Oyster Shell Park might be able to qualify for grant money to transform into one of the first LEED certified parks in the country. That would be a cool thing for Norwalk. I like walking through the park, although in the late summer you almost need a machete to hack through the plants taking over the pathways. From Tim Stelloh’s Advocate article:
New rules for “green” parks could transform Oyster Shell - a former city dump on the Norwalk River - into one of the first LEED-certified parks in the country, said Susan Sweitzer, a senior project manager with the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency.
The first round of standards for that certification - which was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to rate a building’s environmental impact - were issued last month for parks, plazas, zoos and other open spaces by the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a joint project between the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden.
Additional standards will be developed in coming years, and a rating system will be incorporated into the green building council’s “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” or LEED, certification system, according to the sustainable sites report released last month.
“Like buildings, landscapes can conserve resources or degrade and waste them,” the report states.
“However, landscapes are unique in that they also have the additional capacity to enhance and regenerate natural resources,” the report adds.
For Oyster Shell Park, that means using photovoltaic cells and wind to generate power, according to Tom Tavella, a landscape architect and a consultant working with city redevelopment officials on the park.
It also means filtering pollutants from stormwater emptying into Long Island Sound; managing construction waste and using recycled materials for building and planting; reusing water; and weeding out invasive plant species.
Conventional park practices, such as using chemicals on vegetation or using highly reflective pavement, which increases air temperatures, will be avoided.
source: Advocate, Oyster Shell Park could gain new luster under plan, By Tim Stelloh, December 5 2007
