Description:
Adopting nature-based and low impact development solutions can help effectively manage stormwater while conserving land, protecting water quality, and reducing maintenance costs. Outdated bylaws and regulations sometimes prevent communities from implementing these win-win solutions, however. Learn how Mass Audubon’s Bylaw Review Tool can help you give your community’s land use regulations a tune-up to ensure they encourage the most innovative and effective approaches to sustainable development and stormwater management. The program will also share a case study from Devens, a community where LID has been fully embraced across all planning and regulations through a combination of education, guidelines and regulations. Examples of successful incorporation of these techniques into development projects will be provided.
Learning Objectives:
– Learn what LID is and how it can be incorporated into new and re-development throughout your community to save land, water, and money
– Learn how to use Mass Audubon’s bylaw review tool to assess and update local land use regulations to encourage LID
Powerpoint Slides Available to Download (PDF):
SNEP Bylaw Review- Mass Audubon
Nature Based Solutions in Devens- Devens Enterprise Commission
Presenters:
Danica Warns is Mass Audubon’s Southeast Regional Coordinator for the Shaping the Future of Your Community program, where she works directly with towns throughout the Taunton Watershed providing technical assistance in support of targeted land conservation, sustainable development and climate resilience in one of the fastest developing watersheds in Massachusetts. She has a background in marine and coastal ecology obtained from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and several years of experience engaging partners and community members under coordinated efforts to achieve habitat restoration goals on a watershed level.
Neil Angus is an Environmental Planner with Devens Enterprise Commission – the regulatory authority overseeing the redevelopment of the former Fort Devens Army Base located in central/eastern Massachusetts. Neil assists in the long-range and day to day planning and sustainable redevelopment operations for Devens and specializes in green building and green infrastructure planning and design. Neil holds a Professional Design Degree in Environmental Planning from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and is a Certified Environmental Planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners. Neil is also a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and is a US Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional specializing in Neighborhood Development and Building Design and Construction.
