Programs, studies, and organizations that compliment the Center of Development Excellence within the North Texas region and beyond.
Housing
Regional / Local
Gentrification Study - NCTCOG has prepared a report on strategies for addressing gentrification and supporting affordable housing in the region.
Dallas Housing Authority - DHA provides quality, affordable housing to low-income families and individuals through the effective and efficient administration of housing assistance programs across North Texas.
APA's Housing Policy guide identifies policy solutions for planners and local, state, and federal elected officials that address dire housing challenges — including accessibility, affordability, and availability — plaguing rapid and slow growth communities nationwide.
Center for Neighborhood Technology H+T Index on Affordability - The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index provides a more comprehensive way of thinking about the true affordability of place. It presents housing and transportation data as maps, charts and statistics covering 100% of the US population. Costs can be seen from the regional down to the neighborhood level.
Economy
Economy
Regional / Local
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies - The plan identifies regional economic development goals and priorities which communities within a region can implement collaboratively to bring about sustainable economic prosperity.
North Texas Commission – The North Texas Commission is a public-private partnership dedicated to advancing the vibrancy of the North Texas Region.
The institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. The mission of The Institute for Urban Policy Research is to provide research and evaluation, education and outreach, and guidance and consulting to inform, motivate, and inspire community-focused organizations that improve the quality of life in the communities they serve.
Opportunity Zones - Mixed-use, mixed income, walkable, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a key component of sustainable economic development.
State
Texas Economic Development Council (Membership required) - The Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC) is an Austin-based, statewide, non-profit professional association dedicated to the development of economic and employment opportunities in Texas.
National
CoreLogic - Provides high quality parcel data, providing instant access to detailed property characteristics, sales records, valuation and digital copies of current county assessor documents.
CoStar - A commercial real estate information and analytics provider serving the UK, US, and Canada.
EarthDefine - EarthDefine is using AI to transform earth sensor data into consumable geospatial information products including high resolution land cover classifications and building footprints.
Vision North Texas 2050 - a private, public, and academic partnership began in 2005 to increase awareness about the growth expected in North Texas and to involve people and organizations in initiatives that accommodate that growth successfully and sustainably. The North Texas 2050 regional plan includes a Vision Statement describing North Texas as being recognized worldwide as a region that sustains its economic success and vitality because it contains varied and highly desirable communities that support innovative people and nurtures its diverse natural assets.
Regional Building Codes - Tools and resources for Building Codes, Fire Codes, and Other Codes
Form-Based Code Template - The Form-Based Code Template is a tool to help facilitate the establishment of a form-based code ordinance. Form-based code is an emerging ordinance type that, unlike traditional zoning, emphasizes physical form to regulate and guide development and implement the vision for a place. Form-based codes specify a design for places and centers through a comprehensive process that relies on local decision making and allows for uses to adapt based on demand. Form-based code sets a design standard rather than a minimum requirement and encourages active, vibrant communities that are both highly functional and aesthetically pleasing. This tool is a template to guide the creation of a form-based code. It is ready for calibration to any community. The template was designed to simplify the creation and implementation of a form-based code. Wasatch Front Regional Council
Library of Codes - Form-Based Codes Institute at Smart Growth America (FBCI) gathers the best examples of form-based codes from communities across the United States and abroad. The codes represent a variety of community types and applications of form-based standards. Click on the Show Search Options button to search the library by the phrase, location, Driehaus Award recipients, and the categories described below.
Physical Context: size or type of government entity
Organizing Principle: underlying organization for the code standards
Implementation Method: how the code standards operate within the zoning ordinance
Development Type: development types impacted by the code standards
Special Features: unique code attributes or awards
Municipal Research and Service Center - The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) is a nonprofit organization that helps local governments across Washington State better serve their citizens by providing legal and policy guidance on any topic. At MRSC, we believe the most effective government is a well-informed local government, and as cities, counties, and special purpose districts face rapid changes and significant challenges, we are here to help.
