Here are some potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to consider for sustainable development in this community: Strengths: - Existing infrastructure in downtown/urban areas that could support higher density development - Engaged community groups interested in sustainability - Natural areas, parks and open spaces that provide environmental benefits Weaknesses: - Disinvestment and vacant properties in some areas - Auto-dependent transportation patterns - Aging infrastructure in need of upgrades Opportunities: - Redeveloping underutilized properties in strategic areas - Improving multi-modal transportation connectivity - Creating vibrant, walkable mixed-use neighborhoods Threats: - Sprawling development patterns consuming open land

1. Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program
EPA Office of Sustainable Communities
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN +
DEVELOPMENT
Renaissance Planning Group
Asheboro, North Carolina May 21, 2012
Alan Steinbeck, AICP

2. About the Sustainable Communities
Building Blocks Program
• The Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program seeks
to provide quick, targeted technical assistance to
communities using a variety of tools that have demonstrated
results and widespread application.
• This technical assistance will help selected local and/or tribal
governments to implement development approaches that
protect the environment, improve public health, create jobs,
expand economic opportunity, and improve overall quality
of life.
Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program

3. Sustainable Design + Development
• Purpose of Tool: Help communities understand the key
principles and decisions at the location, site, and
building levels that can result in a more sustainable
plan or development proposal.
• Builds upon existing EPA publication,
Smart Growth Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Developm
Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program

4. What is Smart Growth?
Development strategies intended to:
• protect open space and farmland,
• revitalize existing communities,
• maintain affordable housing and
• provide a variety of transportation
choices.
Image: AECOM.

5. Smart growth borrows the best of traditional
neighborhoods and cities.
Photo: Port Washington, WI EPA Smart Growth (Flickr, 2011)

6. Sustainable development
strengthens and directs
development towards
existing communities
Photo: EPA.

7. Smart communities allow the
mixing of residential, office
and commercial uses in
appropriate locations to
improve access while reducing
the need for car travel.
Photo: AECOM.

8. Smart Growth creates walkable neighborhoods.
Photo: Kirkland, WA; EPA
Smart Growth (Flickr, 2011)

9. Sustainable communities improve accessibility
by connecting people to destinations and
offering multiple ways to get around.
Photo: Rideau Canal, Ottawa Vince Alongi (Flickr, 2011)

10. Green buildings and sustainable infrastructure
make buildings and their landscapes healthier,
more efficient, and longer-lasting.
Photo: Arlington County(Flickr, 2011)

11. Conventional development
patterns often lead to:
• higher infrastructure costs
• higher fuel bills
• hindered worker access to jobs
• greater vulnerability to rising oil
prices
• lower rates of walking and higher
health care costs
• higher GHG emissions
• greater ecosystem disruption.
Photo: AECOM.

12. Advantages of Smart Growth
Housing and
Transportation
Cost Burdens
by Commute
Distance
Source: Urban Land Institute Terwilliger
Center for Workforce Housing, Beltway
Burden: The Combined Cost of Housing
and Transportation in the Greater
Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area
(2009)
Cited in “Growing Wealthier,” Center for Clean Air Policy, January 2011.

13. Evaluating the Impact of Different
Development Options on Energy Use
A household in this type of home in a conventional suburban
location can reduce its energy consumption by…
Energy-efficient
Energy-efficient Transit-oriented
home and car in a
home and car location
transit-friendly site*
Single-family detached home 34 percent 38 percent 53 percent
Single-family attached home
35 percent 41 percent 56 percent
(rowhouse or townhouse)
Multifamily home 38 percent 49 percent 62 percent
…just by adopting
… just by being …by making its home
energy-efficiency
located in a and car more energy-
measures in their
transit-friendly efficient on a site that
home and driving a
site. is close to transit.
fuel efficient car.
* Note: the final column is not the sum of the first two columns, as the marginal benefit of using a fuel-efficient car in
a transit-friendly site is not equal to the benefit of doing so in an auto-dependent site, as the car is used less
Source: U.S. EPA, 2011.

14. Advantages of Compact, Walkable Communities
• Compact development reduces traffic fatalities.
– Every 1% increase in the index toward more compact development, traffic
fatality fell by 1.5% and pedestrian fatality rates fell by 3.6% (Reid Ewing, et
al., 2003)
• Walkable communities save money.
– A 1999 study by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute
estimated that for each trip not driven, society saves between $1 and $3.50
in avoided costs (congestion, road maintenance, parking, pollution, noise,
safety)
• Walkable communities are healthier.
– Residents of the most walkable environments in Atlanta were found to get
approximately 37 minutes of moderate activity per day, whereas residents of
the least walkable environments got only 18 minutes (Lawrence Frank and
Peter Engelke, 2005)
Cited in “Growing Wealthier,” Center for Clean Air Policy, January 2011.

