Sustainable City Network Magazine - Vol. 13 - Oct. 2014

BEST PRACTICES FOR LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE.

SUSTAINABLE CITY NETWORK

VOLUME 13 OCTOBER 2014

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11 PARKLETS: GREENING PUBLIC SPACES 21 URBAN SPRAWL AND WHAT IT MEANS 27 HOMEGROWN LOCAL FOODS

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contents

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VOLUME 13 OCTOBER 2014

Pervious Pavement Relieves Stormwater Woes

11

Parklets: From Pavement to Public Spaces

13

Financing Green Infrastructure Projects

16

Where America is Sprawling and What It Means

23

U.S. Urban Forests Under Attack

25

Mice Implicated in Surge of Lyme Disease

29

cover story

BALTIMORE TAKES PROACTIVE STEPS TOWARD RESILIENCY Cover photo Š2014 iStockphoto LP

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Roundabouts Are Really Getting Around [1]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

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Jeffrey F. Bullock, Ph.D. President University of Dubuque

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Prof. Philip J. Parker, Ph.D., P.E. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin - Platteville

PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Randy Rodgers ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andrea Hauser Michael Manning BUSINESS MANAGER Linda Flannery CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Julianne Couch F. Alan Shirk Michelle Volkmann Smart Growth America The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Cori Burbach Sustainability Coordinator City of Dubuque Jeffrey L. Bruce Owner Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, LLC Scott Knapp VP Marketing A.Y. McDonald Mfg. Co. David Lyons President The Iowa Institute

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION MANAGER Hobie Wood Unless otherwise noted, all images used throughout Š 2014 Ingimage, all rights reserved.

Sustainable City Network, Inc. 801 Bluff Street Dubuque, Iowa 52001 Printed on recycled paper [2]

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Bob Settle Vice President, Marketing Crescent Electric Supply Company Barry Shear CEO Eagle Point Solar Cindy Steinhauser Asst. City Manager City of Dubuque Scott Taylor President & CEO CarteGraph

from the editor Welcome to Sustainable City Network Magazine – the Best of sCityNetwork.com! This quarterly magazine is a compilation of the most popular articles on our web site and in our email newsletter, the InBox, which is delivered to more than 40,000 leaders in government, education and healthcare across the U.S. and Canada. Sustainable City Network produces advertiser-supported, non-partisan articles, webinars, trade shows and white papers that provide local institutions with quality, organized and timely information about sustainability projects, plans and best practices. This magazine is another way we fulfill our mission.

Randy Rodgers Publisher & Executive Editor SUSTAINABLE CITY NETWORK www.sCityNetwork.com 801 Bluff Street Dubuque, IA 52001 563.588.3853 randy@scitynetwork.com

OUR MISSION “To make U.S. cities more sustainable through quality and well-organized information.”

In this issue, we continue our Leaderboard Series with a profile of Baltimore, Md., a progressive city that is taking climate change very seriously. After getting battered by the 7.5- foot storm surge of Hurricane Isabelle in 2003 and narrowly missing the brunt of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the city is taking decisive action to protect itself from future storms. (Computer models indicated a direct hit by Sandy would have pummeled Baltimore’s coastline with a 20-foot surge.)

In our cover story, you’ll meet Beth Strommen, Baltimore’s sustainability director, and key members of her staff as we showcase the many innovative strategies they’ve developed over the past six years in focus areas that include a climate action plan, disaster preparedness, urban agriculture, forest conservation, green infrastructure, local foods, green building and community outreach.

In other top stories: Pervious pavement - either concrete, asphalt or pavers – can turn a parking lot into a stormwater management system in no time. We’ll show you how to pick the right materials and explain how to apply and maintain it for years to come. On P. 11, learn about “parklets,” a new concept in urban street design that gives pedestrians a place to relax amid all the hustle and bustle of a busy downtown.

Other articles in this issue focus on financing green infrastructure; the growing popularity of roundabouts; the connection between urban sprawl and public health; the struggle to protect urban forests; how to encourage residential gardening; and the results of some recent research on Lyme disease that might help protect your community from this growing threat.

The articles in this magazine have been selected by our readers. We’ve packaged them together in this convenient magazine format, available as a digital download or in print at sCityNetwork.com/Bestof.

We hope you find value inside.

The U.S. Leader in Sustainability News & Information Best Practices for Leaders in Government, Education and Healthcare [3]

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BALTIMORE TAKES PROACTIVE STEPS TOWARD RESILIENCY MULTI-FACETED APPROACH BUILDS SUSTAINABILITY AND TAKES ON CLIMATE CHANGE

BY RANDY RODGERS, PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR

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Like many cities, Baltimore’s water and sewer infrastructure is ill prepared to handle the impacts of rising seas and super storms.

A BBY COCKE

A LICE KENNEDY

Two hundred years ago, the city of Baltimore survived a 25-hour assault emanating from Chesapeake Bay – a dramatic scene immortalized

by Francis Scott Key as he penned a poem that would later become America’s national anthem. But today, it isn’t the threat of British war ships keeping city leaders up at night. It’s the bay itself.

When Hurricane Isabel hit in 2003, the city was not prepared for the 7-1/2 foot storm surge that flooded thousands of homes and buildings, including the city’s police department, which lost a substantial number of important files stored in the basement, said Kristin Baja, a climate and resilience planner in Baltimore’s Office of Sustainability.

The flooding also destroyed the mechanical and electrical systems in numerous buildings, including the city’s World Trade Center, which was shut down for a month after the storm.

While Isabel was a wake-up call, Baja said authorities in Baltimore know things could have been much worse.

“We were very lucky that Hurricane Sandy didn’t turn inland sooner,” she said. “That would have been a much bigger impact for us. There was some modeling done by FEMA that showed the storm surge of Sandy in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., would have been over 20 feet high. So, we were all kind of shocked into this new reality that we need to start planning to make our coastal infrastructure a lot more resilient.”

K RIST IN BAJA

Hurricanes aren’t the only threat. Baja said two recent thunderstorms made national news when flooding caused massive damage in the Jones Falls watershed in Baltimore County. “We’ve seen a lot more impacts just in this past year from heavy, heavy cloud bursts… and we’re anticipating, with global warming, that we’re going to see a lot

more of these heavy precipitation events,” she said.

Like many cities, Baltimore’s water and sewer infrastructure is ill prepared to handle the impacts of rising seas and super storms, Baja said, and shoring up these vulnerabilities is a critical need.

Baltimore’s Office of Sustainability is an arm of the city’s planning department. It was created in 2009 by a 21-member Commission on Sustainability, an appointed board that created and oversees the city’s Sustainability Plan, according to Sustainability Director Beth Strommen.

In the beginning, the office had a staff of one – Strommen – supported by 45 colleagues in the planning department. But, gradually, the sustainability office has grown to a staff of 11, and Strommen said the organizational structure of her department has a number of unique advantages. First, because it’s part of the planning department, it has a voice in capital improvement decisions and is an integral part of the planning process. Secondly, members of the citizen commission that oversees the office were required to go through an application process, something the city had never done with appointed commissions before.

“We advertised the seats on the commission in the same way you would advertise a job,” she said. “We invited anyone who wanted to be on the commission to submit their résumé, and we got 75 résumés for the 21 slots. So, we were able to create a commission with an incredibly broad mix of skill sets within the realm of sustainability.”

Members of the commission represent environmental groups, community organizations, labor unions, public health and environmental justice interests, and private industry. Two of the members don’t even live in Baltimore, Strommen said. “Their skill sets were more important than worrying about whether they lived here or not,” she said.

Work on the sustainability plan took eight months and engaged more than 1,000 citizens in 62 town hall meetings. The result was a plan that established 29 goals within seven general themes: Cleanliness, Pollution Prevention, Resource Conservation, Greening, Transportation, Education & Awareness, and Green Economy. The plan includes 132 recommended strategies for accomplishing the goals, and establishes the short-term, mid-term and long-term objectives of each strategy.

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Work on the sustainability plan has spawned three other guiding documents: • The Climate Action Plan adopted in 2012; • The Disaster Preparedness Project and Plan adopted in 2013; • Homegrown Baltimore, a plan for expanding local foods, urban agriculture and the city’s tree canopy, among other initiatives, adopted in 2013.

