January 2

Natural Foodie: A Johnny Appleseed for the 21st century

By Avery Yale Kamila akamila@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

In this “get big or get out” world, sometimes small acts have great power.

Roger Doiron used this graphic and other outreach methods to lead a successful campaign to see a kitchen garden planted on the White House lawn.

Photo illustration courtesy of Roger Doiron

Jason and Jennifer Helvenston of Orlando, Fla., were ordered to remove this front-yard vegetable garden by local officials who said it was in violation of city code. Kitchen Gardeners International, based in Maine, launched an online campaign to help them, and within 48 hours the city announced that it was reversing its decision and that the Helvenstons would be allowed to keep their garden.

Photo courtesy of Jason Helvenston

APPLY NOW FOR A

SOW IT FORWARD GRANT

SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY garden organizers can apply for a package of seeds, tools and cash with a value of $600. Applications are due Jan. 11. To apply visit www.sowitforward.org.

‘OF BACKYARD CHICKENS AND FRONT YARD GARDENS’

SARAH SCHINDLER, associate law professor at the University of Maine School of Law, authored a paper in the Tulane Law Review earlier this year examining how the growing locavore movement is coming into conflict with zoning ordinances. The paper examines how municipalities are responding to property owners who want to raise their own food in urban and suburban settings. It also looks at why these bans exist and the changing societal needs that make them outdated. It concludes with guidance for municipalities who want to modernize their zoning ordinances. Here she answers a few questions about her work:

Did your research provide any gauge of how widespread zoning restrictions are on residential agriculture, such as front yard gardens and backyard chickens?

I did not conduct an empirical study or 50 state survey. Rather, my research assistant and I looked for newspaper articles that discussed municipalities where there was some conflict or debate about the existing or newly proposed urban agriculture ordinances and went from there. I also looked to some of the standard land use “thought leader” cities to see what they were doing, as I have found that oftentimes something that starts as a “wacky” or progressive ordinance in a place like San Francisco or Portland, Oregon, can wind up spreading to other parts of the country after a few years.

Is this more of an issue in certain types of communities or certain parts of the country? Or is it an issue throughout the nation?

My research suggested that these ordinances exist throughout the country. And it is not just in the standard progressive municipalities that citizens are taking a stand against these urban agriculture bans and petitioning their local elected officials to overturn them. It’s fairly widespread; more and more people seem to be seeking to incorporate locavorism into their lives.

 

Did your research reveal any trends in residential agricultural zoning? For instance, are bans on the increase, decrease or holding steady?

Again, it is hard to say because I didn’t do a survey of ordinances. However, the bans do not seem to be universally in decline. As urban and suburban chicken-raising is becoming more popular, you actually see some concerned citizens proactively petitioning to get bans in place where none existed before. The other element we must consider here is that zoning isn’t the last word. MANY people in the U.S now live in common interest communities that are governed by private recorded covenants, conditions and restrictions, or CCRs. If these are stricter than zoning ordinances and not against public policy, they control. So arguably, even if the local zoning code says you can have a front yard garden, if a restrictive covenant in your neighborhood restricts front yards to neatly mowed lawns, you’re probably stuck with a lawn.

Could you sum up why you argue that bans on urban agriculture are out-of-date and fail to address modern challenges?

Although there are some valid reasons for banning urban agricultural uses, those justifications are often antiquated and outweighed by more current conceptions of appropriate land use. Zoning was created as a land use control technique whose purpose was to protect residential uses, and particularly single family homes, from other uses, like industrial and agricultural uses, that were viewed as incompatible and potentially harmful.

But our views of what is harmful and what is beneficial have changed over time. I would suggest that the harms associated with industrial agricultural production and lack of access to locally-produced food — food insecurity, food deserts, obesity tied to processed foods, monoculture-induced catastrophes, harm to animals, and greenhouse gas emissions — are more harmful than the risks associated with urban agriculture. And these harms could all be alleviated, at least in part, through urban agriculture. Further, municipalities have begun to recognize that traditional zoning techniques were a direct cause of sprawl and unsustainable development in the U.S.

Thus, many localities are moving away from those traditional zoning methods and toward the creation of mixed-use zones, which allow uses that were previously viewed as incompatible to locate along side one another.

I see the removal of urban agriculture bans as part of a broader trend in land use, where municipalities are moving away from strict, centralized legal authority and toward deregulation, or at least toward more inclusive views of which segments of society zoning should seek to protect.

 

 

Scarborough resident Roger Doiron understands this principle well.

Doiron, who is the founder and head of the nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International, encourages the simple act of planting a vegetable garden in your backyard, front yard or window box.

Both a front yard and backyard gardener himself, Doiron said he does it because, “I might not be able to save the planet, but I might be able to save tonight’s dinner.”

Doiron started the nonprofit in 2003 after working in Europe for an environmental group, where he said the work was critical but not very tangible. To him, gardening offers a hands-on way to improve the health of the planet and the health of his family.

Kitchen Gardeners International became more of a full-time endeavor for Doiron in 2008, when he landed a Kellogg Food Community fellowship. This also marked the year Kitchen Gardeners International launched its successful White House Kitchen Garden campaign.

The push to encourage the next president to plant a vegetable garden at the White House gained traction when Kitchen Gardeners International’s proposal for the idea garnered the most support on the Better World Campaign’s On Day One contest. The competition encouraged people to submit ideas that the incoming president could implement upon taking office.

First Lady Michelle Obama ended up embracing this initiative and planting a garden that supplies vegetables and fruits to the First Family, guests at official functions and a soup kitchen. The popular garden currently has its own tours, is the subject of the First Lady’s book “American Grown,” and is part of her wider effort to promote healthy eating.

Prior to the White House Garden campaign, Kitchen Gardeners International had fewer than 5,000 members. But by the time the garden was planted — and after the organization was mentioned by major news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal — it had amassed 20,000 members. Today, the nonprofit — with a budget of less than $100,000 — has a global reach of almost 27,000 people.

Once again the nonprofit is in the news. This time the coverage comes as a result of its work to help marshal support for front yard gardeners who run afoul of local zoning ordinances that prohibit landscaping that deviates from manicured lawns and shrubbery.

