A presentation I was asked to make to the LEED, LID, and Policy Seminar Students at NCSU. This focuses on the barriers to LID Implementation and offers some resources.

1. LID and Policy: Sustainable Development Practices What is Stopping Us? Jon Barsanti Jr.

2. Who Developers Policy Makers Designers Decision Makers (Municipal/County)

3. Why Competitive Advantage (Others are not Doing it) It is good for the economy, good for the community, and good for the environment Others are Doing It; Can do It Better Others are doing it and if I/We don’t adopt/adapt I/We will lose out to other communities/developers

4. Why Not Don’t want to learn new way of doing business Want to do it; Have designer to do it; Have planners on board; Meeting resistance from elected officials Want to do it; Don’t have a designer to show how Want to do it; Have a designer who knows how to do it; Having a difficult time getting approved

5. LID All Development Occurs in a Watershed Need to change thinking from Water as Waste to Water as Resource All Land Uses Have a Water Profile Water Quality and Water Quantity will improve

7. All Development Occurs in a Watershed Wetlands are nature’s filtration system Wetlands manage volume and sediment load Wetlands are key to wildlife habitat preservation Barrier: Wetland is undevelopable; Can fill and replace, although manufactured is not as good as natural

8. All Development Occurs in a Watershed Stream Buffers protect encroachment on ecosystem by development Stream Buffers Protect development from encroachment by ecosystem (e.g. floods.) Barriers: Inconsistent setbacks between communities; Vertical versus Horizontal Setbacks

9. LID All Development Occurs in a Watershed Need to change thinking from Water as Waste to Water as Resource All Land Uses Have a Water Profile Water Quality and Water Quantity will improve

10. All Land Uses have a Water Profile From Kimberly Brewer’s Presentation to the TJCOG Smart Growth Committee ftp://ftp.tjcog.org/pub/tjcog/regplan/smrtgrow/devwq.pdf Volume of water flow Nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Suspended Solids) Temperature of water flowing off the land Toxins (Oil, antifreeze, other chemicals) Bacteria (Pet Waste, etc.)

11. All Land Uses have a Water Profile Data from A Nutrient Credit Trading Framework for the Jordan Lake Watershed: Using Market-Based Mechanisms to Make Watershed Restoration More Cost-Effective http://www.cfra-nc.org/documents/FinalReport-FullReport_000.pdf 16% 7% 6% Other 6% 9% 3% Commercial/ Industrial 15% 19% 56% Forest 51% 36% 20% Agriculture 1% Residential (MF) 12% 29% 14% Residential (SF) Contribution to P Load Contribution to N Load Land-Use Sources

12. All BMPs have a Volume/Pollutant Profile STORMWATER FLOW AND QUALITY, AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NON-PROPRIETARY STORMWATER TREATMENT MEASURES — A REVIEW AND GAP ANALYSIS (2004) Monash University (Australia) http://www.catchment.crc.org.au/pdfs/technical200408.pdf Volume of water flow Suspended Solids Nitrogen Phosphorus

13. All Land Uses have a Water Profile STORMWATER FLOW AND QUALITY, AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NON-PROPRIETARY STORMWATER TREATMENT MEASURES — A REVIEW AND GAP ANALYSIS (2004) Monash University (Australia) http://www.catchment.crc.org.au/pdfs/technical200408.pdf Barriers: It takes time and money to measure predevelopment conditions and post-development conditions

14. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity How we develop Where we develop (and where we do not) What we do with the Run-off (Pipe or Percolate)

15. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/water_resource.htm http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/water_density.htm

18. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentID=112936 National Association of Home-Builders has a large amount of information regarding costs and benefits of Low Impact Development Perceived Barrier: It costs more and does not provide a benefit to the builder Actual Barrier: Educating the entire community to the value versus costs of LID (Lower Stormwater Costs, more land can be developed; cost savings to the community, etc.)

20. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/lid/costs07/documents/reducingstormwatercosts.pdf

21. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/lid/costs07/documents/reducingstormwatercosts.pdf

23. LID Can Improve Water Quality & Water Quantity Barrier(s): How each is defined varies by community/county Undevelopable area excluded More than 50% Less than 50% Conservation Open Space can be undevelopable 50% or More 50% or less Open Space No Fragmented Could Be entire site Cluster No Yes – may be yard Could be entire site Low Density (e.g. 1 unit/2a) Conserved Space Open Space Disturbed Space Type of Residential Development

24. Need to Change thinking from stormwater as waste to stormwater as resource. http://waterparadigm.org/indexen.php?web=./home/homeen.html http://www.onthecommons.org/media/pdf/original/OurWaterComonsOctober2008English.pdf Barrier: Need to change the way we think about water

25. Need to Change thinking from stormwater as waste to stormwater as resource. http://www.clemson.edu/restoration/events/past_events/sc_water_resources/t4_proceedings_presentations/t4_zip/zimmer.pdf http://www.coe.neu.edu/environment/DOCUMENTS/Wingspread%20Final%20Report.pdf Barrier: We cannot solve our problems at the same level of thinking that created them We need a new way of looking at our water quality and water quantity problems

26. Need to Change thinking from stormwater as waste to stormwater as resource. http://www.coe.neu.edu/environment/DOCUMENTS/Wingspread%20Final%20Report.pdf “ An urban area is an ecological system wherein humans, habitat, transportation and water infrastructure, and terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna exist in symbiosis and interdependence. Urban fresh waters are the lifeline for ecological and economical sustainability, yet the fresh water resources are being impaired to a point that the integrity of urban waters has been damaged by excessive development and overuse….”

30. Conclusion http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/agecon/WECO/lid/documents/NC_LID_Guidebook.pdf We have a new resource We can ‘sing from the same songbook.’ We can customize our solutions to meet the requirements of our communities and our region. We can have a Win-Win-Win for the consumer, the developer, and the community.