Bell, Allison

Allison Bell is a speaker at WEFTEC 2022.

Titles from this speaker

Description: Navigating a series of No's to successfully implement green infrastructure (GI) in a...

Navigating a series of No's to successfully implement green infrastructure (GI) in a city without requirements: Establishing Sustainable Landscaping

Abstract

The City of Minneapolis established a Green Infrastructure (GI) Program in response to calls from the community to incorporate GI throughout the city. The community asked for practices that improve the environment and mitigate the impacts of climate change, largely in response to transportation project outreach. The resulting program supports a shift in design to integrate stormwater management and greening into transportation projects. The inevitable resistance to change 'how we've always built roads' without clearly defined requirements, guidelines, training, and funding came from expected and unexpected places. This resistance uses a variety of justifications, including questioning the motives and function of GI, imbalanced performance and aesthetic expectations, project deadlines, funding, a gap in the maintenance program, among others. This resistance uses a variety of tactics, including procrastination, the promise of the next project, budget constraints, feasibility challenges, among others. The resistance can be sophisticated or novel making it harder to recognize as a 'no', but it is often repeated, until a response can be crafted. Yet, the city has successfully installed hundreds of GI facilities in the three years since the program began, garnering major community support, and providing community, air and water quality benefits throughout the city. In this presentation, we will introduce the first in a series of challenges the program has had to endure and transcend: incorporating sustainable landscaping. Sustainable Landscaping is a term borrowed to help define the difference between GI practices such as native plantings that do not directly treat stormwater (SL) from green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) that captures and treats stormwater. We will walk through the motivations and goals around sustainable landscaping, introduce the forms of resistance we faced, and then present the various techniques we used to overcome individual and programmatic resistance to successfully implement sustainable landscaping in projects throughout the city.

This paper was presented at the WEF Stormwater Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 27-29, 2022.

SpeakerBell, Allison

Presentation time

16:15:00

16:45:00

Session time

13:30:00

16:45:00

Session number04

Session locationHyatt Regency Minneapolis

TopicClimate Change Mitigation, Green Infrastructure, Resiliency

Author(s)

A. Bell

Author(s)A. Bell1

Author affiliation(s)Minneapolis Public Works 1;

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Jun 2022

DOI10.2175/193864718825158481

Volume / Issue

Content sourceStormwater Summit

Word count20

Description: Party of One: Building The Minneapolis Green Infrastructure Program With No...

Party of One: Building The Minneapolis Green Infrastructure Program With No Authority, Regulations, or Budget, and A Single Staff Member.

Abstract

Minneapolis communities voiced a clear need for more green infrastructure (GI) in their neighborhoods to clean water, green streets, and combat climate change. While these are small projects individually, the task of creating a new GI program is large and complex, requiring coordination and support across departments, a dedicated team and budget, and authority to make changes. When Minneapolis decided the answer was to hire a Green Infrastructure Coordinator, none of the other needs were in place. In response to the community desire to include green infrastructure, Minneapolis created a new position â€“ new to the City, and new to the Midwest Region: a Green Infrastructure Coordinator. This position, shared across sewer and transportation departments, and dabbling with other division outside public works, was tasked with building a program to address these community-driven needs. This is a story of one staff member's work to achieve these goals, but also incorporate broader environmental justice and water quality goals to make a true positive impact on the people in Minneapolis and its important water resources. This position holds no authority. It does not have a budget. There are no GI mandates in place to support this work. Urban GI is not familiar or comfortable â€“ its new to most city staff at every phase of project planning, design, construction, and maintenance. It's not 'the way things have always been done'. This all culminates in significant hesitation, misunderstanding, inertia, and often outright resistance to incorporate GI on projects. These are all significant and daunting challenges. But challenges often present unique opportunities. Unlike most established GI programs confined to existing mandates, we were able to shape our priorities and goals based on the needs of our communities. We were able to trial the process in real time, address/solve actual issues directly and then target our training and guidance to exactly what we needed to be successful. In the three years since the Minneapolis GI Program began, it has successfully installed over 200 facilities on transportation projects, with close to 300 planned for 2022 construction. It has garnered major community support, and provided air, water, and community benefits throughout the city. In this presentation, we will explain how the program was able to thrive without the standard tools and approaches, all while facing institutional resistance on many levels. We will walk through the list of 'no's' and claims of the impossible, and describe successful tactics, including strategic partnerships across stakeholders, both internal and external, aligning with other city goals, and leveraging upcoming regulations.

Minneapolis communities voiced a clear need for green infrastructure in their neighborhoods to clean water, green the streets, and combat climate change. In this presentation, we will explain how the program was able to thrive without the standard tools and approaches, while facing institutional resistance. The tactics to overcome the resistance were developed to optimize the use of a single staff member, maximize the impact of GI with limited funding, and align GI with existing regulations.

SpeakerBell, Allison

Presentation time

08:30:00

08:55:00

Session time

08:30:00

10:00:00

TopicIntermediate Level, Public Communication and Outreach, Stormwater and Green Infrastructure

Author(s)

Bell, Allison

Author(s)Allison Bell1; Katie Kowalczyk2

Author affiliation(s)City of Minneapolis Public Works, Minneapolis, MN1; City of Minneapolis Public Works, Minneapolis, MN2