Kitchen Gardeners International became involved in the fight over front yard gardens in the summer of 2011. Doiron, like many gardeners around the country, was following the case of Julie Bass. At the time, Bass was a resident of Oak Park, Michigan, and was being threatened with jail time if she didn’t remove the raised beds in her front yard.

Doiron alerted the organization’s network and generated emails and calls in support of Bass and her garden. Since then, Kitchen Gardeners International has rallied support for front yard gardeners in Memphis, Orlando and Quebec. In all the cases Kitchen Gardeners International has worked on, the municipalities have backed down from taking action against the front yard gardeners.

Doiron said the Orlando case was resolved much more quickly than the others. He attributes this to the fact that Kitchen Gardeners International was “able to call out the mayor in a very public way because the mayor had launched a communications platform of Orlando as a green city and a garden city. We said it’s important that you walk the talk.”

This public chastising apparently struck a cord, because as Doiron said “it was really a matter of 48 hours from when we hit send (on an alert email to members) to when the director of sustainability for Orlando got out in front of some TV cameras saying ‘We’re not going to shut this garden down.”‘

Doiron doesn’t see the fight over front yard gardens going away anytime soon, as individual communities continue to grapple with the conflict between traditionalist neighbors and the desires of more sustainably minded residents.

“We have to rethink the suburban and urban aesthetics and consider the possibility that what might have worked for the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s is not appropriate for the world we’re currently living in,” Doiron said.

In addition to fighting for the rights of gardeners, Doiron’s organization is also working to help others create more gardens. Thanks to series of donations, Kitchen Gardeners International is offering 50 Sow It Forward grants worth $600 each to schools, community gardens, food pantries and other community groups wanting to start or maintain gardens.

“I’m really excited we’re at this point where we can become an enabler of kitchen gardens,” Doiron said. “We have a lot of amazing applications coming through, mostly from the U.S. and some from abroad.”

The grants include seeds from the Ark Institute, supplies from Gardeners Supply Co., gardening books from Storey Publishing, online garden planning tools from GrowVeg.com and $300 in cash from the Johnson Ohana Charitable Trust.

Application must be submittedby Jan. 11.

While a single garden — whether in a front yard or behind a school — is a small act and may not seem like a big deal, Doiron is confident it has the potential to create big change.

“There’s a cumulative effect if we all do some little things,” Doiron said. “It adds up to something quite substantial.”

Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at:

akamila@pressherald.com

Twitter: AveryYaleKamilaPhoto courtesy of Jason Helvenston

 

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Strap on your seatbelt and get ready for a whirlwind year in which many of the issues that merited headlines in 2012 come around again — in the case of Napa Pipe, perhaps finally — while new projects come to the fore.

The Napa Pipe project will have a meeting before the Napa County Board of Supervisors Jan. 14 that could provide a long-awaited vote on the developers’ request for General Plan and zoning amendments. Those amendments, if approved, would allow for the project to eventually seek building permits and begin construction on more than 700 housing units and a Costco discount store.

The now-vacant Cinedome building in downtown Napa could be demolished early this year, setting the stage for private redevelopment once the flood control project protects the site from inundation.

This could be the year that one of the city’s oldest landmarks, the Borreo building at Third Street and Soscol Avenue, is restored for contemporary uses. The Land Trust of Napa County is negotiating with the city to purchase the structure, which may house the trust’s offices and a boutique winery.

In the coming year, the city plans to construct the China Point Overlook Park at the southwest corner of Soscol and First Street. And next summer, it plans build a million-dollar boat dock in front of the Riverfront mixed-use project.

On a smaller scale, the city is planning to build a more aesthetic trash enclosure at Dwight Murray Plaza and repair sidewalks in the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church area.

Opening up First through Fourth streets to two-way traffic in downtown could also begin this year, ending years of debate over traffic flow and what works best for merchants and the public.

A citizens group, with some city financing, may build the Napa 9/11 Memorial Garden in 2013 after overcoming financial issues.

The former Copia and future Ritz Carlton sites on First Street near Silverado Trail could also see development progress in 2013, assuming the city likes plans for the Copia site and financing for a high-end resort across the river is finally forthcoming.

The focus of attention at Lake Berryessa in 2013 will continue to be on the resorts’ operations and the number of tourists they are able to draw, as the Bureau of Reclamation seeks to line up new short- and long-term concessionaires.

It will be worth keeping an eye on the Mishewal Wappo Tribe of Alexander Valley’s pursuit for federal recognition; the tribe successfully ousted Napa and Sonoma counties from its lawsuit last fall, and the counties have appealed.

The counties fear that the tribe would pursue building a casino by wielding recognition as a means of taking some land into trust, thus exempting it from local land-use and zoning laws.

More developments on the appeal and the tribe’s attempt to settle the suit — which could result in it regaining recognition — are expected this year.

The Lincoln Theater in Yountville, dark for nearly all of 2012, will reopen in 2013 with a new game plan.

Michael Madden, interim managing director, and Barbara Brogliatti, president of the new Lincoln Theater Foundation board, announced in November that an infusion of support from IMG Artists, as well as residents, had pulled the theater back from the brink of bankruptcy. After moving back into the theater Dec. 1, a year after the theater closed, they said they would have a preliminary schedule in January and a more detailed schedule by March.

“Our goal is not to compete with the Opera House or the Uptown Theatre (as presenters),” Madden said, although he noted that IMG may also be presenting artists from its roster at the theater. IMG artists include violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who have performed in the valley as part of the summer Festival del Sole, an IMG production.

Madden said the response from locals so far has been enthusiastic and encouraging. “As we take time to explain that this is everyone’s theater, suddenly organizations — not just arts groups — are coming forward with really cool ideas,” he said.

Passage of a state revenue measure, Proposition 30, in November is expected to prevent deeper cuts to local schools, including Napa Valley College, and may allow education officials to restore some services.

Proposition 30 raises taxes to pay for education. As a result, Napa Valley College and the Napa Valley Unified School District will be left with flat funding instead of undergoing deeper cuts.

By January, after the governor’s budget is released, the school district and college will have a clearer picture of their budgets for 2013-14.

Napa Valley College plans to hire a permanent president by May. Ronald Kraft, who has more than 20 years of experience in higher education leadership, has served as interim president since August.

