The Ecodistrict: a Framework for Environmental Mitigation at the Neighborhood Level Stephen Deal

10 AUGUST 2017 • W ATER LOG 37:3 The Ecodistrict: A Framework for Environmental Mitigation at the Neighborhood Level Stephen Deal A view of Millvale, Pennsylvania. Photograph courtesy of ornoth Liscomb. While there are many conservation groups that focus planning process, ecodistrict neighborhoods can then use on preserving pristine wilderness, few groups focus on this baseline to craft projects and performance goals that greening up the city landscape. Worse yet, an overly improve upon existing environmental conditions. This simplistic understanding of natural systems in an type of planning approach has value because it ties urban context may result in greenery that amounts to environmental mitigation directly into the institutional little more than window dressing and is not fully life of a neighborhood. integrated to provide comprehensive ecosystem services. New Urbanist developer Andres Duany used the An ecodistrict and its elements term “green camouflage” when describing green The Portland Sustainability Institute provides a good infrastructure that fails to properly acknowledge its definition of the term ecodistrict: urban context: “an urban paradigm cannot be based on An EcoDistrict is a neighborhood that is committed the implantation of natural vignettes in the residual to sustainability that links green buildings, smart places between buildings.” 1 infrastructure and behavior to meet ambitious One way to ensure that urban greenery provides sustainability goals over time. EcoDistricts are the tangible benefits is to create an ecodistrict. An ecodistrict right scale to generate sustainability – small enough helps establish a baseline of environmental performance to innovate quickly and big enough to have a in a neighborhood. By engaging in a comprehensive meaningful impact. 2 AUGUST 2017 • W ATER LOG 37:3 11 Developing an ecodistrict starts with determining the Millvale ecodistrict: the performance metrics, which are built in at the A Blueprint for Neighborhood Action beginning of the planning process. The Portland In 2011, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Sustainability Institute identified eight performance Protection awarded an ecodistrict grant to the consulting areas for ecodistricts: firm evolveEA. 4 After being approached by a Millvale • equitable development nonprofit organization, evolveEA decided to make • energy Millvale, Pennsylvania the focus for its ecodistrict • water planning process. • health and well being While the ecodistrict concept has gained wide • community identity acceptance in dense and large urban neighborhoods, the • access and mobility Millvale experience shows how this type of visioning • material management, and process can have benefits for smaller neighborhoods as • habitat and ecosystem function. well. With a population of around 3,500, the Borough of Millvale is comparable in scale and size to many While neighborhoods have a great deal of discretion neighborhoods within small and mid-sized cities. 5 over what metrics they choose to pursue, these Accordingly, the process used in Millvale could be used in categories are a useful primer on the type of policy goals small, older neighborhoods to evaluate how to allocate for neighborhoods. scarce resources and human capital. A key component of the ecodistrict process is The Millvale ecodistrict plan was completed in 2012, gathering data to understand prevailing environmental and updated in 2016. It focuses on six key areas of conditions within the neighborhood. This data can then environmental sustainability: energy, water, food, be used to establish firm numbers on existing natural mobility, air, and equity. The efforts of evolveEA and the indicators within the study, thereby establishing a Borough of Millvale in ecodistrict planning were robust baseline. The type of data used varies widely recognized with a silver medal from the American from district to district, but existing ecodistrict Planning Association’s National Planning Achievement documents and reports can reveal the sources needed Award for Environmental Planning. to build that baseline. In the Lloyd ecodistrict in Now on Phase 2.0 of the Ecodistrict Pivot Plan, the Portland, Oregon, data were gathered on the amount of Borough of Millvale has already made a number of pervious and impervious surface area within the notable strides in community sustainability. For example, neighborhood along with the number of gallons of in Phase 1 of the plan, Millvale was able to create a stormwater the area produced over the course of a comprehensive inventory of vacant lots that could be year. 3 Other relevant data categories cited include converted to food production along with information on annual figures on carbon emissions, district energy food processing and distribution points. 6 A fresh food demand, and waste generated within the area. Also, in hub was also developed in the town center, complete with order to develop a more complete picture of the a business incubator on the second floor that will cater to district’s ecological footprint, data were sorted and emerging food entrepreneurs. filtered by land use categories. For example, water Another key area for the plan was water management , demand was tabulated for each basic land use category: and since the plan allowed for a comprehensive analysis residential, commercial, industrial and open space. of the borough’s watershed as a whole, participants were This type of data breakdown is useful because it helps able to get a better handle on the type of projects that build a more comprehensive picture of environmental would have the greatest impact. Much of the data impact within the area, and it can be a useful proxy gathering for the water section was centered on Girty’s for gauging the type of efficiency gains that may Run, a tributary of the Allegheny River and the accrue to individual properties once the ecodistrict borough’s main water feature. By gathering data about is implemented. the existing hydrology within the study area, the plan’s 12 AUGUST 2017 • W ATER LOG 37:3 A view of the Allegheny river under the 16th Street Bridge. Photograph courtesy of Matt Niemi. authors learned that 61% of the flow originated from ecodistrict apparatus is the Capitol Hill neighborhood outside the study area, primarily from upstream of Seattle. The organizers of the Capitol Hill initiative separated sewer systems. As a result, many of the grouped proposed pilot projects and activities under recommendations centered on improving regional eight performance areas: water, habitat, culture, energy, cooperation around Girty’s Run. Specific goals outlined materials, transportation, health, and equity. 7 within the document included the creation of a One of the specific goals that emerged from the watershed authority for Girty’s Run and increasing neighborhood planning process was the promotion of collaboration with the Girty’s Run Joint Sewer Authority. biodiversity. In order to achieve this, neighborhood leaders Having the ecodistrict in place made it easier to see and local stakeholders hired an expert to implement a how these projects fit into a larger framework for pollinator pathway. 8 A pollinator pathway has the goal sustainability and whether they represent the best use of connecting two or more urban green spaces not just of resources to improve upon the baseline of current physically, but in a way that allows for a unified environmental indicators. ecosystem to emerge. The process to create a pollinator pathway involved using a high number of native plants, ecodistricts as Laboratories of Innovation which are able to meet the requirements of pollinating The use of neighborhood based performance metrics insects and creatures. This effort to build more meaningful also provides a solid foundation for implementing novel connections between urban ecological communities would policy proposals and design strategies that otherwise not be as easy to plan if an ecodistrict were not already may not be imagined. One neighborhood where a number in place to collect data on existing natural assets and the of interesting innovations have been made through the current environmental baseline of the neighborhood. AUGUST 2017 • W ATER LOG 37:3 13 The Capitol Hill ecodistrict also sought to improve that might be harder to undertake in the formal arena the area’s urban fabric through design review and innovative of city politics. building practices. One way this has been accomplished is through the creation of a neighborhood-based land Conclusion use review committee. 9 The committee meets once a With its performance metrics and specifications month and invites developers to come in and discuss regarding data gathering, an ecodistrict may seem like an their preliminary proposals. The committee forwards arduous undertaking for many communities. However, discussions and recommendations to Seattle city ecodistricts’ high degree of customization and ability to officials. The committee also participates in regulation set achievable benchmarks for environmental mitigation changes, such as when the city undertakes a large-scale are very empowering for communities who value rezoning or implements design guidelines that will environmental mitigation, but do not know where to affect the community appearance and character of the start. Smaller, neighborhood-based ecodistricts may also Capitol Hill neighborhood. serve as a useful watchdog over decisions implemented The ecodistrict is also promoting more efficient by city governments. If a city policy is

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