Louisiana Land Use Toolkit -The Louisiana Land Use Toolkit is an online resource for local jurisdictions. The Toolkit contains a model set of development regulations that can be used to help guide future growth and development in a sustainable and economically competitive manner. The Toolkit is a shared resource from which parishes and municipalities can adopt a complete development code or select cafeteria-style from individual tools that meet their specific needs.
American Planning Association - The American Planning Association provides leadership in the development of vital communities for all by advocating excellence in planning, promoting education and resident empowerment, and providing our members with the tools and support necessary to meet the challenges of growth and change ethically.
Urban Land Institute Americas - One-way ULI provides leadership is through research. We collect and publish data and analysis that help land use leaders anticipate emerging trends and issues and explore new approaches and creative solutions.
Congress for New Urbanism - CNU is the leading international organization advocating for compact, walkable neighborhoods and building more great places. CNU empowers its members, allies, and you to engage, innovate, and incubate strategies, tools, and design approaches that inspire, create better cities and towns, and accelerate the pace of change.
Local Planning Handbook - The purpose of the Handbook is to help communities update their local comprehensive plans. The Handbook: Provides clear and specific direction on what the minimum requirements are and how to meet them. (Twin Cities Metropolitan Council)
Smart Location Database - The Smart Location Database is a nationwide geographic data resource for measuring location efficiency. It includes more than 90 attributes summarizing characteristics such as housing density, diversity of land use, neighborhood design, destination accessibility, transit service, employment, and demographics. Most attributes are available for every census block group in the United States.
USBuildingFootprints - Microsoft Maps is releasing country wide open building footprints datasets in United States. This dataset contains ~130,000,000 computer generated building footprints derived using our computer vision algorithms on satellite imagery. This data is freely available for download and use. Additional Information: Article.
American Community Survey (ACS) - The American Community Survey (ACS) helps local officials, community leaders, and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. It is the premier source for detailed population and housing information for the United States. Additional Information: Geodata Download/Table Data Access
Census Reporter - Census Reporter is an open-source website that makes it easy to explore and report census data. Census Reporter automatically provides descriptive statistics, downloadable tabular data, and interactive visualizations of American Community Survey (ACS) data for the United States. Visualizations can be embedded as HTML iframes. Additional Information:License: MIT License Geographic Coverage: Contains geographies matching the coverage and scale of the ACS 2019 1-year and 5-year estimates. Provider: About Page. Additional Links: GitHub Repository.
IPUMS National Historic GIS - The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years from 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks.
Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) - The LEHD program combines these administrative data, additional administrative data and data from censuses and surveys. From these data, the program creates statistics on employment, earnings, and job flows at detailed levels of geography and industry and for different demographic groups. Additional Information:On The Map Download Page.
Bureau of Labor Statistics - The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures and provides access to data on labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.
CDC Social Vulnerability Index - CDC Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI) uses 15 U.S. census variables to help local officials identify communities that may need support before, during, or after disasters based on their level of social vulnerability. Additional Information: Download.
EJ Screen - EJSCREEN uses maps and reports to present three kinds of information: Environmental indicators, demographic indicators and EJ Indexes. Additional Information:Download.
H+T Index - The Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index provides a comprehensive view of affordability that includes both the cost of housing and the cost of transportation at the neighborhood level. Provided by the Center for Neighborhood Technology.
Location Affordability Index - The Location Affordability Index (LAI) works to close this gap by providing estimates of household housing and transportation costs at the neighborhood level along with constituent data on the built environment and demographics.
Opportunity Atlas - These datasets provided by Opportunity Insights allow you to analyze social mobility and a variety of other outcomes from life expectancy to patent rates by neighborhood, college, parental income level, and racial background.
Mobility
Mobility
Regional / Local
North Central Texas Council of Governments Transportation Department - The Transportation Department at NCTCOG serves as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the 12-county Dallas-Fort Worth region. The MPO works closely with regional, state and federal partners to plan and recommend transportation projects that will improve mobility and encourage more efficient land use, all while minimizing the impact on the region's air quality.
