Site plan for the Union Street Development by Habitat for Humanity Bay Waveland, a Renaissance Builder & Developer Guild Endorsed project.

RENAISSANCE BUILDER & DEVELOPER GUILD

We are proud to count the Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation as one if its partners in the region. Our partnership is focused on improving the quality of residential and mixed-use development in the region through a variety of initiatives.

Our centerpiece initiative has been the Renaissance Builder & Developer Guild, a program that provides gap financing and marketing assistance for affordable housing projects that meet a set of high, yet attainable development standards that evaluate the environmental impact and design quality of a project’s location, program, site plan, and building design. We develop these standards in keeping with the following guiding principles:

  1. Create a range of housing types and affordable price levels.
  2. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.
  3. Encourage developments that strengthen existing communities.
  4. Mix land uses.
  5. Create walkable neighborhoods.
  6. Encourage public and private collaborations shaped by community and stakeholder participation.
  7. Make development decisions predictable, fair, sustainable, and cost effective.
  8. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas.
  9. Consider transportation needs and encourage a variety of transportation options.
  10. Take advantage of compact building design.
  11. Create development sites with low environmental impact.
  12. Create energy efficient buildings incorporating Energy Star or greater standards.
  13. Create healthy living spaces.

To write the standards for the Guild program, we draw on the work of the Smart Growth Network, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the US Green Building Council which, in conjunction with the National Resources Defense Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism, has led the way in popularizing sustainable development standards in the United States through its various Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED rating programs. The Renaissance Corporation and the GCCDS are committed to improving the standards as the state of the art of sustainable development improves and as they gain more experience in applying the Development Standards across the Gulf Coast.

Our partnership with the Renaissance Corporation has also given us opportunities to provide gratis design assistance to affordable housing developers as they work through pre-development and regulatory approval, and through Renaissance-sponsored forums, we have had multiple opportunities to speak about design issues to other non-profits and government officials in the region.

Together we continue to look for new initiatives and support that will provide high-quality development assistance to the communities of the Gulf Coast.