Strommen said her department is currently focusing on several major initiatives:

Climate Mitigation In 2012, the Office of Sustainability used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to pay for development of the Climate Action Plan. Using 2010 as a baseline, the plan calls for a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Key mitigation strategies from the Climate Action Plan are:

Energy Savings & Supply • Disclose residential energy bills and energy efficiency improvements at the beginning of the sale or rental process;

• Benchmark and disclose energy performance and improvements of city-owned and privately-owned commercial, industrial and institutional buildings; • Retrofit Baltimore’s street lights for more efficient energy usage; • Conduct outreach for solar installations, to achieve 30 MW of PV installed in total, across all sectors (government, commercial, institutional, multifamily, and residential) by 2020 ; • Promote cool roof installations and other roofing technologies.

Land Use & Transportation • Create high-quality pedestrian- and transit-oriented neighborhoods; • Promote establishment of qualified bike commute reimbursement programs; • Provide alternatives to monthly parking passes; • Develop a pedestrian master plan.

Growing a Green City • Develop a comprehensive recycling plan; • Reduce construction and demolition waste; • Repair water supply infrastructure; • Increase the number of trees planted.

Sustainability Coordinator Alice Kennedy was the lead project manager for the development of the city’s Climate Action Plan.

She also leads the Baltimore Energy Challenge, initiated in 2009, which she described as “a peer-to-peer community-based social marketing program that utilizes energy captains across the city, and junior energy captains in our schools, to engage the general public in education and motivate behavior change around energy conservation.”

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Baltimore’s Cherry Hill People’s Garden grant program helped create this community garden in the city’s impoverished Cherry Hill neighborhood. The neighborhood is considered a “food desert” and its residents experience some of the highest rates of chronic disease in the city, according to officials. Baltimore has launched a variety of initiatives to encourage locally grown, healthy foods in geographically isolated neighborhoods like Cherry Hill. (Photo: City of Baltimore)

Kennedy said 79 percent of Baltimore’s greenhouse gas emissions come from energy use in buildings. So the Baltimore Energy Challenge has gone a long way toward reaching the city’s GHG reduction goals. Energy captains go door to door handing out kits and asking their neighbors to sign an energy conservation pledge.

“We’ve been able to motivate energy savings, on average about five percent just from asking them to do the low-hanging fruit in their homes,” she said.

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“We’re now doing oil to natural gas furnace conversions; we’re offering low-interest loans and grants to non-profits and small businesses, and we’re expanding a loan program for residents as well,” Kennedy said.

Climate Adaptation and Resilience Baja said Baltimore is expanding its disaster preparedness plans to protect the city from natural disasters that are expected to intensify in the future, as opposed to preparing only for the storms of the past.

According to the plan, the following hazards are considered to pose a significant threat to the people of Baltimore: • Flooding • Coastal Hazards- Tropical Storms and Hurricanes, Nor’Easter, Sea Level Rise, and Storm Surge & Coastal Inundation • Precipitation Variability- Precipitation, Winter Storms, Drought, Dam Failure • Extreme Wind- Associated with Storms, Derechos, Tornados • Extreme Heat • Air Quality • Additional Hazards- Earthquakes, Lightning and Hail, Tsunamis

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Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake poses next to the city’s sustainability and resiliency mascot, a sea turtle. City officials chose the turtle, which is native to Chesapeake Bay, because of its resiliency, adaptability and long life expectancy… and because, who doesn’t love a turtle? (Photo: City of Baltimore)

Recently, the Maryland State Public Service Commission awarded Baltimore a $58.2 million grant, which has allowed the city to increase the Energy Challenge budget from about $150,000 a year to $3.5 million annually for the next three years, Kennedy said. The money will help the city provide residents with LED light bulbs, programmable thermostats, smart power strips “and lots of fun goodies,” she said.

The grant will also help Baltimore advance its “cool roof” program in its urban heat islands, and beef up its weatherization program, which will now require low-income participants to attend an educational workshop provided by the city as a prerequisite for receiving program services.

“What we did with the Disaster Preparedness Plan is we took the methodology that FEMA uses for developing an all hazards plan and we took the methodology that ICLEI uses for creating climate adaptation plans and then we combined that with things that have worked already, like the development of our climate action plan, and we put all of these processes together to create the (Disaster Preparedness Plan),” Baja said.

Instead of organizing the plan by hazard, Baltimore structured its plan by four sectors: Infrastructure, Buildings, Natural Systems and Public Services.

Key examples of strategies and actions from the Disaster Preparedness Plan are: • Integrate resiliency, redundancy, and structural stability into the city’s drinking water system to ensure safe and reliable water storage and distribution;

Read about Baltimore’s initiatives at www.baltimoresustainability.org/disaster-preparedness-and-planning-project [8]

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• Protect and enhance the resiliency and redundancy of electricity system; • Strengthen city zoning, floodplain and construction codes to integrate anticipated changes in climate; • Develop and implement hazard protections for critical facilities including hospitals, fire stations, police stations, hazardous material storage sites, etc.; • Create an interconnected network of green spaces to support biodiversity and watershed based water quality management; • Increase and enhance the resilience and health of Baltimore’s urban forest; • Designate community leaders and organizations that can assist and provide support during hazard events; • Integrate climate change and natural hazards planning into all city and community plans.

Environmental Services “Something we do in our office of sustainability that I think is very unique is that we actually do environmental enforcement,” Strommen said. “When you really want to make sustainability happen, you should be able to approve permits and influence development projects. We do that here. We enforce the city’s forest conservation program, the critical area management program and the floodplain program.”

The city’s Critical Area Management program is a set of special regulations intended to protect habitat and water quality within the first 1,000 feet of the shoreline, according to environmental planner Amy Gilder-Busatti. The program establishes special rules to protect trees and encourage the use of green infrastructure to manage stormwater. In some cases, developers who can’t meet the requirements pay an offset fee, which the city uses to install green infrastructure elsewhere in the city. “The waterfront area in Baltimore is pretty much all the most valuable land in the city from a development perspective,” said Gilder-Busatti. “But there’s also an interest in protecting the habitat and environmental quality there. So, that’s part of what makes the critical area regulations so important.”

the Green Pattern Book, a tool used to guide the greening of vacant land by city agencies, NGOs, community-based organizations, and individual residents. It features eight green project types or patterns. The patterns include: • Clean and Green –temporary greened spaces meant as a short-term holding strategy for future redevelopment, whether as new development or one of the other green patterns. “This is going to be about 70 percent of the vacant land,” Guillaume said. “The other 30 percent will be more permanent green space.” she said.

• Urban Agriculture – land leased to urban farmers to grow food commercially.

• Community-Managed Open Space – Vacant lots maintained by a community, non-profit, or more than one household used for vegetable gardens, orchards, pocket parks and small recreational spaces.

• Stormwater Management –Land used to reduce runoff, filter stormwater, and decrease impervious surfaces in order to meet Baltimore’s requirements for improving water quality of our streams and harbors.

• Green Parking – Land that can accommodate neighborhood parking needs while keeping greening and stormwater considerations in mind.

• Urban Forest and Buffer – Trees planted on vacant lots, buffers along railroads and highways, and existing forest patches.

• Neighborhood Park – Permanent public spaces that can be developed for passive and/or active recreation.

• Mixed Greens – Land that can combine a combination of the patterns described above to achieve a greater number of goals.

Local Foods

Another program, called the Growing Green Initiative, is a project of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the EPA and the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Jenny Guillaume coordinates the initiative, which was launched in May.

Abby Cocke is an environmental planner who coordinates Baltimore’s urban agriculture program, designed to help achieve the goals of Homegrown Baltimore. She said one of the first things the city did was pass an ordinance that allowed hoop houses inside city limits without a special permit. Then the city did an inventory of vacate lots that were at least an acre in size, flat and open to the sun, with no short- to mid-term development plans. Finding sites that met the criteria wasn’t easy, Cocke said, but they found several that could be leased to urban farmers who signed five-year agreements to raise food crops on the lots.

Guillaume said one of the resources created by the initiative was

“We’ve signed leases for three acres of land so far at two different

The TreeBaltimore Initiative is a plan to double Baltimore’s tree canopy from 20 to 40 percent by 2037.

