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VOLUME 18 JANUARY 2016
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY SHORES UP FOR THE RISING TIDE LEADERBOARD SERIES SPONSORED BY: CRESCENT ELECTRIC SUPPLY CO.
10 CODIFYING SUSTAINABILITY 12 NYC PREPARES FOR THE NEXT ‘SANDY’ 28 LARGE-SCALE COMPOSTING SOLUTIONS
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contents
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VOLUME 18 JANUARY 2016
Codifying Sustainability
10
NYC Prepares for the Next ‘Sandy’
12
Software Improves Water Quality, Reduces Consumption
14
Striking a Balance: Urban Growth and Habitat Preservation
16
Lessons from Iowa’s Epic Floods
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Infusing Equity into the Urban Planning Process
23
Saving the Neighborhood
25
Large-Scale Composting Solutions
28
cover story
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY SHORES UP FOR THE RISING TIDE
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Software Improves Water Quality, Reduces Consumption
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
The Best of Sustainable City Network is a quarterly magazine highlighting the most popular articles posted on sCityNetwork.com, an online trade publication that serves government, education and healthcare institutions in all 50 U.S. states and the provinces of Canada. The magazine is available in print or as a digital download at www.sCityNetwork.com/bestof. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sustainable City Network, or WoodwardBizMedia. SUBSCRIPTIONS Contact 563.588.4492; info@scitynetwork.com www.sCityNetwork.com
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Sustainable City Network magazine is produced by WoodwardBizMedia, a division of Woodward Communications, Inc. GROUP PUBLISHER Karen Ruden PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Randy Rodgers ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andrea Hauser Michael Manning BUSINESS MANAGER Linda Flannery CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sara Booth Julianne Couch Angie Durhman Jennifer Foden Benjamin Hoopes CREATIVE DESIGN Eric Faramus Unless otherwise noted, all images used throughout Š 2016 Ingimage, all rights reserved. Sustainable City Network 801 Bluff Street Dubuque, Iowa 52001 Visit Us On The Web sCityNetwork.com Printed on recycled paper
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Miami-Dade County: Sea Level Rise and the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact
Free 1-Hour Webinar - March 2, 2016 Jim Murley, chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County in southeast Florida will explain how the county has worked with regional partners, federal and state agencies and experts from around the world to develop a plan for addressing sea level rise in one of the most vulnerable locations in the U.S. Sponsored by Crescent Electric Supply Co. Learn more at http://sCityNetwork.com/Miami-Dade
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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 Miami-Dade County in southeast Florida. Situated on the front lines of climate change, Miami-Dade is facing the realities of sea level rise. The ocean there has risen about 1 foot in the past century, and the rate at which it’s been rising has more than doubled since 1993. The county is already experiencing “sunny day flooding” during high-tide events, and trillions of dollars worth of development and infrastructure could be at risk in the coming decades. In our cover story, you’ll meet Miami-Dade County’s Chief Resilience Officer Jim Murley and other officials who provide an update on the county’s efforts to respond to sea level rise and protect its fresh water supplies. Murley will also be featured in an upcoming free Sustainable City Network webinar (sign up for the live event or download the recording afterwards at http://sCityNetwork.com/Miami-Dade/). In other top stories: Learn how to bring your zoning ordinances into the 21st century in our Page 10 article that features research at the University of Wisconsin, a study of 32 cities of various sizes and how they’ve addressed sustainability in their development codes. Beginning on Page 12, we follow up to find out what infrastructure changes New York City has planned following Hurricane Sandy. Other articles in this issue focus on the Net Zero Water Initiative in Fort Collins, Colo.; striking a balance between urban growth and habitat preservation; lessons learned from Iowa’s epic floods; equity and urban planning in Rhode Island; blight intervention and historic preservation; and large-scale composting. 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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MIAMI-DADE COUNTY SHORES UP FOR THE RISING TIDE SOUTHEAST FLORIDA DEVELOPS PLANS TO ADDRESS SEA LEVEL RISE AND CONSERVE WATER BY RANDY RODGERS, PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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“Sea Level Rise is an inevitable consequence of the warming of the oceans and the accelerated melting of the planet’s ice sheets -regardless of cause. It is a measurable, trackable and relentless reality. Without innovative adaptive capital planning it will threaten trillions of dollars of the region’s built environment, our future water supply, our unique natural resources, our agricultural soils, and our basic economy.”
-Harvey Ruvin, Chairman Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force
Perhaps nowhere in America is the threat of sea level rise greater than in the state of Florida. With three quarters of its population and more than $2 trillion worth of property and infrastructure located along 1,200 miles of coastline,1 the stakes couldn’t be higher. JIM MURLEY Chief Resilience Officer Miami-Dade County, Fla.
And, while some regions of the country prepare for projected eventualities, in southeast Florida the consequences of climate change are already a reality: The water is literally lapping at the doorsteps of many homes and businesses during the highest periodic tides of the year.
According to scientific consensus, the answer to that question depends on how much carbon humans put into the atmosphere in the coming decades.
Andrew in 1992 and Wilma in 2005 caused an estimated $42.3 billion in property damage and claimed more than 25 lives in south Florida alone, according to NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.3 Since these storms, and the near-miss of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, officials have been concerned that even the threat of future storms can have a negative impact on property values, insurance rates and the regional economy in general. These facts and the daunting tasks ahead are what keep Jim Murley energized. In November, the former executive director of the South Florida Regional Planning Council (SFRPC) became the new chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County, where he and a staff of five are tasked with leading the county’s efforts to prepare for the likely impacts climate change will have on its people and infrastructure. Murley’s office is located within the county’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER). Job 1 is addressing sea level rise.
Photo: Miami-Dade County
Floridians have been aware of this threat for decades. Sea level has risen about a foot in the past century – but the rate at which it’s been rising is accelerating, and local officials are becoming increasingly concerned. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global sea level rise has accelerated from 1.7mm/year throughout most of the 20th century to 3.2mm/year since 1993.2 So, at the current rate, sea level is rising approximately 1 inch every eight years, and there’s no guarantee that the pace won’t continue to accelerate.
While tidal flooding and saltwater intrusion into groundwater supplies are disruptive and expensive problems exacerbated by rising seas, the frequency and intensity of storms can pose an even greater threat. Hurricanes
■■ A Miami-Dade County worker installs a well to monitor
salt water intrusion in the local groundwater table. As sea level rises, salt water gets closer to the surface and can contaminate fresh water supplies.
In July of 2013, the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners created a seven-member citizen task force to provide “a realistic assessment of the likely impacts of sea level rise and storm surge over time” and to recommend a plan of action. In January 2015, the task [5]
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Photo: Miami-Dade County
2) Implement the county’s Climate Change Advisory Task Force recommendations. Murley said this task will involve updating the county’s GreenPrint sustainability plan and Climate Action Plan, both developed in 2010. These plans identified 137 separate initiatives intended to reduce the county’s greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent of 2008 levels by 2050.
■■ Canal salinity structures like these allow stormwater to be expelled during rain events and prevent ocean salt
water from entering the fresh water system. These structures throughout Miami-Dade County are threatened by sea level rise.
force presented its report and recommendations to the board, which promptly passed seven resolutions supporting the recommendations. Murley – representing the planning council at the time – was a member of the task force.“The leadership in the county has increasingly understood that, even though we’ve experienced incidents like storms and tides that can be connected to climate change, the long-term issue we’re going to have to deal with is the absolute rise in the level of the sea,” Murley said. The county’s seven resolutions call for the following actions: 1) Study the use of Florida’s Climate Adaptation Action Areas (AAAs) program. Established by the state of Florida in 2011, the AAA designation is a way for local governments to qualify certain coastal areas for prioritized state funding in critical locations that are especially vulnerable to rising seas and storm surges. RER staff completed the feasibility assessment in September and recommended initiation of the first pilot project in 2016/2017. Since sea level rise is already causing tidal flooding in some areas, the department noted that the special designation can help fund projects already identified as priorities.
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3) Determine what the engineering will cost to develop a capital plan to pay for adaptation efforts. This resolution directs county staff to determine what it will cost to bring together engineering experts to determine the resources needed for flood protection, salinity structures, pump stations, and road and bridge designs. Working toward this objective, RER staff interviewed their counterparts in Seattle, New York City, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., as well as eight major planning and engineering firms. RER is expected to submit a final report to the county board in mid-2016.
