January 25, 2008

Experts say Seattle needs better plan for its 'green infrastructure'

Photo courtesy Seattle Parks Foundation [enlarge]

Green infrastructure refers to open spaces in the city that naturally treat stormwater, like parks, street trees, wetlands and P-Patches. These children are playing in Lakewood Triangle Park.

Seattle has a comprehensive bike plan and is developing a pedestrian plan but what's the future of the city's green infrastructure? That's the question a panel of experts tackled at a recent Seattle Great City forum.

Green infrastructure refers to the network of open spaces that naturally treats stormwater, like parks, street trees, wetlands and P-Patches.

Brice Maryman, a landscape architect with SvR Design and co-leader of Open Space Seattle 2100 moderated the panel. He said Seattle's last comprehensive open space plan was developed 105 years ago. It was meant to last for 100 years and accommodate half a million people. Maryman asked panelists to think about how the region should improve its green infrastructure, not just the parks.

“Green infrastructure partners with nature to provide valuable economic services both for us and for the region,” he said, “but we don't think about them holistically.”

Panelists included Seattle City Council Member Tom Rasmussen, chair of the Parks Committee; Bruce Blume, a developer with The Blume Co. and member of the Seattle Parks Foundation board; Jack Tomkinson, a neighborhood parks advocate and founder of Fremont Peak Park; and Nancy Rottle, director of the University of Washington's Green Futures Lab.

They said planning green infrastructure in a holistic way is crucial to creating more green space, especially as the region adds another one million people by 2020.

Blume said, “What we really need to do is connect all those things up and I think that's a challenge that we have.”

One problem is that responsibility is scattered through different city departments. Rottle said getting departments to work together is critical so different aspects of green infrastructure can be considered when one department does a project. “(We need to) spend more wisely and integrate more when we do spend.”

Tomkinson said neighbors need to be brought to the table, too. “The trick is to get multiple discipline teams to do visioning and get everybody together that wants a piece of the pie,” he said. “Citizens will work for free and find money.”

There also needs to be an opportunity fund for unforeseen projects, like the kind Tomkinson used to develop Fremont Peak Park.

Funding the larger plan is another problem. The Pro-Parks Levy, the funding mechanism that has supported neighborhood improvements over the last decade, will expire in 2008. Rottle said he'd like to see another similar levy, but Rasmussen said he doesn't see enough momentum today to push one considering Mayor Greg Nickel's concentration on repairs for Pike Place Market and redeveloping Seattle Center.

Rottle said other options include establishing a parks district for Seattle like those in Tacoma, Chicago and Minneapolis, so the city doesn't have to keep renewing funding. Another option would be establishing a property tax cap.

But Rasmussen cautioned that there are many in the business community who see green or open space improvements as more taxes and fees. “I think we need to be really careful of how much we're asking from business,” he said.

Blume, the developer on the panel, said it is the potential for improving their brand and saving money that will bring developers on board. For example, Blume said he is building a swale at his South Lake Union development and it seems to be a “good bang for the buck.” Putting in a swale is relatively easy and adds to a project's green brand. Offering incentives to developers who put in things like swales would create the best results. As it is, building code changes have pushed developers to do more sustainable work over the years, he said.

“If you went through a list of building code changes you would find in the last 10 years we are building buildings that are much more sustainable without additional regulations,” Blume said.

Blume said incorporating green infrastructure into the transfer of development rights program would help. Blume said it would take government coordination and business savvy to figure out pricing.

Another thing that would help is reworking the zoning code.

“You have to go higher,” Blume said. “It just means you have to reconfigure the breadbox on a site.”

One conclusion from the panel is that some sort of plan for green infrastructure needs to be developed. Blume suggested the Seattle Park's Foundation's Bands of Green Report, published last year, as a good starting point.

Rottle said green infrastructure could also be part of the neighborhood planning process.