Cahaba River Society

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CRS' conservation development program

The Cahaba River Society champions practical planning, design, and construction solutions that will restore the river while our communities grow. CRS collaborates with municipal officials, developers, contractors, engineers, architects, landscape architects, land planners, and citizen groups – all those involved in building our region. We work to increase local expertise in conservation development techniques that protect the Cahaba while meeting the economic goals of property owners, businesses, residents and municipalities.

WHAT IS CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT?

Conservation development allows growth to occur while protecting and restoring natural resources. Conservation development uses environmental site design principles to preserve existing site topography, natural drainage systems, vegetation and soils. For stormwater management, conservation development relies on low-impact development ("LID") techniques that mimic natural hydrology, prevent flooding, and restore water quality.

LID practices use rainwater as a resource rather than turning it into a waste product. Where expensive conventional stormwater management techniques collect and dispose of rainwater offsite as rapidly as possible, LID strategies filter and absorb rainwater back into the ground or collect rainwater for reuse on-site. Common LID practices include rain gardens, grassed swales, cisterns, rain barrels, permeable pavements and green roofs.

Jurisdictions across the country use environmental design principles and LID techniques to protect and restore water quality while allowing communities to grow. By adopting conservation development strategies, communities can have both a strong economy and healthy rivers and streams.

HOW CRS PROMOTES CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT

The Cahaba River Society builds collaborative relationships with development professionals, local government officials, and business interests in order to promote conservation development strategies. Through demonstration projects, such as the Leeds Bass Pro Shop and the new Hewitt-Trussville High School, we help developers and design/construction firms to determine which conservation development practices work best for the land type, climate, and markets of our watershed and communities. These demonstration projects are proving the feasibility, practicality, and marketability of conservation development approaches for our area.

In 2009 the CRS Board and staff adopted guidelines describing our collaborative approach. Cahaba River Society Collaboration Policies and Process outlines the steps CRS takes to establish a working relationship with development partners and how we address a range of issues that may arise during the development design and construction process. We intend for these policies to encourage development professionals to explore collaborative relationships for conservation development with CRS. These written policies also provide all our constituents with information about how CRS works with development partners.

The economic benefits of conservation developments are clear. Studies across the U.S. show that environmental site design and LID stormwater management techniques can reduce construction costs. (See case studies) As more engineers, architects, landscape architects and contractors in our region learn how to design and build conservation developments, the cost will continue to drop. Capitalizing on increasing demand for conservation development strategies is a growth area for these businesses.

CRS follows two other strategies for promoting conservation development: giving annual awards for the year's best new projects and offering a powerpoint presentation on conservation development principles and techniques to development professionals, municipal officials, and civic groups.

CRS ANNUAL AWARDS FOR CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Well-designed development plays an essential role in helping to conserve our scarce water resources. For the past three years the Cahaba River Society has given annual awards to thank and promote developers, engineers, architects, landscape architects and contractors that have built high quality conservation development projects or incorporated LID techniques into their stormwater management plans.

In 2009, the Cahaba River Society recognized Brasfield & Gorrie and its contractors Thompson Architects and LBYD, Inc., for a rainwater recycling system that stores roof run-off in a cistern for later use in landscape irrigation on an urban site; Bass Pro Shops and its contractors Goodwin Mills & Cawood, Saiia Construction, and Spreadrite Organics, for the many conservation development features of its new store in Leeds; and the Stewart Perry Company and its contractors South & Associates, HKW & Associates, and Bearden Services LLC, for the rainwater reuse and infiltration measures incorporated into its new headquarters building.

CRS' 2008 awardees were: McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company, for its storm water and industrial process water reuse system; Opus South Corporation, for the Social Security Administration building green roof and storm water collection system; the Trussville City Schools, for the environmental site design of its new Hewitt-Trussville High School straddling the banks of the Cahaba River; and the Protective Life office complex – an older building that showcases Birmingham’s heritage of good environmental site design.

