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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Feature: March 2007
Homes on the Range
Dense housing means more open space — and the chance for landscape
architects to get creative
Story by Michelle Gamble-Risley
Drive through one of the new residential and business parkways in the greater Sacramento region and you’ll notice something different: While new houses and commercial buildings may be densely built, something about the landscape seems more scenic. Perhaps you’ll notice cattails peaking out of a nearby wetland that divides a neighborhood, observe preserved vernal pools, or gaze at mature woodlands.
These vast open spaces symbolize a shift from the Sacramento landscape architecture designs of the recent past. The traditional Sacramento community model — tightly packed commercial establishments, dense housing, small yards and manicured parks — has given way to an open-space movement that embraces the preservation of habitats and wildlife while providing adequate housing and commercial space.
The open-space movement has been spurred by organizations such as the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, an association of local governments in a six-county region. In 2005, SACOG released its Blueprint land-use study, which has since shaped regional landscape architects’ designs.
“The Blueprint provides recommendations for smart community growth that addresses quality of life, such as transportation, housing and environmental issues,” says Jeff Townsend, a principal in the Sacramento office of Carter & Burgess Inc., a planning, engineering, architecture and construction consulting firm. “Land value in Sacramento increased the need to provide higher-density developments while at the same time making them livable.”
Reaching these goals challenges landscape architects to combine project management with landscape design. Project management requires early planning to ensure environmental regulations are considered in a project’s infancy.
In the state of California, landscape architects must consider environmental regulations such as the California Environmental Quality Act, a statute that requires state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts. Its requirements include environmental-impact reports, which address all environmental factors and impacts that land development or a construction project would have on the project area’s environment. These factors include impacts on population, traffic, schools, endangered species, archeological artifacts and community beauty.
In an effort to mitigate risk, landscape architects work with clients to balance land integrity with the demands of growing communities.
“The high cost of real estate and California environmental regulations such as CEQA made our clients consider how they design their communities to be environmentally friendly,” says Jeff Craft, a principal at the Sacramento offices of the HLA Group. “We believe open space adds value to the land and leaves a lasting legacy. Our clients look to us to knit together a comprehensive approach, which includes engineering, environmental concerns, design and architecture.”
Landscape planning design focuses on creating “healthy communities,” residential and business districts with a variety of land uses and activities that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. These communities reduce air pollution, improve air quality and preserve the land.
Landscape architects build healthy communities by collaborating with city and county planners to include open space in the original designs.
“You cannot include open space as an afterthought,” says Guy Kolling, an associate landscape architect for the County of Sacramento Department of Regional Parks. “We’re not land engineers or planners, but we have become project managers that understand how to develop a land-use plan and execute it.”
While landscape architects use proprietary techniques, most use some kind of mapping system in a project’s early planning phase.
“Lot sizes are going down, density of housing is going up,
and functional open space is increasing.”
— Tim Newell, senior landscape architect,Bloodgood Sharp Buster
“We start at the planning stage and create opportunities and constraints maps,” says Tim Newell, a senior landscape architect for BSB Design in El Dorado Hills. “The map gives us a picture of how the community fits together. We look at wetlands or geologic features and avoid environmental factors such as disturbance of microclimates.”
Another key feature of land-use planning is creating a sense of place, which many regional communities, such as the cities of Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Folsom and Roseville, have successfully achieved.
“Land engineering tended to be flat,’” says Kevin Sullivan, a principal with the Roseville office of LPA Inc. “We design communities with town centers or common or central arcs that become a community icon or focal point. Open space plays a central role in this process.”
Landscape architects maintain or create iconic land features by developing tightly knit communities connected by elaborate trail systems, which in turn maintain scenic views and geologic features.
Trail systems enable landscape architects to incorporate hills and mountains into the community; intricate trails through open fields, woodlands or along creeks or drainage canals can connect residents to retail centers. Empire Ranch in Folsom, for example, arose around the existing hillsides, preserved ancient oak trees and a number of wetlands, and created paseos along all of these features that lead to nature preserves, parks, bordering neighborhoods and retail centers.
“We’ve seen a shift in priority for developers.
The emphasis is on open-space recreational experience.”
— Guy Kolling, associate landscape architect,
Sacramento Department of Regional Parks
“You will also see more landscape designers at the helm of creating these kinds of communities,” says Newell. “Lot sizes are going down, density of housing is going up, and functional open space is increasing, with smaller paseos that occur within individual neighborhoods. Instead of large, green corridors that are several feet wide, we’re looking at connective paseos 10- or 15-feet wide that represent a means of entry into the home without going onto the street.”
Avoiding the hazards of the street and enticing more citizens to walk became the focal point of Rancho Cordova’s Rio Del Oro project, which involves the construction of 11,600 homes and major office complexes. The city landscape architects designed “green streets” that enhance the walking environment and create more open space by achieving a balance between safety and aesthetics.
