CitiesGoGreen - February 2009 - (Page 31) How much is enough? What is the magic number of acres of Green Infrastructure to set aside for each new resident? How much acreage does one person, one cow, one black bear need? What we need is a translator to crunch the vast body of scientific and government literature on this subject and provide us with a tool that can be applied in the political arena. One possible indicator is provided by a review of the over-100,000 population cities in the United States considered “most livable” according to various lists. The data indicate the top 10 cities on average have preserved about 12% of their acreage as Green Infrastructure. However, at 12%, a Wyoming rancher will probably feel his fishing experience is too claustrophobic for comfort long before a New York apartment dweller would feel crowded. The ideal amount of space will therefore depend on each community’s environment, political and financial security and desired quality of life. That socio-political weighting will be applied to the matrix of objective measures for quantity, quality, location and pace to calculate the eLoS metric acceptable to the community. A second indicator of how much is enough is the public’s willingness to pay for the protection of open space. Until the public says “enough!” at the voting booth, I would argue that we have not protected enough. Data collected by the Trust for Public Lands shows that Open Space referenda pass about 75% of the time, a rate which has remained steady since 1994. The margin of approval also remains high (9 points). In the last election, a record $8.4 billion in new funds for land conservation and recreation were approved in 71% of the referenda across the nation. So it seems the general public perceives that not only do we need Green Infrastructure, we need to continue to acquire it. The public understands quantity, quality, location and pace. Foundations of the Ecological Level of Service (eLoS) Concept • The current approaches are not a rational and systematic way to consider the ecological footprint of new development. • New growth must pay for itself not only in terms of its gray or built infrastructure needs, but in terms of its Green Infrastructure needs. • Green Infrastructure has to be created in sufficient quantity, quality, in the right location, and at a pace that keeps up with the growing community needs. This is called the Ecological Level of Service. • Development set asides are insufficient to rectify current Green Infrastructure deficits. Retrofitting existing built communities with low-impact, resource-efficient improvements and mandating that new developments adopt such principles will all reduce pressure to convert greenspace. • Public financing of land acquisition is ultimately one of the most fiscally responsible ways to provide Green Infrastructure. any capacity enhancements? Some communities use tax increment financing and others use impact fees to endow a fund that is eventually used to create the additional capacity when it is needed. We have seen that we can also require it to be built as part of any new development. But the value of Green Infrastructure must be thought of not only in terms of the cost to provide it, i.e. acquisition and stewardship costs of land conservation, but also in terms of the cost of not providing it and also in terms of its amenity value. As we have seen, the opportunity cost of not setting aside land for drinking water recharge will be the increased costs of getting, treating and delivering quality water in sufficient quantity. The increase in value of parcels adjacent to open space is well documented. A review of any community shows that, all else being equal, the most valuable houses are on lakes, golf courses, sea shores, and adjacent to parks. In Alachua County, the loss in property tax revenue (public lands are not taxed) is offset by the $150 million increase in proximate property values (pdf ) and the $3.5 million increase in potential property tax receipts. A problem remains Unlike the gray infrastructure, communities cannot manufacture Green Infrastructure ad infinitum. New Green Infrastructure cannot be built vertically like double-decker roads or high-rise condominiums or multi-story school buildings. In some, perhaps not-too-distant future, we will have protected all the available greenspace and still have new residents to accommodate. To forestall that point, we must focus on increasing efficiency. We can plan new developments with energy and resource efficient designs such as clustering, gray water re-use and Low Impact Design. Building vertically does not increase the built footprint, but more Green Infrastructure will be created since it can be correlated to the number of households approved. We can also retrofit existing inefficient developments with such promising new technologies as solar design, multi-modal transportation hubs, and superfast communication infrastructure to promote e-commerce and e-commuting. Finally, we can replace old and wasteful developments and encourage infill with newer, more resource-efficient models. The reality is that the earth, like all systems, has a finite capacity to do work— in this case to sustain life. Even if we could distribute people over the landscape in densities corresponding to the land’s carrying capacity, we would reach a point at which we could not add another person. Consider also the effect on wildlife long before that point. When we decide the quality of life we want is no longer available locally and look to move to some other community, slower to develop or tougher on unsustainable growth, will they let us in? v How do we pay for it? In Florida, through the implementation of the Growth Management Act, any new Level of Service must come with determination of how the community is able to pay to meet it. In other words, if we are to require a Level of Service for school seats, road capacity enhancements and additional fire stations, how are we to fund February/March 2009 Ramesh Buch has managed Alachua County Forever, a County land conservation program, since 2001. To date, the program and its many partners have conserved some 16,000 acres of environmentally significant landscapes worth over $70 million. Prior to coming to Alachua County, Ramesh spent ten years with Miami-Dade County’s (Florida) Department of Environmental Resources Management as a biologist and program supervisor. 31 http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-02/americas-50-greenest-cities?page=1 http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=12010&folder_id=2386 http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=21251&folder_id=175 http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=21251&folder_id=175 http://www.alachuacounty.us/assets/uploads/images/EPD/Land/Files/Alachua%20Write-up%20Jul%2004.pdf http://www.alachuacounty.us/assets/uploads/images/EPD/Land/Files/Alachua%20Write-up%20Jul%2004.pdf http://www.CitiesGoGreen.com
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