SS Programs
AIR QUALITY
- Promoting innovative transportation and renewable energy projects to reduce emissions
AWARENESS & EDUCATION
- Bringing information about sustainable practices to the region
LOCAL FOOD & CULTURE
- Promoting local agriculture and cultural connections
GREEN BUSINESS
- Gaining commitment from local businesses to become more sustainable
GREEN LIVING & DESIGN
- Promoting sustainable living, design and construction practices
REGIONAL PLANNING
- Promoting coordinated and cooperative regional planning
RECYCLING
- Promoting solid waste reduction, reuse and recycling
GREEN GROWTH Program
Land Suitability Map Project Green Growth Toolbox
PROJECTS
GREEN GROWTH TOOLBOX
The Green Growth Toolbox is a technical assistance tool designed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission to help communities conserve high quality habitats alongside new homes, workplaces, and shopping centers.
The toolbox will help communities plan for growth in a way that will conserve their natural assets—fish, wildlife, plants, streams, forests, fields, and wetlands - for current and future generations.
More information on the Green Growth Toolbox can be found by visiting their website at www.ncwildlife.org/greengrowth.
Sustainable Sandhills is partnering with the NC Sandhills Conservation Partnership to provide training and support for the Green Growth Toolbox to local government planners and officials in the Sandhills Region.
In 2010, daylong Green Growth Toolbox training workshops were provided to planners and other interested parties in both Moore County and Harnett County. More workshops will be scheduled in 2011, with the next targeted for Hoke and Scotland Counties. Please contact our Green Growth Planner, Brenda Johnson, at brendaj@sustainablesandhills.org for more information.
More information on the workshops given in Moore and Harnett Counties in 2010 can be found by clicking here.
LAND SUITABILITY MAP PROJECT
Sustainable Sandhills received a STAR (Science to Achieve Results) Program grant from the US EPA's Collaborative Network for Sustainability in 2005. The resulting three-year project engaged the region's planning, development and conservation communities in the design of a GIS-based land use decision support tool. The Tool is intended to enhance each local community’s ability to assess the implications of their land use priorities and decisions. Click here to read more!
Thanks in part to a grant from the NC Interagency Leadership Team, Release 2 of the Land Suitability Maps is complete and was introduced to the region at a series of workshops in the Fall of 2010..
For more information about Release 2 and the workshop series , CLICK HERE!
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - ACTION ITEMS
The Sustainable Sandhills Land Use Team developed the following Action Items for use and adoption by the planners throughout the region in 2007.
- Provide Access to Public Transportation
- Provide Preferred Parking
- Provide Walkable Communities
- Reduce Heat Islands
- Brownfield Redevelopment
- Efficient Parking Strategies
- Greenways and Open Space
- Multi-Modal Transit
- Natural Buffer Zones
- Pedestrian Friendly Streetscapes
- Tree Preservation and Planting
CONSERVATION-BASED DEVELOPMENT, RANDALL ARENDT WORKSHOP
Sustainable Sandhills, SALT and the Southern Pines Neighborhood Association (SPNA) hosted the internationally renowned land planner, site designer, lecturer and advocate of conservation planning, Randall Arendt, February 22, 2007, in Southern Pines. Arendt presented "The Economics and Benefits of Conservation-based Development," a workshop for professionals, in the afternoon which was attended by 50 landscape architects, city and county planners, attorneys, architects and land designers. Later in the day, over 70 community members attended an evening forum, "Conservation Planning, Saving the Special Things."
RESOURCES
- NC Dept. of Transportation
- North Carolina Public Transportation Association
- Federal Highway Administration
- Federal Transit Administration
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
- American Planning Organization
- Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations
- Fayetteville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
- National Transportation Library
BROWNFIELD REDEVELOPMENT
- Brownfields Clean Up and Redevelopment, US EPA
- Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI), HUD
- Land-of Sky-Regional Council of Governments Brownfield Program
- NCDENR Division of Waste Management Success Stories
- Piedmont Triad Council of Governments
- Stimulating Infill & Brownfield Development, Land-of-Sky Region, August 2007 Report
GREENWAYS AND OPEN SPACE
- North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund
- North Carolina Rail-Trails Rail-to-Trail Program Information
- North Carolina State University Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
- Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Trails and Greenways Clearinghouse
- Triangle J Council of Governments “Triangle Greenprint Project”
- Trust for Public Land’s “Local Greenprinting for Growth”
PARKING STRATEGIES
- Georgia Quality Growth Partnership
- National Transportation Library
- Parking Management Made Easy: A Guide to Taming the Downtown Parking Beast
- Smart Growth Online
PEDESTRIAN-FRIENDLY STREETSCAPES
TREE PLANTING
- NC Cooperative Extension Service
- NC Cooperative Extension Service Urban Tree Evaluation Program
- Society of Municipal Arborists
- South Carolina Forestry Commission