Fort Worth Active Transportation Plan - Fort Worth’s goal is to develop a plan for a transportation system that provides multiple alternatives for travel. The Active Transportation Plan focused on walking and cycling, including connectivity between other modes such as transit.
NCTCOG Bicycle-Pedestrian Program - Bicycle and pedestrian modes of travel are recognized nation-wide as cost-efficient ways to address mobility and air quality concerns while improving physical health and quality of life.
Mobility 2045 - Mobility 2045 establishes sustainable development as the region’s strategic approach to transportation planning, programming, and construction. Sustainable development leverages the land use/transportation relationship to improve mobility, enhance air quality, support economic growth, and ensure the financial stability of the transportation system by promoting livable communities.
DFW Clean Cities Coalition - The use of alternative fuels support reduction goals of the DFW Clean Cities Coalition.
CityMAP: Dallas City Center Master Assessment Process - The Dallas CityMAP effort is looking at the urban core and the role the surrounding highway system should play in connecting people and places both along and across these roadway corridors.
State
Texas Transportation Plan (TTP) 2050 - The Texas Transportation Commission adopted the Texas Transportation Plan (TTP) 2050 on August. 27, 2020 to serve as TxDOT’s long-range, performance-based transportation plan.
Transportation Planning and Programming - The Transportation Planning and Programming Division (TPP) is responsible for statewide, regional, and international planning functions and activities; coordination with Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) planning activities; program and project funding allocations and portfolio management; traffic data collection and analysis; data management, support, and reporting; and public involvement and outreach to support project development.
National
BTS Open Data Site - On the BTS Open Data site, browse geospatial data that is part of the BTS National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) product. NTAD is a set of nationwide (United States) geographic databases of public spatial information for transportation facilities and networks; flows of people, goods, vehicles, and craft over the transportation networks; and social, economic, and environmental conditions that affect or are affected by the transportation networks.
CTPP - The CTPP Program procures tabulations of American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year (and historical Census decennial) data. The chief differences between ACS data and CTPP data are FLOWS from home to work and WORKPLACE BASED data at small Geographies.
HPMS - The HPMS is a national level highway information system that includes data on the extent, condition, performance, use and operating characteristics of the nation's highways.
Transitland - Transitland is an open data platform that collects GTFS, GTFS Realtime, and other open data feeds from over 2,500 transit operators in over 55 countries. Additional Information: Interline,GitHub.
National Noise Map - Data within the National Transportation Noise Map represent potential noise levels across the nation for an average annual day for the specified year.
National Transit Database - Repository of operations, financial, and asset data that US transit agencies are required to report to the Federal Transit Administration.
Rapid Transit Database - Collection of all rapid transit corridors worldwide, including bus rapid transit, light rail, and subway, published by the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy.
Transit Equity Dashboards - Equity analysis of transit systems in seven (and counting) US cities, published by TransitCenter.
SharedStreets - SharedStreets Referencing System is a global, non-proprietary linear referencing system for describing streets maintained by SharedStreets. Additional Information: GitHub
GTFS - The General Transit Feed Specification is a popular standard for describing transit systems.
shared-row - A data specification for representing street right of ways.
GBFS - The General Bikeshare Feed Specification is a standardized data feed for shared mobility system availability.
MDS - The Mobility Data Specification is a data standard to enable communication between mobility companies and local governments.
MTLFS - The Managed and Tolled Lanes Feed Specification is intended to be used by the managed lanes and toll industry for the standardization and sharing of dynamic toll rates, and any managed lane purpose including but not limited to, ramp metering, bus only lanes, express lanes, especially if the resources are being priced dynamically.
GMNS - The General Modeling Network Specification defines a common human and machine readable format for sharing routable road network files.
