Virtual Workshop

Integrated Water and Land Use Planning Workshop

This Growing Water Smart workshop for Colorado towns, cities, and counties across Colorado helps bridge the gap between water management and land use planning to build a more resilient future. This is especially important for Colorado as its population continues to rapidly grow, and as the state faces a municipal gap of up to 750,000 acre-feet per year between water supply and demand by 2050.

Historically, planning for water resources and planning for land use development have been conducted separately. Yet land use decisions have profound impacts on the quantity of water people and buildings consume and the quantity and quality of the water that enters our ecosystems and replenishes our supplies. Going forward, communities will need to be more deliberate in integrating decisions about how and where they build with decisions about how much water development uses and how to best steward our resources.

The Sonoran Institute and Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy’s Growing Water Smart program introduces communities to the full range of communications, public engagement, planning, and policy implementation tools to realize their watershed health and community resiliency goals. This year’s workshop is being conducted virtually with six participating teams representing 12 counties, cities, and towns.

August 13 – Session 1 focuses on setting the context for why linking water and land use matters.

August 27 – Session 2 introduces a strategic planning framework for leading your community through a process to become more water smart, followed by a deep exploration of the nexus between water supply, demand and land use.

September 3 – Session 3 prepares your team to return ready to build the collaborative structure, community support, and political will to become a water smart community.

September 10 – Session 4 initiates a 12-month action plan for continuing progress towards achieving water-smart growth.

Participating Communities:

• City of Arvada
• Town of Berthoud
• City of Longmont
• City of Northglenn
• Town of Platteville
• Uncompahgre Valley, comprised of:
  • Delta County
  • Montrose County
  • Ouray County
  • Town of Olathe
  • City of Delta
  • City of Montrose
  • Tri-Valley Water Conservancy District
  • Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association

The next Growing Water Smart workshop will occur in Spring 2021.

For more information or to apply, please contact climateresilience@sonoraninstitute.org