Sustainability and Resilience Plan

Community Resilience Building Workshop

May 2022

One of the major first steps towards creating this Sustainability and Resilience Plan was the Community Resilience Building (CRB) Workshop that was held in May 2022.

In early 2022, the Redevelopment Agency began a series of discussions with The Nature Conservancy about conducting a Climate Resilience Building (CRB) workshop to engage with community members and define strengths and vulnerabilities within the City of Norwalk. This workshop was facilitated by The Nature Conservancy, Western Connecticut Council of Governments, and the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency in partnership with Sustainable CT.

 The leading objectives of this workshop included:

●   Defining top local, natural, and climate-related hazards of concern

●   Identifying existing and future strengths and vulnerabilities

●   Prioritizing actions for the City

●   Identifying opportunities to collaboratively advance actions to increase resilience alongside residents and organizations from across the City, and beyond

The City of Norwalk benefited from a unique “anywhere at any scale”, community-driven process called Community Resilience Building (CRB) (www.CommunityResilienceBuilding.org). The CRB’s tools, other relevant planning documents, and local maps were integrated into the workshop process to provide both decision-support and visualization around shared issues and existing priorities across Norwalk...Using the CRB process, rich with information, experience, and dialogue, the participants produced the findings presented in this summary report including an overview of the top hazards, current concerns and challenges, existing strengths, and proposed actions to improve resilience to hazards and climate change, today and in the future.

The publication draft of the CRB Workshop Summary of Findings was published in September 2022 and is available for review by clicking the link below.

The Community Resilience Building Workshop Summary of Findings.

Smart City Assessment

Spring 2023

To evaluate Norwalk's future viability and resiliency, the Redevelopment Agency, on behalf of the City of Norwalk, contracted a consultant to conduct an assessment of the the City's current smart city performance. The consultant was tasked with two assignments:

Assignment #1: Future city viability assessment

Assess the City’s performance and progress towards a smart and resilient future using a variety of indicators and benchmarks.

Assignment #2: Data governance assessment and Data-Based use cases

Assess the state of data governance, management and intelligence in the City and provide recommendations. Identify, draft, and prioritize potential high value data-based use cases.

Sustainability and Resilience Plan

2023 - 2024

The Redevelopment Agency and the City worked with a consultant on the preparation of a citywide sustainability, resilience, and climate action plan. The plan proposes a scope and approach that prioritizes and offers steps to implement recommended activities and identifies gaps or additional planning required to improve citywide sustainability and resilience. 

Public Meeting for Norwalk Community

The Norwalk Community was invited to an introduction of the project on August 2, 2023. The meeting was recorded and can be watch by clicking the button below.