And instead of shoving storm-water ponds into far-flung corners of new real estate projects, they’d like it to irrigate trees and flow into rain gardens.
St. Paul officials will spend the next 18 months rethinking how they use storm water.
The city of St. Paul has been chosen to participate in the City Accelerator project, a $3 million initiative organized by the Living Cities collaborative and the Citi Foundation.
Planners from St. Paul Public Works, the Planning and Economic Development Department and other key areas will study new approaches toward how to design and finance storm-water treatments, including finding new scenic and environmental benefits.
Similar discussions about building and maintaining different types of public infrastructure will move forward in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington D.C.
St. Paul will receive a planning grant of $100,000 and the four cities will be reimbursed up to $1.16 million for research, access to expert consultants and travel expenses to visit with the other pilot cities.
St. Paul Planning Director Jonathan Sage-Martinson said storm-water treatments have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis during real estate construction, and it’s time to create a more innovative menu of approaches. The idea is to fulfill the standards set by the Capitol Region Watershed District while meeting multiple objectives, like open space and irrigation, and to have adjoining sites share storm water systems.
West Side Flats and the Ford Plant will be prime examples of “a new way of doing business around storm water,” Sage-Martinson said. “Typically, it’s handled at each individual development site. It’s hidden out of the way under parking lots.”
Rather than secret them away, some communities have turned storm-water retention ponds, streams and gardens into central attractions as private construction moves forward.
St. Paul officials will focus on storm-water approaches at a series of polluted “brownfield” sites across the city that are poised for new development. Some of their research may be put into practice even before the 18 months is up.
Two developers — George Sherman and the Weidner Apartment Homes — are looking to build apartments on separate parcels of land near Fillmore Avenue.
In that area, the West Side Flats master plan proposes creating a scenic greenway that would serve as both storm-water infrastructure and public open space linking the Mississippi River to Cesar Chavez Street.
In Highland Park, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Gov. Mark Dayton met with representatives of the Ford Motor Co. on Friday to discuss pollution cleanup at the former Twin Cities Assembly Plant. The Ford Plant, which opened in 1925, closed in 2011, leaving a 125-acre redevelopment opportunity.
Given its size, Coleman has talked up the possibility of turning the site into a national example of environmentally sensitive design. He expects a mix of residences, commercial tenants and light industry will move onto the former Ford campus once the ground is cleaned of contaminants and the site is rezoned.
The core planning group includes Public Works Director Kathy Lantry; Innovation and Budget Director Scott Cordes; Kristin Guild, deputy director of the St. Paul Planning and Economic Development Department; and Water Resource Coordinator Wes Saunders-Pearce, who works for both the Safety and Inspections and Public Works departments.
The other cities enrolled in the City Accelerator are studying different public benefits and infrastructure challenges.
Pittsburgh, for instance, is looking into new financing options to repair hundreds of municipally owned facilities and stairways throughout the city.
San Francisco will explore potential financing to fortify the city’s seawall. Washington, D.C., will use its new executive Office of Public-Private Partnerships to seek new financing for infrastructure projects, from “smart” street lights to classrooms.
Seattle, which was part of a previous City Accelerator award, hopes to use new technology, such as digital outreach and telephone town halls, to involve more residents in city hall.
©2016 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