4) Continue implementing a voter-approved program to purchase and preserve environmentally endangered land. Miami-Dade is one of 27 counties in Florida that uses bonds and other funding to buy and preserve land for conservation. Murley said the county’s program, which began in 1990, is recently focusing on preserving wetlands that serve as natural barriers against storm surges. In 2008, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that makes lands in conservation exempt from property tax. The county has purchased more than 20,700 acres of land through the program and currently has a balance of more than $54 million in funds available to purchase more property. 5) Conduct a comprehensive study and develop adaptation strategies to address flooding and saltwater intrusion. Murley said the county is interfacing with a variety of experts and agencies to improve its modeling processes, access the latest scientific data, train staff and develop a strategic plan. He said RER staff is working with the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, the Florida Climate Institute, and the RAND Corporation, among others to help it develop its final report and recommendations later this month.
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6) Meet with insurance and reinsurance organizations to develop long-term risk management solutions. The synergies between commercial developers, financial institutions, insurance companies and governments strike a delicate balance that fuels economic development and the financial resilience of communities. The wheels of progress can grind to a halt if property owners can’t affordably insure their investments. In August, Miami-Dade County staff hosted a delegation of 35 representatives of Lloyds of London, one of the largest reinsurance agencies in the world. Separate meetings were held with Swiss Re, AJG and AIR Worldwide, as well as local real estate, business and insurance groups to discuss how the threat of sea level rise will impact future catastrophe modeling and development in south Florida.
Water Problems
7) Support complete implementation and funding for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Authorized by Congress in 2000, the $10.5 billion, 35-year project is the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States. It is considered critical to protecting south Florida’s fresh water supply and providing a storm-surge barrier as climate change continues to impact the region.
“It’s a very connected and complicated system that’s very highly managed,” said Nichole Hefty, manager of Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience. “As sea level rises, we anticipate that the groundwater table will become closer to the surface and that reduces our capacity to accommodate any kind of heavy precipitation event.”
Photo: Miami-Dade County
Outsiders might be surprised to learn that a peninsula known for its beaches, swamps and almost daily summer rains would be worried about its water supply, but Florida’s unique geology and the rising level of the surrounding seas make it a challenge to prevent salt water from contaminating the state’s fresh water supply.Salt water is heavier than fresh water, so gravity helps keep it below the fresh water supply in the porous limestone that lies just beneath the surface of the land. A system of canals, flood gates and pumps is designed to prevent stormwater from flooding the streets while at the same time preventing sea water from contaminating the fresh water supply. It’s a balance made more challenging by sea level rise.
■■ Severe flooding from natural high tides will be exacerbated by sea level rise. This bus stop in Miami-Dade County, Fla., is already being inundated during
periodic high-tide events.
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Salt water has already begun intruding in some of the low-lying areas of the state and Murley said a few municipal wells have already been closed. Aside from planning to move this infrastructure further west away from the sea, he said water conservation has become a major focus throughout the region.
“We were in a crisis, and there were threats that all development was going to stop completely in the county.” As a result, the water district began negotiations with the state regulatory agency to develop a plan to resolve the issue by identifying alternative water supplies, developing a water reuse program and ramping up a major water conservation campaign. The negotiated settlement resulted in a 20-year allocation permit that resolved the crisis, Goldenberg said. “That was a pretty big deal, because at least then we knew where our water was coming from for the next 20 years,” she said.
Photo: Miami-Dade County
South Florida gets a significant percentage of its water from the northern parts of the state, and in 2006 it began exceeding its allocation, said Bertha Goldenberg, assistant director for Regulatory Compliance and Planning at the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department.
■■ Mangrove restoration at Oleta River State Park in Miami-Dade County is an example of
efforts to restore natural buffers against storm surges along the coast.
The plan included a variety of water conservation incentives, a water loss reduction program, some legislative initiatives and an aggressive public outreach program. Combined, these programs have reduced the county’s water consumption by 40 million gallons per day compared to 2006 levels, despite the fact that Miami-Dade is now the 6th fastest growing metropolitan area in the U.S.4 Single- and multi-family homes built prior to 1996 qualify for rebates on high-efficiency toilets, showerheads and faucets, and homeowners and large property managers can also earn rebates on landscape irrigation retrofits. Goldenberg said more than $111,000 in rebates have been distributed so far. Some of the legislative changes the county has made have included a 2-day per week landscape irrigation ordinance, a requirement to use a certain percentage of “Florida friendly” plants in new landscaping, a tiered water rate structure that promotes conservation, and enhanced water efficiency standards on new construction and renovations. The department also has begun recycling treated wastewater, discharging about 10 million gallons per day as irrigation at Florida International University and as process water at its three wastewater treatment plants.
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New leak detection sensors in the water distribution system are also helping to significantly reduce the amount of lost water. “We have about 8,000 miles of pipes in our distribution system,” Goldenberg explained, “so now if we have a leak, it won’t be there for more than 6 months or so, while before it was taking us over a year, sometimes two years to find it.” Outreach programs include rain barrel workshops, landscaping classes, irrigation and lawn maintenance training, a poster contest at local elementary schools and a popular adopt-a-tree program where residents can receive two free trees per year, she said. n Florida Oceans and Coastal Council, Climate Change and Sea level Rise in Florida, Dec. 2010. 2 NOAA, climate.gov/maps-data. Updated 11/4/15. 3 NOAA National Hurricane Center, nhc.noaa.gov. Hurricanes in History 1900-2008. 4 World Population Review, 2015. 1
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
Codifying Sustainability Many Zoning Ordinances Fail to Address Contemporary Concerns BY SARA BOOTH
Local zoning codes might not be on the radar of some sustainability supporters, but they have a surprising amount of influence over which projects can be completed.
ANNA HAINES Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
JULIA NOORDYK Water quality and coastal community specialist at the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.
In many communities, development codes haven’t kept pace with the times, according to presenters at the 8th annual Growing Sustainable Communities Conference held recently in Dubuque, Iowa. In a study of 32 cities of various sizes, University of Wisconsin Professor Anna Haines found that most city zoning ordinances had little support for sustainable development. Large or small, coastal or central, most of the communities studied by Haines and her colleague Edward Jepson didn’t have much in their regulations that was useful for supporting sustainability principles. This isn’t surprising, since most of the ordinances were written long before sustainability became a household word. “The city that I live in wrote their code in 1979,” Haines said, so it’s not very surprising that it doesn’t address sprawl, peak oil, floodwater control or other contemporary concerns.
KATE MORGAN Water policy director for 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin.
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“Almost 100 years ago is when the first zoning codes were put in place -New York City was the first,” she said. “And at that time the purpose was to strictly separate uses, to separate industry from housing, which made a lot of sense at the time, but doesn’t so much anymore.”
• Haines’ study began by identifying nine principles of sustainability: • Encourage higher-density development. • Encourage mixed use. • Encourage local food production. • Protect ecosystems and natural functions. • Encourage transportation alternatives. • Preserve/create a sense of place. • Increase housing diversity and affordability. • Reduce the use of fossil fuels/encourage the use of fossil fuel alternatives. • Encourage the use of industrial by-products. Going from the abstract to the concrete, the study then assigned several specific regulatory areas to each principle. For example, if the goal is to encourage high-density development, the corresponding zoning regulations might address: • Infill development, or building in open areas of existing developments, rather than moving away from the city center to undeveloped outskirts • Maximum lot size or minimum net density • Purchase or transfer or development rights • Support for residential development on small lots Defining the terms in this way made it possible to study the zoning ordinances of a range of cities from across the United States, in sizes varying from 8,000 residents up to 400,000. Haines found the best support for sustainability in the areas of encouraging mixed use, protecting ecosystems, and encouraging transportation alternatives – though even in these categories, there were items (such as building units in which people can both live and work) that didn’t get good regulatory support. High-density development has even farther to go. In fact, rather than imposing a maximum lot size, many cities required a minimum lot size. “If you have a development with a two-acre minimum lot size, that’s pretty big – that’s going to result in sprawl,” Haines said.
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What can be done to put zoning and sustainability on the same side? Sometimes it takes a disaster to persuade cities to make needed changes.