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Buzogany said the collaboration will soon release its updated food environment map with data gathered by visiting more than 800 corner markets and convenience stores to inventory the healthy foods available in each one.

“We’re using that map to tailor our food desert retail strategy to increase the quantity and quality of healthy foods in our food deserts and the city in general,” she said.

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The Baltimore Office of Sustainability held a recent event to teach city residents about emergency preparedness.

Residents were provided advice, plans and free emergency kits at the event. (Photo: City of Baltimore)

sites and we have another lease that’s being finalized for an acre and a half, so we’ll have close to five acres under lease by the end of this year,” Cocke said. “The first two sites have been really successful.”

One of the farms is operated by a non-profit group that employs people who are returning from incarceration, she said, so besides providing restaurants with fresh local food; it provides green jobs that fulfill other social services.

The urban agriculture plan adopted in the fall of 2013 resulted in policies on soil safety, exotic animals, and other rules that accommodate community gardens and commercial farms within the city. Strommen said farming is now either a conditional or permitted use in all zones, except heavy industrial.

The Baltimore Food Policy Initiative was launched in 2009 as an intergovernmental collaboration between the Office of Sustainability, the city’s health department and the Baltimore Development Corp., said Food Access Planner Sarah Buzogany.

Directed by Holly Freishtat, the initiative aims to increase access to healthy affordable food in Baltimore’s food deserts.

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Buzogany said the city’s largest farmers’ market is now providing participating farmers with free smart phones to facilitate the processing of credit cards and food-assistance cards. An app on the phone automatically applies matching funds up to $5 when low-income buyers use a food-assistance card.

Green Schools TThe city of Baltimore has a goal to turn every school in the city into a green school, using a state-wide certification standard called the Maryland Green School Awards program. In order to certify, schools must incorporate sustainability into their curricula, school design, teacher training, and student-led best management practices on and around the school grounds. Schools must recertify every four years in order to maintain the designation. The Office of Sustainability provides technical assistance to help schools meet this rigorous standard, and there are currently 22 Baltimore City public schools that have achieved it, up from just 8 in 2009.

“We also offer cold, hard cash,” Cocke said, referring to the city’s Green, Healthy, Smart Challenge grant program launched in 2010.

The grant funds any and all hands-on projects that build student environmental leadership, from schoolyard gardens to school-wide energy audits to green-themed mural and mosaic projects, she said. Individual grants can total up to $2,500 per school per year.

Cocke said 103 different schools – out of the 188 public schools in the city – have received at least one grant from the program, meaning that thousands of students have been engaged in the last five years. n

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Pervious Pavement Relieves Stormwater Woes Diligent Maintenance Key to Keeping Porous Parking Lots Draining for Years

BY MICHELLE VOLKMANN

CHRIST Y MART IN

THO MAS CL AYT ON

Pervious concrete and porous asphalt are two effective construction alternatives for reducing stormwater runoff and preventing pollutants from entering waterways, and experts say more developers should consider using them.

in Overland Park, Kan.

“Really look at what works in other places, but realize that you have to join the green movement. You know you can’t wait forever,” Ghassan Korban said.

One example of an installation done correctly is a 28,000-square-foot porous asphalt lot used for employee parking near a downtown fire station in Golden, Colo. It was installed in 2007 and is one of the oldest porous pavement projects in Colorado. How is this parking lot holding up in a location with snow and ice?

As commissioner of public works for the city of Milwaukee, Korban is committed to making this Wisconsin city the “greenest” in the nation.

Milwaukee received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year to replace street sideways, driveway skirts and alleys with porous pavement.

“Fabulously,” said Thomas Clayton, director of training and member services for the Rocky Mountain Asphalt Education Center.

For public works departments and any business or institution with a parking lot or sidewalk, porous pavement can be a sustainable way to reduce stormwater runoff without creating new retention basins. The catch is that porous pavement has a higher upfront cost and has to be designed, installed and maintained properly to be a viable longterm option.

This is often why it isn’t the first choice for contractors.

In 2011, sCityNetwork.com reported on a case study in the city of Leawood, Kan., where a pervious concrete test was conducted on a parking lot constructed in 2006. The lot is still holding up well and the annual maintenance amounts to sweeping it six to seven times using only the pick-up head with no gutter brooms, said Leawood Public Works Director Joe Johnson, adding that, “I do wish we would have installed an under-drain at the low end to help with draining the water out of the aggregate base. (It) would have helped speed up the process for the water to infiltrate back into the soil.”

On the whole, pervious concrete is a successful product, said Christy Martin, executive director of the Concrete Promotional Group located

“Overall it’s been successful. There is a bad egg here or there,” Martin said, which she attributes to the steep learning curve required for porous pavement. “You have to do it correctly the first time. But that’s the same for anything in construction. If you don’t want to damage it or have to do it again, do it correctly the first time.”

A crucial factor related to the success of that parking lot is the owner’s diligent maintenance. Porous pavement needs to be attentively inspected and cleaned on a regular basis, and more often when debris threatens to clog the porous filtration system.

Martin compared pervious concrete to a “Rice Krispies Treat on steroids” when explaining the need for persistent maintenance.

“When dirt or silt gets on there, it plinkos down to the next layer. It can clog it. The remedy is to remove it by vacuuming,” she said.

This is a key to the long-term success of pervious concrete, but Martin said the long-term maintenance generally, in her opinion, doesn’t happen twice a year as recommended.

“Most people don’t do the maintenance, even if they are told to do it,” she said. “They have the money for construction, but don’t have money for the maintenance. It will still function, just not at 100 percent.”

The lack of attentive maintenance is the reason why Martin recommends pervious concrete for parking lots instead of city sidewalks. The more contact the porous pavement has with dirt and dust, the more opportunities for the system to clog and increase maintenance costs.

“The core of pervious concrete is used for parking lots. You’re not going to want to drive 18 wheelers on it, but it’s great for parking lots for cars,” Martin said, adding that there are test sites around the [ 11 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

that range from Pervious Concrete Technician to Advanced Pervious Concrete Team Certification for Ready Mix Teams. The certification is valid for five years.

“We are trying to get the concepts down and done correctly,” Martin said.

Porous pavement is a benefit in places like Milwaukee, where the city doesn’t have the space to build more retention basins.

“It’s not where it (porous asphalt) is the first thought because of cost and time,” Clayton said. “If you are retrofitting a property, you will look at it. If you want to maximize space and minimize footprint, you will consider the benefits.”

For Korban at the city of Milwaukee, the benefit of being green is a large factor. It outweighs the analysis of unit prices when comparing traditional and porous pavement. n

One common way to use pervious pavement is to create parking strips with porous concrete or asphalt and construct the driving lanes with traditional surfaces. This has the dual advantage of managing stormwater while preventing oils dripped from parked vehicles from running off into local streams. This example is from a Kansas Bioscience Authority parking lot in Olathe, Kan.

world to see if pervious concrete could be expanded to the shoulders of highways. In those tests, it would reduce the chances for vehicles to hydroplane during wet conditions.

Porous asphalt can be used for anything, as long as it is designed with the end in mind, Clayton explained.

“I don’t think one use is better or worse than another if it is designed correctly,” he said. “Think about the end first: When it rains, what’s going to happen?”

Johnson agreed.

“Make sure you are using it in the right application. It works best when the water you are capturing is the water that falls on it,” he said. “Limiting the area of unimproved land draining to it reduces dirt and other debris from clogging the pavement.”

Proper installation and correct flow design were repeatedly emphasized by Martin as attributes necessary for long-term success.

Pervious concrete is a relatively new construction technique and contractors should be certified before installation, she said. The Concrete Promotional Group offers four different levels of certification [ 12 ]

“This is the price of doing business and being progressive for the future,” he said.

Clayton also had advice for city managers, public works officials and developers considering porous asphalt.

“Be very cautious about the design and be very upfront about what they are trying to accomplish. Get buy-in from everyone involved from the mayor, city council, public works department, and make sure everyone understand the long-term costs,” he said. “Look at great examples of where they (porous asphalt) are. Look at what’s working and what’s not.”

Education is another component.

