Article 27, Low Impact Development

There comes a time in your life when you must put your beliefs into action and get behind a worthy cause or even start a new one. Well being an architect I would love nothing more than to change, better yet, transform suburban sprawl planning. This would include rethinking our commercial and business centers, stopping the awful practice of clear cutting swaths of land to develop subdivisions, and integrate more civic planning  into suburbia. How is it possible to change current practices when they are so ingrained in how we build? It would seem impossible but there is a magic bullet that could change past, present and future development through a method called LID or Low Impact Development. Sounds to good to be true I know but I have come to believe it is the way to solving the problem of sprawl and I'll do any song and dance, sell it on QVC or get on a soap box to get this message across to the people and policy makers. LID, not to be mistaken with the LIE, the Long Island Expressway, is an amazing concept that "vill conquer the vorld" and give us back our home! (see video below for further dramatics)

Suburban sprawl victim lashes out...

Maybe you are more concerned with reducing mind numbing LIE traffic as you listen to the radio in your parked car on the freeway. Did you know LID can reduce traffic and get you out of that miserable life sucking chore of commuting? Maybe not, I'm exaggerating just a little but LID can make traffic feel less life sucking...Imagine driving through beautiful scenic settings with beautiful vistas, now your almost begging to get stuck in traffic! (let's not go that far) You real hard nose types could care less about scenic beauty or integrating it with building construction, there are more important things to do like fix infra-structure but please read on or look for the audio release coming soon; LID on tape (Tape? how dated...) Audio excerpt; "Picture a man on a horse, feather in his hair, he is a Native American Indian and he is upset. Since the arrival of the white man, his land (and his people) have been ravaged. He looks down from his horse and eyes a pile of trash left by some bugger, he looks up at a smog filled city beyond as cars bumper to bumper circle it, a tear rolls down his cheek...." how about that? OK, that's some PSA seventies commercial but a great precursor to LID none the less.

So, if you are not put off by my levity and you read this far, let's talk about LID. For those of you who have never heard of it, don't feel bad, I'm in the business and I never heard of it either until I attended a seminar. My eyes were opened and I realized we don't need to pave over the entire world and cut down every last tree to build our world. You may think, "yes another tree hugger concept to shut down the building industry..." Let me say this is not true, LID is not anti development, it's smart development. The seminar I attended was presented by an engineer who practices LID site development in Connecticut. He explained this useful concept in detail and how easy it is to implement, does not cost more than conventional development, is sustainable, attractive and infinitely many times better for both the built and natural environment then current practice. LID or Low Impact Development is a form of "soft" engineering for our building sites and project improvements. LID does not clear cut and pave over an entire site with asphalt and does not put contaminated water without naturally treating it into our drinking supply, ponds, rivers, or oceans. "Hard engineering" (the way we do things now) primarily develops a site through a rigid use of hard materials such as concrete, asphalt and antiquated drainage methods which pollutes the environment. "Hard Engineering" is functionally tough on a site because it builds on top of a site and not with it. These clear cut sites are devoid of any natural green space or native species, and are replanted with "low maintenance" plants that usually look tired and out of place. LID works in the opposite way using nature and its native species along with hard materials to develop a building site; it's smart planning verses antiquated conventional planning. So for the average developer it does not mean he or she has to spend more time and money on this concept, it just means doing things in a different and better way - its actually less work and money for a developer in most cases. LID stops the prescriptive code book mentality of site planning which does not consider or preserve the natural lay of the land. Think about all the over-sized parking lots, grungy strip malls, commercial wastelands and of course the instant tree-less subdivision; all of this is brutal by any standard.

Sounds too good to be true you're thinking, so how does this work? LID focuses on the bigger picture not just the immediate building site. Here we go again, trying to save the world on my dime! No, absolutely not.  LID looks beyond to the surrounding environment and how best to incorporate development consistent with the natural ecology, and geology of an area. This does not mean we will take away your right to develop if conditions are not met nor do we need to do costly environmental studies that take years and thousands of dollars to complete, it just means we need to be aware of how our development fits in. For the actual building site, LID considers and preserves the natural features that are beneficial to the project and the site. Rather than develop the land as zoning prescribes, it utilizes the natural site features in the most productive way. For example, parking will be located on the least permeable part of the site, rain gardens and vegetation will be utilized for drainage purposes. Roadways and buildings will be placed on the least sensitive parts of the site, even if it means going against the dreaded prescriptive zoning codes. One big aspect of LID planing is to get rid of the "end of the pipe" mentality. Let me briefly explain. End of the pipe is the "Hard" engineering concept that is currently employed to develop our building sites. It involves collecting rainwater from roofs, parking areas and roads which are full of contaminants directing it to catch basins. So what's the problem? Collecting water in this way does not allow for nature to cleanse the water properly. Without LID, this system of design stops natures hydrological cycle, which leads to erosion and ugly industrial blight. LID stops and prevents the above mentioned decimation of our landscape. There are many methods to implement LID-Check out a great source from the University of Arkansas LID  uark.edu/work/low-impact-development-a-design-manual-for-urban-areas

University of Arkansas LID Design Manual

So, how does this help our suburbs and sprawl in particular? It means no more clear cutting native plant species that filtrate and maintain the ecology of a site. It means not placing houses in rows and columns in sub-divisions, we need real site plans that look past prescriptive design. No more cantankerous looking strip malls without any green space (LID works great in city scaping as well, see University of Arkansas Manual) Impossible you say? Yes it is, but it's worth a try. OK says the one conscientious builder in a thousand, sign me up....but wait, site plan review won't approve my LID plans! True. That's where I and many others need to step in. One big problem: How to make policy change when there is no apparent immediate result, no immediate reward no big pay out. Who cares when  a community faces "real" problems like traffic, garbage pick up, high property taxes, improving infra-structure. Yes I get it that will always take first place but the benefits of this new type of planning in the long run can make mammoth changes, returning us to a more enjoyable "living community" rather than one that looks dead and tired. Because LID is a change in policy and practice, building departments could adopt this system overnight at little to no cost. However with any enactment you face some constituency that will want to maintain the status qou no matter how bad things are or how good things could be. People refuse change; it's the devil they know over the devil they don't know syndrome. In trying to make a change for the good you will upset people you never knew would get upset along with the ones you knew would. Besides our strongest argument that we will preserve, improve and make our community more lovely, builders and developers will save money doing it in the process. What's stopping us? Who will have the distinction of being the first county in the country to step into this new era of planning?