“In 2014, we surveyed planners about their greatest hazards and their greatest needs,” Noordyk said. In the Great Lakes region, stormwater was by far the greatest concern. But the greatest need was a surprise: “After the obvious need for updated flood maps, the next thing planners told us they needed was assessment of zoning and building codes.” In developed areas, stormwater doesn’t only damage buildings and endanger residents; it also increases erosion, washes off topsoil, carries industrial and agricultural chemicals into rivers and lakes, and creates “plumes” of sediment that destroy the habitat of fish and wildlife. The sustainable approach to mitigating this damage is through green infrastructure – development that aims to manage floodwater where it falls, from simple roof gardens and permeable surfaces to restoring forests and wetlands. But codes and ordinances can make these structures difficult. “There are a lot of barriers to green infrastructure, and they reside at the local level,” Morgan said. “And if you can’t act locally, how can you think globally?” But communities rarely have the resources to give their codes and ordinances a thorough audit. The 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin “envisioned a project identifying code revisions that would lead to improved water quality and water mitigation,” Morgan said. It’s not simply a matter of “Yes, you can,” or “No, you can’t.” In studying codes, the team found a range of language – specific rights, specific prohibitions, partial limits, practices mentioned with no guidelines for implementation. What lessons did they learn in their efforts to create better codes and get them accepted? First, understand the context. The consultancy group studied the local culture, looking for existing organizations (such as beautification committees) that could be advocates. It also examined the community’s history with green infrastructure. “One bad project can ruin a community for green infrastructure!” Morgan said. “You’ll hear, ‘We had a couple of permeable pavement projects fail; we don’t want to talk about permeable pavement at all.’”
(Photo courtesy of Canin Associates
Kate Morgan, water policy director of the environmental group 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, and Julia Noordyk, water quality and coastal community specialist at the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, told attendees what they learned from putting together a program to examine and improve zoning and building codes in the wake of the immensely destructive Duluth Solstice Storm of 2012.
■■ A Woonerf, or “Living Street”
The Dutch term “woonerf,” meaning “living street,” has been adopted directly by some English-language publications, according to Wikipedia. In the UK, these areas are called home zones. In the US, complete streets are a distinct concept where equal priority is given to all modes of transportation including automobiles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Techniques include shared space, traffic calming, and low speed limits.
Second, make it easy to see results. The 1,000 Friends used a modeling program called WinSLAMM to demonstrate the results of their proposals. “We identified a code that we really wished they would modify, and then we identified a parcel of land that we could model that code’s adoption upon,” Morgan said. Showing a model that demonstrated how stormwater runoff could be reduced or eliminated by the use of rain gardens, green alleys, and other forms of green infrastructure, “had the engineers sitting up a little straighter.” Finally, communication and teamwork are key. “We started in the Menominee River Watershed, where work was already in progress,” Morgan said. “They already had a dialog among themselves.” And they continued to build on this dialog in each of the 28 communities they worked in. “Some of our nonprofit friends and colleagues asked, ‘Why is it taking so much time?’” Morgan said. “We looked at it as: these are our colleagues. If we come to the table together, it takes time to develop that relationship, but this is not a one-time relationship. Each project builds trust.” n [ 11 ]
Sustainable City Network Magazine
NYC Prepares for the Next ‘Sandy’ City Commits $17 Billion to Construction through 2018 BY BENJAMIN HOOPES
In 1882, Thomas Edison launched the nation’s first public power grid, Pearl Street Station, in New York City. It centralized the capital intensive process of power generation so that it could be provided as an affordable service for as many people as possible.
One hundred and 30 years after Edison’s bold project, Hurricane Sandy shook the city to its core. Nearly 2 million New York City residents went without power at some point during the storm and it illuminated some of the challenges for New York in the face of a changing climate and rising sea levels. Homes were destroyed, utilities were knocked out and lives were taken, building political will to tackle the issues and to push to replace outdated technologies. Three years after the storm, on Earth Day 2015, the mayor of New York City launched OneNYC, an ambitious plan to increase the growth, sustainability, resilience and equity of New York City. The plan outlined in OneNYC included goals of: • Reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent relative to 2005 levels by 2050; • Expanding green infrastructure and smart design for stormwater management in neighborhoods across the city; • Creating and preserving 200,000 affordable housing units and supporting the creation of 160,000 additional units by 2024; • Having the best air quality of all large U.S. cities by 2030; and • Greening the city’s streets, parks and open spaces. Council Member Donovan Richards Jr. co-chaired the plan. His District 31 includes parts of the Rockaways, an exposed peninsula of beaches in Queens that saw some of the storm’s worst damage. At the Cities Alive conference in Brooklyn in October, he explained how these goals can be achieved synergistically. “In the Rockaways, we are about to build the first full Passive House standard in an affordable housing context,” he said. “The development will have a green roof and solar panels. It’s important because we know that a lot of communities of color are dealt the biggest brunt when it comes to climate change. We’re trying to make sure that we [ 12 ]
Photo: The Bluestone Organization
Remnants of Edison’s original grid remained active in New York City’s infrastructure until 2007.
■■ Beach Green North
The Bluestone Organization is building the 101-unit Passive House certified apartment complex, Beach Green North, in the Rockaways, Queens, N.Y. The development features bioswales, plantings designed to retain stormwater on-site, reducing flows that can overload the central sanitary and storm systems. Half of the units will go towards households making 60 percent or less of the area median income.
link the future of green technology in the city with communities who endure some of the highest asthma rates in the city.” The German design concept Richards referred to, passive house, involves creating buildings without active heating and cooling systems. This is usually achieved through an airtight building envelope and a system that exchanges interior and exterior air, such as an energy recovery ventilator, designed to lower energy bills and maintain cleaner air within the buildings, two important issues in public housing. About six months after Sandy, the city released a special report on the impact of the storm. It included that “more than 400 New York City Housing Authority buildings containing approximately 35,000 housing units lost power, heat or hot water during Sandy.” In terms of heating, had those public housing units been designed with passive house concepts, the passively-heated structures would have been fine during the storm. The Bluestone Organization is building the 101-unit development, Beach Green North, in Rockaway.
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Also more common in European countries such as Germany, are solar panels connected to on-site batteries, so that when the power grid shuts down, power in residences continues. The current power system, first designed by Edison, is based on centralized production and distribution of power, leaving the entire system vulnerable if strong winds or water surges affect a critical piece of the system. Solar energy technology is now able to produce, store and distribute power on-site. Most solar panels can sustain winds of up to 100 miles/hour, which would have been enough to survive Sandy’s 90 mile/hour winds. Costs of renewable power systems continue falling, allowing people and companies to create their own microgrids, freeing them from the pitfalls of centralized systems.
Image: City of New York
“Passive house is code in many European countries now for new construction, and we’re a little behind here, but I think it’s catching on,” partner Steve Bluestone told the New York Times in March.
■■ As Sea Level Rises
New York has experienced 1.1 feet of sea level rise since 1900, and current projections show sea levels will rise another one to two feet by 2050 and two to four feet by 2100. As sea levels rise, floodplains will continue growing and increase the frequency and intensity of flood events in vulnerable areas.
Around the same time Edison was designing New York’s power system, the city’s water, sewer and stormwater systems were being consolidated into a giant, combined system. During Sandy, 10 of 14 wastewater treatment plants operated by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released partially treated or untreated sewage into local waterways (though according to the city, water quality samples showed impacts to be minimal due to dilution from the enormous volume of water flowing through the Harbor from the surge). In addition, 42 of 96 pumping stations that keep stormwater, wastewater or combined sewage moving through the system were temporarily out of service because they were damaged or lost power. In another departure from centralization, Beach Green North features bioswales, plantings designed to retain stormwater on-site, reducing flows that can overload the central sanitary and storm systems. Margaret Castillo is the Chief Architect for the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), which has a mandate to repair, expand and restore the city’s hard infrastructure. The DDC has $17 billion committed to construction through 2018, including 481 active public building projects and 451 infrastructure projects. “We have the largest municipal portfolio in the country, so I think what we design and build matters,” Castillo told the audience.