“We have a responsibility to explain what it is and let people know that we spent a lot of money to put this parking lot in to be green,” Clayton said. n Thomas Clayton is director of training and member services for the Rocky Mountain Asphalt Education Center in Centennial, Colo.

Christy Martin is the executive director of Concrete Promotional Group located in Overland Park, Kan. Ghassan Korban is the Milwaukee Commissioner of Public Works.

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Parklets: From Pavement to Public Spaces Tiny Green Spaces Create Respites for Urban Dwellers

BY MICHELLE VOLKMANN

JE NNIF ER WIEL AND

With its temperate weather and steady stream of pedestrians, it’s not surprising that the city of San Francisco conceived and installed the nation’s first parklet in 2010.

Today, less than four years after that original site was opened to residents, the concept of parklets has expanded beyond California, with small-scale public spaces growing in cities around the country.

At first glance, a pedestrian might assume that a parklet is an extension of outdoor seating for a café that spills out into a parking spot in front of that particular restaurant. In fact, parklets are miniature open public spaces that aim to fill park inequalities in mixed-use neighborhoods with a high concentration of foot traffic.

“Parklets provide public accessible areas. They are not an extension of a private dining space. They are not a private right of way,” said Robin Abad Ocubillo, parklet and research lead at the city of San Francisco’s Planning Department. “You don’t have to be a patron of the particular restaurant to enjoy sitting in a parklet, just like any park in San Francisco.”

Besides being the project manager at large for San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks program, Ocubillo is the founding principal of Parklet Studies, a volunteer collaborative focusing on research and evaluation of experimental urban design interventions in the public right-of-way. It’s a website dedicated to sharing and swapping information about parklets from communities around the country.

Experimental urban design is a central component in parklets.

There isn’t a uniform size, shape or purpose. Each one is unique to its location and purpose.

Parklets are “typically created by building a platform on the pavement to extend the sidewalk space, and retrofitting it with benches, planters, tables and chairs, umbrellas and bike racks.

In the case of active recreation parklets, exercise machines can be bolted to the platform,” according to “Reclaiming the Right of Way: A Toolkit for Creating and Implementing Parklets.” The 173page toolkit was created as part of the Complete Streets Initiative,

a joint effort of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, the Luskin Center for Innovation, and the Institute of Transportation Studies in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. The toolkit’s purpose is “to provide city staff and community members with practical guidance to support the development of small-scale parks, called parklets.

“Parklet programs and projects are spreading quickly across the nation, from San Francisco to New York and other cities profiled in the toolkit. This decision-support toolkit is designed specifically to facilitate the development of parklet projects in the city of Los Angeles and encourage a parklet program that creates an institutionalized pathway for their installation. Despite the focus on Los Angeles, the program case studies, project guidelines, and other best practices presented in this toolkit are easily transferable to other communities across the nation,” according to the publication.

Most parklets contain seating and plants to create an inviting micro-park. They typically take the place of one or two parking spots and seamlessly extend from the sidewalk.

“It’s kind of like a deck,” Ocubillo said.

A well-designed parklet will not obstruct street gutters and can withstand wind and rain. Parklets also must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and often can be used for musicians or poets. Every parklet has a host or steward, who has a permit with the city to manage the parklet. This person finances the construction of the parklet and oversees its maintenance and cleanliness.

That’s where the parklet similarities end.

“In San Francisco, there is encouragement for creative design and expression with our parklets,” Ocubillo said. “It’s a unique opportunity to create something beautiful.”

The city of Los Angeles’s Department of Transportation will manage its growing number of parklets through its People Street program.

The city’s first parklet was open to the public in February 2013 and featured mosaic glass tile from a local artist, redwood decking, seating and planters filled with succulents and other droughtresistant plants. [ 13 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

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A parklet outside a Seattle restaurant provides a public space for the public to relax.

This spring, the city launched “Kit of Parts for Parklet,” preapproved parklet models that can be installed in predictable ways. This model helps predict costs for parklet hosts and streamlines the city’s review process.

“People have an idea in their head of a huge structure and that it will block traffic, but then once it is built they call us saying ‘I’ve looked for it and I don’t see it.’ Once we point it out, they say, ‘It fits in quite nicely,’” Wieland said.

Seattle’s pilot parklet program was launched in 2013. Seattle residents approached the city asking for parklets in 2011, but the city didn’t have any development guidelines, said Jennifer Wieland, manager for Seattle’s public space program.

Potential parklet locations must be scrutinized by city employees prior to approval, Ocubillo said. Besides reviewing the location for safety factors, such as driveways and speed limits, successful parklets should be built in areas with a high level of pedestrian activation, Ocubillo said. Ideally the area is a mix of residential and commercial services, both retail and restaurants.

Two parklets have been built and 13 more parklets are in the works.

The parklets are built with private money from a parklet sponsor who applies for the permits through the city. The fundraising website Kickstarter has been a popular avenue to gain donations for the construction of a parklet by community members. The smoke-free parklets are not permanently affixed to the pavement and must post a green sign stating, “Public Parklet, All Seating Open to the Public.”

Prior to parklet installation, some city residents had concerns about the impact of the parklet. [ 14 ]

Parklet application also must contain letters of support from business owners and residents that will surround the proposed area. This community involvement factor is essential for success, Ocubillo said.

“Make sure that everyone in the neighborhood is supportive.

Everyone has their eyes on it. Everyone is invested in seeing this new public space succeeding,” Ocubillo said. “All friends and neighbors need to be on board and support to ensure the success of the parklet.”

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Experimental urban design is a central component in parklets. There isn’t a uniform size, shape or purpose. Each one is unique to its location and purpose.

The parklet host, as he or she is called by the city of San Francisco, also needs to be responsive and dedicated to the long-term maintenance of the parklet, Ocubillo said. Parklet host permits are reviewed annually and Ocubillo said the city looks at host’s responsibilities, ranging from aesthetics to managing conflict between parklet users and noise control. The city also looks at factors that might be out of a host’s control, but lead to the discontinuation of a parklet.

“We have a strong sense of what a good host looks like on paper,” Ocubillo said, recommending that cities considering parklets download a parklet manual published by the city of San Francisco in 2013. The city is currently in the process of updating the manual to include impact studies and other research related to parklets.

San Francisco was the first city to incorporate parklets in March 2010. Currently there are 48 parklets, six will be installed soon and 100 are on a waiting list and planned to be installed. San Francisco hosts more parklets than any other city in the nation.

Parklets can be a solution for urban areas, Ocubillo said.

“One reason parklets are created is because cities are space constrained and it’s really expensive to create new open spaces, or the current open spaces are not equally distributed,” Ocubillo said.

Parklets might have started as outdoor seating near a restaurant, but as the popularity of these micro parks continues to grow, their availability and purpose will evolve to meet future needs. More and more parklets are being hosted by art galleries, museums or youth centers, Ocubillo said. In Philadelphia, a church is the steward for a parklet.

The discussion and installation of parklets goes beyond the nuts and bolts of seating and landscaping. This creative open space movement opens the doors for city planners and transportation officials to talk about what streets can do and can be, Ocubillo said.

“Parklets lead to a future with better street lighting, expanded bicycle lanes and incorporating planters into the design of sidewalks,” Ocubillo said. “Parklets are more than a place to sit and have a cup of coffee. Parklets will do and have done so much more than that.” n Robin Abad Ocubillo is parklet and research lead at the city of San Francisco’s Planning Department.

Jennifer Wieland is manager of Seattle’s public space program.

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Financing Green Infrastructure Projects A Variety of Grants and Loans are Available

By Julianne Couch

In the early days of urban development, any kind of sewer system advancement that didn’t involve dumping sewage directly into the streets or a nearby body of water was considered an improvement.

As engineering processes became more refined, cities developed methods to move sewage and Rosey Jencks stormwater out of the streets and into treatment systems. These combined sewer systems were vulnerable to overflow in times of excess rainfall or other weather events, which caused considerable environmental damage.

Then cities found a way to move sewage into treatment and leave stormwater out of the sewage system. The goal was to treat stormwater not as a waste product, but as a resource. The goal now is to use soil and vegetation to help stormwater discharge back into the ground using what the EPA and others refer to as “green infrastructure.”

