JCC Gets Results of Sustainability Audit

Monday, November 08, 2010

James City County planning commissioners heard the results of a sustainability audit this week, and suggestions centered on whether to incentivize or require certain building practices, clustering developments and increasing density, and keeping water and sewer lines where they are.

Bradley Strader, head of LSL Planning which does sustainability audits for localities across the country, said his suggestions were ones that could be incorporated into the county’s ordinances during the current update process. The county is already using many tools to promote sustainability, but he indicated that a major decision the county needed to make was to choose which items to make requirements and which to incentivize in order to balance economic needs and community needs.

Strader organized the more than one hundred sustainability suggestions from the audit into some general principles, the first of which was to develop a sense of community. Some of the ways to make this happen would be to make places around the county walkable, change some design standards and create public areas.

The second principle is to revitalize existing spaces by encouraging infill development and redeveloping outdated commercial sites.

Commissioners seemed very interested in suggestions relating to redevelopment since the county has been facing more and more commercial areas standing empty as businesses move to newer areas like New Town. Strader said communicating with the landlords was key – often they’re concerned about redeveloping risks and sometimes they don’t know what their options are, so the county has a chance to help them navigate the possibilities.

Offering some reinvestment help or other assistance, possibly market studies, can also help, he said, as can incentives.

The third principle Strader stressed was the importance of creating mixed use communities. He suggested the county increase densities in these areas – which would not only keep people closer to where they live and work and reduce the need to drive, but would also to keep development out of rural areas. He suggested allowing taller buildings in select areas, offering a more flexible business district and making sure to have design standards that made communities walkable.

Fourth, Strader outlined some environmental objectives, including residential clusters to allow for more open space, forest preservation (which he said cost less staff time than individual tree preservation), and a Purchase of Development Rights program (which the county is already considering) as a means of preserving rural lands.

Another principal discussed was air quality, which can be achieved through keeping fewer cars near developments, more buffers and less traffic near residences, among others, and the final principle had to do with provision of energy, including incentives for developers who achieve LEED certification, encouraging the use of grey water for irrigation and developing code standards for residential solar and wind energy systems.

In order to incorporate some or all the ideas from the audit, Strader stressed again that the county needed to figure out which ideas to require through ordinance, and which to just incentivize. He said the county already had ordinances that used some of the principles.

The county is a little too restrictive with some of its uses, he cautioned, and it might be worthwhile to relax them a bit to allow for newer ideas.

Commissioners picked Strader’s brain a bit about the Primary Service Area, the imaginary line where water and sewer end that the county uses as its primary tool for controlling growth. The county is struggling with whether to change this 40-year-old tool, or make it more flexible as other tools are developed. Strader suggested pretty emphatically “to keep the PSA tight.”

He also gave examples in his experience where people didn’t like some of the sustainability ideas at first, like higher density in some areas to preserve others. He stressed that it was important to balance the community desires with the good of the county, and said there are always people who want a vacant lot versus anything that might be developed on it.

Staff and commissioners will use the suggestions as they work on updating county ordinances. Read a more detailed version of the audit on the county’s website here.