She discussed the importance of bioswales and how the city is beginning to introduce them along sidewalks in combined sewer overflow areas. “One inch of rain can sometimes overwhelm our sewage system,” she said. “The more we can retain on the streets is a benefit to everyone.” Castillo also explained that an additional benefit of bioswales is protecting the city from storms through natural means, rather than deployables that must be removed. As New York City closes in on its fifth century in existence, a new generation of public infrastructure is needed, one that provides resiliency through small independent systems, rather than large centralized ones. Passive house and green infrastructure, such as bioswales, will not only provide residents more safety during disasters, but will move the city toward its long-term goals, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality. Features of flagship public projects like Beach Green North can be replicated in the city’s many building projects and incentivized by the government for private projects. The DEP will fund the design and construction of projects that are estimated to manage one inch of stormwater runoff in the contributing area. Solar investment tax credits also can be used to help fund investment in solar batteries. Each natural disaster brings an opportunity to revisit goals, because in their wake may appear answers to challenges that can help usher our cities into the generation of strength and resiliency. n [ 13 ]
Sustainable City Network Magazine
Software Improves Water Quality, Reduces Consumption Team Looks for Volunteers to Test the Toolkit
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - With drought intensifying across western North America and a changing climate that means less water for growing populations, companies, organizations and communities are increasingly facing risks and uncertainties for their water resources. BARBARA MARTIN Manager of the Partnership for Safe Water at the American Water Works Association.
A team of five Fort Collins companies led by sustainability engineering and planning firm Brendle Group has spearheaded the groundbreaking Net Zero Water (NZW) Initiative and launched a first-of-its-kind building scale software toolkit to achieve water neutrality.
The NZW initiative was launched in October 2013 at the Net Zero Cities conference in Fort Collins. The team worked in collaboration with the Colorado Water Innovation Cluster and the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster, JUDY DORSEY, PE, CEM, LEED-AP with sponsorship from the city of Fort President and principal engiCollins; New Belgium Brewing; Adams neer at Brendle Group based in County, Colorado; and the Colorado Fort Collins, Colo. Water Conservation Board. The result of the initiative has been the recent release of a user-friendly Microsoft Excel-based analysis tool and companion guidebook. Until now, there had yet to be a tool to comprehensively assess current water use and quality, examine reduction scenarios, and take action, said Barb Martin, senior manager at the American Water Works Association and Technical Advisory Group member for the NZW initiative. “Net Zero Water addresses an important gap in the water resource management conversation because of the resources it provides supporting sustainable water use amidst today’s many water challenges,” Martin said. “The Net Zero Water building scale toolkit is a useful tool because it provides a framework allowing organizations
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of all sizes to easily assess and improve site water usage to achieve their goals.” Objectives of the NZW initiative include the following: • Recognizing financial and environmental benefits from reducing water use and quality impacts. • Promoting water stewardship and recognizing water as a precious resource essential to protecting our economy, security, lifestyles, and values. • Providing technical guidance and assistance to enhance the utilization and protection of water resources from the building scale to an entire watershed. The NZW concept builds off the principles of net zero energy and climate neutrality. Being water neutral means using only as much water as falls on your site and eliminating all water quality impacts from the site. In essence, NZW focuses on understanding your water footprint and taking action to reduce consumption and improve water quality whether you are a building owner, company, school campus or community. NZW is a concept that aims to flip the water management conversation on its head – making water resource planning decisions based on local conditions. Rather than going out and securing water supplies to meet historical demand patterns, a net zero water approach looks at local precipitation patterns and tries to maintain consumption at or below that available local supply. Additionally, rather than allowing water quality impacts from stormwater runoff in developed areas to flow downstream, a net zero water approach looks to treat that runoff on-site. The NZW Planning Toolkit is intended to standardize and simplify water analysis and planning, while also maximizing economic returns and environmental benefits. The toolkit includes four phases and helps users accomplish the following: As first step in developing a NZW Plan, the baseline water footprint needs to be established. A water footprint includes water consumed at the site and the water quality impacts of stormwater runoff from the site.
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communities or municipalities, and entire watersheds. The target users include individuals, homeowners, business owners, water planners, and sustainability coordinators across all business sectors who want to perform a rigorous technical evaluation of water use and management, or simply want to use the tool to educate and create greater awareness of water consumption, conservation, and protection.
Image: Brendle Group
Brendle Group, the project manager and lead developer of the NZW BuildingScale Planning Toolkit, used its own site in Fort Collins as a test case to inform the toolkit development. As a small commercial, LEED Gold-certified building located in downtown Fort Collins, Brendle Group is a living lab for the concepts and innovations it aims to advance, including NZW.
■■ Download the Toolkit
Recognizing that water needs and impacts can vary widely from facility to facility, the goal setting module of the toolkit allows users to select from a list of water quantity and quality goals. After establishing a baseline and forecast and setting preliminary goals, the toolkit takes users through the process of identifying water quantity and quality footprint reduction strategies. The final phase of the toolkit is implementation. The toolkit helps users document their results, track progress, and communicate with stakeholders. While this pilot initiative and the NZW Planning Toolkit target the building-scale, the intent is to drive the concept of NZW Planning across multiple sectors and scales, including but not limited to buildings, building portfolios, campuses, districts or neighborhoods,
“Until now, there had yet to be a tool to comprehensively assess current water use and quality, examine reduction scenarios, and take action”
In 2015, four years into plan implementation, Brendle Group is on track to achieve NZW by 2020. Significant reductions in outdoor water consumption were realized with the scaling back of irrigation now that the site’s landscaping is established. And, as a first step towards its water quality goals, two rain gardens were installed in 2014 to capture rooftop runoff that was previously draining directly to the storm sewer. With guidance from the NZW Planning Toolkit, Brendle Group now has a roadmap to inform future actions and facilities upgrades as well as a tool to track progress as the team keeps its eye on neutrality in 2020. “The idea for Net Zero Water came from client requests for something akin to net zero energy and carbon neutrality, but for water,” said Brendle Group President Judy Dorsey. “It’s very fulfilling to see Net Zero Water mature from a concept, to a strategic company initiative, and now to a collaboratively developed, actionable tool that’s utilized in the field.” The team is now looking for volunteers to test the toolkit. For more information contact Brendle Group Water Practice Leader Becky Fedak at 970-207-0058 or email NetZeroWater@BrendleGroup.com. n -Source: Brendle Group ■
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Striking a Balance: Urban Growth and Habitat Preservation Green Building Codes Make a Difference in Many Communities BY ANGIE DURHMAN
BOB ENGSTROM President of Robert Engstrom Companies based in Minneapolis, Minn.
More than 50 percent of Americans live in major towns and cities, and according to the World Health Organization, the majority of humans will be living in urban areas by 2017.
Natural disasters such as fires, flooding, earthquakes, and landslides also claim human lives and destroy our built environments, costing billions of dollars in repair. The Federal Emergency Management Agency obligated $95.2 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund for the 650 major disasters declared between 2004 and 2013.
As these communities continue to build into surrounding habitat, conservationists are concerned that nature will eventually strike back, whether through forest fires, flooding or other natural disasters.
The beautiful views of oceans and beaches can seem worth the risk of building in a hurricane prone area, but even when structures are built to withstand record breaking winds, waves and rain, the buildings are still vulnerable and cost more to insure.
Habitat Loss and Climate Change Combine The combination of urban development and climate change is frequently packing a one-two punch, as rainfall patterns are more unpredictable and typical rain events become more extreme, causing excess flooding and sewer overflows due to impervious – paved – surfaces.
KAREN JENSEN Environmental scientist with the Metropolitan Council in Minnesota.
Temperatures also are often 7-10 degrees warmer in cities, which can affect vegetation growth and overwintering. The United States Department of Agriculture hardiness zone published a new map in 2012 to reflect years of warming temperatures, adding two new zones for the warmest part of the country. In general, each zone is now considered 5 degrees warmer. Urban gardeners have gained more confidence in trying plants that are an entire zone higher, with much success. There also is a correlation between pollinator declines due to urban development increase, which could potentially threaten up to 75 percent of U.S. food sources. Researchers are working with state departments of transportation to add wildflowers along roadsides, and in 2014, a Presidential Memo was written to select a Pollinator Health Task Force with the goal of providing a framework in research, education and development of public-private partnerships. The ultimate mission is to create and protect pollinator habitats. ** [ 16 ]
Diminished and degraded habitats also are less available to support healthy populations of wildlife and marine organisms and less able to perform the economic, environmental and aesthetic functions that coastal populations depend on for their livelihoods and protection. Building in Sustainability To the positive, there are some great built designs and proven successes with integrated conservation development. When communities are designed with an affinity for the land, resilience and ecological restoration in mind, sustainability can be achieved. For example,
“Successful development results in happy people who appreciate where and how they live, with strong resale value,” nationally recognized residential developer Robert Engstrom Companies has several significant residential projects throughout Minnesota. They tie modern single family homes together by wide sidewalks, nature trails and open space. Their developments have covenants for planting and maintaining naturalized prairie plants for each lot. In the economic depression in the early 2000s, the neighborhoods reported very few foreclosures. “Successful development results in happy people who appreciate where and how they live, with strong resale value,” said company President Bob Engstrom.