While the benefits of green infrastructure are widely recognized and encouraged, the money to fund projects to create them can be hard to come by. From green rooftops in Chicago, to “RiverSmart” homes in D.C. and stormwater management in arid and drought-prone regions like Santa Fe, N.M., projects have moved forward when communities discovered the right agency to approach for grants and low-interest loans.

The EPA is a primary pipeline for green infrastructure funding, with an unconventional example being the Civic Center District in San Francisco, Calif. The Civic Center District includes City Hall and many other civic and cultural buildings, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) designated it as a Sustainable Resource District, which made it a future model for sustainability and cutting-edge environmental technologies. Since this

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designation, SFPUC has implemented energy efficiency retrofits and replaced more than 500 old plumbing fixtures with ultra-low flow fixtures in several buildings in the district. And that’s just a start.

Rosey Jencks leads the Urban Watershed Management and Stormwater Planning Program at SFPUC, where she works to integrate stormwater management and other water sensitive polices and designs into San Francisco’s landscape. She was on a team trying to make a “super green building,” she said. They considered how they could get a high rise building off the grid and realized that in such a dense urban environment there would be serious challenges.

“Then we started to look at a neighborhood with shared resources,” Jencks said.

They turned their attention to the Civic Center District and their research focus caught the attention of U.S. Senator Nancy Pelosi’s office, which then contacted the utility’s public affairs office. They were invited to write up ideas for the Civic Center District in a proposal for EPA funds, Jencks said.

“We filled out formal applications, then got a million dollars,” she said, adding that the process wasn’t quite that simple. “The paperwork was a lot of work, but they liked the idea and wanted to support it.”

The grant funds were just for the planning phase, not for implementation. One component is a 30-year vision that uses innovation and technology in spatial design connected to emergency responsiveness.

“The goal is to get city government back online quicker after an emergency, to create a zone of resiliency,” Jencks said.

The overall plan is partially drafted and Jencks said it has received internal vetting, with the wastewater component receiving a preliminary signoff. From there it will be reviewed by the city. Once they sign off it will be ready for public comment, probably this fall.

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“We will get our goals in front of the public and hear about their hopes and dreams, and how to improve our concept,” Jencks said. “Then it will be back to the design and technology teams to address the issues and meet our sustainability goals.”

According to SFPUC, the project will reduce water use and increase water efficiency; manage stormwater using green infrastructure; reduce energy use and generate renewable energy; transform the neighborhood into a vibrant, active, safe area for the public to enjoy; incorporate community gathering spaces, while honoring the historic context of a National Resource Historic District; educate the public about sustainability; and create public assets for future generations.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be specifically invited to apply for funds, but there are several choices for applicants to apply to independently.

• EPA Clean Water Act Nonpoint Source Grants, which are also known as Section 319 Grants. These grants help states, territories and tribes on their nonpoint source pollution efforts. Successful grants might include requests for technical assistance, financial assistance, education, training, technology transfer, demonstration projects and monitoring to assess the success of specific nonpoint source implementation projects.

• EPA Clean Water State Revolving Fund helps pay for water quality protection projects for wastewater treatment, stormwater management, nonpoint source pollution control, and watershed and estuary management.

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This photo illustrates how a curb cut-out inlet directs stormwater into a rain garden on Allen Street in State College, Penn. [ 17 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

Explore the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s initiatives at www.sfwater.org • EPA Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Grants support community-based partnerships to reduce pollution at the local level. These funds are available to county and local governments, tribes, non-profit organizations and universities.

Not all federal funding sources for green infrastructure are related to water quality issues. For example, the Department of Energy’s Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program provides grants, technical assistance and information tools to states, local governments, community action agencies, utilities and Indian tribes, while also overseeing energy programs in the U.S. territories.

The program could be used to encourage green infrastructure, such as green roofs, as part of the weatherization process.

The Department of the Interior’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program assists community-led natural resource conservation and outdoor recreation initiatives. RTCA staff guide communities in practices that conserve waterways, preserve open space, and develop trails and greenways.

The Department of Transportation Enhancement Activities offer funding opportunities to help expand transportation choices and enhance the transportation experience, including pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and safety programs, scenic and historic highway programs, landscaping and scenic beautification, historic preservation and environmental mitigation. These activities could include green infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of stormwater runoff.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) provides grants to support a range of business and industrial development activities that create or retain jobs, including infrastructure development.

Revolving Loan Funds encourage new business development activity in economically distressed communities.

HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Program works to ensure decent, affordable housing, provide services to the most vulnerable community members, and create jobs through the expansion and retention of businesses. CDBG-financed projects also can incorporate green infrastructure into their design and construction.

Also, the HUD initiative, known as the Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program, can be used to guarantee loans for neighborhood revitalization projects, including construction or installation of public facilities and infrastructure. Section 108-guaranteed projects could incorporate green infrastructure into their design and construction.

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Another HUD program, Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants, supports metropolitan and multi-jurisdictional planning efforts that integrate housing, land use, economic and workforce development, transportation and infrastructure investments in a manner that empowers jurisdictions to consider the interdependent challenges of: (1) economic competitiveness and revitalization; (2) social equity, inclusion and access to opportunity; (3) energy use and climate change; and (4) public health and environmental impact.

The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Water and Environmental Programs provide loans, grants and loan guarantees for drinking water, sanitary sewer, solid waste and storm drainage facilities in rural areas and cities and towns with populations of 10,000 or less. The USDA also makes available Rural Development Community Facilities Loans and Grant programs for water and environmental projects, as well as community facility projects.

Water and environmental projects include water systems, waste systems, solid waste and storm drainage facilities. Community facility projects develop essential community facilities for public use in rural areas and might include hospitals, fire protection, safety and other community-based initiatives.

And the federal government isn’t the only source of green infrastructure financial aid.

In New York City, the Department of Environmental Protection offers a grant program for private property owners in combined sewer areas. The grant program is a key component of the city’s Green Infrastructure Plan, which former Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched in 2010. New York City is largely serviced by a combined sewer system, with stormwater and wastewater carried through a single pipe. According to the New York Mayor’s Office, Brooklyn Navy Yard and Brooklyn Grange were among the grantees. They received funds to build a rooftop farm in 2011. The rooftop is the program’s largest project to date and the first to be completed.

Another project, at Queens College, saw the rebuilding of three areas of the campus in order to direct stormwater to newly installed permeable pavers and rain gardens that will capture the stormwater and allow it to be naturally absorbed into the ground.

The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Green Infrastructure for Coastal Resilience Pilot Grant Program supports community-based efforts to reduce risks associated with coastal storms, erosion and sea level rise through green infrastructure. Recent projects include building and enhancing dunes and beaches, planting beach grass and other erosion-

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control vegetation, building ribbed mussel reefs, and implementing bioengineering techniques that stabilize eroding shorelines.

To receive funding, it’s essential to know the problems that need to be solved and where to find resources. Writing a successful grant application depends on more than just the soundness of the plan. It also depends on making a clearly written and compelling argument that helps it compete with other projects that might be just as important to water quality and sustainability. Many funding sources hold workshops about how to prepare a grant application.

An example of the grant writing process can be found in the Massachusetts CZM Request for Responses. It provides its applicants with a list of requirements, and frequently uses the word “detailed” when explaining how to write a funding proposal.

Recommendations include: • A description of the severity of the erosion or flooding issue(s) or problem(s), current and potential threats and impacts to coastal infrastructure and natural resources, and the need for assistance;

• Support letters from all relevant local boards, departments, commissions and other partners with a commitment for these entities to participate, as necessary, in the project.

For communities, hospitals, campuses and other organizations that operate with a limited staff, grant writing can be complex, timeconsuming and so daunting as to seem impossible. But with the dollar amounts available for projects, and the good those projects will do toward sustainability, making grant writing a priority might be money well spent. n related youtube video: http://youtu.be/zrhw2cMTpJs

Rosey Jencks leads the Urban Watershed Management and Stormwater Planning Program at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

• A detailed description of the proposed green infrastructure project and stages of work to be funded; how the project will improve coastal resilience immediately at, adjacent to and beyond the project site; and how the proposed project will benefit the public and public interests; • A description of how the proposed project takes future conditions into consideration, including projected sea level rise scenario(s); • A description of the transferability of the proposed project, including details of education and outreach plans;

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• A detailed time-line with anticipated completion dates for the project; • A detailed budget and explanation of how the funding and other support provided by project partners will ensure success of the project; documentation that the proposed 25 percent in-kind and cash match has not been used for other projects; • The name of a qualified individual who will serve as the local project manager and point of contact, along with resumes for the local project manager and other staff who will work on the project;

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Roundabouts Are Really Getting Around Experts Say They’re 80% Safer than Traditional Intersections

By F. Alan Shirk

Roundabouts are one of the most effective tools highway engineers can use to significantly reduce serious traffic accidents.

