Amanda Torres plans with resilience in mind following her partnership with Texas A&M’s Texas Target Communities

Amanda Torres, MPA, CFM

Senior City Planner,
City of Corpus Christi – Planning Division, Texas
AmandaT@cctexas.com

Favorite Place

My favorite places around Corpus Christi and Rockport are its bayfront areas. Both are iconic places loved by locals and tourists alike. Who doesn’t love a water view?

How did you first learn about EPIC-N?

I learned about EPIC-N through my interaction with Texas Target Communities at Texas A&M University.

Describe your first interaction with a school community partnership project

I worked with Texas A&M University’s Texas Target Communities while I was at the City of Rockport. Under their leadership and guidance, we developed an update to the City’s comprehensive plan. The plan had not been updated in nearly twenty years. We incorporated multiple sub-projects, including a survey of high school students, a downtown report, a green infrastructure guide, and the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard exercise. The PIRS exercise helped us identify areas and policies that should be changed to promote resilience within our community, which was timely given that our community had recently been impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The experience with TAMU has helped guide Rockport, as well as my own planning philosophy, plan with resilience in mind.

In what ways are you looking to engage, or work with others, either from within the EPIC-Network, or in general?

I would love to partner with the EPIC-Network on more community projects incorporating resilience into our land use planning.

What are some of the top priorities you are working on this year?

In my new position at the City of Corpus Christi, we are working on various long-range planning projects such as an area development plan and a parks mitigation plan related to our new Harbor Bridge construction.

What are you hoping attendees will take with them after attending your presentation?

I hope that my presentation will give a solid example of how partnership with a EPIC-N affiliated program benefited my community for the better and would also encourage attendees to look for ways to incorporate resilience into land use planning. Register for the webinar featuring Amanda.