- BACKGROUND
In June, I attended the City Parks Alliance’s Greater & Greener convening in Seattle as part of the Parks & GSI Project, a group that has concerned itself with getting more green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) into public parks. The effort is a partnership among the City Parks Alliance, the U.S. Water Alliance, and the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange that has been generously funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I spoke to the Exchange members who have been so generous in lending their time and expertise to the project in this article last winter.
As part of our deliberations, some group members offered a conference session on solving multiple policy challenges with GSI. What struck me about it was the extent to which each of the presenters demonstrated that they had successfully “pulled” one of more of the policy levers that are essential for creating strong GSI programs. Let me elaborate.
Perhaps the keenest insight to evolve from our 2022 survey on The State of Public Sector GSI was the chart below, showing three sets of levers that stormwater management organizations (SMOs) must pull to create effective GSI programs. It starts with people: supportive leaders, educated communities, and cooperation across municipal departments. Without people, you never get to the next two sets of levers, which are all about creating effective policies (e.g., requiring GSI on development projects, funding maintenance) and implementing emerging practices (e.g., incentive programs, collecting stormwater fees). As outlined below, the four Exchange cities that presented, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Seattle, are each pulling the levers to scale in ways that are creating highly effective GSI programs in their respective jurisdictions.
- PULLING THE LEVERS HARD: Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Seattle
- BOSTON (ROW mandates in return for enhanced maintenance; strong interdepartmental cooperation)
Kate England, the only cabinet-level leader of an agency focused solely on GSI in the U.S., spoke to how Boston now requires GSI to be built in dedicated rights-of-way. She attributes passage of the measure to important concessions around ensuring maintenance through contracts her agency issues (largely to minority/women owned enterprises) and to partnerships with volunteer organizations. Kate also outlined how her department is getting more GSI built on public lands through a partnership with the City’s largest landowner, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). That partnership has been so successful that BHA has now hired its own GSI professional who works hand-in-hand with Kate’s department on the implementation of GSI projects.
- PITTSBURGH (Public outreach and incentives lead to a stronger stormwater code)
Kyla Prendergast addressed Pittsburgh’s update of its stormwater code, citing as hallmarks of the effort extensive outreach to citizens and developers, along with volume control incentives and offsets and height bonuses for managing stormwater on site. As part of the effort, Pittsburgh also updated its fee in lieu.
- ATLANTA (Confronting displacement with outreach, partnerships, and innovative programs and policies)
Amanda Hallauer from the City of Atlanta’s Division of Watershed Management provided a frank and, honestly, quite refreshing account of the lessons learned about confronting displacement in contrasting the development histories of two parks in Atlanta. She began with a well-known example, Historic Fourth Ward Park & Pond, a two-acre pond in a 17-acre park setting that drains a 350-acre watershed. The GI approach there saved at least $15 million over the gray infrastructure solution and helped to clean up a brownfield. Five-hundred million in economic investment followed, but so did displacement of local residents.
The hard lessons learned at Fourth Ward Park translated into strong anti-displacement measures being implemented for subsequent projects, among them, Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Historic Vine City. That area, located in a combined sewer basin, saw catastrophic flooding as a result of 2002 storm event. Over 60 homes were purchased by the City and multiple partnerships evolved to resolve flooding concerns and restore community health. The result was Rodney Cook Sr. Park, where innovative stormwater management practices redirect surface runoff away from the combined sewer system, wetlands bring nature into an urban area, and recreational features, gathering spaces and historic/cultural monuments spur community cohesion. Implemented in concert with the park were the policies and programs, shown below, designed to ameliorate displacement:
- SEATTLE (A collaborative approach with amazing social and environmental benefits)
Shanti Colwell and Amanda Barnett underscored Seattle’s “One-City Approach,” which emphasizes cooperation and collaboration across departments when it comes to the implementation and management of GSI. Amanda, it turns out, is in a role that bridges the Departments of Parks and Recreation and Seattle Public Utilities, serving as liaison between the two.
Among the examples of projects on which the agencies have cooperated is King Fisher Natural Area, a preserve on Thornton Creek that was once the site of private homes. (A day earlier, Amanda and Shanti led us on a terrific tour of the area). Flooding and a pressing need to restore the creek for native salmon, which are important both ecologically and culturally, led the city to purchase and raise the homes. Restoration ensued, driven by hyporheic design, which seeks to improve water quality and riparian habitat, and accommodation of beavers, who, it turns out, are actually more of a help than a hindrance in the restoration process. Today, this preserve, located in a very urban area, is lush with vegetation and the salmon are back in the creek. It is truly hard to imagine things being otherwise, as shown in the image of our visit, below.
- The Upshot
Asked recently about the value of participating in the Exchange, including projects like Parks and GSI, a current Exchange member noted that: “[c]onnecting with other GSI practitioners through the Exchange spurs creative new practices in our City’s program.” Clearly that creativity has surfaced in the work of Exchange members City of Boston, MA, City of Atlanta, GA, City of Pittsburgh, PA, and Seattle Public Utilities. Membership in the Exchange is open to practitioners across the public, private, nonprofit, and education sectors who share our passion for equitable GSI implementation. You can learn more on our membership webpage.
