Open Space Seattle 2100Green Infrastructure for a Smart City

Nancy D. Rottle, RLA, ASLA, Associate Professor

Brice Maryman, ASLA, LEED AP, Lecturer

Co-directors, Open Space Seattle 2100

New Partners for Smart Growth | Washington, D. C.February 9, 2007

Population Growth and Preservation of Regional Resources

Cascade Agenda by the Cascade Land Conservancy

Peak Oil

Global Climate Change

Image from NASA

Human Health

The Solution?

Green Urbanism • Eco-Urbanism • Sustainable Urbanism

A New Urban Agenda

“In Livable Cities Lies the Preservation of the World”- Mike Houck, Urban Greenspace Institute

A New Urban Agenda

Social Equity

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White Latino Asian AfricanAmerican

Racial/Ethnic Neighborhood Status & Access to Parks in Los Angeles: Park Acres per 1,000 PopulationWolch, J. [et al] . Parks and Park Funding in Los Angeles: An Equity Mapping Analysis. Urban Geography. 2005. 26, 1.

Re-connecting to Nature

A New Urban Agenda

Density

+

Amenities

=

Sustainability

Case Study: Open Space Seattle 2100Green Infrastructure Planning from the Grassroots

Without:

• Client• Funding• Program• Constituency

City of Seattle Context

Photo by Sarah Durkee

Population: 575,000 (x2 in coming century)

Intense land development pressure within constrained boundaries

Last Comprehensive Open Space Plan 1908

Seattle’s Olmsted Plan Legacy

Open Space Seattle 2100

Open Space Seattle 2100 was a collaborative design and planning process established to create a context where students, civic leaders and the public formulated a cohesive community vision for Seattle’s comprehensive open space network.

Lessons from Open Space Seattle 2100:7 Steps to Effective Urban Green Infrastructure Planning

1. Gather your Resources

2. Establish Goals

3. Inform Participants

4. Engage the Public

5. Formalize the Vision

6. Craft a Strategy

7. Implement Actions

1. Gather your resources.

• Who are the people, places, organizations and agencies that that are your allies?

• Build a coalition.

• What other resources can be brought to bear (University partnerships, other initiatives, etc)

• Who might oppose what you are doing? Talk to them early. Explain why green infrastructure benefits them.

Urban Land InstituteUniversity of WashingtonCity of SeattleAmerican Society of Landscape Architects-National and WA GGLOFriends of Seattle's Olmsted ParksJones & Jones Architects and Landscape ArchitectsMthun Architects, Landscape Architects and PlannersAnchor EnvironmentalGroundswell NorthwestSeattle Department of Planning and DevelopmentSeattle Department of Parks and RecreationWeisman Design GroupIBI GroupKookHyun Moon + Ki-Ho KimP-Patch AllianceUrban Health InitiativeAllied Arts of Seattle

Cascade Land Conservancy Washington Chapter APAThe Berger PartnershipCascade Design CollaborativeGregory Broderick SmithUrban VisionsMakers Architecture and Urban DesignCharles Anderson Landscape ArchitectureEDAWHeartland LLCSwift and CompanyCascade Land ConservancyParks and Open Space Advocates Seattle Parks FoundationSustainable SeattleThe Sierra ClubPeople for Puget SoundFeetFirstSeattle Public Utilities

Our ResourcesBicycle Alliance of WashingtonPomegranate CenterTrust for Public LandMountains to Sound GreenwaySeattle Urban Nature ProjectSeattle Audubon SocietyPeople's Waterfront CoalitionSeattle GreenmapRavenna Creek AllianceThornton Creek AllianceSeattle Community Council Federation Greenwood Community CouncilCity of SeattleSeattle Department of TransportationSeattle Department of NeighborhoodsOffice of Sustainability and the EnvironmentKing County Public Health

University of Washington students: • Research• GIS base mapping• Charrette team co-leadership• Charrette follow-up

Our Salvation

Estuary with 500+ miles of waterfront

• serves 7,381,000 people

• 52,938 acres (26.6% of city)

• 7.17acres per 1000 people

• $41 per person

NYC Open Space Stats:Key Components

• Central Park• Prospect Park• Battery City Park• Waterfront Park System• Gateway National

Recreation Area• Van Cortland Park

• parkways• bike and greenway

system (350 miles)• waterfront park system• river corridors

• includes 700 vacant lots transformed into gardens(112 – TPL)(36 – NYC Parks)

ANCHORS

CONNECTIONS

NEIGHBORHOODS

New York City

Open Space System

NEW YORK NY

Open Space Seattle 2100 Goal:

To create an integrated Open Space Plan with implementation strategies for Seattle’s next hundred years, which will enhance the health and well-being of both our cultural and natural environments.

This vision of a regenerative green infrastructure will strive to create a healthy, beautiful Seattle while maximizing our economic, social and ecological sustainability.

2. Establish Goals

A plan that is:• Regionally Responsive• Integrated and Multi-functional• Equitable and Accessible• Connectivity/Coherence• Quality, Beauty, Identity and Rootedness• Ecological Function and Integrity• Health and Safety• Feasible, Flexible and Promoting Stewardship

Establish Goals: Open Space Principles

Watershed-based Open Space

Planning:

Weaving natural threads through our vibrant social fabric

Opportunities for greater social equity

Emphasizes natural systems

Connects our civic culture to regional eco-system health

Scale provides opportunity for connections

As a coalition, we placed our faith in the people who use the green spaces of the city.

When given the opportunity, ourcommunities can produce extraordinarily innovative ideas that can provide new ways to think about our collective infrastructure.

