Hosted by: Sustainable Community Interest Group (DIVISION).
Many communities desire sustainable development but struggle with outdated plans and regulations that hinder key projects and lack resources to make necessary updates. This session will present three key resources to help such municipalities foster sustainable growth—A Technical Guidance Manual for Sustainable Neighborhoods, A Sustainable Land Use Self-Assessment Toolkit, and A Green Redevelopment Guide—and two detailed case studies demonstrating how planners and policy makers can implement these concrete sustainable development strategies.
Case Studies
The session will feature two detailed case studies that demonstrate how communities can build sustainability into standard planning practice and regulatory measures.
In 2011, the City of Jersey City, New Jersey, began an initiative to encourage developers in the City’s designated redevelopment areas to incorporate sustainability measures into their redevelopment agreements. The City’s Redevelopment Agency then hired a planning firm and policy center to research best practice models and develop a guidance document that would incentivize sustainable growth and would ultimately lead to Jersey City’s own sustainable development rating system. The guidance document has been completed, with standards targeted for each redevelopment area, and the planning and legal consultants are currently in the process of turning those standards into a comprehensive rating system. The process undergone in Jersey City is easily replicable in communities across the country.
In 2012, the City of Mount Vernon, New York, embarked on a project to develop a targeted Green Mixed-Use District Ordinance to spur sustainable, mixed-use development along a commercial corridor within the City while improving the ability of and reducing the costs for projects in this zone to use energy efficient designs and technologies and renewable energy systems. As part of the project, a proposed mixed-use zoning district ordinance was analyzed using the Technical Guidance Manual for Sustainable Neighborhoods in order to identify possible adjustments for further incentivizing and eliminating barriers to sustainable development. If the City implements these recommendations, the resulting zone will call for green mixed-use development, as defined by the land development standards of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system.
Planners charged with the process in each of these cities will walk participants through their approach, highlighting replicable techniques and lessons learned.
Speaker Details
Randall Solomon
Co-Director
The College of New Jersey
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Bio: Co-Director of The Sustainability Institute at The College of New Jersey
Margaret E. Byerly
Staff Attorney
Pace Law School
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Bio: As a staff attorney at Pace Law School's Land Use Law Center, Meg works on Center projects related to renewable energy, distressed properties, sea level rise adaptation, and sustainable neighborhood development. Meg is principal author for several Center publications, including the USGBC's Technical Guidance Manual For Sustainable Neighborhoods. Additionally, Meg helps run the Center’s Advanced Land Use and Sustainable Development Seminar, guides student research projects, and writes for legal publications on various sustainable development topics.
Education: JD, Pace Law School; MEM, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; MS, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University; BS, Biology, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.
Key Publications: Technical Guidance Manual for Sustainable Neighborhoods, Lead Author for USGBC and LULC, available at http://new.usgbc.org/resources/technical-guidance-manual-sustainable-neighborhoods (2012). Using USGBC’s LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System to Evaluate and Amend Local Plans, Codes, and Policies, Zoning and Planning Law Report (forthcoming March 2013).
Other Publications: A Report to the IPCC on Research Connecting Human Settlements, Infrastructure, and Climate Change, 28 Pace Environmental Law Review 936 (2011). Local Siting and Permitting of Wind Energy Conversion Systems, 41 Real Estate Law Journal 351 (winter 2012).
Past Assignments: Technical Guidance Manual: Using LEED-ND to Evaluate Local Plans, Regulations, and Processes, Land Use Planning Seminar, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, fall 2011. Trainer, Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Programs, spring and summer 2012.
Elizabeth Kay McManus, AICP
Planner
Clarke Caton Hintz
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Bio: Ms. McManus is a professional planner with 11 years of Planning experience, including appointment as the planning consultant to New Jersey Planning Boards and Zoning Boards. Ms. McManus’s municipal experience includes preparation of green building and environmental sustainability plan elements, comprehensive master plans, redevelopment studies, natural resource inventories, affordable housing plans, land use and zoning ordinances and development application reviews. Ms. McManus’s private sector experience includes the preparation of expert planning testimony in support of development and re-zoning applications. She is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional, signifying her knowledge of the LEED building benchmark system and green building techniques. Her expertise in environmental and sustainability planning is further evidenced by her experience preparing natural resource inventories, green buildings and environmental sustainability master plan elements and park and recreation planning. Ms. McManus also has a special expertise in affordable housing planning.
Education: Master of City & Regional Planning (Rutgers University); Bachelor of Science, Environmental Policy,Institutions and Behavior (Rutgers University)
Key Publications: Co-author of regularly published article from 2008 to 2010 in the New Jersey League of Municipalities magazine known as "Sustainability Update". Example articles included "Municipal Water Conservation Strategies" (2010), "Sustainable Design for Preservation Projects" (2009) and "Does Going Green Take More Green" (2008).
Past Assignments: Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions Annual Congress, 2010: Preparing a Sustainability Element; New Jersey League of Municipalities Annual Conference, 2010: Healthy Food and Healthy Communities; New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association Annual Conference, 2010: Sustainable Jersey: Linking New Planning Practice and Paradigms; Ag in the City Urban Lands Conference, 2010: Why Urban Agriculture; and New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association Webinar, 2012: Green Buildings & Environmental Element Tool.
Flinn Fagg, AICP
Planning Director
City of Las Vegas Plng Dept.
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Bio: 2011-: Planning Director, City of Las Vegas, NV; 2005-2010: Planning Manager, City of Las Vegas, NV; 2003-2005: Urban Design Coordinator, City of Las Vegas, NV; 1998-2003: Urban Planner, City of Fort Walton Beach, FL; 1994-1998: Planner, City of Naples, FL
Education: B.Arch, University of Oregon; M.Arch, University of Miami
Deborah A. Lawlor, FAICP
Chief of Sustainability & Economic Growth
NJ Meadowlands Comm.
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Bio: Deborah Alaimo Lawlor, FAICP AICP Commissioner elected from Region I Debbie Lawlor has over 25 years of planning experience. She has been the Chief of Sustainability and Economic Growth, Chief Planner, and Supervisor of Land Use Planning at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. She also worked in the private sector at Edwards and Kelcey, Inc. and PQA Engineering. She has been active in APA's New Jersey Chapter and the APA Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division. She received the NJ chapter's Distinguished Service Award in 2009. She has been on the New Jersey Governor's Smart Growth Task Force and Rutgers University Center for Green Building Advisory boards. She is currently working on a committee to green Super Bowl 2014 venues and events.
Education: BS-Environmental Planning and Design, Rutgers University MA-Geography, Rutgers University
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