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Photo: Metropolitan Council
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■■ Waterfront Development in Minneapolis
The 10th Avenue Bridge crosses the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis, Minn. Completed in 1929, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and marks the downstream boundary of the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District.
Brownfield redevelopment is a way to pursue a more sustainable way to re-use a particular site. The Environmental Protection Agency defines a brownfield as “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.” Old gas stations and abandoned manufacturing facilities are common examples. Incentives are in place for developers to clean up these sites, bring them up to current code, allowing them to build something thatproves more useful for modern day activities. In 2002, the Brownfields Revitalization Act was passed to help states and communities clean up eligible sites around the country. There are four types of competitive funding available, which is often supported and matched by other entities. According to the EPA, since the inception of the program, they have assessed approximately 24,000 sites and cleaned up more than 1,200, resulting in more than 100,000 jobs.
Building responsibly is more than just site selection. Using smart design and consideration to transportation, choosing sustainable materials and approaching the entire area as a total ecosystem is critical. LEED, Sustainable Sites and Green Globes – among others – continue improving their guidelines and rating systems used to design and maintain communities, buildings and single family homes in a more responsible manner. Many cities are using criteria to create or renovate public buildings with an “intent” to design according to a rating system, but opting out of going through the official, often expensive, certification process. Not only are municipalities across the country implementing plans, policies and incentives to build smart and on proper sites, large corporations also are recognizing the benefits of renovating and building new offices to improve employee and environmental health. In 2015, Facebook headquarters moved into a large footprint of a nine[ 17 ]
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acre facility that includes a fully covered vegetative roof. The roof is accessible to employees and they are encouraged to explore it via nature trails and benches. Another corporate technology giant, Google, has been building out its campuses to incorporate buildings that allow for private, corporate offices while also fulfilling the needs of its creative employees. The original campus was the site of a previous tech company, which was renovated. Since 2007, Google’s campus has featured many awardwinning designs and now features roof-top solar panels on eight buildings and two solar carports, capable of producing 1.6 MW of electricity. The panels provide the power needed for 30 percent of the peak electricity demand in its solar-powered buildings. At the national level, it is unclear from the U.S. Government Accountability Office if federal funds and programs have made a significant impact on sprawl and urban development. However, across the country, regions have recognized the need to protect heritage, build economies and work toward sustainable futures. This means taking a long view when planning projects, said Karen Jensen, an environmental scientist for the Metropolitan Council in Minnesota. “Thrive MSP 2040, the Council’s vision for the Twin Cities region for the next 30 years, contains policies that address environmental challenges and considerations, including natural resources, water sustainability and climate change,” she said. “Thrive also provides direction for our new Water Resource Policy Plan, which calls for the council to incorporate water sustainability considerations in all areas of council policy and actions, including overall development patterns, water management, transportation, housing, and regional parks.”
bonus in Portland, Ore., developers can build taller buildings and denser developments in exchange for including community amenities and environmentally sustainable features, such as decreasing stormwater runoff, vegetated roofs, transportation improvements, renewable energy, outdoor public space, and participation in environmental certification programs. According to Samantha Crosby, associate planner for the city of White Bear Lake, Minn., large developers want to make quick decisions to take advantage of the market and investors, and there is often little time to explore enhanced environmental design. Therefore, planners find themselves negotiating parameters that meet both city and developer needs. For example, negotiations result in mitigation close to the site or incorporating tree swales in the parking areas in exchange for more advertising signage and more lot space. Crosby does not see policy as much of a driver of change. Instead, policy more often lags behind the wants and needs of the community. In response to citizen concerns, a recent ordinance passed to increase the number of bee hives allowed on residential lots, Crosby said. “Surprisingly, not only did city council support the ordinance, they increased the allowance from two to four hives per lot,” she said. “Since then, the (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) contacted us looking for a list of beekeepers in our area so they could plan to spray for mosquitoes away from the hive locations.” The puzzle of fitting together policy, economic, and environmental programs to meet the present and future needs of citizens and businesses can be a daunting task, but many municipalities have shown that small-scale changes to neighborhood redevelopment policies can be a great start.n
The city of Charleston, S.C., is moving forward with an incentive-based development plan in targeted neighborhoods. Similar to the density
As cities grow larger, communities work to preserve natural habitat
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Lessons from Iowa’s Epic Floods Cities Stress Resilience Along with Redevelopment After Record Storms BY JULIANNE COUCH
Rivers can be incomparable amenities in cities, attracting visitors, residents, industry and wildlife. However, when rivers rise out of their banks and inundate neighborhoods, businesses and transportation corridors, they require complex and costly action. In the case of two Iowa cities – Cedar Rapids and Ames – epic floods led to flood control and flood mitigation plans that officials hope will make their communities even better than they were before. ANDREW McCOY Senior water resources engineer for HDR, Inc., in its Des Moines office.
BRENDA NELSON Landscape architect with Confluence, Cedar Rapids office.
Cedar Rapids is a city of 128,000 that gets its name from the river that flows through the heart of its downtown. In 2008, the Cedar River crested at a record 31.1 feet, flooding 14 percent of the city’s previously dry land. Residents still remember 2008 as the “year of the river,” said Sandy Pumphrey, a project engineer who works on flood mitigation for the city. Although there were no deaths, more than 10 square city miles were under water, affecting 18,000 citizens. In the aftermath of the flood, Pumphrey said, the city developed a flood recovery philosophy that considers a triple bottom line – economic, social and environmental sustainability. “This set a course for months and year to come, not just to recover to what we were but to come back better than before, more resilient than before,” Pumphrey said.
KASEY HUTCHINSON Stormwater coordinator for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
JOSEPH SPRADLING Senior transportation engineer in the Des Moines office of HDR, Inc.
The action plan included reinvesting in housing, businesses and neighborhoods, rebuilding public facilities and improving flood protection. Sven Leff is the city’s director of Parks and Recreation. He described how devastated residential and commercial neighborhoods will be
BOB ENGSTROM President of Robert Engstrom Companies based in Minneapolis, Minn.
SANDY PUMPHREY Flood mitigation project engineer for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“This set a course for months and year to come, not just to recover to what we were but to come back better than before, more resilient than before” [ 19 ]
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economic viability and sustainability, environmental health and responsibility.” To design the greenway the city brought in the expertise of Brenda Nelson, a landscape architect with the consulting firm Confluence. The firm has offices in Cedar Rapids and other cities in the Midwest.
Photo: HDR
The greenway masterplan has a series of visions and goals, Nelson said. These include creating a vibrant, destination riverfront, providing signature neighborhood parks and a quality park system, promoting diverse recreation opportunities and quality indoor facilities, increasing connectivity awareness, and improving the ecological health of the city. It must do these things and also be efficient and costeffective to maintain.
■■ Ames Flood of 2010
Flooding has repeatedly covered major transportation corridors at the confluence of Squaw Creek and the South Skunk River in Ames, Iowa.
redeveloped with bike lanes, trails and a walkable urban environment. A centerpiece of the project is an amphitheatre that seats 5,000 people. “This is something that draws people back in,” Leff said. “It attracts people from beyond Linn County – that’s economic impact.” Along with the amphitheatre came levee construction and demountable flood walls that allowed the city to work on another goal: affordable housing. In addition, the city partnered with the school district to construct a recreation center and build a new city hall and fire station. Beyond neighborhood redevelopment, the flood control system master plan focused on alignment, aesthetics and amenities, Leff said. A group came together to evaluate 22 flood management tactics. Those judged to be most effective were to develop a dry reservoir upstream, flood protection at the river’s edge, flood protection offset from the river, and a diversion channel around a portion of the river. Public input was an essential part of determining the correct approach, Leff added.
