As a city founded at the intersection of two bayous, when it rains in Houston, streets are often awash. Sidewalks provide critical travel options for pedestrians and people with disabilities within the public right-of-way (ROW); they’re the connective tissue in a typical community. If there are no curbed sidewalks, people with mobility limitations are pretty much stuck if it floods. In Houston, that’s on and off for six rainy months!

The new “Citywide Toolkit and Resilient Community Sidewalks Plans.” Focus on two communities that have experienced underinvestment—Gulfton and Kashmere Gardens—but offer solutions that are replicable for streets throughout Houston. The Plans meet six main goals:

1. Create a safe, reliable and equitable pedestrian network
2. Address flooding and conflicts between drainage and accessibility
3. Provide recommendations that incorporate multiple benefits
4. Develop scalable and replicable solutions that can apply across neighborhoods citywide
5. Build on past and concurrent citywide efforts
6. Identify funding, implementation and maintenance strategies

The Plans include drainage and flood mitigation elements (stormwater planters, bioswales, permeable paving, rain gardens and landscaped drainage channels), sidewalk and pedestrian improvements (wider, raised and/or buffered ADA-compliant sidewalks, bike facilities, enhanced crosswalks and lighting), and community identity elements (edible landscapes, fruit trees, community art, and wayfinding).

The Plans also include maps showing where and what types of short-term and long-term improvements could be made in each community, based on the existing conditions on each type of street. City staff, developers, community members and partner agencies will use the scalable and replicable elements as a guide for selecting the most appropriate sidewalk and drainage solutions for both existing and new streets—creating a “resilient pedestrian network” throughout Houston. 

Winner of a 2023 Planning Achievement - Gold Award in Resilience from the Texas chapter of the American Planning Association.