HIGHLIGHTS

• The NIST Planning Guide 

served as the framework 

for defining time-torecovery goals for critical 

infrastructure systems 

and facilities used in 

the resilient design 

performance standard.

• Organizing the built 

environment into clusters 

provided a basis for 

developing an estimate of 

how to prioritize systems 

and facilities for recovery. 

• City of Longmont will be 

the first community in 

Boulder County to apply 

the resilience standard to 

routine capital projects. 

STAKEHOLDER QUOTE

“The standard can leverage every 

capital project as an opportunity to 

incrementally move Boulder County 

towards a more resilient future.”

- Molly O’Donnell

Boulder County Collaborative

Planner & Project Manager

NIST COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

PLANNING GUIDE SUCCESS STORY

Colorado experienced severe flooding in 2013 that affected communities in 24 

counties. Following that event, Colorado initiated a statewide effort to improve 

resilience to natural hazards. A coalition of state agencies came together with over 

150 federal and state stakeholders to develop the Colorado Resiliency Framework. 

The Boulder County Collaborative (BCC), a cooperative group consisting of Boulder 

County and four cities and three towns within it, formed to direct federal recovery 

funding from HUD to the most pressing housing and infrastructure needs in the 

county. HUD’s CDBG-DR funding support for infrastructure projects required BCC 

to develop and implement resilience performance standards for all projects seeking 

funding. No such performance standards existed to assure that the funds would be 

used to “build-back-better,” requiring such a standard to be developed.

BCC used the Guide along with the Colorado Resiliency Framework as a basis for 

developing the Resilient Design Performance Standard. The first step was to apply 

the Guide’s steps 1, 2, and 3 to establish countywide performance goals for hazards 

and all building clusters and supporting infrastructure systems through a series 

of stakeholder workshops and a separate utility providers’ workshop. These were 

summarized in the Guide performance tables and then reviewed and modified based 

on input from individual focus groups representing the four major cities, three towns, 

and the unincorporated area of the county, as well as stakeholders that represented 

cross-jurisdictional interests. A scoring system based on the state framework and the 

performance tables was then developed and used along with other metrics to rate, 

qualify, and prioritize individual reconstruction projects.

Boulder County developed a Resilience Design Performance Standard in 2016. 

This Performance Standard allows the communities in the county to define longterm recovery goals to specific hazards. These goals are the basis for incorporating 

resilience into the design of building and supporting infrastructure systems which will 

be better poised to withstand future shocks and stresses and recover more quickly. 

To date, the process, which also includes a comprehensive risk assessment and 

prefers utilization of green infrastructure, has justified HUD funding for housing and 

infrastructure projects that total just over $121 million.

BOULDER COUNTY COLLABORATIVE, COLORADO

SITUATION

PROCESS

RESULTS
CONTACT INFO/RESOURCES

When communities decide to become 

more resilient, they need an approach 

that helps them identify and prioritize 

options consistent with their goals. 

The National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST) Community Resilience 

Planning Guide for Buildings and Physical 

Infrastructure Systems helps communities 

do just that, by focusing on the role 

of the built environment in enabling 

the community to rapidly recover from 

disruption. It provides a clear 

process for communities to better 

prepare for the future. 

• The NIST Planning Guide provided a framework that could be combined 

with the Colorado State Resiliency Framework and presented in a manner 

that could be communicated to stakeholders and grant recipients.

• Using the Guide’s return-to-function goals allowed people and 

communities to choose their own future and use an adaptive approach to 

complex and rapidly changing demands on infrastructure beginning at the 

county level and then translated to the needs of local jurisdictions.

• By working with engineers and design professionals, the standard was 

developed to add an acceptable resilience lens to projects, not require a 

completely novel process. 

• Using time to recovery of function provided in the NIST Guide allows 

Boulder County to understand its gaps and enables designers flexibility in 

choosing the best solutions to close those gaps.

• Every capital project can be leveraged to incrementally move Boulder 

County toward a more resilient future. 

The Collaborative is currently implementing the process to qualify the last set of 

projects for Round 3 funding. Communities within the county are considering 

using the resilience performance standard for their other capital projects. The 

City of Longmont will be the first community to apply the standard along with 

their sustainability checklist to locally funded capital improvement projects. 

In addition, performance goals that were set for the county are available for 

incorporation into the county plans and could provide the basis for integrating 

resilience planning. Application of the performance goals outside of the funding 

process is left to the individual jurisdictions. Each may tailor the goals to suit 

their own situation and needs.

Community Contact

Molly O’Donnell 

Resiliency Environmental Planner & Project Manager, 

CDBG-DR Infrastructure Program

Boulder County Collaborative

http://www.bccollaborative.org/

NIST Community Resilience Program

https://www.nist.gov/topics/community-resilience

NIST Contact

resilience@nist.gov

WHAT’S NEXT?

NIST PLANNING GUIDE LESSONS LEARNED

AUGUST 2018

FORM A

COLLABORATIVE 

PLANNING 

TEAM

UNDERSTAND 

THE 

SITUATION

DETERMINE 

GOALS & 

OBJECTIVES

PLAN 

DEVELOPMENT 

PLAN

PREPARATION,

REVIEW &

APPROVAL

PLAN 

IMPLEMENTATION 

& MAINTENANCE

1

2

4

6

3

5

SIX-STEP PLANNING PROCESS