United States
Environmental Protection
Kb I m ^Agency
EPA 231 F 12 001
May 2013
www.epa.gov/smartgrowth
Mfe&A
it U (Ml M
JiRL-» 4..»' .• .•
y** W V* v.
ffjrrrrr j
LESSONS FROM
GREENING AMERICA'S CAPITALS PROJECTS
FIVE HELPFUL HINTS FOR COMMUNITIES WANTING TO BE GREENER
Office of Sustainable Communities
Smart Growth Program

Smart Growt
GREENING
AMERICA'S CAPITALS

-------
Cover image: View of Connecticut State Capitol with native grass meadow and rain gardens. Image courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz.

-------
Greening America's Capitals helps state capitals develop an implementable vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly
neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green infrastructure strategies. EPA provides this design assistance to state
capital cities selected through a competitive process, and hires a team of designers to help each city with a particular
design problem. The design team develops a set of options that the cities can pursue. The cities benefit from collabora-
tion among EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT), and other agencies through the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities. This pamphlet describes
five lessons from the first two rounds of projects that can help all communities incorporate green design strategies into
their planning and development. As these capital city projects demonstrate, green, sustainable design can create and
enhance interesting, distinctive neighborhoods that have multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. These
solutions can also help communities improve streets to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians as well as drivers, en-
courage new economic development, prepare for climate change, build on local history, and create a sense of place.
1. Make a Vision and Make It Visual
Full reports of individual projects are available at:
www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/greencapitals.htm
The city leaders who applied for design assistance knew that
their project areas suffered from poor public perceptions: peo-
ple thought of City Hall Plaza in Boston as barren and wind-
swept, Slack Plaza in Charleston as dangerous, and Main Street
in Little Rock as empty. By illustrating a new vision of the site,
the design teams enabled each community to develop new
perceptions of the place, see the potential, react to it, and en-
ergize implementation efforts. In public workshops, the design
team altered the concepts and images in response to lively
discussions. The input from the workshops helped the design
team create a vision that could give the city and its residents
an opportunity to redefine and reclaim a central place in their
community. Developing a clear vision that the community can
build on required having the right mix of people at the table.
The mix included decision-makers, neighborhood and business
associations, planning and development professionals, city
maintenance staff, funders (often from city departments and
federal and state agencies), and most importantly, the resi-
dents of these neighborhoods.
The design concept for Jefferson City creates a vision for the
Millbottom area that includes a greenway along Wears Creek,
retrofitted surface parking lots retrofitted with green infrastruc-
ture elements, and parking garages with shops and restaurants
on the first floor to create a more vibrant neighborhood.
The design concept for Slack Plaza in Charleston with defined
paths for better pedestrian access, landscaped areas to collect
runoff and increase shade, and public art creates a vision for
an otherwise under-used public space.

-------
2. Achieve Multiple Goals with "Greening"
Design options for all the capital cities provided environmental
benefits by adding things commonly thought of as "green" such
as trees and rain gardens, community benefits by creating new
transportation options and gathering places for residents and
visitors, and economic benefits by encouraging private invest-
ment in the local economy. Stormwater management was one
environmental concern shared by all the capital cities, in several
cities, the design options included curbside rain gardens and
permeable paving to collect and filter runoff from streets and
roofs. The gardens would have the added benefit of making the
street more attractive and safer for pedestrians by buffering
them from moving cars, which could bring new life to the street
and attract private investment. Reducing paved surfaces and
adding trees could reduce the heat island effect—the increase
in ambient air temperature caused by radiant heat from dark,
paved surfaces—which would make walking more comfortable
and could decrease nearby buildings' air-conditioning needs.
The design concept for Klein's Corner in Lincoln's South Capitol
neighborhood includes narrowing driving lanes to widen the
sidewalk and adding rain gardens to collect runoff. The concept
is a good example of how a community can address two goals for
greening at once—making walking more enjoyable and cleaning
stormwater.
3. Connect People and Places
All the capital cities had issues with barriers in their cities that
were both physical and psychological. The design options cre-
ated helped overcome these barriers and reconnect the area
being studied with the large community. For example, business
owners in several of the cities wanted better pedestrian and
bike access to attract more customers. In Hartford, restaurants
are just a few blocks from thousands of office workers, but peo-
ple perceived the sidewalks as barren and crosswalks as unsafe,
which kept potential customers away. The design team devel-
oped options to make the streets more attractive and walkable.
In Little Rock, an interstate highway divides an emerging, vibrant
arts neighborhood from the rest of downtown. One design op-
tion incorporated shade structures into the bridge over the high-
way to make pedestrians more comfortable. In Jefferson City, a
design option showed how a degraded creek could become a
bike and pedestrian greenway between neighborhoods and a
planned park along the Missouri River. Creating a greenway
would not only connect people to the river, but also connect
people to the creek itself that has otherwise been thought of as
an overgrown, unattractive hazard. Connecting people with
transit was a goal in Boston, Charleston, and Washington, D.C.
Design options offered these cities ideas for improving the pla-
zas in front of the transit facilities and nearby street intersec-
tions, making the walk to the stations more appealing.
The design concept in Jefferson City widens a creek channel and
includes a trail that connects residents and visitors with the
Missouri River and other bike and walking paths. The option
also includes an amphitheater that adds green space to accom-
modate periodic flooding.
A segment of the Selma to Montgomery Trail passes beneath
a freeway interchange. The design concept adds lighting,
signs, and greenery to make the trail more attractive and
safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

