WaterNow and the City of New Orleans collaborated to create a roadmap and develop a green streets ordinance for New Orleans. The City’s goal was to establish a systematic approach for incorporating green infrastructure into all street construction and redevelopment projects rather than handling them on a case by case basis, as has been the current practice. WaterNow selected this project because implementing local regulations requiring greenstormwater infrastructure (GSI) would prioritize nature-based, distributed systems in the City’s efforts to address their flooding challenges.

This project included five phases: 1) research ways to incorporate a green streets ordinance into City codes; 2) explore best practices for implementing green streets programs by examining example programs in place across the country; 3) review by third party validators specializing in GSI to substantiate research findings; 4) engage City staff, councilmembers, and local stakeholders in discussions about green streets ordinance objectives; and 5) provide specific recommendations for next steps in developing and implementing an ordinance.

The work that WaterNow and the City completed have helped the City create the content and momentum needed to turn the community’s desire to prioritize green infrastructure solutions to urban flooding into codified city policy and ultimately on-the-ground projects citywide.