative)
Eligibility: Counties and municipalities located in Southern CA Costs: The workshop is free. Participants cover their own travel. Meals and lodging are provided.
Communities participating in this program gain:
Insight. A better understanding of how land use and climatic trends impact water supply and demand at the state and local level.
Flexibility. The strategies and tools to integrate water and land use planning to better adapt to change and uncertainty.
Engagement. Decision makers from multiple disciplines, departments, agencies and organizations establish common goals around water.
Clarity. Clear and concise language to communicate goals around water resilience and gain support for proposed actions.
Collaboration. A regional professional relationship exchange with your peers.
A path forward. An action plan tailored to your community’s needs.
Follow up. Post-workshop resources to carry out your goals.
CALIFORNIA
GROWING WATER SMART
REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS
Summer 2023 Workshop
The Water and Land
Use Connection
California is navigating significant
challenges around water availability,
access, and management. Many users,
from farms to cities, depend on water to
thrive, and all Californians have a human
right to safe, clean, and affordable
drinking water.
Historically, planning for water resources
and land use have been conducted
separately. Yet, where and how we build
impacts the quantity of water needed
and the quality of water that supports our
ecosystems.
Elected officials, water resource
managers, and land use planners can
increase resilience and create water
smart communities even as populations
grow by collaborating to identify and
implement strategies that address local
and regional water concerns.
2 Resilient Communities and Watersheds
Program at a Glance
The Growing Water Smart workshop offers your team
the time to collaborate and focus on the water resource challenges that are influencing your community’s growth and development. The program is comprised of the
following elements:
Team-Oriented Work Sessions: Teams assess
community data, trends, and existing policies; develop
succinct messaging around water; identify strategies
to become water resilient; and develop an action plan
to implement these strategies. Sessions are facilitated by professionals in the field who guide teams through
strategic discussions.
Learning Best Practices: Presentations and written
materials provide key knowledge around integrating
water conservation, efficiency, reuse, and watershed
protection into existing and future development.
Peer-to-Peer Networking: Participants meet and
exchange ideas with peers from other jurisdictions and
past workshop participants.
Follow up Funding
Upon workshop completion, teams become eligible to
apply for up to $10,000 in technical assistance to help implement your action plan (subject to project approval and funding availability). Previous technical assistance has included:
• Land use code audits and policy recommendations
• The inclusion of water in comprehensive plan updates
• Collaborative stakeholder engagement and facilitation • Metrics to measure water and land use integration
• Strategic communication plans and messaging
“Colorado Growing Water Smart
opened our eyes about critical gaps
in our planning efforts. Now our local
governments and service providers are
using a common set of data and growth
projections in our planning efforts.”
James Dickoff | Town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Diego Trejo, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Diego Trejo, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Resilient Communities and Watersheds 3
Amy McCoy, Martin and McCoy, LLC
Eligibility and Team Composition
The workshop is designed to build and foster inter-
disciplinary teams from counties, municipalities, and water districts committed to taking collaborative action around water. Applicants build a team of five to seven individuals with diverse knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed to secure their community’s water future and implement the developed action plan. Team composition varies to reflect the needs of each community, and often includes:
• Elected and appointed officials*
• Current and long-range land use planners*
• Water resource managers*
• Economic development leaders
• Sustainability and resilience officers
• Parks and public works staff
• Representatives of regional planning organizations
• Local non-profit organizational representatives
• Community task force members
• Consultants contributing to your current water and
land use efforts
* Denotes required representative
Multi-jurisdictional or regional teams may also apply. One or more representatives from each local government should be represented, and the team should be in pursuit of a common water goal.
How to Apply
To participate in our Growing Water Smart program, please submit answers to the following five questions in .doc or .pdf format to [email protected]
Please limit responses to 250-500 words per question.
1. Team Composition: Provide the names, titles,
organizations, and email addresses of 5-7 team members
who will participate in the workshop. Please identify who will serve as the team leader for pre-workshop communication.
2. Water Awareness: Describe your community’s water
challenges, particularly around balancing water supply and demand, but also around stormwater management, integrated water resource management, and watershed health, as
applicable. How well do decision-makers and the community understand and prioritize these challenges?
3. Planning and Policy: What plans, policies, and
programs are currently in place in your community that
address water in new and existing development? How well are they being implemented? What plans or processes are in progress related to water and land use planning integration?
4. Community Readiness: How are your land use planners
and water resource managers currently collaborating around water and land use? Please describe any opportunities or challenges that you want to address during this workshop.
5. Desired Outcomes: What does your community hope
to achieve from participation in the Growing Water Smart workshop? How does your community believe it will benefit from better integration of water and land use planning? Please be as specific as possible.
“Colorado Growing Water Smart helped Fort
Collins better collaborate with all of our
water providers to plan for growth so that we
consider cost and availability of water.”
Donnie Dustin | City of Fort Collins
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
CivicWell
CivicWell supports local policymakers through nationally recognized events, cost effective technical assistance, and policy guidance, on climate change, community
design, energy, water, and national service.
Connect With Us
Go to SonoranInstitute.org to learn about our programs, history, and recent news. Or find us on Social Media:
Sonoran Institute
The Sonoran Institute’s mission is to connect people and communities with the natural resources that nourish and sustain them.
Babbitt Center for Land and Water
Policy
The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a Center
of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, seeks to advance the integration of land and water management to meet
the current and future needs of Colorado River Basin
communities, economies, and the environment.
Water Education for Latino Leaders
WELL educates and trains local Latino elected officials about California water policy to promote timely and
equitable actions that serve to develop a robust economy, healthy communities, and a resilient environment for all Californians.
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@sonoraninstitute
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4 Resilient Communities and Watersheds
Monica Volpin Amy McCoy, Martin and McCoy, LLC
Selection Criteria
Teams will be selected based on:
1. Team composition that includes required
representatives.
2. Demonstrated local commitment toward
addressing water sustainability.
3. Severity of need around current and projected
water conditions.
4. Capacity to foster dialogue or partnerships
among agencies and entities overseeing land use
planning and water resource management.
Deadline
Please submit this information by April 1, 2023.
Contact Information
We are here to help! If you are interested in applying
or have questions about the program, please contact:
Waverly Klaw, AICP
Director, Growing Water Smart
Sonoran Institute
[email protected]
Funding for California Growing Water Smart is
provided by Hunter Industries and the Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy.
This workshop is offered in Arizona, California, and
Colorado.