In fact, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported that during the last decade, the crash experience at modern roundabouts has been studied extensively. The Jeff Shaw most notable findings are that roundabouts reduce severe crashes with injuries or fatalities by 82 percent vs. stop sign-controlled intersections and 78 percent vs. signal-controlled intersections.

Jeff Shaw, intersections program manager in FHWA’s Office of Safety, said that roundabouts are still somewhat of a well-kept secret, but more communities are catching on.

Shaw said most accounts credit the first modern roundabouts to Summerlin, Nev., in 1990. A few more were built sporadically in a few states throughout the 1990s – including the U.S. capital of roundabouts, Carmel, Ind. – starting in 1997. They became increasingly popular beginning in 2000, and FHWA estimates there are more than 3,000 modern roundabouts in the U.S. today.

With 15 years experience in roundabouts, Shaw said that during the last five years, there has been a noticeable uptick in interest.

The FHWA has been promoting roundabouts for many years, beginning with its first Roundabouts Informational Guide published in 2000 and an excellent source of general information.

“We continue to promote them by providing objective information and encouraging communities to use them, particularly for roundabouts’ ability to promote safety to such a significant degree.

In addition to safety information in our Guide, important studies are summarized in the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM) and by the Crash Modification Factor (CMF) Clearinghouse.”

Shaw explained that roundabouts differ from traffic circles and rotaries that have been around for many years prior to 1990.

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“Modern roundabouts have three characteristics that rotaries and traffic circles (like the eight-lane circle in Paris around the Arc De Triomphe) do not generally have: (1) all traffic travels counterclockwise around a central island, (2) entering traffic yields to circulating traffic and (3) geometry that results in low vehicle speeds (generally ranging from 15-25 mph),” Shaw said.

“Additionally, weaving or lane changing is eliminated with a multilane modern roundabout design.”

While acceptance is growing, Shaw said the biggest obstacle is still the difficulty of convincing public officials who have the final say.

“It’s the age old thing of people reacting to the initial idea, that it is something different. But we are spreading the word among local, state and national agencies, especially highway engineers,” he said. “We tell officials that if you are going to significantly change the character of an intersection, from now on a roundabout should be part of the analysis. How would it perform for you? If you have signals that are working well in a corridor, keep them. If you are thinking of putting signals at a two-way stop intersection, maybe a roundabout would be just as effective and cheaper.”

NHWA doesn’t have to convince Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, whose city now has nearly 90 roundabouts (Colorado Springs, Colo., is second with about 50 and Bend, Ore., third with 30.), all because he discovered them in the 1990s while he was doing graduate work in the U.K. “Europe had been doing them for five decades and it seemed like a good idea to me because they could move four and a half to five times as many cars through an intersection as a stoplight,” he said.

Thus, when he began his first of five terms and 19 years as mayor in January 1996, he got the chance to implement his discovery. The first Carmel roundabout opened in 1997.

Brainard said Carmel, which is about 16 miles north of Indianapolis, has proven success in developing a safe, costeffective and environmentally responsible system of roundabouts and has been recognized nationally and internationally for quality and environmental stewardship. Carmel was selected as the site

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of the 2011 International Conference on Roundabouts, which brought engineers and city planners from around the world from every continent except Africa. As a kind of self-appointed roundabout ambassador, Brainard has spoken to numerous communities and officials in California, New York, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio and other states.

Indiana communities near Carmel, including Avon, Brownsburg, Fishers and Westfield, also have begun building roundabouts, he said.

“Locally, however, many still don’t know all the benefits that roundabouts provide and have misconceptions about how effective roundabouts are in handling traffic flow safely, smoothly and with low impact to the surrounding environment,” he said.

n

Roundabouts have become the preferred intersection design in many parts of the country. This example is situated along N.Y. Route 85 (Slingerlands Bypass Extension) in Bethlehem, N.Y.

In a column for the Indianapolis Star in March, the mayor cited several reasons why modern roundabouts have worked extremely well throughout Carmel. They include: • Safety: “Roundabouts virtually eliminate deadly head-on collisions and T-bone crashes. All motorists, not just those who see a red light, are forced to slow and yield as they enter the roundabout, making it less likely that an accident will occur. Recent studies show that when a roundabout replaces intersections controlled by a stoplight or four-way stop, there is about a 35 percent reduction in all accidents and roughly an 80 percent reduction in crashes that cause injury.”

• Cost: “Roundabouts save an average of 24,000 gallons of gas per year, per roundabout (based on a 10-site study by

the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety). At $3.50 a gallon, that’s potentially $84,000 saved. Multiply that by 10, by 20, by 80 roundabouts over time and the savings realized is significant. Roundabouts not only save money when it comes to purchasing gasoline, they are also cheaper to build and maintain. When improving a troubled intersection, cities and towns can save about $150,000, which is the cost of a traffic signal. Thousands of dollars per year are saved by not having to provide electricity to the signal, as well as the cost of maintenance.”

• Traffic flow: “Roundabouts improve the daily flow of traffic by eliminating congestion and the long backups that often plague busy stop sign or stoplight intersections. Typically, the maximum capacity of a four-way stop is about 1,500 vehicles

Access the Federal Highway Administration’s Roundabouts Informational Guide at whttp://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_672.pdf [ 21 ]

Sustainable City Network Magazine

per hour. A single-lane roundabout, on the other hand, has a capacity of 2,500-2,800 per hour, an increase of 65-90 percent in capacity. This translates into shorter commutes.

Less time in the car leads to better quality of life.”

• Environment: “When a city installs roundabouts, it eliminates much of the stop-and-go traffic associated with intersections controlled by stoplights and stop signs. This reduces vehicle emissions and fuel use because most of the gas consumption and emissions occur when vehicles accelerate rapidly from a complete stop.”

• Traffic calming: “Roundabouts have a traffic calming effect

due to the nature of their design. Cars slow as they approach, drivers focus on cars to the left rather than all directions, and center islands with monuments, landscaping and public art enhance instead of detract from the overall ambiance of the area.

“Being able to get around quickly is a huge part of the quality of life in any community,” Brainard added.

To stay competitive in attracting and retaining businesses and residents, Brainard said we need to incorporate better methods for moving people and goods in our communities.

“When determining where to locate a business or where to live, we know that the amount of time spent in the car is a key concern. That is one of the reasons we have incorporated roundabouts into our thoroughfare plan to help our residents get to where they need to go in less time, more safely and with more efficiency.”

How do they like the roundabouts in Carmel?

In the beginning, residents were hesitant, Brainard said, but “now, they absolutely love them. They are very proud that we have them.”

They might even be partly responsible for his winning five consecutive terms as mayor, Brainard added.

Shaw said the FHWA has produced a lot of other materials in addition to its secondedition 2010 Roundabouts Informational Guide.

“However, the best resource I’d recommend to any community is to visit a nearby roundabout that is similar to the one being proposed, experience it firsthand, and talk to the folks involved,” Shaw said. n Jeff Shaw is intersections program manager in the Office of Safety at the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

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Where America is Sprawling and What It Means 2014 Study Examines Metropolitan Development and Its Connection to Health, Quality of Life and Prosperity

BY SMART GROWTH AMERICA

People in compact, connected metropolitan regions are more likely to move up the economic ladder, have lower household costs, enjoy more transportation choices and lead longer, safer, healthier lives, according to a report by Smart Growth America and the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center.

Measuring Sprawl 2014 evaluates development in 221 major metropolitan areas in the United States, and ranks these areas based on how sprawling or compact they are. The report also examines how sprawl relates to life in those communities, based on factors like economic mobility, the cost of housing and transportation, life expectancy, obesity, chronic disease and safety.

less sprawl—several quality of life factors were more positive, including greater economic mobility, lower combined costs of housing and transportation and higher life expectancies. This research demonstrates the many ways our development decisions may impact us every day, and informs how better development practices may improve our quality of life.”

