Water Wise Convening

BUENA VISTA, CO

SEPTEMBER 21 & 22, 2026

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THE MISSION OF THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE��Shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide

MISSION COMMITMENTS

CONNECT active, passionate, diverse members through the foremost global network of interdisciplinary professionals 

INSPIRE best practices for equitable and sustainable land use through content, education, convening, mentoring, and knowledge sharing 

LEAD in solving community and real estate challenges through applied collective global experience and philanthropic engagement 

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ULI’s Water Wise Initiative

ULI’s Water Wise Initiative provides guidance to both the private and public sectors on best practices in water-wise land use and offers opportunities for greater collaboration, knowledge sharing, and joint action to catalyze effective policies and market uptake of water-wise strategies. 

Supporting Water-Smart Built Environments with Cross-Sector Collaboration 

Water Wise Roundtables

• 4 roundtables in Colorado communities over the next three years.
• Convene public and private sector leaders to address issues at the intersection of water conservation and real estate development / planning.
• Support Colorado municipalities with their water wise journey with input from cross-sector land use and water conservation professionals.

Supporting Water-Smart Built Environments with Cross-Sector Collaboration 

ULI Project Team

Selected for their subject matter expertise to provide objective, volunteer recommendations

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4

Deryn Davidson

Sustainable Landscape

State Specialist

CSU Extension

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Brian Levitt

CEO

NAVA Real Estate

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Darren Nowels

Water Efficiency Department Manager

Northern Water

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Rick Schultz

Water Efficiency Supervisor

Castle Rock Water

Suzanne Serna

Landscape Architect

Stantec

Amy Cara

Managing Partner

East West Partners

Panelists

ULI Staff

Victoria Oestreich

Director, Advisory Services

Urban Land Institute

Amit Smotrich

Director, Urban Resilience

Urban Land Institute

Questions for the Panel

Implementing the Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan

How should Buena Vista update its development code to advance the goals of the Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan?

Water-Wise Landscaping

How should Buena Vista update its landscape regulations and Planting Guide?

Conservation-Oriented Water Management

What conservation tools have proven most effective in other communities?

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What the Panel Heard & Observed

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Community Roundtable Discussions

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Community-informed SWOT Analysis

Weaknesses

1. Turnover within departments has resulted in a perceived loss of institutional knowledge
2. There is a general lack of understanding about where the town's water comes from, how much there is, why conservation policies are being implemented and if the requirements are being universally (and fairly) applied
3. A limited workforce to address Town's conservation. maintenance and landscaping needs
4. Lack of affordable housing, plant availability

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Strengths

1. Dedicated community and government interested in finding mutually beneficial solutions to address the low-water realities in BV
2. Water management and repairs investments in Summer 2026 worked! (Implemented watering schedule, 15 point decreased water loss)
3. BV is small enough to make big changes
4. Water is already part of the town's identity and business model

Opportunities

1. General and tailored education around foundational water conservation concepts and needs in BV
2. Multiple opportunities via public buildings, community land, commercial areas can lead by example, providing proving grounds for new landscaping demonstration, educational opportunities
3. Other towns and counties can provide examples, resources, partnerships
4. Transparency and better communication with residents, business owners, and developers can improve conservation commitment
5. Strong, coordinated messaging can reach multiple population segments simultaneously

Threats

1. Continuing drought
2. Inconsistency of snowpack (and reliance on snowpack)
3. Perception BV is "closed" to development because of limited tap availability

Landscaping

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How should BV update its landscape regulations and Plant Guide?

• Current input is not in balance with available resources
• Reduce irrigation demand
• Increase landscape performance
• Enhance the overall character of BV through beautification and environmentally responsive landscapes

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WHY

The Whole System

How should BV update its landscape regulations and Plant Guide?

• Leverage local and regional partnerships and resources to develop a regionally appropriate plant list
• Local nurseries/growers
• Western Native Seed (Cotopaxi, CO)
• CSU Extension, Chaffee County (Salida)
• CoNPS Chapter (local chapter)

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WHAT

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How should BV update its landscape regulations and Plant Guide?

• Public campaign for community support, adoption, and maintenance
• BVScapes = designing, planting, and maintaining resilient landscapes of BV
• A hyper-local comprehensive framework for BV guiding property owners, developers and land managers through the design, installation, and stewardship of waterwise ecologically resilient landscapes to strengthen the character of the community.

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WHAT

Blue grama ‘Blond Ambition’

Chocolate daisy

Big tooth maple

Little bluestem

Apache plume

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How should BV update its landscape regulations and Plant Guide?

• Ensure alignment between trustees and community campaign committee
• Install demonstration gardens of various scales
• Trained workforce (QWEL + ColoradoScaping)
• Conservation Coordinator
• Empower the community to carry forward the stewardship of the town’s publicly managed landscapes
• Get creative with funding
• GOCO grants
• CWCB – Colorado Water Plan Grant
• Water Now Alliance
• Colorado Garden Foundation

HOW

Education and Communication Campaign

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• Please keep divider titles short and to the point. Using the same titles as on the agenda will help guide audiences.
• There are two other photo options for divider slides in “Layout”.

Education and Communications Campaign

• There isn’t a common framework in BV for water conservation. To have that, we all have to understand our water supply and demand.

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• Where does our water come from?
• What impacts our water supply – both controllable and non-controllable impacts
• How do access it?
• How do we store it?

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• Why is it important to conserve?