Climate Resilience
Climate Resilience
Regional / Local
NCTCOG Local Disaster Recovery Framework and Toolkit - The North Central Texas Recovery Framework combines research, international best practices, and subject-matter input to help local jurisdictions put the pieces in place to establish a “new, better normal” following a natural or human-caused disaster.
Smart Growth Dallas - Smart Growth for Dallas is an initiative to improve the environmental, social, and economic resilience of Dallas by creating close-to-home parks, trails, and green spaces for the entire City. (CLIDE Winner)
Conserve North Texas - Conserve North Texas is intended to serve as a clearinghouse to easily locate resources and tools that support efforts to conserve resources in various sectors and/or measure progress. Browse content through different filters, below. For details on how to use the website.
Go Solar Texas - To increase deployment of solar across Texas, the NCTCOG has worked to compile key resources for Texans interested in learning more about going solar and developed Texas-specific resources on best management practices for local governments.
Integrated Stormwater Management Program (iSWM) - The iSWM Design Manual for Site Development and Design Manual for Construction are cooperative initiatives that assist cities and counties in achieving their goals of water quality protection, streambank protection, and flood control.
Local Disaster Recovery Framework and Toolkit - The North Central Texas Recovery Framework combines research, international best practices, and subject-matter input to help local jurisdictions put the pieces in place to establish a “new, better normal” following a natural or human-caused disaster.
Regional Energy Management Program - In 2018 the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) kicked off a regional effort with the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) to offer water and energy conservation trainings and workshops, expand the use of the ENERGY STAR Building Portfolio Manager tool, provide assistance to local governments in taking advantage of SECO resources, and enhance Senate Bill 898 energy program reporting.
Regional Integration of Sustainability Efforts Coalition (RISE) - The North Central Texas Stewardship Forum (Forum) began as an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant funded effort dedicated to bringing together North Central Texas (NCT) governmental and quasi-governmental organizations to share best practices, lessons learned and resources to ease the burden of developing and supporting sustainability and environmental initiatives.
NCTCOG Transportation Sustainable Development Program - As land uses influence regional travel patterns and demand on the transportation system, and transportation connects land uses and provides access to developments, both need to be planned in conjunction with one another.
State
City of Houston Climate Action Plan - A Climate Action Plan provides evidenced-based measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preventative measures to address the negative outcomes of climate change. The plan will demonstrate how the City will adapt and improve its resilience to climate hazards that impact the City today as well as risks that may increase in the coming years.
Interesting points: Interactive Urban stormwater and River image that allows the user to explore natural methods for protecting communities. It also includes a curated list of specific resources for urban and flood/floodplain. (Research website)
Sustainability policy framework - Paper that details a suggested framework for implementing sustainability policies. (APA Resource)
Planning resilient infrastructure - Planning more resilient infrastructure systems is significantly advanced by communities when they engage in continuous resilience planning. (APA Resource)
EPA Regional Resilience Toolkit - Details 5 keys (engage, assess, act, fund, and measure) to building large scale resilience in a region. (APA Resource)
Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities - Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities provides quick, targeted technical assistance to selected communities using a variety of tools that have demonstrated results and widespread application. (EPA Resource)
Multihazard Planning Framework for Communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface - Addresses risk from wildfire and other hazards. The framework encompasses scales from site to neighborhood, community, and region. Identifies a range of planning interventions that can be used to reduce risk and maximize the benefits that forests provide across the scales of concern (APA Resource)
National Ten Year Urban and Community Forestry Action Plan (2016-2026) - To better equip our communities in preventing and responding to these threats. Collaborative solutions may include but are not limited to: research; prevention; planning; policy; preparedness; implementation; best management practices; recovery; and reforestation that promotes the resilience of our Nation’s urban and community forests.
NCCS Data Services - The NASA Center for Climate Simulation houses curated data collections that include atmosphere, ocean, land, and flood data, both current and historical, as well as operational Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) weather analysis data and forecasts that are updated four times daily.
