Applications open for communities to pilot new buildings and housing benchmarks

The Alliance for National & Community Resilience (ANCR), a member of the International Code Council’s family of solutions, has opened the application process for communities to join an in-depth piloting program for new buildings and housing benchmarks. As part of the program, communities will participate in ANCR’s Community Resilience Benchmarks (CRB) system, which supports communities in evaluating their current resilience and identifying strategies for improvement. Uniquely, this system assesses the social, organizational and infrastructural aspects of communities to enable examination of the community’s vulnerabilities and strengths. The deadline for submissions is 5:00 p.m. ET on Aug. 1, 2020.

The goal of the program is to increase education around the importance of adopting a resiliency strategy from a holistic point of view, as well as providing communities with the tools to then apply that strategy.

“While we have made great strides in community resilience over the past years, it is not enough to think of resiliency as the need arises but to design our communities with an eye towards the future and potential threats that we may encounter, whether a public health crisis or a natural hazard,” said Ryan Colker, executive director of ANCR. “As we continue to navigate the current pandemic, we have seen the elevated role buildings, especially residential ones, have played in keeping our communities safe. With discussions around recovery beginning, we have a great opportunity to set the stage for a broader conversation about resiliency and how policies like modern building codes and standards not only ensure the structural integrity of our buildings but also function as the first line of defense for society.”

ANCR will provide professional assistance to participating communities undertaking the process. This will include coordinating directly to discuss the benchmarking process, collecting feedback and offering insight into opportunities to improve the community’s resilience. Benefits to participating communities include:

• Receiving valuable insight that can inform resilience planning and applications for mitigation funding;
• Use of benchmarking results as part of their economic development packages and other public communications highlighting their initiatives to be a great place to live and work;
• Recognition on the ANCR website, as well as a public ceremony to celebrate successful participants as one of the first ANCR Resilient Communities; and
• Receiving early access to new benchmarks as they are released to allow further enhancement of their community resilience, along with a $5,000 stipend to help offset staff time during the piloting process and travel to the recognition ceremony.

All U.S. communities are eligible to participate. However, given the extensive nature of the benchmarks, the applicants most likely to be chosen for the pilot program will have existing organizational programming and infrastructure in place that addresses building and housing policy.

For additional information on the process and the formal application, please visit: http://www.resilientalliance.org/pilots/