CitiesGoGreen - February 2009 - (Page 15) China and Canada (Montreal), and Sonoma Mountain Village. Sonoma Mountain Village Sonoma Mountain Village in the City of Rohnert Park, in Sonoma County, 40 miles north of San Francisco, is a marriage made in heaven between a very green local developer, Brad Codding, and a receptive city council. The project’s cheerful Sustainability Manager Kirstie Moore said, “When the Coddings bid to recycle Agilent’s abandoned industrial park into a sustainable community, it sparked the imagination of the City of Rohnert Park, and they jumped at the opportunity.” The 175 acre site came with over 700,000 sq. ft. of existing buildings, and will eventually contain 1892 dwellings. Hundreds of acres are being added to the site for habitat restoration and preservation in addition to the 30% which will be restored to parkland, community agriculture, and habitat. In September 2008, the State of California recognized Sonoma Mountain Village as the sole winner in the category of Comprehensive Land Use Planning of the Governor’s Environmental and Leadership Award, the state’s highest and most prestigious environmental honor. The community is targeting LEED Platinum status. The local Codding family is known for being environmentally aware, and Brad Codding has had decades of experience building malls that, for their time, were very green. Codding’s experience may help prevent technical failures like BedZED’s district heating and Mata de Sisembra’s long delay. Codding Enterprises put together a panel of sustainability experts ranging from the international BioRegional One Planet team itself, to wetlands protection scientists, and to prevent the “cookie cutter” effect, a range of top US architecture firms. They got advice from Hall Alminana, a leading US New Urbanist town planning firm, which advocates moving away from what Laura Hall, a principal at the company, described as “an inhumane development philosophy.” A ten minute walk from the community gets residents to a local and regional rail system, putting San Francisco within carfree reach. The design emphasis Moore said BioRegional doesn’t just provide best practices advice on attaining the 10 general principles. “In each community the emphasis is a bit different. For example, in the Masdar City project in the UAE they paid particular attention to labor practices. In Sonoma County, due to local and state laws, that is not a challenge we face.” In Sonoma drought is becoming a real crisis, and with only 2% of electricity coming from coal, carbon emissions related to driving are the biggest concern. Therefore, fewer cars on the road and catching rainfall are both prioritized. Drought also precipitates additional energy use: 19% of California’s energy is used to move “imported” water around the state, yet pave- Recycling an office park The One Planet Living Principles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Zero carbon Zero waste Sustainable transport Local and sustainable materials Local and sustainable food Sustainable water Natural habitats and wildlife Culture and heritage Equity and fair-trade Health and happiness The aim is neighborhoods offering truly sustainable, healthier lifestyles. Agilent’s entire abandoned industrial park will literally be recycled into a town by a process of gentle deconstruction and reconstruction, rather than demolition. The paving from every bit of the old parking lots will be crushed and re-used to build the new town’s sidewalks. Making new concrete is carbon-intensive, so this zero waste construction technique is a very low-carbon way to make new sidewalks. As for the office park buildings, some of the interiors are being renovated. Rather than having trucks cart debris for burial in landfill (where an Maintaining a five-minute commute is central estimated 1.2 billion board feet of usable wood gets tossed an- to the plan for minimizing car use, which is nually) materials are being sal- why the town is fully integrated. vaged wherever possible. Sonoma Mountain Village offers a lesson in frugality and opportunity ment disperses the rain that does fall. Two of the largest commercial buildings for other municipalities. “This can open their eyes up to the potentially very valu- will have green roofs, trapping and directable resources they might already have ing rain. Habitat-protected bio-swales will in their vacant or underperforming office act as wetlands, conserving water in a 4 and industrial parks. Many of these ‘parks’ million gallon underground reservoir that are in ideal locations near the centers of will recycle water for irrigation. Maintaining a five-minute commute is towns and/or near rail lines,” explained Hall. “These vacant spots can cover a lot central to the plan for minimizing car use, of land that can be converted into a lot of which is why the town is fully integrated. compact, mixed-use development in the All buildings will be mixed use, with a new center of town, which is cheaper, rather range of housing types: an urban core than on the outskirts.” Hall Alminana now of up to eight stories of live-work lofts has a model and a SmartCode for this type above shopfronts and galleries in town, of conversion. two-story townhouses with stoops on People can buy in, both literally and tree shaded streets like Upper East Side metaphorically, to a carbon neutral, ready Manhattan, and, a five minute walk from made eco-life simply by moving to these the center of town, completely rural setcommunities. The housing plans include tings zoned for small farming operations. ground-source heat pumps, ultra-efficient This creates a diverse community, not just lighting and appliances, super-insulated a gated community for the eco-elite. Each walls, floors and roofs, solar hot water housing zone will contain a range of pricsystems, green roofs, and an electric car- es and sizes. share program that gets its energy from There will be a daily farmer’s market in on-site solar power. Advanced recycling the Town Square, relocating to the market will be easy and automatic. Collected hall when it rains. Peripheral housing will food waste will be composted to create be almost rural, and like the surrounding soil for numerous community gardens. farm houses will be zoned to allow goats, 15 February/March 2009 http://www.bioregional.com/oneplanetcommunities/na/sonoma http://www.CitiesGoGreen.com
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