The first phase of the greenbelt project was to conduct a site analysis, “to learn about the history and demographics of the area,” Nelson said, and phase two, the design phase, required a great deal of input solicited through public meetings, neighborhood meetings and online surveys. When local residents were asked what activities would bring them to the greenway on a regular basis, the No. 1 answer was walking and biking trails, followed by festivals, fairs and farmers markets. There are several components for the success of a greenway masterplan, Nelson said. Cultural and social components include connectivity to neighborhoods, while plentiful activity centers encourage social engagement with others and the environment. Recreational components include activities for all ages that are easily accessible to neighborhoods. That, in turn, increases the health and wellness of citizens.
The development of a greenway, or linear park, also was part of Cedar Rapids’ flood mitigation approach, he said. Its vegetation absorbs encroaching floodwaters and provides a focal point for a vibrant recreational space.
Blending together the flood mitigation plan with the greenway plan made sense because of geographical components, but in some cases, compromises needed to be made. According to Leff, the final greenway plan was for 72 acres, but some of the park had to be able to withstand occasional flooding. That meant that acreage farther away from the river could be devoted to playing fields and trails, but planting native prairie and tree species was more appropriate closer to the water’s edge.
“Holistic sustainable flood recovery is much more than environmentally sensitive design,” he said. “It creates social and cultural vibrancy,
The city adopted the greenway masterplan about a year ago, Leff said, and since that time the development of recreational fields has begun,
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■■ Cedar Rapids Flood of 2008
In 2008, the Cedar River crested at 31.1 feet and inundated the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
as well as planning for a farmers market/festival space in the Czech Village neighborhood, a bike pump track, and turf improvement for playing fields. Neighborhood redevelopment and park space are essential, but the city could not forget about the nitty-gritty problems of flooding, such as stormwater management. It is the job of Kasey Hutchinson, stormwater coordinator for Cedar Rapids, to find ways to increase stormwater infiltration, reduce runoff and protect water quality. Policy planning is taking place to consider changes in the stormwater utility rate structure.
allowed to implement their own rules and policies, Hutchinson said. Cedar Rapids has learned several lessons from this process, said Pumphrey. “Sustainability is multifaceted,” he said. “Implementation takes time and community vision, public participation is key and master planning is essential.”
“A tiered flat-rate system is in place now but people pay very different rates,” Hutchinson said. “A revision is being reconsidered to make it more fair and tied to sustainable practices”
A hundred miles west of Cedar Rapids, the people of Ames, Iowa, also experienced an epic flood. This city of 62,000 is at the confluence of Squaw Creek and the South Skunk River. When the waters of this 500 square mile watershed rise, flooding covers major transportation corridors. People might be cut off from the city’s only hospital to the north, or from the airport and fire and rescue services to the south.
Hutchinson said the state had required that topsoil be 4 inches in depth, but after an “outcry” from developers, the rule was revised earlier this year. Now developers adhere to what is “technologically possible or economically practicable” and local jurisdictions are
After repeated flooding, including a record-breaking storm in 2010 that exceeded the previous peak flood stage by more than a foot, the city council commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of mitigation strategies. They brought in Joseph Spradling, a senior transportation [ 21 ]
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“Sustainability is multifaceted, implementation takes time and community vision, public participation is key and master planning is essential.” engineer for HDR, Inc. The goals of the study were to update flood hydrology, hydraulics and mapping, to incorporate additional sensitivity into analysis, to look at impacts of climate variability and to develop flood mitigation alternatives, Spradling said. “It is important to use transparent processes and receive public input from the greater Ames community,” he said. It also is important to “screen the alternatives, including economic and environmental components with public input and present the best alternatives and strategies for future implementation with public input.”
“the elevation and flood hazard area that result from using a climateinformed science approach that uses the best-available, actionable hydrologic and hydraulic data and methods that integrate current and future changes in flooding based on climate science.” With stricter definitions and impending changes to something as simple as getting around town, citizens can become stressed and concerned even when rivers and streams stay in their banks. Getting public feedback on alternative alignments through a community engagement process is incredibly important, McCoy stressed, adding “there are no silver bullets, but channel and bridge improvements that were feasible were presented as viable alternatives.” With one year left in the study, Spradling said the public involvement period will continue as alternatives are analyzed. They will conduct an environmental analysis, prepare a draft environmental assessment, prepare a FONSI (finding of no significant impact), secure construction funding, then construct the improvements. The end game is to respond to public and city council desires to reduce flood risk and provide a resilient transportation corridor that can withstand a repeat of the 2010 flood. n
As a result of the study, the city has explored three alternative alignments that create a new crossing over Squaw Creek, keeping in mind the environmental considerations and property impacts. Long range planning for flood mitigation in Ames needs to relate to its other long range transportation planning, said Andy McCoy, a senior water resources engineer for HDR. It also needs to adhere to national environmental policy because federal funds are involved. Executive order 13960, signed into law by President Obama, stresses the concept of community resilience to flooding. It also changes the elevation standards for structures. The floodplain is now defined as
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Infusing Equity into the Urban Planning Process Rhode Island Shares Experiences and Lessons Learned BY SARA BOOTH
If you want to include equity concerns in your long-range planning, your process might be as important as your results. That’s what the Rhode Island Office of Statewide Planning discovered when it incorporated equity goals into its twoyear plan for the first time. NATHAN KELLY Consultant with Horsley Witten Group.
Rhode Island is one of many states whose laws require comprehensive plans for areas such as housing and economic development. Detailed planning also is required to win grants, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant that funded the plan. But equity was a new requirement, and one that didn’t readily fit in with the usual way of doing things.
■■ Social Equity and Social Change
At the 2015 Growing Sustainable Communities Conference held recently CYNTHIA SILVA PARKER in Dubuque, Nathan Kelly, a consultant Senior associate at the with Horsley Witten Group, and Cynthia Interaction Institute for Social Change. Silva Parker with the Interaction Institute for Social Change, described some of the successes, insights and unexpected pitfalls of the planning process, which began in 2013 and is still in development.
One difficulty in including equity goals in planning is that the people who need them most can be hard to involve. Traditionally, planners involve stakeholders by inviting them to public meetings and asking them to read and comment on plans. This can be a time-consuming process, and people who work multiple jobs and lack transportation and child-care options are unlikely to show up at the library for a three-hour meeting.
“To apply for a grant, to create a request for proposals, to hire consultants, to set timelines, to put all of your ducks in a row and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to try to address social equity,’ it’s like trying to put a sweater on an octopus,” Kelly said. What is equity? In the simplest terms, it means fairness, which is not necessarily the same thing as equality.
“Trust is the No. 1 thing, ‘Why are you asking, and will it make a difference,’” Parker said. “When we got started, there was a bit of interesting community jargon: ‘Planning Fatigue.’ People were tired of being asked to come to meetings, asked to share their vision, asked to draw another picture of a beautiful community, and then nothing is going to happen, or it’s going to take 15 years and they’re going to say, ‘We don’t even remember that we were part of that.’”
“It’s not about everybody getting the same thing,” Parker said. “It’s about everybody getting what they need in order to improve the quality of their situation.”
Once these unheard voices are brought into the process, there can be one more difficulty: getting the more privileged participants to hear them.
And even if they’re able to offer their time, they may not be willing.
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“It’s not about everybody getting the same thing, it’s about everybody getting what they need in order to improve the quality of their situation.” “If you bring these people together and you say, ‘Oh, come be different, just like us! Look different, but don’t think differently, don’t act differently, don’t frame issues differently, don’t have different solutions,’ that’s the un-inclusive version of diversity,” Parker said. “You want to make space for people to show up and be who they are.” The Rhode Island group put together a Social Equity Advisory Committee (SEAC) to guide the process and critique the suggestions from an equity point of view. To make sure discussions were open and useful, they began with 11 guidelines for discussion:
Barriers can exist without anyone having bad intentions, and those barriers are often invisible to those in more privileged positions. The committee had to work to bring the residents most affected into the process, to locate them and gain their trust, to educate them on the decisions that had to be made and the limits that surrounded them, and to give them time and space to talk. But there was another level of education happening at the same time: making sure that members of the planning community understood what equity was and why it was important. “Some of this is completely foreign to major decision-makers at the state, county and city level,” Kelly said. Committee members had to “develop that understanding that this is important, that it’s the right thing to do. I found myself saying, ‘When we’re writing plans, we’re supposed to be writing them for everybody, right?’”