CRS works to secure positive press for these projects. Alabama Construction News, The Birmingham News, and the Birmingham Business Journal published feature stories on our 2009 award-winning projects. The 2008 projects were publicized in both print media and a green building show that aired on Alabama Public Television in May 2008.

To nominate a project for an award, contact CRS Executive Director Beth Stewart, beths@cahabariversociety.org, 205-322-5326 ext 411, by November 1, 2009. Typically only those projects that are completed or nearing completion are eligible.

CRS OFFERS CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

CRS offers a conservation development powerpoint presentation for engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, land planning, real estate, development, and building contracting firms. Our presentation is also appropriate for municipal government staff and elected officials and for civic and trade groups.

Using local case studies and lots of photos, the presentation covers the Cahaba River's regional values and showcases innovative solutions to the unnecessary detrimental water quality and water supply impacts of conventional stormwater management techniques. CRS brings this slide show directly to professional or government offices as a "lunch and learn" presentation. We both educate our audiences about conservation development practices and learn more ourselves from audience feedback about the challenges, barriers, and incentives for implementing these techniques in our region.

Our aim is to work collaboratively with firms and local governments interested in these innovative approaches, both because of their corporate values and because this is a promising area of business growth. By making environmental site design and LID stormwater management techniques standard practice, we can restore the Cahaba as the communities along it grow.

Please contact CRS Program Director Betsy Thagard, betsyt@cahabariversociety.org, 205-322-5326 ext. 413, to schedule a presentation.

CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT SAVES MONEY - CASE STUDIES & LITERATURE REVIEW

"Reducing Stormwater Costs through Low Impact Development (LID) Strategies and Practices,” U.S. EPA, December 2007,
This U.S. EPA report analyzes 17 case studies from across North America that demonstrate the economic viability of conservation development practices. Almost all of the case studies showed that environmental site design and low-impact development strategies saved developers money. Total capital savings ranged from 15 to 80 percent.

“The Economics of Low Impact Development: A Literature Review," ECONorthwest, November 2007,
This literature review from an economic analysis consultant shows that LID can offer cost savings when compared to conventional storm water controls while providing valuable ecosystem services, such as water filtration and purification, that conventional controls do not.

CRS’s RECOMMENDED FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT POLICIES

CRS endorses the recommendations of the American Society of Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) - www.floods.org - rather than the standard ordinances now on the books in most communities, which are based on failed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) policies. See 'What Causes Flooding', CRS’s summary of ASFPM’s critique of conventional floodplain management policies and the basis for our endorsement.

CRS agrees with ASFPM that individual development projects should only be allowed to place fill in the 100 year floodplain if the overall flood storage volume of the property will not be reduced. This could be accomplished, for instance, by increasing the flood storage volume in one area of the site by an equivalent amount lost to fill in another part of the site. Also, CRS agrees that cities should not allow subdivision of new lots in the floodplain that would require filling the floodplain in order to use the lot.

CRS recommends applying this policy with flexibility to respect property rights. For instance, we recommend the use of clustering to allow the square footage or dwelling units that zoning would have permitted within a floodplain area to be transferred to other parts of the site using a density bonus there, if the floodplain area is then permanently protected as open space. We support the use of variances to allow fill in the floodplain in those rare situations in which so much of a pre-existing property is in the floodplain that there is not a reasonable remaining use of the property outside of the floodplain.

This is significantly different from the floodplain use policies of most cities in our region. Policies our cities are following now – as outlined in the summary “What Causes Flooding” – are increasing flooding problems that endanger and unfairly burden existing residents and harm their property values.

Floodplain maps of many communities are outdated and do not represent the current flood levels. The estimated 100 year flood levels for the upper Cahaba watershed are based on land uses and modeling from many years ago. Map updates since that time use more accurate topography, but may not have taken into account all the added development and storm water runoff since then, which has greatly increased the amount of water the river carries in a flood. If developers build in the floodplain at an elevation that outdated FEMA maps show as being above the 100 year floodplain, and actual flood levels are significantly higher, those new properties are at greater risk than anticipated.