Queen of the Valley Medical Center’s new Herman Family Pavilion is estimated to officially open in the fall.

The three-story, 72,000-square-foot facility includes six operating suites, 20 private intensive care rooms, and a clinical pathology laboratory.

Private philanthropy is expected to contribute 20 to 30 percent of the funds to complete the surgical pavilion, which is estimated to cost $122 million.

American Canyon

Ongoing litigation, new development and transportation improvements are on the horizon for American Canyon in 2013.

The battle between the city and its card room, Napa Valley Casino, over a $2-per-visitor admission tax will continue, with pretrial motions in the criminal case scheduled to be heard later this month. Card room owners have repeatedly argued the tax, passed by American Canyon voters in 2010, is unconstitutional, despite court rulings otherwise. In October, the state Supreme Court declined to review the case.

American Canyon likely will see new development this year. Two proposed apartment projects, both roughly 200 units, could begin at the intersection of Silver Oak Drive and American Canyon Road, and on Oat Hill in the city’s northwest section. Also, construction should begin on a 70-unit affordable housing complex for seniors on Theresa Avenue at the foot of Oat Hill later this year.

After languishing for several years, the third phase of the Napa Junction shopping center development, which would include restaurants and more retail tenants east of Highway 29 at Napa Junction Road, may finally move forward.

As part of its transportation goals, American Canyon plans to update its traffic circulation plan, and work with Caltrans to make any possible improvements to Highway 29, such as traffic signal timing and landscaping improvements.

American Canyon and county officials are trying to put the Devlin Road extension on the fast-track. Once completed, Devlin Road could alleviate traffic congestion on Highway 29 between Green Island Road and the county airport.

American Canyon officials hope to have a draft environmental impact report for a long-desired town center project sometime this year.

Chantal Lovell, Michael Waterson, Isabelle Dills, Sasha Paulsen and Peter Jensen contributed to this story.

CUTE KIDS: Dressed in colourful costumes, children from the Nuri kindergarten put up an entertaining show

MORE than 800 parents and pre-schoolers  filled the foyer of Plaza Angsana, Johor Baru, to attend the “XmasXtra Vegenza 2012”, a fun-filled programme for little ones organised by Nuri Kindergarten.

A host of activities were arranged for the 170 pre-schoolers from 19 kindergarten branches throughout the districts of Johor Baru and Kulaijaya to display their talents.

The children, aged between 4 and 6 were clad in attractive and brightly coloured costumes.

They performed various activities such as aerobic exercises, a choir presentation, traditional and modern dance, storytelling, a drawing competition and a drama performance.

Joining the programme were 20 occupants from Johor Baru Handicapped and Mentally Disabled Children Association who were invited by the organisers to attend the gathering.

The children from the association also performed two dances, the popular Korean dance Oppa Gangnam Style and Hawaiian Hula Hula led by their instructor Nino Suvremisane.

Nuri’s business and development manager Nurulhuda Abdul Rahman presented a donation of RM2,000 to the mentally disabled children’s association.

The emcees for the day were 6-year olds from Nuri’s Taman Universiti branch, Neurrohadatul Aisyi Aisyiq Nurasyid and Jonas Ang Shi Jun.

The concert started out with an aerobics session known as Nurobics with 15 pre-schoolers from the Nuri Bandar Putra, Damansara Aliff, Impian Emas, Johor Jaya and Kulai Putri branches.

Dressed in sports attire, the kids humorous movements aroused a lot of laughter from the audience.

Following the 10 minute refreshing activity, everyone joined in to sing the school song.

The excitement peaked as 10 children aged between 2 and 4 years old, from the Taman Universiti branch performed the Chicken Dance to an enthusiastic crowd.

Next came the Power Reading session where 5 and 6 year old children presented four topics, in four different languages.

Five-year old Amiera Maisarah Mohd Fauzi received a rousing applause as she spoke about the scenery, environment and amenities at the Legoland Theme park in perfect English.

Amiera thanked both her parents and teachers who monitored her progress in the language consistently.

In the inter branch landscaping collage art competition, the Nusa Bistari kindergarten won first prize, followed by Nusa Perintis a Danga Bay branch of the same kindergarten.

Each team comprised four children from the 19 Nusa Kindergarten branches.

Other performances include storytelling in four languages by kids from the Nuri TU branch and a taridra (drama and dance) performance.

The kindergarten’s event manager, V. Jainthi said the children were talented and had a positive attitude about attending kindergarten.

“The parents are very supportive.

They always attend the rehearsals and give us ideas and tips as well,” she added.

The Nuri Education Centre was first set up in Johor Baru 22 years ago.

There were 19 branches in Johor, and four in Selangor.

The kindergarten focuses on a holistic education system and offers subjects such as Kidz IT, Power Maths and English, Music and Movement and Nurobics.

Currently, the centre employs 200 teachers and boasts of 2,000 pre-schoolers.

Besides teaching children between the 3 and 6, nurseries for babies and toddlers are also available.

(From left)Nurulhuda Abdul Rahman with Nuri pre-school principal Santhi and the teachers and kids from the Nusa Bestari kindergarten branch who won the collage competition. Pix by Syed Abdullah Syed Mohamed

The cute emcees from the Nuri Taman Universiti branch, Jonas Ang Shi Jun (left) and Neurrohadatul Aisyi Aisyiq Nurasyid.

Nurulhuda Abdul Rahman presenting a plaque and a mock cheque to representatives from the Johor Baru Handicapped and Mentally Disabled Children Association .

Children in action, performing a ‘Kuda Kepang’ dance.

Sam Dalton
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As we look back on the year that was, let’s honor some of the outstanding issues and accomplishments for community sustainability that came to light. In many cases, naming a particular item one of the best of 2012 may be a bit (not completely) arbitrary: by definition, sustainability is seldom a single “event” that occurs wholly within one calendar year. But, in each of these cases, something caught my attention this year.

Mine is a very personal list. Yours may differ, which is part of the fun. Let’s get to it.

