National conference links land use decisions to water quality protection

By Laurie DiBattista and Cynthia Peterson, AWARE Colorado

Hundreds of people from across the country recently met in Denver to learn about some of the most current research, implementation tools and strategies in the wide-ranging field of smart growth.

A number of sessions at the three-day, fifth annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference dealt with the connection between land use and water quality protection.

The all-day workshop “Water, Water Everywhere: Integrating the Land Use and Water Quality Connection” focused on the way local governments incorporate water concerns into land-use planning.  Participants learned, for example, that:

• the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry landscape redesign used bioswales, resulting in a construction cost savings of $78,000.
• public schools in Portland, Ore., reduced their impervious areas to lessen stormwater drainage fees.
• porous pavement is being tested on some of Portland’s residential streets.
• the Local Government Commission’s Web site at www.lgc.org is a good resource for information about the land use and water connection.
• to arrive at policy outcomes, San Jose, Calif., gets collaboration from developers, the environmental community and regulators.
• parking requirements for San Jose’s downtown revitalization have been significantly reduced within the core area.
• it’s important to get language in ordinances and codes about 1) preventing runoff and 2)minimizing post-construction runoff so that runoff is controlled over the life of the project.
• AWARE Colorado continues to inform local officials that they play a key role in protecting water quality, and provides tools to safeguard water resources.

Water continued to be a theme throughout the conference.  Lisa Nisenson, senior policy analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, introduced “Using Smart Growth Techniques as Stormwater Best Management Practices.”  This new EPA publication highlights the water quality and stormwater benefits of smart growth strategies.

Nisenson discussed how smart growth techniques are emerging as functional best management practices for the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System stormwater program.  Measurable goals, a key feature of the stormwater program, are provided for each smart growth technique.

The new publication also includes smart growth techniques such as regional planning, infill development, redevelopment policies, special development districts, tree and canopy programs, parking lot policies to reduce the number of spaces and size, smart growth street designs and stormwater utilities.

Lynn Richards, senior EPA policy analyst, introduced the recently released “Protecting Water Resources with Higher-Density Development.”  It reports on a study that explored the effects of development density on stormwater runoff.

The study looked at three development scenarios:

• 8 houses built on 8 acres
• 8 houses built on 2 acres
• 8 houses built on 1 acre

For each scenario, the amount of runoff is analyzed at the lot, one-acre and watershed scales.  The analysis shows that the higher density development leads to less runoff per house at all scales.  The study concluded that low-density development may not always be the best approach to protect water quality, and higher-density development, which uses less land to accommodate the same number of homes, may better protect water resources.

Funding trends was the subject of the session “Getting Smarter About Funding Smart Growth: Creating Diverse Funding Partnerships.”

Geoff Anderson, director of the Development, Community, and Environment Division at the EPA.  Anderson, who directs EPA’s Smart Growth program, urged participants to consider these funding sources:

1. often overlooked Department of Transportation funding in their states when projects have any kind of tie-in with roads and highways.
2. Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP) - environmentally beneficial projects that a violator voluntarily agrees to perform as part of a settlement of an enforcement action.  For example, a codes audit to determine why a lot of impervious surfaces are constructed in a community.
3. Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) programs, which provided over $4 billion annually in recent years to fund water quality protection projects for wastewater treatment, nonpoint source pollution control, and watershed and estuary management.  It is the country’s largest water quality financing source.  Anderson added that project funding sometimes transfer from loans to grants.
4. other sources including Section 319 nonpoint source grants, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control and even the National Endowment for the Arts.

Integrated transportation planning 

The “Integrating Land Use, Natural Resource, and Cultural Resource Plans into the Transportation Decision-Making Process” session dealt with the importance of establishing a collaborative, coordinated process to address communities’ transportation needs and other goals, including environmental protection.

Carol Adkins, environmental protection specialist with the Federal Highway Administration, said that the new Transportation Reauthorization Act requires discussion of environmental activities to see what effects new highways will have on the environment in order to develop a plan to mitigate, in advance, potential impacts.

She noted that Fort Collins, Colo., is one of the cities “starting on that path” and that Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs, is creating environmental buffer zones to protect wildlife habitat and open space.  Adkins added that transportation funding is often used to partner with other entities.

Telling the story 

A standing-room-only crowd listened as media experts talked about explaining smart growth concepts to the public.  According to Dick Brooks, president of Minneapolis-based ActionMedia, focus group findings show that citizens want to see:

• All options put on the table
• Big picture put on the table
• A benefit for the community
• Fairness
• Public participation

The focus groups also said that specific development proposals should include these values: 1) choice, 2) convenience, 3) security and safety, 4) conservation of what the community has or values, and 5) a sense of community.

Brooks said that the important issue facing communities is “what, where and how to build next.  It’s about how to improve our communities.”