Cities Win Awards for Municipal Excellence by 'Going for the Green'

Over the 20-year history of the awards, environmental protection and conservation have been hallmarks of many of the initiatives honored by NLC and its partner in the program, CH2M HILL. The continuing success of these initiatives holds important lessons for other cities in how to create sustainable programs for a sustainable future.

1999 Award Winner: San Diego – Green Building Initiative

San Diego received a 1999 award for the city’s efforts to promote “green building” methods as a way to reduce energy costs and protect the environment. Working with the local utility company and other partners, San Diego’s Environmental Services Department bought and renovated an existing office building that has since become a showcase for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly construction.

John Helminski, who serves as renewable and emerging technologies program manager for the department, has worked at the Ridgehaven Green Building since 2001. He called it a “wonderful place to work” for the department’s 250 employees. Ridgehaven is the first green building in the United States to receive an Energy Star award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Among the original green features of the building that Helminski hails: recycled carpet (“the same that went down in 1999 and still in fabulous shape”); automatic-dimming lights for exterior offices; toilet partitions made of recycled soda bottles; and water-cooled heat pumps. More recently, the city has made additional green upgrades to the building, such as a new lighting system that reduced energy use for lights by 50 percent, and solar panels on the roof that offset 14 percent of the building’s total energy load.

Helminski said San Diego will soon seek certification for the Ridgehaven building under the LEED system for existing buildings, a category that did not exist at the time of the original retrofit. 

The renovation of the Ridgehaven Green Building was part of a larger effort by the city to advance the cause of environmentally friendly construction. Since adopting its first green building policy in 1999, San Diego has enacted a requirement that all new city facilities over 5,000 square feet comply with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver rating. The city also encourages all new facilities to generate at least 10 percent of their power using renewable energy, primarily solar.

“The original effort to renovate this building and create a green building policy for the city has caused a lot of exciting things to happen,” Helminski said. 

2004 Award Winner: Lexington-Fayette County, Ky. – Purchase of Development Rights Program

Between 1990 and 1997, Fayette County lost 4,700 acres of farmland to new home construction. Concerned that the self-proclaimed “horse capital of the world” was losing its unique rural character, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government boosted minimum lot sizes in rural areas to 40 acres and implemented Kentucky’s first purchase of development rights (PDR) program. The goal of the program: to buy conservation easements to protect 50,000 acres of farmland by 2020.

Today, according to PDR Program Director Billy Van Pelt, Lexington-Fayette County is well on its way to achieving its goal, with 22,640 acres of farmland protected to date thanks to a combination of local, state and federal funds. 

Van Pelt said the PDR program is about more than protecting the county’s scenic vistas.

“We also need to protect our signature industry – the horse industry,” he said. 

Fayette County is home to approximately 200 horse farms, the Kentucky Horse Park, the two largest thoroughbred auction companies in the world, and an internationally recognized equine research facility on the University of Kentucky campus. The Kentucky Horse Park alone has a $240 million annual impact on the economy, according to the Kentucky Equine Education Project. Next year, that number will skyrocket as the Horse Park hosts the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The city and county will welcome 600,000 people over a 16-day period for the event, which Van Pelt calls “the Olympics for the Horse.” 

By preserving green space and productive farmland, protecting sustainable industries and focusing development on the urban areas that comprise one-third of the county, Lexington-Fayette County’s PDR program helps protect both the economy and the environment.

“What we’re doing is good for so many reasons it’s hard to count,” said Van Pelt.

2003 Award Winner: Tempe, Ariz. – Rio Salado Project

In Tempe, what was once a dry riverbed littered with trash and abandoned cars has become a refuge for 250 species of birds, as well as coyotes, javelinas and jackrabbits. The refuge also has thousands of human visitors each year. 

The 595-acre Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area stretches along five miles of river through the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area. It is the product of an ambitious partnership involving the City of Tempe, the state and federal governments, and other private and nonprofit-sector partners. The centerpiece of the project is Tempe Town Lake, which provides flood control as well as ample opportunities for recreation.  

Over the last few years, according to Heather Wasgatt, natural resource manager with the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area, the number of visitors to the area has quadrupled. 

“We have a lot of families coming out to enjoy the habitat and to get some exercise,” she said, adding that she considers the area “an oasis in the middle of the city.”

The Rio Salado area opened to the public in 2005. Wasgatt said an early priority for the city and its partners was changing people’s perceptions of the Salt River and its surrounding lands.

“It had a lot of negative connotations because it had been an eyesore for so long,” Wasgatt said. 

But local opinions turned around thanks to a public education campaign that has included ranger-led hikes, school field trips, outreach to bird watching groups and other activities. In addition, as the Phoenix area continues to lose natural open space to development, the public appears to have rallied behind the Rio Salado project and its focus on protecting and restoring animal habitat. 

“The response has been fantastic,” Wasgatt said. “I think people appreciate that we are so close to downtown Phoenix, but we offer an opportunity to get back to nature.”

1995 Award Winner: Boca Raton, Fla. – Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

Last year, 108,000 people got an up-close look at sharks, sea turtles, stingrays and other marine creatures that call Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center their home. They took walks through the tropical hardwood hammock, climbed the 40-foot tower offering panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, and participated in classes, workshops and other activities designed to connect local residents to the marine and coastal environment that surrounds them.

Gumbo Limbo is the product of a unique partnership of the city of Boca Raton, the Palm Beach School District, a beach and parks tax district, Florida Atlantic University and Gumbo Limbo Inc., a nonprofit corporation. It is staffed by 23 city employees, two school district employees and about 300 volunteers. 

Over the years, according to the center’s manager, Jim Duquesnel, it has evolved from a school-operated facility hosting field trips to a city-managed operation offering a range of programs and events for people of all ages. Since winning the NLC award in 1995, Gumbo Limbo has added an outdoor classroom and greatly expanded its marine turtle research program, among other changes. 

And better yet, the center’s programs are offered free of charge (there is a suggested donation of $3). Duquesnel said he believes the center’s low-cost offerings are an important factor in the spike in visitors to Gumbo Limbo over the last year or so. 

“Given the state of the economy, people are looking for inexpensive things they can do with their families, and we appear to be benefiting from that,” Duquesnel said.

In February alone, the number of visitors to the center (13,400) was up by more than 26 percent, compared to February 2008.