“This report will have a strong influence on the next decade of research concerning relationships between the built environment, urban planning, and health both in the U.S. and worldwide,” said David Berrigan of the National Institutes of Health, which sponsored the research. “Dr. Ewing’s focus on urban sprawl as a modifiable

“Smart growth strategies are about making life better for everyone in a community,” said Geoff Anderson, president and CEO of Smart Growth America. “If policymakers are looking for ways to lower costs for their constituents, improve public health and support their broader economy, they need to be thinking about how to improve their development.”

“This is the most extensive study to date to define and measure the costs and benefits of sprawl development,” said Reid Ewing, director of the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center and primary author of the research. “We found that in areas with

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See the rankings and download the full report at www.smartgrowthamerica.org/measuring-sprawl environmental factor correlated with obesity, physical activity and environmental exposures is an important example of renewed efforts to align changes in planning with public health goals and to place these decisions on a stronger and more evidence based footing.”

Some places in the United States are sprawling out, some places are building in compact and connected ways, and the difference between these two strategies affects the lives of millions of Americans, notes the report’s executive summary.

In 2002, Smart Growth America released Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, a landmark study that has been widely used by researchers to examine the costs and benefits of sprawling development. In peer-reviewed research, sprawl has been linked to physical inactivity, obesity, traffic fatalities, poor air quality, residential energy use, emergency response times, teenage driving, lack of social capital and private-vehicle commute distances and times.

Measuring Sprawl 2014 updates that research and analyzes development patterns in the 221 metropolitan areas as well as 994 counties in the United States as of 2010, looking to see which communities are more compact and connected and which are more sprawling.

The data from 2010 used in the analysis are the most recent available. The complete analysis, methodology and databases included in the University of Utah’s research are available at http:// gis.cancer.gov/tools/urban-sprawl/.

Researchers used four primary factors—residential and employment density; neighborhood mix of homes, jobs and services; strength of activity centers and downtowns; and accessibility of the street

network—to evaluate development in these areas and assign a Sprawl Index score to each. The report includes a list of the most compact and most sprawling metro areas in the country.

It also examines how index scores relate to life in that community.

The researchers found that several quality of life factors improve as Sprawl Index scores rise. Individuals in compact, connected metro areas have greater economic mobility. Individuals in these areas spend less on the combined cost of housing and transportation, and have greater options for the type of transportation to take. In addition, individuals in compact, connected metro areas tend to live longer, safer, healthier lives than their peers in metro areas with sprawl.

Obesity is less prevalent in compact counties, and fatal car crashes are less common.

Finally, the report includes specific examples of how communities are building to be more connected and walkable, and how policymakers at all levels of government can support their efforts. n Reid Ewing is professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah.

Smart Growth America is the only national organization dedicated to researching, advocating for and leading coalitions to bring better development to more communities nationwide. From providing more sidewalks to ensuring more homes are built near public transportation or that productive farms remain a part of our communities, smart growth helps make sure people across the nation can live in great neighborhoods. For additional information visit www.smartgrowthamerica.org.

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U.S. Urban Forests Under Attack Fires, Disease, Pests and Mismanagement Threaten Trees

BY F. ALAN SHIRK

Defying logic and sustainability, many people who can’t see the forest for the trees simply and sadly cut them down, letting the chips fall where they may.

JA N DAVIS

While the good news is there are some 660 million acres of forest in America, including about 136 million acres of urban and community forests, we continue to cut down trees in our cities faster than we replace them, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Jan Davis, Forest Service assistant director for urban and community forestry, said it’s no longer possible for us to plant our way out of this problem.

S HANNON RAMSAY

But the greater issue, said Davis, is trying to make everyone understand how crucial it is to have a healthy, functioning and sustainable ecosystem in urban areas, including a thriving tree canopy.

“People have to appreciate the value trees are providing. But it isn’t how many trees you have,” Davis said. “A community needs a good, ongoing program with at least an urban forestry management plan; ordinances; staff that includes a forester, arborist and/or planner, probably as part of Parks and Recreation; and a certain level of spending per capita.”

Wilderness is not required, said Davis. Even small patches of urban green — a reclaimed empty lot or neighborhood garden — can bring substantial benefits.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been cleaning up trashstrewn vacant lots in inner-city Philadelphia, converting the spaces into inviting parks surrounded by folksy wooden fences. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that in these neighborhoods vandalism and gun assaults decreased, along with residents’ stress levels, Davis added.

The Forest Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the leader in urban forestry development and maintenance, supported

by dedicated forestry programs in every state, including the California Urban Forests Council (CaUFC) — the first state group of its kind founded in the late 1960s — and numerous non-profits including the Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees), Washington, D.C., and Trees Forever, Inc., Marion, Iowa.

Urban forestry was part of President H.W. Bush’s 1981 Thousand Points of Light. The Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, part of the Farm Bill, established the official program managed by Davis in 1991.

“This really changed everything,” said Nancy Hughes, executive director of CaUFC, especially since 80 percent of all Americans live in urban areas. It’s that much more important because that’s where we live. Kids in Los Angeles may never get to see Yosemite, but they will see urban trees.

“Under the 1991 legislation, every state was given requirements to fulfill, including developing their own strategic plan for urban forestry.

The 50 councils like ours were created and all are still functioning,” Hughes said.

Davis said urban forests come in many different forms and sizes — urban parks, street trees, landscaped boulevards, public gardens, river and coastal promenades, greenways, river corridors, wetlands, nature preserves, shelterbelts of trees, and working trees at former industrial sites. Urban forests, through planned connections of green spaces, form the green infrastructure on which communities depend. Green infrastructure works at multiple levels, from the neighborhood to the metro area to the regional landscape.

According to the Forest Service website, “Urban forests are dynamic ecosystems that provide much needed environmental services. They clean air and water, conserve energy, and help control stormwater. They add form, structure and beauty to urban design. By reducing noise and providing places to recreate, urban forests strengthen social cohesion, spur community revitalization and add economic value to our communities.”

Davis and her staff currently work with more than 7,000 U.S. communities in nine regions to keep urban forests healthy. Her budget for state and private programs is $28 million with two-thirds going to the states and the remainder to national partners and administration.

The non-profit National Forest Foundation, chartered by Congress and created in 1993, works with the Forest Service. It brings people together to restore and enhance the country’s approximately 60 million acres [ 25 ]

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Urban forests are dynamic ecosystems that provide much needed environmental services. They clean air and water, conserve energy, and help control stormwater. They add form, structure and beauty to urban design. By reducing noise and providing places to recreate, urban forests strengthen social cohesion, spur community revitalization and add economic value to our communities.” of non-urban national forests and grasslands, as well as national urban forests like Sam Houston National Forest in Houston and Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles.

Congress gives every state’s urban forestry agency $200,000 as a baseline and can provide more funding if the state contributes money and its urban forestry benefits grow. Hughes said California is getting $1 million a year, which is spread among seven foresters. “We are unique because we did have voter-approved monies for urban forestry that ran out. Wildfires are also obviously eating into our budget. We are hoping legislation will be approved so that CaUFC is authorized to manage the state’s carbon credits, which will generate even more funds for urban forests.”

Both Davis and Hughes said the urban forestry program is structured to give the states and, in turn, local communities as much autonomy as possible.

“Each state can design its own program, for example local tree planting grants or paying half the salary of an urban forester.

Our research helps to create more livable, desirable, sustainable communities through leading science and new technology that enhances urban natural resources stewardship.

“We support projects and R&D related to a diverse array of urban and community forestry issues including climate change, urban sustainability, the benefits of urban trees and parks, biophysical and social science research, as well as national and local programs,” noted Davis.

Forest Service scientists are reported to be at the forefront of urban forestry and human-environment R&D, providing science that helps cities transition to a sustainable future. This research adds to the knowledge of urban trees and forestry resources, pests such as the Emerald Ash borer and oak wilt, urban ecology, ecosystem services and values, watershed rehabilitation, human health and well being, and green infrastructure.