15. Advantages of Sustainable Development
• Sacramento Council of Government found that growing
in a compact pattern as opposed to sprawl, would result
in dramatic savings.
– $9.4 billon less of public infrastructure costs (e.g. transportation, water
supply, utilities)
– 14% fewer carbon dioxide emissions
– $655 million less for residents’ annual fuel costs
– $8.4 billion less for land purchases to mitigate the environmental harm of
development
Cited in “Cities discover economic benefits of sustainable planning, land use,” Sustainable Communities,
January/February 2011.
Photo: AECOM.

16. Advantages of Sustainable Design
• Improves air quality
– Building walkable communities with multiple transportation choices can
reduce air pollution by reducing auto mileage and smog-forming
emissions.
• Protects water quality
– Compact development with fewer paved surfaces reduces stormwater
runoff, which often contains phosphorus and nitrogen.
• Preserves open space
– Encouraging development in existing areas protects open space for
wildlife habitats and natural water filtration.
Photo: EPA.

17. Sustainable communities must work at all scales
Photo: EPA.

18. Regional Considerations
Choosing Smart Growth Locations
• Plan regionally
• Utilize underused, vacant, or abandoned land in existing
cities and towns
• Increase accessibility to activity centers and encourage
multimodal transportation options
Photo: Providence, RI; Jef Nickerson (Flickr, 2011)

19. Smart Growth
Locations
•Strengthen the municipal
tax base
•Improve existing
infrastructure
•Increase accessibility to
employment centers
•Reduce commutes times
Photo: St. George, Utah; Ken Lund (Flickr, 2011)

20. Neighborhood Considerations
Creating sustainable, desirable neighborhoods
• Incorporate well-designed buildings, streets, and
infrastructure
• Create distinct places with defined boundaries
• Plan for a diversity of uses and users
Photo: AECOM.

21. Neighborhood Plan –
Placemaking
•Walkable, complete streets create
a sense of place and promote
healthy lifestyles
•Compact development enhances
access to various services
•Diverse housing stock provides
opportunities for all incomes and
ages
•Multi-modal connectivity
invigorates neighborhoods
•Conserved open spaces provide
natural habitats, water
management and carbon
sequestration.
Photo: EPA.

22. Building Considerations
Designing and constructing healthy, efficient
buildings
• Use green building techniques that make buildings and their
landscapes more efficient, more durable, and healthier
Photo: AECOM.

23. Green Buildings &
Infrastructure
•Healthier, durable, energy and
water efficient buildings
– Improve indoor air quality
– Extend the life of building
materials, reduce waste
– Conserve resources to save
energy and water costs
•For more information,
checklists, best practices, and
technical resources see
programs such as EPA’s
ENERGY STAR Qualified
Homes Program, LEED, and
South Face
Photo: AECOM.

24. Smart Growth Case Studies
What Does Sustainable Development
Look Like?
Photo: AECOM.

25. Park Hill Industrial Corridor Implementation Strategy
Louisville, Kentucky
Photos: AECOM.

26. Park Hill Industrial
Corridor Implementation
Strategy
•Brownfield remediation
/redevelopment
•Centrally-located industrial
district with numerous vacant
and underutilized properties
•Opportunity to attract
businesses and promote local
workforce development
Image: AECOM.

27. Park Hill Industrial
Corridor Implementation
Strategy
•Adaptive reuse of Flavorman
facility, 24,000 sq. ft.
• high tech lab
• blending room,
• warehouse,
• shipping dock,
• conference room,
• employee exercise room
• test kitchen
• corporate apartment
Images: Flavorman.

28. Stapleton
Denver, Colorado
• Existing city airport was
repurposed as an urban
infill community
• Mixed-uses – residential,
retail, and workplace
• Restoration of Westerley
Creek
Image: AECOM.

29. Stapleton
•Recycled airport runway
concrete for green
infrastructure
Photo: AECOM.

30. Stapleton
•Creation of dozes of acres
of prairie grasslands
Photo: AECOM.

31. Stapleton
•Provision of complete
streets
Photo: AECOM.

32. Louisville’s West Main Street
Cultural Arts District
Louisville, Kentucky
• Existing blighted neighborhood in
downtown Louisville
• $6 M in public realm investment
has yielded over $150 M in private
investment
Photo: AECOM.

33. Louisville’s West Main
Street Cultural Arts
District
•100,00 sq ft of office
•3 museums
•200 residential units
•1 hotel
•6 restaurants
•Voted top ten Main Street
by the American Planning
Association
Photo: AECOM.