Best community sustainability issue that reached critical mass this year: water. Maybe it’s that I work for NRDC, whose water team has become invested in community solutions in a big way. My colleagues published the second edition of our major green infrastructure report, Rooftops to Rivers, late last year, celebrating the efforts of cities across the country in solving serious runoff pollution problems with smart landscaping, green roofs, permeable paving and related approaches that also make dense neighborhoods healthier and more beautiful. This year, they followed up with another (and seriously wonky) report detailing how local and state governments can potentially stimulate billions of dollars in private investment in these solutions. And, as the year drew to a close, superstorm Sandy had demonstrated with terrible ferocity the importance of urban water management to a resilient future.  

But, beyond NRDC’s work or individual storm events, a lot of good things happened in 2012 to mark significant progress in using soft approaches to cleaner watersheds. In particular, the federal EPA approved Philadelphia’s plan to deploy the most comprehensive green infrastructure program found in any American city; New York City announced that it, too, was embarking on a major green infrastructure program to reduce runoff and resulting sewage overflows; Washington, D.C., proposed a comprehensive zoning update that will include, among other things, green infrastructure requirements for new construction, and settled a lawsuit by agreeing to tighter deadlines for waterway cleanup.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Jerry Wong

Meanwhile, the city of Chicago announced a program of small grants to help individual homeowners adopt “backyard” projects such as plantings and rain barrels that help clean the watershed; and, in Seattle, long a leader in these issues, Washington State University and the non-profit Stewardship Partners are working to install 12,000 rain gardens in Puget Sound communities by 2016.  If you’re working on city sustainability and aren’t including clean water solutions in your portfolio, you’re not just overlooking a critical set of concerns but also missing a lot of creativity and excitement.

Best regional plans for thoughtful land use and transportation investment: the Southern California and Sacramento Sustainable Communities Strategies. The best work to emerge so far from the implementation of California’s SB 375, the state’s landmark smart growth legislation, these two plans tackle climate change by placing a majority of new homes and jobs in transit-accessible locations, reducing traffic and related carbon emissions, preserving single-family neighborhoods, and saving hundreds of square miles of farmland and open space. Now the plans must be carried out, of course, but the law’s mix of carrots and sticks makes me hopeful.

Best provocative new book: The Space Between. This one was a very tough call, given The Walkable City, Jeff Speck’s definitive work on how to shape cities that put people, not cars, first, and Chuck Marohn’s burning fiscal indictment of sprawl, Thoughts on Building Strong Towns.  But my nod goes to Eric Jacobsen’s Christian case for cities, The Space Between, because of its freshness.

Best expansion of the green city vocabulary:  Walk Appeal. This one comes from Steve Mouzon, who also gave us the apt phrase “original green” to describe buildings and communities that respond to environmental issues naturally rather than with technological add-ons.  “Walk appeal” describes the extent to which a street or community induces us to use our feet simply because it’s enjoyable.  (Honorable mention:  Scott Doyon’s “pub shed.”) 

By and courtesy of Dhiru Thadani

Best well-deserved recognition for a sustainability leader: Dr. Richard Jackson’s Heinz award. Long a champion of safe, walkable, clean neighborhoods, Dick Jackson is chair of the department of environmental health sciences at UCLA. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s far from the only one who is showing us why we need to improve our built environment to protect human health.  But no one does it with more conviction and authority. This year Dick’s fantastic work earned a prestigious Heinz award; I can’t think of anyone more deserving.

Best new idea in community revitalization: use of LEED-ND as a planning framework for recovering neighborhoods. Okay, I’m (very) biased on this one. But many of us involved in the creation of the green rating and certification system LEED for Neighborhood Development hoped from the beginning that the system would find multiple informal uses for citizens and planners in addition to its formal application in honoring worthy new development with certification. Constructed as a logical, ordered framework of standards measuring neighborhood characteristics that affect sustainability, LEED-ND also provides a structure for guiding the thinking of community development corporations and other leaders of distressed city neighborhoods as they plan improvements. It is now being used for just that purpose in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Boston, Los Angeles, and perhaps elsewhere.

Best municipal blueprint for changing an unsustainable community into a sustainable one: Plan El Paso. This superlative city plan could just as easily have been picked as one of the best in 2011, when it was preliminary and EPA recognized it with a national award for achievement in smart growth. But, in March of this year, the city council formally adopted it and, in November, El Paso voters approved the issuance of $473 million dollars’ worth of bonds to begin funding it. These actions give us another opportunity to salute the city’s leadership – and the skill of its planning team – in moving forward with what may well be the nation’s best-articulated commitment to a more sustainable future in a community not previously known for environmental aspiration.

Columbus, Ohio. Courtesy of Ped/Bike

Best continually improving and evolving sustainability tool: Walk Score. The genius of Walk Score is its simplicity. Enter an address and you get a numerical rating from zero to 100 instantly. Walk Score isn’t perfect, particularly because it relies on imperfect databases and also because it attempts to quantify something – walkability – that is partially subjective. But it’s incredibly good in approximating the relative completeness and convenience of locations. Best of all, its keepers don’t rest on their laurels but continuously tinker with the system’s underpinnings to make it more reliably accurate. (Honorable mention in this category goes to the ever-improving and highly useful Housing + Transportation Affordability Index from the Center for Neighborhood Technology.)

Best accumulated body of recent work by a federal agency:  HUD.  As I wrote earlier this month, I have been seriously impressed by the community-building work of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development since its Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities was created almost three years ago. Working with an extremely limited budget (as federal programs go), HUD continues to assist cities and towns all over the country as they develop commitments and investment for a more resilient, greener future.  It’s a remarkable portfolio of accomplishment. (Honorable mention to the work of the National Endowment for the Arts, including its Our Town program, and to EPA’s always-impressive Office of Sustainable Communities.)

Best little-known work by a community-based non-profit that deserves a pat on the back: The Boston Project. A faith-based organization in the city’s Talbot Norfolk Triangle district, the Boston Project embodies “a passion for seeing renewal in urban neighborhoods.” It was founded by Paul and Glenna Malkemes, who run the organization’s activities out of their house; the first floor serves as a free, pleasant and safe drop-in center where youth can come and go at their leisure to do homework or enjoy fellowship. With its affiliate TNT Neighbors United, the project is working, with some success, to create “a multi-site urban garden” with a walkable route that connects community green spaces such as planned play areas, passive parks, vegetable gardens, and orchards.

