The Illinois Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign chair, Lonnie Morris, recently emailed an updated on what's happening in Normal, Illinois. They're taking action on a number of issues being discussed in Springfield, so I'm going to post her full email here.
Springfield is ahead of Normal in some areas, such as CWLP's purchase of renewable wind power. In other areas, their forward thinking innovation is an example of what should be the new norm in downstate Illinois.
Vision and Planning Pay Off for Cool City
Normal, Illinois
The pleasing mix of buildings and open space at the center of Normal's business district conceals the green construction technologies and highly efficient infrastructures making this quiet, heartland city a model of sustainable development.
The seeds of Normal's achievements as a Cool City were planted with a vision and plan to rejuvenate a failing city center several years before Mayor Koos signed the Climate Protection Agreement. In 2000, the city sent out a routine RFP for a downtown renewal plan with an open ended request to “do something about the downtown”, opening the door for a partnership with Doug Farr, a leading proponent of “New Urbanism” and early advocate for expanding LEED certification beyond individual buildings to include entire neighborhoods. "There is so much effort that goes into designing and building this one small thing, this single green building," Farr said to Charles Shaw, of Grist, "The same amount of effort goes into planning two square miles of regular neighborhood, and that will serve us for the next 200 years. [The focus on individual buildings] just doesn't make any sense."
The plan Farr Associates submitted led the city to passing an ordinance in 2002 requiring new, public or private construction in the Uptown District over 7,500 square feet to meet LEED standards. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a third party verification program of the US Green Building Council, certifying buildings and neighborhoods as meeting certain standards of performance in energy efficiency, water conservation and overall environmental sensitivity. The Uptown District was certified as LEED Neighborhood Development silver (LEED-ND) in 2009.
For ten years, Normal has been guided by its commitment to smart growth with visible success. “Once you have sustainability as a goal, the decisions become easier”, said Geoff Fruin, Assistant City Manager and Green Team member.
Smart growth principles have shaped a wide range of decisions, from building construction standards to how traffic flows through uptown. A traffic “roundabout” located at the center of the Uptown District performs a variety of functions from being a model of fuel efficiency and housing an innovative storm water management system to enhancing street-scape aesthetics. Installing the roundabout converted a difficult intersection into a highly efficient method for managing traffic. Figures are not yet available for fuel savings from Normal but a 2000 study conducted on a one lane, three legged roundabout in Montpelier, Vermont found fuel savings of 339,000 gallons per year over a signaled intersection. (Modern Roundabouts, Global Warming, and Emissions Reductions: Status of Research, and Opportunities for North America, Tony Redington)
Harnessing renewable energy resources figures prominently in the city's vision of sustainability. Solar panels will be installed this year on the roof of the city-owned Children's Discovery Museum which was built with the necessary infrastructure for accommodating solar arrays. Solar Bees, solar powered mixers, are used for mixing drinking water held in municipal tanks and solar powered trash compactors have reduced the number of trash pick ups in the business district from 5 times per week to once a week while eliminating the problem of overflowing trash at popular businesses like the local ice cream shop. With a municipal waste service, the decreased pickups have saved the city the cost of fuel, staff time, street wear and tear along with reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Setting ambitious goals is a powerful tool for innovation as they clearly define the envisioned future. Normal set a far reaching goal with a commitment to purchasing electricity with a 25% renewable mix by 2010. The two local utility companies currently provide a 5% renewable electricity mix, meeting the state's renewable energy portfolio standard 2010 target. With the Illinois Renewable Energy Center at Illinois State University supporting research and development and growing wind energy production in Illinois, the state is well on its way to achieving 25% renewable energy by 2025.
City planners are preparing for the next generation of automobiles. The Uptown District will become electric vehicle friendly when charging stations are installed later this year. When electric cars hit the market, shoppers and diners will be able to charge their cars for free while visiting Normal businesses.
Community Connections
Sustainable communities thrive when businesses, city planners and major institutions share a vision and cooperate in turning it into “just the way we do things here.” A local group called the Sustainability Forum (SF) includes representatives from Mitsubishi, State Farm, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan, the public schools, Ecology Action Center, Country Financial, City of Bloomington and McClean County. The SF meets quarterly to share and brainstorm green ideas. At a recent meeting, State Farm passed along the results of its rigorous green cleaning products testing, enabling all members to benefit from their research. The city was inspired to purchase a “bulb eater”, a recycling device that safely captures mercury from fluorescent bulbs after hearing about State Farm's positive experience with theirs.
In addition to participating in the Sustainability Forum, Illinois State University (ISU) has made a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint by signing the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/), a program similar to the US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement in scope and structure. In 2009, ISU completed a greenhouse gas inventory for its campus and is currently working on creating a climate action plan based on the results.
As part of their renewable energy studies course work, several ISU students have undertaken practical, field based projects this year, including evaluating 4 facilities, (city hall, the public library, 2 maintenance buildings) for the feasibility of installing solar arrays, conducting simple residential energy audits, providing information to homeowners on the availability of tax incentives and grants for renewable energy projects and reaching out to large retailers such as Wal-Mart.
Having learned about the value and rewards of becoming more energy efficient, Normal is making similar steps accessible to community members by creating a revolving loan fund administered by the Economic Development Council and capitalized with $100,000 of EECBG funds. Low interest loans will be made available for approved projects and loan repayments will support future efforts.
“The amount will continue to grow and fund sustainable projects in the private sector,” said Geoff Fruin, “This makes it possible to have one time grant funds live on forever.”
On a side note, if you haven't been to Medici in downtown Normal yet, then you need to go! It's in partnership with the Chicago restaurant of the same name and they're excellent.