“Studies show if you encourage people to walk by designing interesting places versus sidewalks where they stroll along a sound wall, they will get out of their cars,” says Paul Junker, planning director for the city of Rancho Cordova. “Encouraging walking and biking also improves traffic congestion when some of [Rancho Cordova’s] roadways are at capacity, improves air quality and promotes conservation.”
Junker helped manage development plans that included street sidewalks designed to wind through open space and avoid street openings and corners to prevent pedestrians from coming into contact with cars. Pedestrian-friendly streets also leave mature shade trees untouched and preserve natural fields.
Open space also changes recreational uses. Residents don’t necessarily need active recreational facilities to enjoy the outdoors, so landscape architects focus on a static experience that doesn’t require the construction of facilities such as ballparks or playground equipment.
“We’ve seen a shift in priority for the developers,” says Guy Kolling, an associate landscape architect with Sacramento’s Regional Parks Department. “The emphasis is no longer on suburban or urban parks, but on an open-space recreational experience. We still have traditional playgrounds and park facilities, but our mission is guided by preservation of open space and provision of different recreational approaches. We want to create spaces where people hike, bike or walk through open woodlands and look at wildflowers in the spring or gaze at vernal pools.”
With published reports ranking Sacramento first among large U.S. cities in flood risk, the importance of landscape architecture planning for flood control has increased more than ever. Water drainage represents a serious issue for landscape architects, who work in conjunction with civil engineers to meet state and federal requirements for water-quality regulations and provide flood control.
Sometimes open-space areas such as the American River Parkway contain natural drainage systems; other developments that do not have natural waterways require creative ways to accommodate drainage and mitigate flood risk and loss of property.
“Open-space connections in the urban fabric
enable the reduction of suburban sprawl.”
— Kevin Sullivan,principal, LPA Inc.
For example, established communities traditionally used manmade storm water drains to provide water runoff. But landscape architects create drainage systems that may combine manmade features such as storm water drains with natural wetlands to cleanse, purify and discharge water into existing systems and channels.
“Wetlands add to the natural beauty of a neighborhood and effectively treat and cleanse pollutants such as heavy metals and nitrates,” says Newell.
Water that filters into the wetlands can be cleansed before it goes back into the water supply. “When you leave the land as it is, drainage gets taken care of,” adds Kolling. “Preserving natural wetlands that function well in terms of handling rainfall or adjacent drainage and leaving plants and animals alone versus disturbing natural habitat provides proper drainage and flood control.”
Many firms, like Sacramento-based environmental consultants Jones & Stokes, understand that some open space doesn’t lend itself to the creation of natural drainage and needs to be flattened and paved. Jones & Stokes landscape architects such as Chris Elliott, project director for restoration and open-space planning, examine ways to design wetlands to treat storm water runoff from parking lots and other paved areas and filter the water through wetlands before it reaches rivers.
Such landscape architects have begun using permeable pavement, which works well for parking lots and paved trail systems. Permeable pavement permits water penetration into the soil and consists of porous surface materials that can be laid or poured.
“It’s fairly stable,” says Newell. “Water and air can still get through to plants and tree roots.”
Open-space innovations like permeable pavement set the stage for a positive future for Sacramento. Many landscape architects anticipate open-space trends to lean toward projects that require less maintenance, such as open woodlands, wild fields, wetlands and lakes, natural creeks with dirt levees and natural vegetation, and preserved farmland.
“You’re going to see more sustainable environments and more livable communities,” says Kevin Sullivan of LPA. “People want to live within walking distance of where they work and play. Providing open-space connections in the urban fabric enables the reduction of suburban sprawl and the construction of roads to reach these communities. We think building smaller footprints for housing, denser communities, and enhanced open space will make a more livable community for us and our children.”
Outdoor exemplars:
the best open-space projects
Walter S. Ueda Parkway: Sacramento/Carmichael/Folsom
The Walter S. Ueda Parkway, an open-space project located along the American River and Ueda and Dry creeks, finished construction in December. Designed by Jones & Stokes, the Ueda Parkway required two decades of planning and construction to create a 4-mile trail to connect the Sacramento Northern Bikeway up to Main Avenue and into Lake Natomas in Folsom.
The project consists of four miles of pavement, signage, new ramps for neighborhood access, gates to control motorized-vehicle use, mile markers to allow trail users to recognize locations, and a design compatible with flood-management operations.
Primary open-space considerations involved providing connections between neighborhoods, trails on levees as alternative access from Natomas to downtown Sacramento, and connections to the city of Sacramento’s Hanson Ranch, which was created to enable new open-space regional parks.
Jones & Stokes landscape consultants collaborated with the Sacramento Flood Control Agency; the County of Sacramento Department of Regional Parks; and a number of volunteer organizations, including the Save the American River Association and Weed Warriors. This important collaboration supported the multi-jurisdictional effort to cross flood-control district boundaries.