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What, Why and How?

Education and Communications Campaign

• BV has an incredibly strong brand, based on strong community pride.

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• There are a lot of resources available, but people don’t know where to look.

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• A communications person could really help to package this information into fun and digestible resources on multiple platforms.

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• This could get the message out in a way that meets the community where it is, to help educate and motivate the community to be part of the solution.
• Social media
• Mid-length instructional videos (less than 15 minutes)
• Website
• Demonstration gardens

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Getting the Word Out

Education and Communications Campaign

• There’s already a city website and MyBV.
• Dedicated water page.
• Build out a full water journey in a digestible way. How does BV get its water? Who uses it and what impacts supply and demand?
• Provide regular content around current status of supply, water projects, progress toward goals, etc.
• Add video content
• How to “Coloradoscape”, or more specifically BVScape for great results
• Show the process of conversion of turf on town property to BVScape
• How can you select water wise species?
• What are the key tips for maintenance, like how to best water trees?
• Social media - fun pieces that are either short videos or quick comments that explain how water works, what helps and so on.
• Look to National Parks Service, Denver Parks and Rec, Denver Water and others for fun ways to share this information in a way that inspires and is memorable, as opposed to scolding

Social Media and Video Content

Education and Communications Campaign

• BV controls a great deal of very visible open space.

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• How can some of the turf in these locations be converted into successful BVScape? Use this as an information tool:
• Pollinator impacts
• Species information
• Planting techniques (groupings)
• Mulch techniques
• Maintenance ideas

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• Shows how these can not only be waterwise but also beautiful, textural and great in all seasons.

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Demonstration Gardens

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Education and Communications Campaign

• Development Teams have a different lens and different things to consider. They are starting literally from below ground… up.

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• Add a section at the beginning of the code that talks about water supply in BV to set expectations.
• How do water allocations work?
• What are the impacts of demand and what are town expectations?
• Address in advance the cost to hold unused water allocations.
• Consider fairness and transparency concerns.

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Tailored Resources for Different Audiences – Development Community

Development Codes and Standards

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Developing Development Code & Standards (for Developers)

• Development Teams Want the Facts
• Transparency, Reasonableness, Consistency
• With this, teams will be more willing to contribute their share to the solution

• Development Teams Want Choices
• Not all projects are the same
• Multiple paths are favored

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• Development Teams Want Incentives
• Meeting Code is the requirement
• Exceeding Code should be the goal
• Incentives can encourage overachievement

Creating the formula for success with our development communities

Developing Development Code & Standards (Municipality)

• Development Teams Want the Facts
• Landscape and Irrigation Criteria Manual
• Plan / development, submittal, review, & approval
• Construction / inspections
• Maintenance
• Water Use Management plan
• Management
• Enforcement
• Development Teams Want Choices
• Criteria provides minimum requirements and allow for flexibility
• Design elements and character can be tailored to reflect community character
• Development Teams Want Incentives
• Tax incentives
• Reduced system development fees

Creating the formula for success with our development communities

Developing Development Code & Standards (for Developers)

• Development teams face real challenges
• Cost for land, buildings, labor & materials
• Cost of capital, cost to acquire customers
• Limited resources despite MANY wishes

• Development teams succeed when goals and needs are in balance
• Goal of Town: achieve conservation through regulation which costs money
• Goal of developer: have flexibility to mitigate regulation costs to meet market demand

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• Incentives provide paths for development teams to achieve Town goals
• Code instills fear, while Incentives instill passion
• Propose SITES/LEED/WELL scorecard to qualify for incentives
• Provide recognition to teams who go above and beyond to maintain BV’s natural beauty

Creating the formula for success with our development communities

Developing Development Code & Standards (Municipality)

• Landscape and Irrigation Criteria Manual
• Smart controllers
• Master valves
• Flow sensors
• Rain sensors
• Landscape and hardscape material requirements
• Minimum plant quantities
• Hydro-zone 1 or 2 (10” of water per season)

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• Development Teams Want Choices
• Plant list for design
• Plant finder for residential
• Maintenance vs management

Creating the formula for success with our development communities

Conservation-Oriented Water Management

SLIDE TIPS

• Please keep divider titles short and to the point. Using the same titles as on the agenda will help guide audiences.
• There are two other photo options for divider slides in “Layout”.

Benefits of Conservation Based Rate Structure and Tap Fees

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Conservation Oriented Water Rate Structures

• Recommended in 2025 Water Efficiency Plan
• Rate study currently underway
• Different options for structure
• Inclining block rates are most common
• Fixed base rate to cover operating costs
• Different rates for Commercial and Residential

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Credit: Colorado Water Wise

Credit: Glenwood Springs

Water Budget Based Rate Structure

• Based on the irrigable area and the projected water use per property
• More involved to implement
• More rare
• Can be more fair and consistent

Credit: Castle Rock Water

Conservation Based Tap Fees

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Recommendation for Drought Plan and Surcharges

• Different tiers and triggers
• Advanced watering restrictions beyond 3 days/week
• Drought surcharges
• Need for enforcement and penalties

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Credit: Fort Collins Utilities

ULI Water Wise

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• To insert an image, drag a photo into the placeholder, or use the button within the placeholder to browse for your image.
• The image should be black and white, but low contrast colour images can work as well.

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• To insert an image, drag a photo into the placeholder, or use the button within the placeholder to browse for your image.
• The image should be black and white, but low contrast colour images can work as well.