-------
4. Invest in the Spaces You Already Have
5. Seek a Variety of Funding Sources
All the cities wanted to make the most of existing public spaces
such as streets, alleys, plazas, and parking lots. Design options
for Hartford, Little Rock, Lincoln, and Jackson emphasized how
streets and alleys could become more appealing public gather-
ing spaces by adding more plants, trees, and seating. Design
options for Boston and Charleston explored major redesigns for
plazas that many residents saw as unattractive and uninviting.
Both of these plazas are almost entirely paved and have few
trees, increasing both stormwater runoff and the heat island
effect. In Hartford, the design options included reusing part of a
parking lot by consolidating some parking stalls to free up
space for a park that would enhance the street. In Phoenix,
some on-street parking spaces could be replaced with outdoor
seating for restaurants or rain gardens. In Jefferson City, the
design option would remove parking stalls that flood almost
every year to widen the Wears Creek corridor and provide
more space for recreation. The design concept for the sur-
rounding neighborhood includes building more parking garages
for workers and converting historic buildings into shops, restau-
rants, and lofts.
All the design options had to meet multiple objectives and
surmount an array of challenges. But because the design op-
tions addressed multiple issues, such as stormwater manage-
ment, pedestrian improvements, economic revitalization, pub-
lic health, and urban forestry, the communities could seek dif-
ferent funding sources for the same design options by framing
them differently. For example, the city of Little Rock received
a stormwater management grant from the Arkansas Re-
sources Commission and an Our Town grant from the National
Endowment of the Arts by tying its streetscape improvement
to an overall commercial revitalization strategy. Charleston
received a grant from the U. S. Department of Transportation
to improve Slack Plaza and connecting walkways. Enhancing
public spaces in lower-income neighborhoods, such as Frog
Hollow in Hartford or Anacostia in Washington, D.C., could be
the right fit for private foundation funding while also being
eligible for stormwater management funding. Finally, the pri-
vate sector can be an important player in implementation. If a
city makes a commitment to improve a sidewalk, the abutting
property or business owners might be willing to contribute
money to further enhance their "front door." The result can
be a "virtuous cycle" where the street attracts more visitors,
which attracts more businesses, which culminate in an envi-
ronmentally sustainable and enjoyable place to be.
The design concept for revitalizing an existing walkway in
Charleston includes outdoor seating for nearby restaurants and
public art and greenery to make it more attractive.
The design concept for Grand Avenue in Phoenix includes
restaurant seating that replaces two on-street parking spaces.
Since the design team's visit to Little Rock, the city has been
very successful at attracting more businesses to Main Street by
promoting the design vision that includes rain gardens.
The design concept for Howard Road in Washington, D.C,
illustrates improved sidevsalks and permeable paving to absorb
runoff, both of which have a variety of funding sources.
v.(V

-------
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency

-------