www.snoedc.org/ssc/
December 2004 Volume I Issue 3
You are invited to our next Brown Bag and Networking Event!


Metrics for Sustainable Building in Snohomish County - Buildings

Friday, January 28th, 2005; 11:30am to 1:00pm
Snohomish PUD Training Center
2320 California Street, Everett

This is our first in a series of events on Sustainable Development in Snohomish County. This one will focus on the design and construction of the building and how deal with the realities of innovation and environmentally friendly design and construction in Snohomish County. Are customers willing to pay the price to reap the benefits? Are County and City codes and ordinances flexible enough to approve your project? How do I know if my project is sustainable? Are there other options besides LEED?

The event is intended for architects, city officials and planners, developers, business owners, engineers and builders.

For more information or to RSVP call Dena Peel at 425-783-1710.


First Energy Star Homes in Snohomish County

Ebey Vista, located in Marysville, is the first Energy Star residential community in Snohomish County. All 58 homes will meet the Energy Star qualifications per the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Energy Star homes will be 15 percent more efficient than the state energy code requires and a long-term cost savings to the home owner. The outside of the houses do not bear any changes from a traditional home. However, the inside the owners will see high efficiency doors, windows, air conditioning, and heating unit. The homes, built by Regent Homes of Federal Way, are located on the southeast edge of Marysville along the Ebey Slough.

ퟙItíŸÙs a package that makes the home at 15 to 25 percent more energy efficient,ퟘ said Tom Balderston, Energy Star Home Northwest. ퟙEnergy Conservation doesníŸÙt have to mean sitting around freezing under an ugly light bulbퟘ he said. ퟙWe are talking about houses that are more comfortable.ퟘ On average, all the more efficient features added up to an increased building cost of about $2000 per home.

Eventually, builders expect that home buyers will be looking for the Energy Star homes knowing they are good quality and will save energy and money over the years.


Utilizing Sustainable Design and Materials to Manage Water Issues

City of Snohomish to use water permeable product for new sewer line maintenance access road.

The City of Snohomish has contracted with Perteet Inc., of Everett, to design a sewer trunk line that will serve the area north of the existing wastewater treatment plant to 72nd Street in the CityíŸÙs Lower Cemetery Creek sub-area. This project crosses private property used as pasture for livestock. In addition, the project is close to Cemetery Creek a salmon spawning stream and other critical areas. Therefore, the project engineers had to be innovative in how they designed a maintenance access road to the sewer line in order to reduce the impacts to the surrounding land-uses. They decided on using a product called EssentialSoilí‹¢ to construct the access road. This product is a permeable topsoil that allows plant and organism growth and will sustain the weight of heavy service vehicles. Due to the high permeability of the material, additional drainage facilities are not required.

EssentialSoilí‹¢ is composed of the characteristic ingredients of topsoil: oxygen, water, mineral aggregates, and organic matter that contain microorganisms. The product can be blown into place like organic mulch topsoil.

When the City of Snohomish and Perteet met with Snohomish County for a permit pre-application, they were told that due to the use of permeable road material, a full drainage plan would not be necessary.

For more information on EssentialSoil í‹¢, please visit their website at www.soildynamics.com.

City of Everett to uses ퟙsmoothퟘ pervious concrete in parking lot

After evaluating a new absorbent pervious concrete product, Everett Public Utilites Landscape Architect Paul Crane realized the new environmentally friendly concrete can lessen flooding problems and limit runoff of harmful materials.

CraneíŸÙs experience inspired the City of Everett to install a 28 space parking lot with one type of pervious concrete called Perco-crete (www.percocrete.com) which has been used in Japan for several years. One advantage of this product is its smoothness compared to other permeable options (see the picture of the Olympia sidewalk project). The City will monitor the runoff from the parking lots and its durability to determine if it should be used on other projects.


Tulalip Tribes try out pervious concrete

Tulalip Tribes are evaluating the performance of pervious concrete for use in future projects with an installation of two large parking areas at a newly constructed Tribal facility. The pervious concrete will provide a much smaller impervious footprint on the property.

Pervious pavement assists in efficient use of land allowing developers to use expensive land for development and not for ponds that hold water. Owners, developers, architects and engineers can use pervious concrete to satisfy certain EPA drainage and storm water discharge requirements.

To learn more check out Washington Aggregates and Concrete Associations website www.washingtonconcrete.org/industry/pervious/

Marysville office complex use pervious pavers

This site of State Avenue in Marysville offered several stormwater design challenges. It turns out that a pervious pavers system provided the best solution. Mutual Materials provided Uni Ecoloc brand pavers (www.mutualmaterials.com) which allowed the design team to use the sandy soil for infiltration and water quality. The City of Marysville was pleased with the design solution that did not discharge runoff downstream with the potential for causing additional drainage problems. The pavers were less expensive than a traditional detention/water quality system and provided an attractive finished surface.


TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP ON CRITICAL AREA ORDINANCE ISSUES

The purpose of this technical advisory group is to develop some suggested approaches and ideas for jurisdictions to follow in order to incorporate sustainable development strategies and principles into the update of their local Critical Areas Ordinances (CAOíŸÙs). The challenge of offering technical suggestions to jurisdictions is that our advice must be easy to follow and flexible enough for incorporation. To this end, three main areas of focus we identified:

(1) Programmatic strategies for preserving shallow groundwater recharge functions.

(2) Incentives for incorporating sustainable development strategies.

(3) Incorporating the use of pervious concrete in new development, where applicable.

These areas of focus provide a range of ideas, from an overall site and program assessment to determine the potential for incorporating sustainable development methods, to a rewards system approach, and finally, a specific technique that has test-case examples that can be identified. A final write-up is planned for distribution by mid-December.

If you would like to join the Sustainable Development Taskforce of Snohomish County or wish to request our assistance in any way, please contact us, at 425-743-4567 or Sustainable Development
info@snoedc.org •  Snohomish County Economic Development Council