Vancouver. Courtesy of Flickr user Jeff Arsenault

Best body of educational work by a national non-profit: American Society of Landscape Architects. With a relatively small staff, ASLA is quietly doing incredibly innovative work that improves city communities. Go to the organization’s web site and see, among other things, 30 (mostly urban) case studies that illustrate the transformative effects of sustainable landscape design; animations of the possible, using Google Sketchup to show how to build parks out of waste, design neighborhoods for active living, create smart landscaping that saves energy, transform ugly transportation infrastructure into attractive people spaces, and design wildlife-friendly neighborhoods; a guide to the beautiful hidden spaces of Washington, DC; a study on the economic benefits of green infrastructure; an interactive tour of the Society’s own innovative green roof; materials on brownfields transformation; and much more. Not to mention the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership undertaking that seeks to do for landscapes what LEED has done for buildings and neighborhood development. Very, very impressive. (Honorable mention: Project for Public Spaces.)

Best sustained excellence in writing about people and community: PlaceShakers. The hard-to-define, geographically dispersed firm PlaceMakers does a lot of things, but what I like best about them is their writing, in the PlaceShakers blog. Scott Doyon, Ben Brown, Hazel Borys and company are kind of all over the place in what they think and write about, and that’s a very good thing. While it all comes back, one way or another, to a decidedly new urbanist view of community design (form-based codes, the transect, skinny streets, and so forth), it’s a refreshingly broad and very well-written take on that approach. Scott, for instance, explains walkability by reference to where the bars are in his community; Hazel links neighborhood feel to Christmas carols and a meditation on the Ode to Joy that most of us know as the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; when Ben discusses the intricacies of housing market trends, you feel as if they are being explained by your favorite uncle. And, yes, the rest of them write, too. Their articles aren’t lectures so much as stories told by interesting and fun people who, in the process, tell you as much about themselves as about their subject matter. 

Best architecture/planning firm of the year: Mithun. There are firms that design outstanding urbanism. And there are firms that design outstanding green buildings and community features.  But there is none that integrates those two important concepts – both critical for sustainability – better than Seattle-based Mithun. I reported on two of its projects during the year: the firm was the guiding force behind Denver’s award-winning Mariposa project as well as the master planner for the excellent green revitalization concept for the Sunset neighborhood of Renton, Washington. Late in 2012 Mithun added significant talent and capacity by merging with the highly accomplished, San Francisco-based Daniel Solomon Design Partners, long a leader in urbanist design solutions. It will be exciting to see how the firm’s work will continue to evolve.

Not a bad year, that. Next, I’ll look at some stories to follow in 2013. Happy New Year, everybody.

This post originally appeared on the NRDC’s Switchboard blog.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Landscapers who want to increase sales, manage more effectively and lead their organizations to great success need look no further than GROW! 2013. 

This two-day event is an exclusive opportunity to learn from award-winning entrepreneur Marty Grunder and with other successful leaders in the landscaping industry. 

“This conference is a great way for landscapers to network with other successful leaders and get some best practices they can take back to their businesses to get a jump on 2013,” says Grunder. “These two days away from your business will be filled with top-notch education and great networking. You’ll leave with a list of solid ideas to grow your business organically in the coming year.” 

The agenda promises a packed list of presentations from industry leaders and up-and-comers. They include:

• Marty Grunder, conference organizer, landscaper and consultant, will speak on how eight keys owners need to lay the groundwork for success in 2013
• Jim McCutcheon, CEO of the award-winning HighGrove Partners in Austell, Ga., will speak on how to stop thinking like a landscaper
• Mike Rorie, former CEO of Groundsmasters, will offer his lessons learned in growing his company
• Chuck Bowen, editor and associate publisher of Lawn Landscape, will speak on the current state of the industry and the most important trends contractors need to know about in the coming year

For a special sneak preview of the conference, sign up for a free webinar here.

The conference gives owners the opportunity to develop their leadership and management skills, and improve their day-to-day operations. Grunder has put on the conference for several years in Dayton, Ohio, and is moving it to Nashville for the first time. 

GROW! 2013 takes place Feb. 6-8 in Nashville. For more details and to register, click here. 

If you have questions about GROW! 2013, or if you would like to work out a payment plan, call 937-847-9944.

East Coast Garden Center has been named the Northeast Regional Winner in Today’s Garden Center magazine’s 2013 Revolutionary 100 Awards. This honor follows Millsboro’s destination garden center breaking into the top 100 Revolutionary Garden Centers in the nation in the 2012 competition. Valery and Chris Cordrey, owners, will attend the Revolutionary 100 Roundtable Event and Awards Ceremony in Atlanta next month where the national winner, chosen from the pool of regional winners, will be announced.

“It’s a huge honor to be chosen for this recognition from among so many amazing garden center operations in the northeastern U.S.”, says Chris Cordrey. “We are very excited to share our experiences and to learn from the other garden centers attending the Roundtable. We learned a lot last year and were able to incorporate much of it into our operation enhancing both our business and our customers’ experience of our facility.”

According to Today’s Garden Center, “The Revolutionary 100 Awards focus on recognizing the most innovative retail garden center operations for their commitment to creating a customer experience that sets their operation apart from the rest in a way that helps them to be profitable businesses, rather than base the list on more common metrics such as sales volume or square footage.”

Consideration for the awards is based on such metrics as employee education, customer service programs, community/industry association stewardship, marketing strategies, and operations management theories and implementation.

“This designation is not bestowed upon just any garden center. Participants are required to complete a comprehensive questionnaire and points are awarded based on the response to each question. The top 100 total scores are named as Revolutionary 100 Garden Centers. This elite group of 100 becomes a resource for discussing industry trends and benchmarking ideas to share within the industry throughout the year.”

The Cordrey family founded RSC Landscaping in 1990 and their operation later expanded to add a wholesale division as well as East Coast Garden Center and The Cordrey Center, a Best of Delaware event facility. Cordrey Charities, a 501-3c nonprofit was formed in 2012 to promote gardening education initiatives. The operations are located in Millsboro and span over 16 acres with more than 70 greenhouses and display gardens.