3. Educate and Inspire Participants

3. Educate and Inspire Participants

Bring in outside expertise

- to raise the level of discourse

- to use other communities as models

Lecture Series• Mike Houck Portland Urban Greenspaces Institute

• Mark Childs, University of New Mexico

• Robert Garcia Los Angeles City Project

• Patrick Condon, Design Center for Sustainability, UBC

Technical PanelLocal experts on transportation, wildlife, water quality, parks, and real estate development

Future scenarios:– Population growth– Demographic change– Climate and sea level conditions– New resource conditions (e.g.oil)

3. Educate and Inspire Participants

The charrette challenge:

“improbable solutions to impossible problems in an impossibly short amount of time” - Patrick Condon

Green Futures Toolkit, on OSS2100 website:

- www.open2100.org

4. Actively Engage the Public

Photo by Hartson Photography

Green Futures Charrette2 days | 350 people | a lot of paper | fun | brillianceRole of local professional and student leaders

• Plans for each study area drawn in GIS• Students further developed prototypes and

sites• Evaluated plan benefits

5. Formalize the Vision

5. Formalize the Vision: 20 and 100-year Green Infrastructure Plans

2025 2100

5. Formalize the Vision

Using the materials generated from the charrette process

• What are the common themes?

• Where is the core message for advocacy?

• What are priorities and ideas for implementation?

• Ecological Open Space

• Access + Use

The Living Lattice: A Network of Neighborsheds

• Density + Community

• Integrated, Connected Green Infrastructure

The Living Lattice: Network of Neighborsheds

Integrated, Connected Green Infrastructure

• Aggregation of Open Space to Create Connections and Urban Green-ways

• Multi-functional Open Space

• Redefined Transportation Corridors

Density and Community

• New Urban Villages with Civic Hearts

• Green Roofs and Walls

• Decentralized Self-Sufficiency

Ecological Open Space

• Understand the City as Watersheds

• Respect for Underlying Conditions

• Re-establish Historic Streams

• Restore Shorelines for Habitat

• Recreate Natural Drainage to Restore Our Waters

• Enhance Greenbelts and HabitatNetworks

Access and Use

• Equality in Accessibility

• Increased Access to Water

• Open Space for Education/Schools for Open Space

• Hierarchy and Variety of Open Space

Integrated, Connected Green Infrastructure

The Living Lattice: A Network of Neighborsheds

City-wide Planning allows us to identify:

• Broad patterns and approaches

• Regional Connections

• Patterns Across Watersheds

Ecological Open Space

The Living Lattice: A Network of Neighborsheds

Acknowledging Seattle’s Critical Position

• Migrating Salmon

• Health of Puget Sound

• Providing Access to the Best of the City for All its Citizens

Kenichi Nakano + Peitro Potesta

Integrated, Connected Green Infrastructure

The Living Lattice: A Network of Neighborsheds

Integrated, Connected Green Infrastructure

The Living Lattice: A Network of Neighborsheds

Vanessa Lee

• Full report from the Green Futures Charrette:Envisioning Seattle’s Green Future

• Executive Summary and CD, over 1000 distributed

• Green Futures Toolkit

• All on Website:

www.open2100.org

5. Formalize the Vision

What did all of ask of us?

Green Infrastructure

Green Futures Charrette participants sought a shift in the discussion from open space “amenity” to one of a vital community, economic and ecological necessity with attendantstrategic, system-oriented investments and long-term planning.

A Mandate for Green Infrastructure

Queen Anne/Interbay/Magnolia Team

Green Infrastructure

A Mandate for Green Infrastructure

Urban green infrastructure planning provides a “whole-city" approach to sustainability by highlighting five key areas of human and environmental health:

+ equitable access to civic resources, + replication of the natural hydrologic cycle, + creation of low-impact transportation networks, + investing in high-performance capital expenditures, + and preservation of ecological function.

6. Craft a Strategy

Create a green infrastructure plan.

Adopt the plan.

Institutionalize the plan.

Fund the plan.

Implement the plan.

Recognizing that OSS 2100 tilled the fields of the public imagination, we asked the city to reap that harvest, to:

• City Council Proclamation endorsed OSS2100 Goal and Principles

• City Council passed Resolution:– Use our Green Infrastructure framework to

coordinate environmental goals

– Establish Citizen’s Advisory process to integrate and coordinate environmental activities and priorities

– Analyze and identify Green Infrastructure potential and cost-benefits, e.g.natural drainage, system-wide efficiencies for green infrastructure; pathways and roadblocks, best practices

7. Implement Actions

. 7. Implement Actions:Green Infrastructure Asset Management Pilot, City of Seattle

Coordinate capital improvement projects (CIP) around green infrastructure, using triple bottom line metrics

socialenvironmental economic

Integrate Asset Management

Team for Green Infrastructure

Identify CIP Projects for Inter-disciplinary/ Green Infrastructure

Approach

Implement demonstration

projects -5% of CIP budget

per year

7. Implement Actions: AdvocacyNew non-profitSeattle Great City Initiative

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Policy Priorities:

• Complete Streets

• Sustainable, Dense Neighborhoods

• Green Infrastructure Investments

7. Implement Actions: Advocacy

Green Legacy CoalitionLobbying for a Green Infrastructure levy to replace the expiring parks levy:

Parks

Trails

Bike paths

Community gardens

Natural stormwater control

Streets

100-Year Green Infrastructure Planning for surrounding communities

Lake Forest Park Green Legacy Plan

Share the method

Open Source Open Space/Green Infrastructure

Resources:

• Website: www.open2100.org

• Complete Report: Envisioning Seattle’s Green Future: Visions and Strategies from the Green Futures Charrette (on website)

• Executive Summary (on website)

• The Green Futures Toolkit (on website)

• Blog: open2100.blogspot.com (dormant)

www.open2100.org

Nancy RottleGreen Futures Lab, UW

www.greenfutures.washington.edu

Brice MarymanSvR Design

www.svrdesign.com