The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the 8th annual national award for smart growth achievement at the National Building Museum this week. EPA Adminstrator Lisa Jackson introduced the award winners by saying diverse projects facing a range of issues in different environments were selected. The winning projects all “bring together sustainability and environmental benefits on the ground.” Jackson added that all projects prove that environmental sustainability can be tied to development. “It’s a false choice between a healthy environment or a healthy economy.” More sustainable communities stay viable in economic downturns.
Originally from New Orleans, Jackson said she has a personal interest in applying smart growth to underserved communities, and using new sustainable planning techniques to revitalize struggling communities. “These techniques are saving New Orleans. Green, sustainable ideas are giving hope.” She cited blighted areas that are turning into in-demand waterfront properties.
Smart growth has a key role to play in creating more sustainable homes and communities. However, Jackson said “it’s important to connect these ideas to everyday people and their everyday lives.”
Four projects were given awards:
Policies and Regulations: The City of Charlotte, Charlotte Department of Transportation, Charlotte, North Carolina: The City of Charlotte’s Urban Street Design Guidelines were held up as a model for how to use streets to design sustainable communities and provide access for all users. According to the EPA, “the guidelines promote sustainable development patterns and streets that are more pleasant, safe, and walkable.” Streets built in Charlotte using the new guidelines now include bike lanes, central lanes (which function as pedestrian refuges), more crosswalks, and better connectivity with light-rail and buses. One representative from the city said they viewed the seven-year guideline development process as critical to answering the question: ”How do you create a sense of place?” Another representative from the city added that “our streets are worth it.”
Built Projects: Parkside of Old Town, Chicago Housing Authority, FitzGerald Associates Architects and Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation, Chicago, Illinois: The Chicago housing authority received $50 million in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hope VI grants to create a new development out of the infamous Cabrini Green housing project in inner-city Chicago. It was viewed as the “most dangerous housing authority in the country.” Using the grants, the housing authority worked with FitzGerald Associates, an architecture firm, to create a 800-unit mixed-use, mid-rise housing project with affordable, public, and condominium housing options. Viewed from the outside, visitors can’t distinguish public housing from condos; they are intermingled throughout the complex.
Parkside added lots of green space, and decided on small pocket parks instead of one central green space in order to maintain equitable access to green space. The rental units are now 90 plus percent occupied, while the condos are 50 percent occupied. New grocery stores and a Starbucks have come to an area “people used to be too scared to bike through.”
The success of the eight-year project was due in part to the ambitious public outreach efforts. “You need buy-in from all the community,” said a representative from the Chicago Housing Authority. “You can’t isolate any part of the community. You have to bring the community together, and partner with social organizations.” However, the Chicago Housing authority added that continued public education on environmental sustainability is needed. “People need to be educated about the environmental benefits so they will take advantage of them.”
Smart Growth and Green Building: Tempe Transportation Center, City of Tempe and Architekton + Otak Tempe, Arizona: According to the EPA, the city of Tempe designed the Tempe Transportation Center as a “multi-use green facility that is not only a transportation hub, but also a gathering spot for the community. A multi-modal, mixed-use facility, the center integrates the downtown light-rail stop, the main city bus station, and the state’s first ‘bike station,’ which offers secure on-site storage and repairs.”
The vice mayor of Tempe, Shana Ellis, said that the transportation hub illustrates Tempe transportation’s new theme and tagline: “Tempe in Motion: Bus, Bike, Walk, Rail.” A project manager from the city added that “just getting people out of their cars is a real success.” NRDC’s Switchboard blog has more details on the facility’s success as a sustainable transportation hub.
The LEED-certified transportation center, designed by Architekton, includes a desert green roof and shade trees. During the summer, Tempe, which has lots of asphalt, suffers from an urban heat island effect. Creating cooler shaded areas, and reusing scarce water in the landscape around the transportation hub, were key parts of the overall site design. Learn more about the building’s green features.
Overall Excellence: Envision Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan and Implementation, Lancaster County Planning Commission, Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The EPA writes that “like many rural areas, Lancaster county is facing pressure to develop its extensive farmland and open space. In response, the Lancaster County Planning Commission and its member municipalities created Envision Lancaster County, a comprehensive, multi-staged countywide plan to manage growth and maintain the county’s distinctive sense of place over the next 25 years.”
To cut down on sprawl, the plan promotes investment in existing communities and encouraging more compact, inter-connected neighborhoods. “By doing so, the plan preserves open space, protects water resources, and provides greater housing and transportation choices.” The planning commission said it’s focusing development in specified urban growth areas, and creating “quality-designed, high-density communities.”
One representative from the planning commission said the plan is “a comprehensive comprehensive plan” focused on conservation of land, and preserving Lancaster’s sense of place, which is tied to its rural, farming identity. “There are pristine farmlands. This is Amish country. This is what draws visitors and makes us unique.” Furthermore, preserving farmlands has an economic component: “We have some of the most productive soils on the planet.” To keep local farming businesses on board with the plan, those productive soils needed to be protected from unplanned sprawl.
All winners lauded the new federal partnership on livable communities formed by HUD, EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) (see earlier post). “The federal government’s new partnership is exciting,” said a representative from Lancaster County. However, the Chicago Housing Authority mentioned the need for the federal government to offer more “infill financing,” and Tempe’s transportation representative added that “the federal government needs to further incentive and encourage infill development,” which is key to smart growth in urban areas.
The EPA’s smart growth program manager, John Frece, said: “Sustainability goes hand in hand with smart growth.”
The EPA received more than 100 application from 34 states this year. Learn more about the program at EPA.gov/smartgrowth
Image credit: City of Tempe, Tempe Transportation Center
Thanks that was a great post!
we were very pleased to have been the landscape architects for this project. the project’s been a great story in collaboration with all disciplines. i’m happy to give you a tour, including the green roof. we’re seeking LEED Platinum. This is a great example of a potential SITES project as well.