Nov 17, 2012; Lexington , KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats running back Raymond Sanders (4) runs the ball against the Samford Bulldogs at Commonwealth Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky fans can’t wait for football time in the bluegrass thanks to new coach Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Neal Brown. Brown is bringing the very popular Air Raid offense back to Lexington points are expected in bunches. Most fans expect to hear that Mumme-Era Air Raid siren go off when the Wildcats score but that seems unlikely. While there is a decent chance that UK has kept the equipment, such a system is surely out of date. Also, several of the neighborhoods surrounding Commonwealth Stadium filed complaints about the siren and general gameday noise through the years. The university will likely want to avoid court. (Although it makes no sense to move into a house near a football stadium then complain that said stadium gets noisy, thus is the nature of college football stadiums.)

It may be an option to utilize a siren sound using Commonwealth’s new audio system, perhaps at a volume that will allow for celebration but stay closer to the stadium. Combining the siren with UK’s current use of fireworks (which the neighbors have also complained about) would be a nice touchdown celebration. Someone has even suggested using a differentiating siren sounds for the defense, an example being the siren from the Silent Hill video game/movie franchise. It sounds like a great idea as long as the 2 sirens are easy to tell apart.

Other suggestions include a cannon, though this idea has been done to death and has no cultural significance to Kentucky. A wildcat screeching to celebrate big plays would be a nice addition, although already in use at seemingly random intervals. Perhaps finding a way to play off of The Call to the Post could be implemented. Such as at the beginning of offensive drives or on 3^rd downs defensively. We all love My Old Kentucky Home but it really belongs at the end of ballgames exclusively. It pumps no one up.

When it comes to creating an experience, the show is only half of the equation. The venue is equally important. Does Commonwealth Stadium need a new press box? Badly. Luxury suites? Yes. A proper Ring of Honor or equivalent celebration of former Wildcats? Sure. But from the fans perspective, Commonwealth really isn’t that bad. It has nice video boards and audio equipment. The restrooms, food, seats etc. are on par with other venues. The place just needs a little sprucing up is all.

There are certain aesthetic aspects of CWS that can’t be changed, such as the fact that it was built in the middle of a giant parking lot on the very edge of campus. Not exactly scenic. But with Bluegrass Community College leaving their building adjacent Green Lot, upgrades could be made. The BCTC campus could be converted to a grove sorts for UK fans to interact and mingle. Perhaps it could be the new home for the Ring of Honor. Once upon a time a fan talked to me about created a shrine out of limestone or coal with plaques honoring the Wildcat greats. I love the idea. The grounds around the stadium in general could use some better landscaping even. Of course the actual construction projects will depend on the state.

These are all just ideas to be thrown at the wall, as Kentucky seeks to improve the gameday experience for fans. Surely the new regime will decide what traditions to embrace and which to move on from. What would you like to see done? Feel free to leave comments, I’d love to hear ideas.

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Topics: Football, Kentucky Wildcats

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Windsor Now staff selected the top stories for 2012 that made news in and outside of Windsor. In no particular order, here are the top stories of the year.

— Interstate 25/Colo. 392 interchange construction project complete

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Nov. 30 for the completion of the $20 million Interstate 25/Colo. 392 interchange construction project.

The project, in which Windsor and Fort Collins contributed $2.5 million each and the Colorado Department of Transportation funded $17.5 million, replaced the old two-lane bridge on Colo. 392 over I-25 with the current four-lane bridge — two lanes in each direction — as well as a left-turn lane in each direction.

A 6-foot bike lane and a 6-and-a-half foot sidewalk were also added on each side of the bridge. The frontage road on the west side of the interchange was realigned, and the ramps were designed to accommodate more traffic. A 90-space carpool lot was built at the southwest corner of the interchange.

Officials said the interchange will not only ease traffic congestion in the area, but it also will help enhance the area’s economic competitiveness and improve safety by accounting for a projected 30 percent decline in crashes.

There is still some landscaping around the interchange left to be finished in spring 2013.

— Windsor graduate Greg Myers inducted into College Football Hall of Fame

Windsor High School graduate Greg Myers was inducted into the 2012 College Football Hall of Fame in New York City on Dec. 4.

Myers’ 2012 class was inducted at the 55th National Football Foundation annual awards dinner. Myers and the 2012 class will be guests at the National Hall of Fame Salute at the All-State Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Wednesday (Jan. 2, 2013), and officially enshrined in summer 2013.

Myers, a 1991 Windsor graduate who is a board-certified anesthesiologist at Denver Health Medical Center and an assistant professor through the University of Colorado residency program, was a two-time All-American safety at Colorado State University and was drafted in the fifth-round in 1996 as a safety by the Cincinnati Bengals. He was one of 14 players and three coaches named to the 2012 class. The only way a player can be named to the College Football Hall of Fame is to be a first-team All American. Myers was a star in football and track and field at Windsor before his playing days at CSU. Myers also played for the Dallas Cowboys.

Myers was also inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the Windsor High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. Myers lives in Morrison with his wife, Kara, and their daughter, Avery, and son, Dagan.

— Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District changes elementary school boundaries; school enrollment at all-time high

The Windsor-Severance Re-4 School Board unanimously approved new elementary school boundaries for the 2013-14 school year at its Dec. 10 meeting.

On the recommendation of the District Long Range Facility Planning Committee, Tozer Primary School, Mountain View Elementary and Skyview Elementary schools will add more students from the Promontory and neighboring Greeley areas, while Grandview Elementary School will lose around 200 students with the potential of adding more students in the future due to single-home construction in the Grandview neighborhoods.

Grandview was at near-capacity enrollment, and the other three schools were well under capacity.

As far as district enrollment numbers in 2012, almost 4,800 students (4,795) walked through the front doors of the Re-4 schools on the first day of school Aug. 14. That number is the most ever in the Re-4 district. The first-day count was a 4.65 percent increase (213 more students) over the previous year’s Oct. 1 enrollment count of 4,582 students.

— Windsor Middle School principal arrested

Doug Englert, the principal at Windsor Middle School since 1994, was arrested and accused of assaulting his wife in November.