1. Safe place: Disagreement is fine, but harsh criticism can shut down conversation. 2. Anonymity: A meeting is a safe place to explore without worrying about what happens outside the meeting. 3. General interruption about oppression/teachable moments: It may be necessary to stop conversation briefly to explain to someone who has inadvertently said something offensive. 4. Listen. 5. One microphone: No side conversations. 6. Everybody has a voice. 7. Step up, have your say, step aside. 8. Use technology respectfully: Take cell phone conversations out of the room. 9. Clarify definitions: Explain your terms. 10. Common language: Avoid jargon. 11. Land the plane: Be brief and don’t ramble. Racism in particular is a difficult topic to talk about, but it’s impossible to discuss equity without addressing it too. “It’s important to think and talk about racism not principally on that micro level where we’re often tempted to think about it … but on the macro level,” Parker said. “How do we engage our institutional practices? Who is eligible for programs? What are the requirements for jobs? What are ways in which we inform contractors that contracts are available?” [ 24 ]
Naturally there were disappointments along the way. Some communities were difficult to hear from and some suggestions were widely supported but not practical within the political reality of the state. One indication of success, though, was that parts of the finished plan were substantially different from what they would have been without the committee’s efforts. For instance, the final plan included a goal to “foster an inclusive economy that targets opportunity to typically underserved populations,” including not only marginalized races and classes but the homeless, the disabled and the formerly imprisoned. These guidelines, Kelly said, would probably not have existed if the plan had been developed through a more traditional process. Another indication of success? Ironically, the ongoing tension of the process. “There was a very interesting moment where the planners were getting pushed from this side by the equity committee and from the other side by the more traditional business concerns,” Parker said. “I thought, we must be doing something right if nobody’s happy with us.” n
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Saving the Neighborhood How Preservation and Blight Intervention Work Together to Foster Liveable Communities BY JULIANNE COUCH One part of the plan is that instead of property owners demolishing buildings at will, the Historic Preservation Commission gets 60 days to review demolition requests on primary structures that at least 50 years old. They can then suggest an appropriate fate for the structure depending on its viability. ANNE RUSSET Planner for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
CYNTHIA WINLAND Director of strategic priorities for the Delta Institute.
JEFF HINTZ Planner for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Whether to demolish or preserve buildings damaged by disaster or neglect is a hard choice many cities face. If left alone, abandoned buildings can spread a contagion of blight throughout a community. But if a building is historic and able to be renovated, relocated or salvaged for materials, cities have some direction on how to proceed. That is why historic preservation planning can be a key component of growing sustainable communities and preventing or eliminating blight. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, recurrent damaging floods have transformed entire neighborhoods from vibrant communities to huge demolition jobs. Historic preservation is a fundamental part of a comprehensive approach to sustainability, according to Cedar Rapids city planners Anne Russett and Jeff Hintz. They are working to develop the city’s historic preservation plan to preserve local landmarks and promote environmental, cultural and social sustainability. Flooding has been a challenge to historic preservation in Cedar Rapids, Russett said, and in 2008, a flood cresting at over 31 feet affected more than 10 square miles of the city. More than 1,000 city blocks were impacted, of which 561 were considered severely damaged. In human terms, an estimated 10,000 residents were displaced by the flood. City planners had to figure out how to rebuild their town, not just as it was, Hintz said, but better. They are continuing work to rebuild city facilities, reinvest in neighborhoods that were deteriorating even before the flood, and of course, redesigning the riverfront so that rising flood waters do limited damage in the future. A map of the Flood Control System Alignment and of historic properties in Cedar Rapids shows a high degree of overlap. “Planners have to balance conflicting goals,” Russett said. “We need to protect the city from floods but also preserve our historic buildings.”
Education is key to implementing the historic preservation plan, Hintz said, because “we need to create a culture of preservation.”
One way to do this is to update the city’s zoning codes to include reviews for impediments to historic preservation, to explore the creation of neighborhood conservation districts and to consider adaptive re-use of functionally obsolete structures. An update of the city’s historic preservation code and design guidelines could address energy efficiency issues, such as solar panels and minimum maintenance code requirements within local historic districts, Hintz said. Some success stories include the rehabilitated historic structures in what is known as New Bohemia, or NewBo. This area of the city had fallen on hard times in recent years, and the 2008 floods nearly wiped it out. Now, it houses a popular farmers market and other magnets for businesses and their customers. Many of its historic structures were rehabilitated to make this happen, Russett said, due to the investment of private property owners. Another example is the Commonwealth Hotel, which was built in 1925 as an extended-stay hotel but will be restored as senior housing, Russett said. The city also is focused on social and cultural sustainability, Russett said. They worked to restore a traditionally African American church and a mosque, both of which are in historic structures that benefited from restoration. It isn’t always easy to convince the community of the value of historic preservation, Russett said, since “some in the public don’t want the city to invest more money into buildings that are deteriorating, while others see value in preserving parts of the city’s history.” Cedar Rapids is finding ways for historic preservation to be in the conversation, even as flood control measures designed to protect them might mean a building needs to be relocated out of the river’s reach.
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
(Photo courtesy of the Delta Institute)
Other cities face challenges not directly posed by Mother Nature. Cynthia Winland, director of strategic priorities for the Delta Institute, is an urban planner who has helped cities in the Great Lakes region that have transitioned away from the industrial economy that often left historic neighborhoods uninhabitable. Delta works in partnership with business, government and communities to create and implement innovative, market-driven solutions that build environmental resilience, economic vitality and healthy communities. Winland works on blight intervention, mostly in residential structures but sometimes in commercial and industrial settings. Her recent focus is on finding ways to recover lumber and other reusable materials from structures ■■ While not everyone defines blight in the same way, most people feel like they know it when they see it. that must be demolished. She is tuned in to how deteriorating residences affect the way people Detroit, Mich., is an example of a city that is becoming proactive and think and feel about their neighborhoods. However, not everyone defines deliberate in dealing with urban blight, she said, although it did not blight the same way. She points out that one person’s messy front porch always approach the problem in that manner. Part of the problem is that is another person’s blight. Detroit is the largest city in the United States, geographically. Properties were being demolished in an ad hoc way, with the result being a “swiss “We look at blight as something ‘over there,’” she said. “We might say, cheese” neighborhood, Winland said. There might be a few blocks with ‘Boy that looks bad, that doesn’t look safe, it is a shame they have to almost no blighted properties, yet a mile away, other blocks might have live there, how come street lights don’t work over there.’” only one or two houses left standing. Emphasizing the words “over there” indicate that blight is often thought The city decided it would be better, although much slower, to demolish to be somebody else’s problem, she said. in segments and decide what properties to remove. Whether blight is decay due to neglect or age, or the result of a neighborhood falling apart Instead, there are a variety of definitions of blight, Winland said. Is it a as city services deteriorate, or simply the feeling of a neighborhood question of a building’s appearance? Is it a matter of safety? Is it blight having seen better days, it can be quantified and mapped. if too many properties are held by renters rather than as single-family dwellings? Is it blight if people who live in the homes have stopped In one mapping project in Detroit, 375,000 properties were surveyed. paying taxes? In many of these areas, the gas might still be on, but mail delivery has ceased, along with street plowing and city bus service, Winland said. The common good is the bellwether of all planners, Winland said, and Community volunteers were sent out with clipboards and pens to fill out “if you want the common good to prevail, then you should make all forms covering 17 features of properties. A home that cannot be secured decisions in a public transparent place. with a lock was a top indicator of trouble. It might have a working front door but if windows are missing and the house stands open, that could “Make sure people who’ve sent in complaints about blight are in the be a sign it should be demolished rather than renovated. room,” she said, since they can help identify existing conditions of structures and density of blight. This is the first of many steps toward Indicators of impending blight can also be measured on a whole block resolving blight by being proactive and deliberate, rather than in a basis, Winland said, rather than by looking at individual properties. disorganized rush. [ 26 ]
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Indicators include two or more vacant or boarded up houses; two or more years of unpaid taxes on any structure; a lack of structural maintenance; crime within usable structures; or any combination of these indicators. Detroit wanted to look at whether to demolish or deconstruct various properties, Winland said. “Let’s think strategically about what has value,” she said. “Let’s look at assets, like old growth lumber reclamation, leaded glass, brick. Is there a market for these items salvaged from properties and is it worth shipping.”
