The Resilient Communities Scorecard helps Vermont communities assess their resilience to the growing threat of community disruption caused by climate change and energy scarcity, among other challenges.
The Scorecard focuses on key areas including land use, transportation, energy, and healthy community design. Knowing where your community stands is a first step toward developing goals, action steps, and investment strategies that build or reinforce resilience. This tool builds on the original Smart Growth Scorecard, which assessed how well municipalities were prepared for the pressures of changing settlement patterns, especially sprawl. The updated tool will help communities address today’s difficult challenges – like incremental and scattered development, rising energy costs, and climate change – and help position them to meet those challenges.
The Resilient Communities Scorecard is made up of 12 checklists on topics ranging from energy to land use to business development. Each checklist has a series of questions that when answered, create a “score” for each topic.
The Scorecard can be used by different groups, including the local planning commission, or other local officials, for their own guidance; community leaders, to prepare for public meetings or planning sessions; citizens interested in public involvement in planning and decision-making; community and interest groups or the media. Note: the table on page 3 of the Scorecard provides more information about when and how to use it.
Work with a diverse group of community members to complete the Scorecard’s checklists. (Do your best: the answers don’t need to be perfect!) Even though some questions will not apply to all communities, thinking through the various issues raised can help shape your community’s vision for its future.
Then, score your community. Your scores will tell you how resilient your community is, and steps you can take to become more resilient. Once you have identified specific issues on which you plan to focus, you can refer to the Scorecard’s reference section, and to other tools in this Toolbox, for ideas.
Below, find the individual checklists broken out by topic:
- Vibrant, Compact Communities
- Transportation Options
- Environment and Natural Resources
- Historic Features and Open Space
- Physical Activity and Food Access
- Farms and Forests
- Business Development
- Energy Planning
- Energy Efficiency and Conservation
- Renewable Energy
- Community Engagement
Related Case Studies
Smart Growth Scorecard-Waterbury