Davis said one common issue facing urban forests is the fact that trees are dying prematurely. “Many are planted improperly, setting them up for failure.

Many do not receive regular maintenance. And few are adequately protected during construction projects. To help remedy this issue, the Forest Service has created the Tree Owner’s Manual, as well as many other tools for urbanites.

“We created I-Tree software that calculates the value of a tree. And R&D stations in Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles extend our local reach. For example, the Baltimore Wood Project will demonstrate

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how undervalued urban wood resources can be used to achieve community sustainability goals.”

Non-profits like Trees Forever and ACTrees are vital, stressed Davis, and she works closely with both.

Also worth mentioning, is the national initiative Vibrant Cities & Urban Forests: A National Call to Action launched in 2010 by the Forest Service and the New York Restoration Project (NYRP). Its goal is to promote and improve urban forests and green infrastructure in U.S. municipalities.

Trees Forever was started by Executive Director Shannon Ramsay 25 years after a winter’s drive revealed to her the dramatic differences between areas with year-round healthy vegetation and those that were barren. “I thought to myself, ‘Something had to change…and soon.’”

Following an April 2011 workshop, the national, 25-member Vibrant Cities Task Force crafted a vision, set of recommendations and action steps.

Hughes said CaUFC is focused on helping people realize the value of trees. “Forest councils over time have helped people in urban forestry be more successful. We now have seven. Offerings have expanded from education, networking and funding to advocacy and outreach directed to homeowners and small business owners.”

That includes local outreach groups from California communities like East Hollywood, Santee, downtown Bakersfield and Albany.

“It’s literally investing from the ground up. If those who vote care and understand why a tree canopy is important, they will support urban forestry. It is great to have local folks drive what we want to see. We work hard not to compete with them, just to help them succeed.”

Ramsay said her organization, somewhat unusual because it is regional rather than national, has helped thousands of community volunteers, civic leaders, government officials and landowners. “We provided grants. We’ve helped them plant and care for more trees, shrubs, and native grasses and plants. We continually promote the value and importance of our natural areas, so that they are protected and can continue to grow and thrive for future generations to enjoy,” Ramsay said.

Most projects involve hands-on conservation, such as tree planting or volunteer pruning, mulching and watering.

“We are an urban forestry resource for anyone who has a question.

We work with cities to increase their canopies and to see that their sustainability plans include a canopy plan. We encourage cities to not only think about increasing their canopy, say from 25 to 27 percent, but to maintain it. That’s very hard to do sometimes.”

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Trees Forever works with communities like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a recently designated All-American City, which has a tree canopy of 27 percent. “It is a big tree city and one that has used a lot of R&D support from the Forest Service. They have a top notch forester. And they found their street trees are providing more than $5 million in benefits. That includes $1.5 million in energy savings.”

The people in Cedar Rapids know that successful urban forestry requires a broad approach—city council, volunteers, non-profits, homeowners, business people, and many others, Ramsay added.

Founded 21 years ago, ACTrees has done a lot to increase the visibility of urban forestry. It handed out nearly $800,000 in grants to members in 2013, lobbied strongly for passage of the latest Farm Bill, the urban forestry budget and R&D, and through its policy committee, tracked national urban forestry issues at the legislative and agency levels.

Gallagher said ACTrees, which has 200 members and 400 program partners, is a “vital and growing national movement to improve the environment and our communities - one tree at a time.” Its member organizations and their partners have planted 15 million trees nationwide with help from more than five million volunteers. n

“Trees are often an afterthought, but they require a lot of planning and management. You can’t cut down four or five and plant just one.

A town’s tree canopy is critical infrastructure and can’t be taken for granted,” she said. “It is difficult to get ahead of losses from insects or storms. You have to plant trees in the right spot and nurture them.”

Ramsay was recently appointed to the Forest Service’s 15-member National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council.

Nancy Hughes is executive director of the California Urban Forests Council (CaUFC).

Another non-profit ally of the Forest Service is Washington, D.C.-based ACTrees led by Executive Director Carrie Gallagher. Each spring, ACTrees holds a national summit attended by legislators, opinion leaders and other “green” champions.

Shannon Ramsay is executive director of Trees Forever.

Jan Davis is assistant director for urban and community forestry for the U.S. Forest Service.

Carrie Gallagher is executive director of the Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees) based in Washington, D.C.

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Mice Implicated in Surge of Lyme Disease ‘Super Hosts’ Amplify Risk of the Disease and Other Tick-Borne Ailments

BY THE CARY INSTITUTE OF ECOSYSTEM STUDIES

As health officials contend with another harsh season of Lyme disease cases, a recent study reveals a common culprit: white-footed mice.

People living in northern and central parts of the U.S. are more likely to contract Lyme disease and other tick-borne ailments when whitefooted mice are abundant. Mice are effective at transferring diseasecausing pathogens to feeding ticks. And, according to an in-press paper in the journal Ecology, these “super hosts” appear indifferent to larval tick infestations.

Drawing on 16 years of field research performed at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., the paper found that whitefooted mice with hundreds of larval ticks survived just as long as those with only a few ticks. Even more surprising, male mice with large tick loads were more likely to survive during a given season.

Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute, was among the study’s authors. “Our findings were counterintuitive. By definition, ticks are parasites. But tick burdens were not correlated with reductions in white-footed mouse survival or overwintering success, and they didn’t slow population growth. It looks like ticks are getting a free lunch.”

Conclusions were based on an analysis of 5,587 ‘capture histories’ recorded between 1995 and 2011. Every 3-4 weeks, from the peak of larval tick activity in midsummer until the end of the mouse breeding season in fall, mice were trapped on the Cary Institute’s campus. On their first capture, animals were outfitted with ear tags. Each time a mouse was trapped researchers recorded the number of ticks on the animal, as well as other variables like its tag ID and sex.

Lead author Michelle Hersh, a past Cary Institute postdoctoral researcher, is now at Sarah Lawrence College. “White-footed mice are reservoirs for the agents that cause Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. Larval blacklegged ticks can become infected when they feed on mice. These ticks can then transmit illness to people during their next blood meal.”

Understanding the ecology of tick-borne illness is essential to human health. Prior Cary Institute research revealed a positive relationship between white-footed mouse numbers and the abundance of blacklegged ticks infected with the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. But little was known about the impact that feeding larval ticks had on white-footed mouse survival.

To answer this question, Hersh and colleagues developed a model using the Cary Institute’s long-term ‘capture history’ data. If blacklegged ticks had a negative effect on mice, it was expected that heavy tick burdens would lead to a decrease in mouse survival and fewer feeding opportunities for future ticks. Conversely, if mice were tolerant of ticks, heavily parasitized animals would survive as long as their parasite-free counterparts, and tick feeding opportunities would abound.

Hersh notes, “Ticks feed on blood. It seemed obvious that they should have a negative impact on mice. But our analysis found that larval ticks had few measurable effects on white-footed mouse survival, and none that were negative. This held true even in stressful years, when mouse numbers were high or acorn resources were scarce. There was also an unexpected positive association between tick burdens and within-season survival in male mice.”

The authors provide several scenarios that could explain why infested male mice were likely to survive. Among them: habitat most conducive to mouse survival (i.e. dense vegetation) may also favor ticks, dominant mice with large home ranges may encounter more ticks, and mice with heavy tick burdens may exhibit more risk-averse behavior.

Co-author Shannon LaDeau, also a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute, concludes, “Our findings underscore the importance of mice as reservoirs for tick-borne pathogens. From a human health perspective, the indifference that white-footed mice have to blacklegged ticks is bad news. It signals a positive feedback loop that favors the proliferation of parasites.”

In another recent study, researchers from the Cary Institute, Bard College and Sarah Lawrence College have found that people who get bitten by a blacklegged tick have a higher-than-expected chance of being exposed to more than one pathogen at the same time.

“We found that ticks are almost twice as likely to be infected with two pathogens—the bacterium that causes Lyme disease and the protozoan that causes babesiosis—than we would have expected,” said Felicia Keesing, a professor of biology at Bard College, Adjunct Scientist at the Cary Institute, and co-author of the paper. “That means health care providers and the public need to be particularly alert to the possibility of multiple infections coming from the same tick bite.” n

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