34. Lancaster County, PA
• Envision Lancaster County: Comprehensive Plan
• Directs development to 47 urban and village growth areas
• Preserves farmland, rural areas, and County character
Photo: Lancaster County, PA; Ken Lund (Flickr, 2011)

35. Lancaster County, PA
• 85% of new growth be directed to designated areas
• Urban areas must achieve a density of 7.5 units per acre
• Village areas achieve a density of 2.5 units per acre
Photo: Ephrata, Lancaster County, PA; Andrew Bossi (Flickr, 2011)

36. The Yards, Washington, D.C.
Image: AECOM.

37. The Yards, Washington, D.C.
• Public private partnership to adaptively reuse the old annex to the Navy
Yard.
• 42-acres: 2,800 residential units; 1.8M sf of office; 400,000 sf retail; waterfront
park
• LEED-ND Gold
Image: AECOM.

38. Philadelphia Navy Yard
Philadelphia, PA
• Redevelopment of historic
navy yard
• Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places;
structures dating from 1875
• Solar energy center (1.5
million kilowatt-hours)
• Keystone Innovation Zone
(KIZ)
Photos: Philadelphia Navy Yard, 2011.

39. Philadelphia Navy Yard
•Total of 15 million square feet (1.4 million sq m) at build-out
•Estimated to employ 20,000 employees. Currently over 7,500 employees
•Liberty Trust Property/Synterra Partners paid 40% of the Master Plan’s cost; PIDC
paid the remainder. Liberty Trust Property/Synterra Partners are committed to
investing $250 million in 1.4 million square feet of new space in next 10 years
Photos: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, 2011.

40. Capper Carrollsburg
Washington, D.C.
•Transformation of public housing into mixed-use, mixed-income
neighborhood
Photo: AECOM.

41. Capper Carrollsburg
•Stormwater management:
bioretention swales,
permeable pavers
•Pedestrian infrastructure
Photo: AECOM.

42. Twinbrook Station
Rockville, Maryland
• Mixed-use, transit-
oriented development
• Establishes new
connections between
existing development,
Metro station, and new
development
• Pedestrian-focused
neighborhood
• LEED for Neighborhood
Development pilot project
Image: The JBG Companies.

43. Twinbrook Station
• Infill development will
transform 26 acres of
surface parking into a
mixed-use, mixed-income
community
• Proximity to transit creates
an opportunity to reduce
vehicle miles traveled
Image: The JBG Companies.

44. Tsigo Bugeh Village
Tewa, Chico Valley, NM
• 40-unit development
• Modern, pueblo-style housing
• Attached units divided around
two plazas, one oriented to the
solstice and the other to the
equinox
• Six hornos (outdoor ovens),
community meeting space,
playground, computer room,
weight room, business center
and laundry facility
Images: The Urban Land Institute, Enterprise
Rose Architectural Fellowship.

45. Nageezi House
San Juan County, NM
•1475 square foot house (2
bedrooms)
•Completed: July 2005
•Built for the Augustines, a family
of Navajo elders
•Passive heating and cooling
strategies
– Uses over 60% less energy use
than a traditionally designed
house
•Architect: Stardust Center for
Affordable Homes & the Family
Images: Arizona State University, 2008.

46. Thank You!
For more information:
www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/buildingblocks.htm
Contact:
Kevin Nelson, AICP
Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program Manager
nelson.kevin@epa.gov
202-566-2835
Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program

47. Ten Principles of Smart Growth
• Mix land uses.
• Take advantage of compact building
design.
• Create a range of housing
opportunities and choices. Six Principles of Green Building
• Create walkable neighborhoods.
• Foster distinctive, attractive • Protect ecosystems and enhance
communities with a strong sense of communities
place.
• Protect climate and ambient air quality
• Preserve open space, farmland, while conserving energy resources
natural beauty, and critical
environmental areas. • Protect and conserve water
• Strengthen and direct development
• Conserve materials and resources
towards existing communities.
• Provide a variety of transportation • Use environmentally preferable and safer
choices. building products and services
• Make development decisions • Promote healthy indoor environments
predictable, fair, and cost effective.
Source: EPA Green Building Principles, Goals, and
• Encourage community and Recommended Practices
stakeholder collaboration in
development decisions.
Source: Smart Growth Network

48. Group Exercise: Sustainable Development Analysis
Helpful Harmful Strengths are positive, existing
attributes of the community that are
helpful to sustainable development
S
Strengths
W
Weaknesses
Weaknesses are those that are
harmful