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'GreenPrint Denver' Emphasizes Sustainable Urban and Transportation Design, Energy and Water Conservation
Smart Growth Online
July 13, 2006
"Even if there's a 2 percent chance that 95 percent of the world's top climate scientists are right about the dire consequences of global warming -- we run the risk of being the first generation in history to leave the next generation a problem for which there is no solution," said Denver Democratic Mayor John Hickenlooper in his third State of the City address, launching a broad 20-year action plan Greenprint Denver, to ensure the city's "strong environmental and economic legacy," expand its comprehensive Blueprint Denver planning approach to energy and the environment, and advance sustainable urban and transportation design, which will "decrease local reliance on automobiles by increasing public transit use and access, implementing bike and pedestrian enhancements, and promoting transit-oriented development."
True sustainability, the mayor stated, "requires that all neighborhoods be safe, have good schools and offer access to a high quality of life -- because democracy teaches us that for successes to be sustained, they must be shared."
His Greenprint Denver plan envisions construction of several solar and methane plants that could serve more than 2,500 homes by next year; expansion of the city's "Green Fleet" through purchases of light-duty vehicles with hybrids or other optimal replacements available; certification of all new and renovated municipal buildings under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED7-silver standards and EPA Energy Star criteria; and partnership with the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation to boost energy efficiency in the private sector, redevelop brownfields and create 1,000 training and jobs opportunities in renewable energy and green industries by 2011.
"It's no longer just about blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs -- we want green-collar jobs," the mayor stressed.
He also pointed out that in a climate like Colorado's, a key part of any sustainability effort must be water conservation, promising to help Denver Water reduce water use system-wide by 22 percent in the next decade, 35 years earlier than previously planned; to work with metro area homebuilders for greater water efficiency in homes and landscaping, while encouraging water conservation ordinances in adjacent regions; and to triple Denver's tree canopy from 6 to 18 percent by planting a million trees within 20 years, "an unprecedented regional initiative" already discussed with local mayors and welcomed by Denver Public School principals, with other districts likely to follow.
The mayor also congratulated Republican Governor Bill Owens, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District on the imminent completion of the T-REX system this fall. "The Southeast Corridor Light Rail line, expanded highway capacity, and transit-oriented development opportunities will transform the way many metro area residents live, travel and commute," he observed, noting that the draft of the Transit-Oriented Development Strategic Plan is now available online, and that the ongoing comprehensive update of Denver's zoning code, the first in 50 years and piloted on East Colfax as Main Street Zoning, shows steady progress.
"It is through this process," he said, "that our community can resolve conflicts between the desires of new families for larger homes and the preservation of a neighborhood's historic character." And restating that sustainability also depends on economic growth, good jobs, social equity, public safety, eradication of homelessness, great schools, open spaces and "transparent, accountable and fiscally responsible government," Mayor Hickenlooper said, "If our city is to become truly sustainable, we must evolve continuously. Our ability to sustain our present quality of life will be a function of how well and how quickly we can adapt. The speed with which we need to change allows no room for ego. It demands collaboration."
Article URL: http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5533&State=6
