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Articles
March Technical Speaker 1
Creating Distributed Low Impact Development Detention in a Redeveloping Community
Steve Albert, P.E., C.F.M.
Kathleen English, AIA, LEED AP
This presentation will outline the results of a comprehensive study of the potential benefits of widespread adoption of Low Impact Development (LID) systems within a redeveloping residential community. Because the community chosen for study is typical of communities in every metropolitan area, the results can be adapted to a wide variety of locales using LID methods to foster change in traditional public policy.
The benefits of distributed LID include reductions in the rate and volume of stormwater runoff and improvements to stormwater quality measured at the stormwater outfalls of the community. Aggregation of these benefits could be used in lieu of typical regulatory requirements for detention storage and stormwater treatment systems to accommodate the future growth of impervious surface area.
The community of West University Place, surrounded by Houston in Texas, is the research subject. The community consists of approximately 5,000 residential homes. Redevelopment of older homes with larger homes has been occurring over the past decade with the rate of redevelopment accelerating as property values have increased. This trend has created a rapidly growing need to develop alternative solutions for stormwater storage and treatment.
Harris County, Texas has jurisdiction over the community for stormwater detention and water quality requirements. Infrastructure improvements made within the village, including a significant expansion of their sidewalk system and redevelopment with larger homes, have generated the need to create additional detention storage and water quality improvements.
Creation of a regional detention facility is impractical because the community is completely built out with homes having a very high assessed valuation. This makes the cost of creating conventional detention storage prohibitively expensive. In the recent past, the detention requirement has been met through the purchase of detention storage credits from Harris County from their limited supply within a regional detention facility. This option may not be available in the future.
The study examines how these requirements can be met as an integral step in the continuing process of redevelopment of the community by using incentives instead of regulatory mandates. Adequate subsidy by the community could also allow excess capacity to be created which could be accumulated in a detention “bank” with the withdrawal applied to future community-wide projects.
Detention storage would be placed in areas available on every home site including under the driveway and within the front and side yard house setbacks. The study examines a variety of methods of how to construct these types of LID systems and their cost along with provision for maintenance and sufficient easement control.
Steven F. Albert, P.E., CFM
Steve Albert is a Group Leader with Sherwood Design Engineers in Houston. He has practiced civil engineering for 37 years with the past 18 years focused on the effective application of Low Impact Development (LID) techniques.
Steve is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas, Oklahoma, and Illinois and is a Certified Floodplain Manager. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Houston Land/Water Sustainability Forum, previously served as an Advisor to the Conservation Foundation in Naperville, IL, and has made numerous presentations to municipal and professional groups on the cost-effective use of LID methods. Steve is an active member of ASCE.
He holds a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University. Previous experience prior to joining Sherwood Design Engineers includes serving for two years as the City Engineer for Owasso, Oklahoma and as the Director of Land Development for a Houston consulting engineering firm.
Kathleen English, AIA, LEED AP™
Kathleen grew up in Houston and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the managing Principal of English + Associates Architects, an award-winning architecture and interior design firm founded in 1989, focusing on Green and High-performance design. She is a past president of AIA Houston, where she also chaired the AIA Houston.
Kathleen is a former Vice Chair of the US Green Building Council – Texas Gulf Coast Chapter, and is currently serving as president of the Architecture Center Foundation Board in Houston. She is a steering committee member of the Houston Land/Water Sustainability Forum, and has led her firm in the pursuit of green design and Low Impact Development design principles.