A key environmental mitigation effort focused on usage of natural drainage to enhance flood control and protect fish populations. Indigenous fish species often get trapped on upper American River terraces during times of flood. The team used gravity and positive water-flow outlets to ensure slopes led toward the river rather than areas that might pond and strand fish.
Ninety-nine percent of the system’s four miles of pavement is made of rubberized asphalt from recycled tires. Rubberized asphalt consists of regular asphalt paving mixed with “crumb rubber,” which consists of ground used tires that would otherwise take up space in landfills. Rubberized asphalt is smoother and quieter than regular asphalt, which nearby parkway residents appreciate.
Now that the project is finished, residents and visitors from across the county enjoy the long-spanning trailway, which places them on a perch atop 20-foot-tall levees running through valley floors. This view provides scenic views of the majestic Sierras and enables people to walk along some of the most famous trails in the world.
Empire Ranch: Folsom
Empire Ranch, the largest master-planned community on some of the highest ground in Sacramento County, features landscape architecture designs by Kevin Sullivan, a former employee of the RJM Design Group and now a principal at the Roseville offices of LPA Inc.
Empire Ranch, located in Folsom north of Highway 50 along the El Dorado County line, contains 1,738 acres of open space that consists of nature preserves and rolling hills with ancient oak trees scattered throughout sprawling neighborhoods that, when completed, will house 3,000 families.
Sullivan worked with the city and private planners and asked residents to participate in design workshops. A primary consideration involved balancing the large volume of homes with federal, state and local environmental conservation. This approach accomplished the goal to create more housing in a highly attractive community that preserves natural fields, creates lots of recreational space and protects the oak trees.
The results created a pristine community that features a number of on-site amenities, including an 18-hole golf course, 300 acres of undisturbed nature preserves and wetlands, 680 acres of community parks, natural trailways, and open-space buffers between neighborhoods. The highest point of the community provides 280-degree views of the famous Folsom Lake.
A centerpiece open-space amenity features the almost-constructed 50-acre Nisenan Park, which retains many of its natural woodlands integrated into turf-covered parks, ball fields and water-themed play areas. It backs up onto homes and protected woodlands that grow on scenic hillsides. In the springtime, residents enjoy vast, open views of green, rolling hills sprinkled with colorful wild flowers and running creeks.
Empire Ranch also adopted the healthy-community goal by creating extensive sidewalks and trailway systems that wind through some of the most spectacular nature preserves and parks in Greater Sacramento.
Trailway designs combined both dirt and permeable pavement to preserve the land and provide natural drainage. Pedestrian-friendly trails allow safe strolling, jogging or biking along cattail-laden creek beds and wetlands that also act as natural drainage to cleanse, purify and return water back into the water table, creek and river system. Wetlands also preserve natural habitat and provide residents a window to observe a number of native plant and wildlife species in their natural environments.
Del Paso Nuevo: Sacramento
Del Paso Nuevo, a Sacramento urban redevelopment master plan designed by Carter & Burgess Inc. urban planners and landscape architects, is a conjunctive-use project. Located 3.5 miles from downtown Sacramento, Del Paso Nuevo features a 150-acre redevelopment master plan with 300 homes that converts an old neighborhood into a new “healthy” community.
Its key features include Nuevo and Gateway parks, which include picnic areas, and future plans call for playgrounds, tot lots, promenades and ball fields; Nuevo Park also includes a stage area. Nuevo and Gateway parks sit in a community previously without any recreational areas. These areas promote walking, jogging and biking, while manicured parks, playgrounds and soccer fields promote active recreation.
The recreational areas also contain extensive sidewalk and trail systems to support non-motorized transportation to improve traffic congestion and air quality. This trail system connects regional homes to neighborhoods, parks and retail centers; deciduous trees provide shade for the parks and trails in the summer.
Carter & Burgess landscape architects also collaborated with city civil engineers and planners to devise creative solutions to manage the technical infrastructure, including water, sewer, storm water runoff and flood control.
The community also makes use of natural techniques to better manage and cleanse water runoff, which stands out as an innovative design feature. The parks serve a secondary use as storm water-detention and -purification basins. Storm drains run through bio-swales in the parks and hold and cleanse storm water before it runs back into creeks and rivers.
Planners also developed the flood basins within the parks instead of water detention or pond retention that simply looks like an unattractive hole in the ground. Then they introduced plant material proven to remove toxins from water and used low-flow channels to bring the water from the neighborhood, cleanse it and discharge it back into the river system.
The landscape architecture goal to use natural, existing open space highlights one of the many reasons Del Paso Nuevo stands out as one of the Sacramento Valley’s fine examples of master planning. It has been regionally and nationally recognized, and the conjunctive-use basin and park design won an award from the American Society of Civil Engineers for effectiveness and creativity.