While Winland thinks that the deliberate, proactive approach is the best way to tackle blight, she acknowledges objections. It is true that people may feel displaced or targeted, she said. Land might sit idle for a long time, giving people the impression that there is no plan. The municipality still has to incur maintenance costs during the planning process. Finally, it can look or act like urban renewal, she said, which means neighborhoods are being selected for success or demolition depending on seemingly arbitrary reasons, which can harm some groups. On the other hand, she said, some areas do improve, some blight is removed and the municipality can eventually redirect its resources.
Detroit had a strong market for these reclaimed materials in the Chicago area, so in that case, the answer was yes.
“We have become better at avoiding and predicting blight,” she said. Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship. n
At the same time, communities wondered why they should bother with this slow deconstruction process. Compared to demolition, Winland said, “deconstruction is a tool to create jobs, reclaim valuable material and create open space. You may have the opportunity to transform vacant and abandoned houses from a liability to an asset.”
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is a private, independent, nonprofit environmental research organization located on 2,000-acres in New York’s Hudson Valley. A world-premier center for ecosystem science, areas of expertise include disease ecology, forest and freshwater health, climate change, urban ecology, and invasive species. The science program is complemented by education, communication, and outreach initiatives.
There are many more economic, environmental and social benefits of deconstruction compared to demolition, Winland said. But in the case of demolition, the question of what to do with the vacant land must be answered. She has seen interim uses include community gardens, parking lot construction, recreation space, pop up art, and retail. More permanent uses include green infrastructure projects and gifting to neighboring jurisdictions or conservation organizations. For example, Gary, Ind., has a vacant land strategy that capitalizes on its Indiana Dunes State Park and National Lakeshore. Conservation groups came together and turned blighted land into conservation land, Winland said.
Janesville Produces a Profit Stream Janesville, WI is one of the first sites in the country producing a profit stream from electricity produced from biogas, in addition to making fuel for city vehicles. Unison Solutions Inc., based in Dubuque, Iowa, is proud to be part of the team at the Janesville WWTP. The unique technology provided to Janesville by Unison will allow them to grow their CNG vehicle fleet and fuel it directly from their biogas while still operating turbines for electricity production. This system will help Janesville reduce their overall energy costs and dependence on petroleum products. Learn more about it at www.unisonsolutions.com
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Sustainable City Network Magazine
Large-Scale Composting Solutions
Composting Food Scraps at Hospitals and Universities BY JENNIFER FODEN
Composting is a great way to divert food scraps away from the trash can — but how can it be applied in a larger context, such as in a hospital or university cafeteria? Composting on such a large scale not only reduces negative impacts on the environment, but also provides an opportunity to educate thousands of patrons about the benefits of going green.
• Matt Hart, director of Dietary Services, Mary Greeley Medical Center, Ames, Iowa. • Sabrina Pashtan, sustainability coordinator, Boston University Dining Services. • Laurie Kroymann, senior associate director, Food and Nutrition Services, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa. Our four questions, and their responses are below. 1) Why did you decide to adopt a university/hospital-wide composting program? Hart: Our waste stream is monitored by the city of Ames. It was found that a lot of grease was being sent down our drains. We saw a potential solution when the hospital was approached by GreenRU to compost our garbage. It has been successful in Des Moines area hospitals and we have been doing this for over two years now. Pashtan: Boston University made the decision to divert its organics to composting because of its environmental benefits. By reducing or diverting the amount of waste going to an incinerator, we are lessening the harm done by the carbon released into the atmosphere from burning. We are also contributing to the creation of a natural fertilizer — compost — which is beneficial to local farms, landscapers and parks. The other great benefit to a composting program in a university is that it creates awareness about waste diversion and reduction. Our program, which includes signage and educational materials, forces people to think about their disposal options and choices, thus making it a more conscious action. We’ve also adopted a diversion program for our catered events, which further increases awareness and a positive environmental impact. When visitors come to campus and attend an event, we hope to send the message that we are concerned about the environment and would like our guests to participate, or at least [ 28 ]
Photo: Boston University
We asked these three university and hospital professionals four questions about their experiences implementing composting programs:
■■ Food Waste Sorting Station
feel good knowing that we are doing the best that we can to lower our environmental footprint. Kroymann: In 2008, on Earth Day, the University of Iowa made a newfound commitment to achieve sustainability locally, in its own daily activities, and globally, in its work to serve Iowa and the world through education, research and service. University faculty, staff and students were summoned to be active participants in the cause. The university outlined seven sustainability goals, including composting of organic waste. In 2012, given a study released by the United States Department of Agriculture on national food waste, the timing was right to begin implementation of a comprehensive composting program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics within the department of Food and Nutrition Services. 2) What are the logistics of composting food waste on such a large scale? Hart: Because you want to keep the areas clean and free of odor and spillage, you must have a designated area for food waste containers. Pashtan: We rely on our partner and hauler — Save that Stuff — to pick up our organics seven days a week, in order to avoid the backup of waste. We also have extensive training for our team on an ongoing basis, as well as programs that seek to educate our community on how to properly sort their waste. In the future, we hope to employ new technology to further facilitate the disposal of organics on campus.
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plastic straws were bendable but the compostable ones are not. Patient and nursing feedback was firm that the patients needed bendable straws to drink liquids while reclined in bed. In this example, on the inpatient units only, plastic straws were reintroduced as a patient satisfier. Another challenge has been maintaining the integrity of the organic materials. A poster was developed and displayed above disposal containers labeled “Compost,” “Recycle,” and “Trash.” Despite educational efforts, any margin of error would contaminate the organic material and make it unacceptable for composting. To combat this issue, FNS staff sorts the compost containers to remove any non-organic products ensuring it goes to the composting facility with no foreign objects.
■■ Food Waste Sorting Station
Kroymann: In 2012, roughly 12 percent of the food that the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics prepared for its staff, patients and visitors went into the garbage. UIHC took a three-pronged approach to reduce food waste: reduce, donate and compost. Hospital staff began by identifying low-selling items and using that data to reduce menu selections. The hospital also increased its donations to Table to Table, a local charity that collects and distributes food. The hospital also switched to compostable food containers and began using a pulper to pulverize its leftover food waste, which then goes to the city landfill each week for composting. 3) What unexpected challenges arose? How were they solved? Hart: None really. Keeping the containers emptied and clean is the biggest challenge, but the company has done a good job of doing that. Pashtan: Over the course of our composting program, we have encountered challenges related to the large volume of organics generated during peak times of operation, which necessitated increasing hauling frequency, as well as mechanical issues with our complex pulper system. We’ve also had to address issues of contamination on an ongoing basis, which we’ve done with increased training for our staff, as well as hiring a green team each semester to help the university community sort their waste properly. Kroymann: One of the first challenges surrounded the functionality of the compostable takeout products. Customer feedback indicated that the compostable takeout containers were not as sturdy as the Styrofoam containers. The complaints essentially went away with education on why the products were different and the benefits to the environment. Also, on the patient units, compostable straws were initiated. The
The biggest challenge was storage of the organic waste. There was no ideal location to store the organic material until it was picked up to be transported to the composting facility. Originally the organic material was stored in an internal room near the sanitation unit; however, odor was a significant issue. The number of pickups was increased; however, that did not solve the issue. Ultimately, a walk-in cooler was constructed on the food and nutrition dock and the organic material is stored there and picked up on a weekly basis and transported to the composting facility. 4) What has the response from cafeteria patrons been? Hart: Ames is home to Iowa State University, which has a composting program as part of its larger campus sustainability program. People appreciate that, like the university, we are doing our part to reduce the amount of garbage and grease going out into the waste stream. Pashtan: Students have had a very positive response to our composting program. Through our annual dining survey and general feedback, students have told us that it makes them feel good to know that the university is being environmentally responsible and taking action to protect our environment. Our students like and appreciate the sorting stations at our student union food court, because of their high visibility and positive message. Kroymann: The response from cafeteria patrons has been overwhelmingly positive. Through education, any concerns have been quickly erased by explaining the benefits of composting. Patrons have been on-board with the program and Food and Nutrition Services has received many positive comments. Reducing waste has been a campuswide initiative and the hospital staff and patients are excited to be a part of the solution. n
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