Englert was arrested Nov. 8 on suspicion of punching his wife during an argument police said took place two days earlier at his Windsor home. Englert faces one count of felony second-degree assault, and one misdemeanor count of harassment. Both charges are designated as domestic-violence related.

Englert, who made a base salary of $110,208, was placed on paid administrative leave by the school district until he resigned and retired as principal effective Dec. 10.

Englert will return to Weld County District Court at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 17 for a disposition hearing, at which time attorneys will have discussed possible plea bargains, or whether Englert will fight the charges and take the case to trial.

— Windsor’s downtown business area is full

For the first time in at least a decade, the downtown business area in Windsor has no occupancy.

The buildings on Main Street from 2nd to 7th streets are all occupied. An ice cream shop and coffee shop, restaurants, hair salons, spas, hardware store, antique shops, newspaper offices, tire and auto repair store, eye care and vision center, a boutique and other retail outlets have lined Main Street.

Events such as the Windsor Farmers Market, the Summer Concert Series at Boardwalk Park and the attraction of Windsor Lake also brought people downtown in 2012.

— Windsor High School names new principal

Windsor resident Michelle Scallon was named the new principal of Windsor High School in June.

Scallon, a former dean of students at Northridge High School in Greeley, replaced Jeannie Findley as principal, Findley retired after three years as principal.

Scallon was one of 25 candidates who applied for the job, and one of five candidates who interviewed for the position that pays $81,978 annually.

Scallon is the fourth principal at Windsor High School in the last seven years.

Scallon taught family and consumer sciences for 12 years in north Dakota, and 11 years at Northridge before serving one year as dean of students.

— Windsor wrestlers win second straight state title

The Windsor High School wrestling team captured their second consecutive Class 4A State Wrestling Championship at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Feb. 18.

The Wizards, coached by Monte Trusty, clinched their second straight title before the championship matches started.

The Wizards, who didn’t have an individual state champion, had a perfect season the whole way through going undefeated in dual meets with a 23-0 record, 7-0 in league competition.

— Tozer Primary School’s Shelly Prenger named principal of the year in Colorado

Tozer Primary School principal Shelly Prenger was awarded the 2012 Reba Ferguson Memorial Rookie of the Year Award for elementary school principals, an honor given by the Colorado Association of School Executives to just one elementary school principal in Colorado.

The award recognizes a Colorado administrator in his/her first three years as an elementary school principal.

Prenger, a preschool and kindergarten teacher for 20-plus years including 14 at Tozer before being hired as Tozer’s principal, received the award July 26 during the 43rd annual CASE Educational Leadership Convention in Breckenridge.

— Windsor football standout signs with Ohio State

Windsor High School offensive lineman Joey O’Connor signed a national letter-of-intent to Ohio State University on Feb. 1.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pound O’Connor was one of the nation’s top recruits. He was a four-star (out of five) recruit and an Under Armour All-American. O’Connor was ranked as the 102nd best player in the country by Rivals.com, and No. 104 in the ESPNU 150. He was the first Windsor lineman to receive a Division I football scholarship since Broc Finlayson signed with Colorado State University in 1997.

O’Connor missed his entire freshman season this past fall at Ohio State because of a knee injury. He was expected to see some playing time at center or guard. He will be granted a medical redshirt because of the injury, and will still have four years of eligibility at Ohio State.

— Windsor-Severance ambulance saga

Through much of summer, Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue negotiated with Banner Health about how to best fulfill residents’ needs for emergency medical services after a springtime switch from Weld County Paramedics.

It wasn’t until the department announced in November it was entering into negotiations with University of Colorado Health — formerly Poudre Valley Health Systems — when the conversation really got interesting. In the month since that announcement, debates hinging on response times and cost have been catapulted to the table.

Fire officials maintain they are seeking the best options for Windsor residents, regardless of what the name on the side of the ambulance says. Weld County commissioners, have expressed concerns about the search and have called into question the true need of a switch.

Additional conversations amending the county’s ambulance code have also come up in recent weeks, angering many close to the negotiations. The story continues to develop and is bound to be one of the most complicated and divisive during the opening weeks of 2013.

— Vestas Blades layoffs trigger turbulence

It was a turbulent year for Vestas Blades, marred with layoffs and hours cuts to many of its worldwide plants, including those in Windsor and Brighton.

Because of a slowdown in the wind-energy market, partially because of potential tax credit changes, the company decided to completely reinvent itself, meaning cuts — lots of cuts.

About 300 jobs in Weld County and as many as 1,000 positions across the world were axed in 2012, and thousands more internationally are on the chopping block for 2013, officials have said. Beyond the job loss, remaining employees saw significantly reduced hours in a cost-cutting move company leaders said would ease budgetary pressures and reduce more sweeping layoffs.

Currently, about 500 people work at the Windsor plant — down from 700 earlier this year. Officials have remained mute about whether more layoffs locally are on the horizon.

— Dangerous summer on Windsor lakes turns deadly

Summer took a tragic turn after two young men drowned on Windsor’s lakes and another close call captivated the town.

Joshua Sajous, 22, from New York drowned after he became tired while trying to fetch an inflatable raft on Habitat Lake in Water Valley. Reports indicated someone tried to hand him a paddle, but he was already too tired. It was already too late.

In another case just a few weeks later, Tyler Roggy, the 25-year-old son of longtime Greeley West football coach Mark Roggy, drowned while on a camping trip at Whitney Reservoir.

Reports indicated that he had a seizure while in the water. His body was found just 12 feet from the shore, police said.

In yet another incident, 2-year-old Cameron Garcia nearly drowned July 14 during a family outing at Windsor Lake. A trio of bystanders leapt into action before emergency crews could arrive.

Cameron has since made a full recovery, and the efforts of Tim Ault, Kerry Phillips and Robert Linder earned them Citizen Lifesaving Awards from Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue at a ceremony in the fall.

— New fire station takes off in Severance

Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue took a step forward in the fall when it picked the architect to design its new 9,400-square-foot Station 2 in Severance.

The new fire station will replace the existing facility — an old pole barn that was never designed to house crews. It is expected to closely mirror Station 3 in Windsor with state-of-the-art living quarters and environmentally conscious construction.

