Environmental Sustainability Council

Environmental Sustainability Council Special meeting: Sustainability Walking Tour of Canal Park and Yards Park Thursday, May 3, 2018, 2:00 - 4:00 pm Starting point: Capitol Riverfront BID offices 1100 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington DC 20003, Suite 1010 DRAFT MINUTES Agenda: 1. Overview of Canal Park and Yards Park at Capitol Riverfront BID offices, 1100 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington DC 20002. The tour continued on foot from there. 2. Canal Park 3. Yards Park Tour presenters:  Michael Stevens, President, Capitol Riverfront BID. Mr. Stevens will led the tour. He spoke about placemaking, place management and the value Canal and Yard Parks have created in terms of community, sense of place, identity, and real estate value/attraction efforts.  Avneet Gujral, Senior Project Manager, Sustainable Design Consulting and Board Member, U.S. Green Building Council National Capital Region. Ms. Gujral addressed the LEED Neighborhood Development certification of the Yards and address other sustainable design features that are relevant to Falls Church. Attendees: ESC: Andrew Crawford, Jon Ward, Cory Weiss (Chair). City Council: David Tarter (Mayor), Marybeth Connelly (Vice Mayor), Letty Hardi, Dan Sze. City Staff: Kate Walker (Environmental Programs Coordinator), Kate Reich (City Arborist), Lee Goldstein (Project Manger) Key points: Canal Park and its sustainable stormwater features  Canal Park is an excellent example of efficient public services providing multiple benefits, including creating a healthy neighborhood. The northern two blocks of Canal Park combine social and environmental value, with their spaces for people, art and rain gardens.  Canal Park captures stormwater from adjoining sites.  Stormwater is reused onsite for irrigation, public bathrooms and fountains.  Reuse of treated stormwater for splash parks neither simple nor cheap, due in part to the multiple treatments required to meet public health standards.   Canal Park has sustainability-related signage with multiple educational opportunities for users and visiting groups. However, Park users may not necessarily pay close attention to the sustainability features like rain gardens. LEED Neighborhood Development (ND) certification  The LEED ND framework is a practical way for Falls Church to implement its 2040 vision and values, since much of it is embedded in the framework. It’s a useful way to bring to life a walkable, socially vibrant and connected neighborhood.  A community needs to think about a neighborhood's sustainability in totality, beyond simply pursuing individual LEED-certified buildings. The value and challenges of parks  Events and programs in the park keep the local activity high (supporting local business) and crime rates low. The ice rink is very expensive, but some kind of winter events are needed if you want the park used all year.  3 things drive value in parks: shade, moveable furniture, water  Green space is a passive marketing tool, since it can encourage follow-on adjacent investments.  Water features especially create community, but they can be expensive to maintain  Public park space combined with neighboring residential units is an important way to keep an area safer, because the area is not ‘abandoned’ at night and on weekends.  Provide public restrooms (don't rely on neighboring baristas).  Dogs can be damaging to green space, and there are health-based reasons for limiting where they are allowed. Keeping dogs out of water treatment gardens is essential, but city people will own dogs, and they need to go somewhere.  Benches in Canal Park have electric outlets which park users make use of for electronic devices.  Having a Business Improvement District manage parks has advantages, including revenue generation and programming flexibility, but park maintenance always ends up being subsidized by public funds.  Don't underestimate maintenance costs when estimating life-cycle economic viability.  Canal Park was planned in part to meet DC’s requirements for increased parkland to serve increased numbers of residents in that specific area. Falls Church is on the low end of park service levels locally, with 3.9 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents (Vienna has 6.7 acres/1,000 and Fairfax City has 10.6). Falls Church may wish to consider new open space as an offset for new housing units.