I've got a project for school that I need an opinion on from a 'real' planner. As I don't really know any(only city mgr's here), I thought I'd come here for an opinion or two.
So what is Building in Nature's Envelope you ask? It kind of related to Chets question the other day about Native or Exotic plant on the property.
The key to natures envelope is distrubing as little of the property's natural vegetation as possible during the construction phase. This means roping off the sections that are not to be disturbed. This preserves much of the beauty of the lot in terms of natural vegetation. The only areas to be disturbed are the foot print of the building(SF homes, and business buildings/apartments) and a 5-15 foot buffer for construction materials and workspace(this is the envelope).
There is to be no scraping off of topsoil to level off the lot. The idea here is to preserve the natural fungi/seeds/mulching/composting that already exists in this layer. Trucking in 'clean' topsoil post scraping often brings in noxious weeds that were not present previously, creating a problem that is often solved by herbicides that aren't exactly eviro friendly. By keeping the orignal topsoil, you are preserving native plant species that are adapted to a given region, and require little to no effort to maintain, saving time, money and resources.
With more of a push for natural development, I see this as an increasingly viable option, depending on the attitude of the developer/contractors that are involved. Many communities though, have a weed ordinance that is difficult to get around. Something that prevents predominant vegetation that taller than saaaay, 1.5', something that many native vegatative grasses are. In Minnesota, we're soon to have a severe water shortage due to a quickly depleteing aquifer. If more people used a hardier, more natural lawn, we wouldn't have to water so religiously to maintain our green acres. You see this alot in AZ and other similar warm, deserty climes with xeriscaping, Natures evnelope just takes this one step further.
So what is the Brains thought on this? Is it viable for a community to relax weed ordinances to allow for something like this? I know the Germans around here wouldn't like it much but what about you?
So what is Building in Nature's Envelope you ask? It kind of related to Chets question the other day about Native or Exotic plant on the property.
The key to natures envelope is distrubing as little of the property's natural vegetation as possible during the construction phase. This means roping off the sections that are not to be disturbed. This preserves much of the beauty of the lot in terms of natural vegetation. The only areas to be disturbed are the foot print of the building(SF homes, and business buildings/apartments) and a 5-15 foot buffer for construction materials and workspace(this is the envelope).
There is to be no scraping off of topsoil to level off the lot. The idea here is to preserve the natural fungi/seeds/mulching/composting that already exists in this layer. Trucking in 'clean' topsoil post scraping often brings in noxious weeds that were not present previously, creating a problem that is often solved by herbicides that aren't exactly eviro friendly. By keeping the orignal topsoil, you are preserving native plant species that are adapted to a given region, and require little to no effort to maintain, saving time, money and resources.
With more of a push for natural development, I see this as an increasingly viable option, depending on the attitude of the developer/contractors that are involved. Many communities though, have a weed ordinance that is difficult to get around. Something that prevents predominant vegetation that taller than saaaay, 1.5', something that many native vegatative grasses are. In Minnesota, we're soon to have a severe water shortage due to a quickly depleteing aquifer. If more people used a hardier, more natural lawn, we wouldn't have to water so religiously to maintain our green acres. You see this alot in AZ and other similar warm, deserty climes with xeriscaping, Natures evnelope just takes this one step further.
So what is the Brains thought on this? Is it viable for a community to relax weed ordinances to allow for something like this? I know the Germans around here wouldn't like it much but what about you?