Allred Associates will design the facility, which is being paid for through a series of refinancing moves that freed up necessary funds. Construction is expected to last about 18 months.

— Windsor Lake contaminated, seven sickened

Officials shut down the town’s go-to heat-beating hangout spot for several days during the height of summer after at least seven people were reportedly sickened and waters tested positive for elevated levels of E.coli.

Levels were back to normal a few days after the initial reports, and it was not known what caused the elevated measurements, though some believed soil bacteria may have been to blame after a series of heavy rains in the area.

Even after the lake reopened, residents were wary and opted out of fun in the water, even in the 90-plus degree days.

— Local military serviceman killed in Afghanistan

Windsor lost one its own in 2012 when Army Sgt. Christopher Birdwell was killed after taking enemy small-arms fire during an Aug. 27 incident in Kalagush, Afghanistan.

Birdwell, 25, enlisted in the Army when he was 18 and was the oldest of four children, all graduates from Windsor High School. He graduated from the Army Airborne School and had just completed the Army Sniper Training School where he was at the top of his class.

Though the tragedy gripped the community, it was the outpouring of support that really stuck out for many across the town. As news spread, so too did the generosity. From community gatherings to a supportive crowd at the funeral, virtually everyone was emotionally impacted.

The Windsor Town Board contributed $10,000 to a series of charities in Birdwell’s name and remains in talks with the family about how to commemorate his life with a planted memorial in town.

“Sgt. Birdwell was an athlete. He was a great student,” Scott Romme, family spokesman, previously said. “When the news broke that Chris had been killed, there was an outpouring of different information coming from counselors, former students, teachers and staff. They all remembered him as a wonderful young man and the kind of person that if you could choose someone for your team or choose someone to be a friend to your son, that would be the kind of guy that you would choose.

“That’s how Chris is remembered here in Windsor.”

— Proposed Boardwalk Park beer ban goes under microscope

In a back-and-forth discussion among town Windsor officials, staff and residents, a Boardwalk Park beer ban was one of the most divisive issues during the final months of 2012.

Staff including Police Chief John Michaels recommended in October that the board amend the rules at Windsor’s flagship hangout spot in an effort to curb increasing gang activity. By banning 3.2 percent beer — the only kind allowed during non-special events — and eliminating portable grills, staff said gangs would have less incentive to use the park.

Even if delinquency did continue, they said new rules would give them legal ground to stand on.

Boardwalk Park is the only park in the region that allows beer consumption, though it is already heavily regulated.

The decision looked to be all but approved with John Vazquez often the singe dissenter, but community outrage turned the table as people argued the issue wasn’t booze and was instead the swim beach.

During the most recent town board work session, the issue was back on the table with board members disappointed in lack of ideas from residents. Instead, they entertained ideas some viewed as outlandish including a security fence around the lake or charging for the swim beach, lessening the appeal to outsiders.

Staff is expected to come before the board with any new ideas or scenarios in the first part of 2013. If any consensus is reached, new rules would likely go in place for summer, 2013.

— Town re-elects mayor, brings on three new board members

Though 2012’s presidential election captivated millions while bombarding Coloradans with an onslaught of campaign visits and a slew of negative ads, Windsor brewed its own political contest throughout the spring.

After weeks of door-to-door canvassing and a lively debate with former Mayor Pro-Tem Matthew O’Neill, John Vazquez was picked to lead the town for a second term, earning about 60 percent of the votes.

“I want to continue to help and continue to do the great things over the next four years that we’ve done over the last four,” Vazquez said shortly after winning in April. “I just ask that they (residents) hopefully give me a chance to show them I can represent Windsor as well as they want to be represented in the future.”

Three new faces came to the Windsor Town Board – Myles Baker, Jeremy Rose and Ivan Adams. Each from a different background, they’ve embraced leading districts 1, 3 and 6 respectively.

Robert Bishop-Cotner was also picked in a tight race to represent District 5 for another four years.

There was little time to revel in victory with pressing decisions to be made about water rights, booming development and a series of controversial oil and gas applications.

Though there’s always a chance for special elections, the next town board election cycle won’t be until spring 2014.

Development of Gandhi Hill, the first Gandhi memorial in India constructed on a hillock, has been on cards for some time.

The local officials of the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) are enthusiastically working on a master plan to groom the historic place that served as the venue for the 1921 AICC meeting where Mahatma Gandhi called for prohibition.

“The hill spot has a very high potential for development of tourism. Located in the heart of the city, it has a toy train, a planetarium, a conference hall with a seating capacity for 1,000 people, a library with a rare collection of books on Gandhiji and three historic halls. Most of these structures are in a dilapidated state as they were left in a prolonged state of neglect,” says Juvvadi Raghupathi Rao, Divisional Manager of the APTDC, Vijayawada division.Mr. Rao says estimates to the tune of Rs.5 crore have been prepared and forwarded for approval of the District Collector and once it is done, the file will move to the APTDC MD’s chamber. But interestingly, Collector Budhaprakash M. Jyothi, when contacted, denied knowledge of any such proposal. “There is no such proposal. Even if a proposal to this effect is made, it will not be a welcome step because the Gandhi Hill Society, which is presently responsible for the upkeep of the place, is doing a wonderful job,” Mr. Budhaprakash told The Hindu on Friday.

Mr. Budhaprakash’s statement assumes significance in the wake of his recent visit to the hill top where he reportedly expressed displeasure over the neglect of the monument and other structures there.

Meanwhile, the APTDC talks of a series of activities it plans to take up on the hill to attract tourists. “The hill is located at a height of 500 feet and provides a panoramic view of the city. There is wide scope to develop the light and sound show at the planetarium, besides taking up landscaping, introducing adventure sports and even providing accommodation at the foot of the hill,” he says. A huge Gandhi structure of 15.8 meter height was unveiled in 1968 by Dr. Zakir Hussain on this hill to propagate the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. It also has seven stupas placed at a height of nearly 150 meters.

Informing about a meeting of the Revenue, Tourism, Railways, Forest, Engineering and other allied department officials a couple of days ago on the issue, Mr. Rao says the Corporation is eager to launch works at the earliest.

But, the gross mismatch between the APTDC enthusiasm and blatant denial on the part of the district administration makes the picture a tad hazy.