NCDC Storm Data - United States storm data provided by the National Weather Service (NWS) and contain statistics on personal injuries and damage estimates.
NOAA Severe Weather Inventory - The Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI) is an integrated database of severe weather records for the United States. The formats currently supported are Shapefile (for GIS), KMZ (for Google Earth), CSV (comma-separated), and XML.
NREL Solar Radiation - The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of hourly and half-hourly values of meteorological data and the three most common measurements of solar radiation: global horizontal, direct normal and diffuse horizontal irradiance.
Temperature Severity Indicators - The Temperature Severity Indicator data distills observational information of prolonged temperature events to inform housing and community development policy and decision making provided by US HUD.
Urban Heat Disparities Project - Census Tract level temperature data derived from a paper use remotely sensed land surface temperature measurements to explore the distribution of the United States urban heating burden by demographic group.
MACA - The MACA method is a statistical downscaling method for removing biases from global climate model outputs.
IPCC Atlas - A novel tools & data for flexible spatial and temporal analyses of much of the observed and projected climate change information underpinning the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, including regional synthesis for Climatic Impact-Drivers (CIDs).
Education
Education
State
Texas Education Agency - The Texas Education Agency is the state agency that oversees primary and secondary public education. It is headed by the commissioner of education. The Texas Education Agency improves outcomes for all public-school students in the state by providing leadership, guidance, and support to school systems.
National
National Center for Educational Statistics - The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. Their data lab provides access to other 30+ education datasets and provides quick reporting and charting functionality for users.
Health
Health
Regional / Local
NAMI Texas Of North Central Region - The vision of NAMI Texas of North Central Region is to ensure acceptance of and treatment for all those with mental illness to facilitate recovery.
North Central Texas Aging and Disability Resource Center - The North Central Texas Aging and Disability Resource Center (NCTADRC) is funded by Texas Health and Human Services and led by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, with support from our many partner agencies. Its purpose is to serve as a resource connection, rather than to provide direct services.
Healthy Community Design Checklist - This checklist can help planners, public health professionals, and the general public include health in the community planning process.
Built Environment Assessment Tool - This tool measures the core features and qualities of the built environment that affect health, especially walking, biking, and other types of physical activity.
Transportation Health Impact Assessment Toolkit - This toolkit provides a framework for public health departments, city planners, project managers, and other stakeholders to conduct HIAs on proposed transportation projects, plans, and policies.
Parks and Trails Health Impact Assessment Toolkit - This toolkit can assist in the development of HIAs with park and trail components. It provides a framework for public health departments, city planners, project managers, and other stakeholders to work together.
County Health Rankings - The annual Rankings provide a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work, and play.
HealthData.gov - This site is dedicated to making high value health data in the United States more accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.
Regional Ecosystem
Regional Ecosystem
Regional / Local
Regional Ecosystem Framework - NCTCOG created the Regional Ecosystem Framework Interactive Viewer to share the REF layers and other pertinent environmental layers with transportation and resource agency partners. The interactive tool allows users to overlay REF ecological data with additional spatial data relevant to efforts to conserve natural areas or mitigate the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects.
Air quality - North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) works in cooperation with federal, state, and local partners to ensure all air quality requirements are met. NCTCOG strives to achieve attainment of the ozone NAAQS as early as possible and contributes to a better quality of life for all North Texans.
Air Quality Handbook, published spring 2020, is an overview of air quality and the programs being implemented.
Planning and Environmental Linkages - Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) represent a collaborative and integrated approach to transportation decision making that considers environmental, community, and economic goals early in the planning stage and carries them through project development, design, and construction.
Green infrastructure - NCTCOG promotes the planning and construction of green or sustainable infrastructure in the region to help reduce carbon emissions, urban heat islands, and stormwater runoff. Types of green infrastructure include LED and solar lighting, permeable pavement, “cool” pavement, bio-retention drainage areas, and shade trees
Permittee Responsible Mitigation Database - allows permit applicants to connect with willing landowners to conduct permittee responsible mitigation for impacts related to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The database serves the area of the Fort Worth District of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Regional Solid Waste Management Plan - The updated plan included the goals of the regional solid waste advisory committee – the Resource Conservation Council and recommendations and actions to achieve greater impacts and address emerging trends FROM 2015-2040.
Texas Water Quality Management Plan - The quality of water in North Texas water bodies is important to the health, safety, and welfare of residents, ecosystems, and long-term economic growth.
NCTCOG Region Watershed Protection Plans - A Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) is a coordinated framework for implementing water quality protection and restoration strategies within a watershed.
State
The Trust for Public Land - Creates parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Every park, playground, and public space we create is an open invitation to explore, wonder, discover, and play.
Texas AgriLife Extension - Through the application of science-based knowledge, Texas AgriLife Extension create high-quality, relevant continuing education that encourages lasting and effective change.
Texas Parks and Wildlife - The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is a Texas state agency that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitats. In addition, the agency is responsible for managing the state's parks and historical areas.
National
CropScape - CropScape displays data from the USDA Cropland Data Layer (CDL), an annual, remote-sensing snapshot of crop cover during the main growing season across the contiguous United States.
EnviroAtlas - EnviroAtlas is a collection of interactive tools and resources that allows users to explore the many benefits people receive from nature, often referred to as ecosystem services within the United States.
National Hydrography - The NHDPlus High Resolution (NHDPlus HR), National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), and Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) are available for download and as map services. These datasets can help inform environmental planning and storm water management efforts in the US.
NLCD - The National Land Cover Database is generated in cooperation with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC), a partnership of Federal agencies working together to produce current, nationally consistent, land cover products for all 50 US states and Puerto Rico.
National Wetland Inventory - The US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is a publicly available resource that provides detailed information on the abundance, characteristics, and distribution of US wetlands.
Park Score - The Trust for Public Land curates a comprehensive evaluation of park access and quality in the 100 largest U.S. cities.
Tree Canopy - The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Geospatial Technology and Applications Center (GTAC) builds and maintains tree canopy cover (TCC) datasets.
Sea Level Rise Viewer - NOAA provided map viewer is to provide federal, state, and local coastal resource managers and planners with a preliminary look at sea level rise and coastal flooding impacts.
Earth Quake Data - NOAA provided data includes a global record of significant earth quakes going back to 2150 BC to present with geographic information.
National Risk Index - The National Risk Index is an online mapping application from FEMA that identifies communities most at risk to 18 natural hazards.
HIFLD - This site provides National foundation-level geospatial data within the open public domain that can be useful to support community preparedness, resiliency, research, and more.
iTree - Quantifies the benefits and values of trees around the world. Is based on peer-reviewed, USDA Forest Service Research.
HAZUS - FEMA's Hazus Program provides standardized tools and data for estimating risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Risk assessment resources and tools from the Hazus program are always freely available and transparently developed.
Temperate - This user-friendly tool was developed by Azavea in partnership with ICLEI USA, with the primary purpose of facilitating a data-informed adaptation planning process in small-to-midsize communities with little to no devoted resources to plan for climate change impacts.
Other
Other
General / Informational Websites and Tools
Local Government Assistance - DCA provides services and programs that help local governments create quality communities. These include technical assistance, capacity development, best practice identification and implementation in areas such as local government planning, incorporating volunteerism, and downtown development, as well as wise resource management and conservation. Also, DCA provides significant research and survey assistance to local governments and is responsible for Georgia’s building and construction codes. GA Department of Community Affairs
Atlanta Regional Commission – This site contains a collection of plans and reports ranging from regional resource plans, transportation plans, and stormwater management plans.
What is “Creative Placemaking”? - Factsheet from American Planning Association that introduces creative placemaking concepts and provides short articles that define the use of arts and culture in community spaces.