Parks & Recreation - Frequently Asked Questions

Open Space Master Plan The mountains, the desert, the river…El Paso wouldn’t be the same without them. Yet as our city grows, the special places our families remember are disappearing one by one.
The El Paso Open Space Plan gives you the opportunity to say which natural areas around us are most important to you. Through the Plan process the City will work with the community to identify and preserve these special places for future generations to enjoy.

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT IS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

The physical framework of a community is called its infrastructure. Green infrastructure, areas covered with trees, shrubs, and grass, is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas, such as greenways, wetlands, parks, forest preserves and native plant vegetation, that naturally manages stormwater, reduces flooding risk and improves water quality. Green infrastructure is porous, allowing water to soak into soil that naturally filters pollutants before entering rivers. It supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources and contributes to the health and quality of life for America's communities and people.

WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

Principle 1: Green infrastructure should be the framework for conservation and development
Most of our nation’s land conservation programs over the last century have focused on the protection of individual parks, preserves, or other isolated areas that have important natural or cultural resources . . . By contrast, roads and other forms of gray infrastructure upon which America’s communities depend —and that provide the framework for future growth and development — are planned, built and maintained as a system of inter-connected parts.

Communities can plan for and protect interconnected, green space systems. Where isolated “islands” of nature already exist, green infrastructure planning can help them identify opportunities to restore the vital ecological connections that are necessary for the survival of those protected areas. Protecting green infrastructure up front ensures that existing open space and working lands are seen as part of the community’s essential assets and not left vulnerable, leaving green infrastructure further reduced and fragmented.

Principle 2: Design and plan green infrastructure before development
. . . planning for and protecting green space systems should come before development whenever possible. But in situations in which development has already occurred, it is still important to assess where restoring green infrastructure would benefit people and natural systems. A green infrastructure plan will focus acquisition and restoration priorities and help communities take advantage of opportunities to reconnect isolated habitat islands as existing developed areas and built infrastructure age or other redevelopment opportunities occur.

Principle 3: Linkage is key
The desired outcome for all green infrastructure initiatives is the creation of a green space network that functions as an ecological whole, not as a random assemblage of separate, unrelated parts. The strategic connection of different system components is critical to maintaining vital ecological processes and services (e.g., carrying and filtering stormwater runoff, storing and cleaning fresh water, cleaning urban air) and to maintaining the health and biodiversity of wildlife populations. In addition, green infrastructure requires linkages to be made among different agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.

Integrating green infrastructure with programs that focus on growth and development will aid state and community efforts to protect vital agricultural and other working lands. Partnerships also should be forged among foundations, regional councils, government agencies, universities, non-profits, and other organizations that are already funding projects and initiatives with similar goals to protect, restore, connect, or improve management of natural areas, parks, trails, and greenways.

Principle 4: Green infrastructure functions across multiple jurisdictions and at different scales
Our nation’s transportation, power, telecommunication and other gray infrastructure systems are designed to connect across multiple jurisdictions and incorporate facilities that function at different scales. Likewise, we need to design green infrastructure systems strategically to connect across urban, suburban, rural and wilderness landscapes and incorporate green space elements and functions at the state, regional, community and parcel scales. Green infrastructure may be most successful when it functions at multiple scales in tandem. For example, Toronto’s “Greening the Portlands” project in Ontario, Canada focuses on major parks, minor parks, wide corridors, narrow corridors, and development parcel landscapes.

STRATEGY: Work with all levels of government and private landowners at various scales to plan and implement green infrastructure.

Our state and local governments would never fund and construct highway systems without a multi-year transportation plan and an associated public communication plan that lays out all the implementation steps in a logical and orderly fashion. It is important to note that green infrastructure systems do not require or even imply public ownership of all the land in the system. Clearly privately owned land, particularly working farms and forests, can play an important role in any green space system.

Principle 5: Green infrastructure is grounded in sound science and land-use planning theories and practices.
The theories and practices of many scientific and land planning professions — including conservation biology, landscape ecology, urban and regional planning, landscape architecture, geography, and civil engineering — all contribute to the successful design and planning of green infrastructure systems. Scientists, engineers, and land use planners have come to recognize that natural systems already function efficiently when it comes to protecting our water supply and air resources. With strategic use of environmental design, professionals and laypersons alike are finding that networks of linked natural areas and habitats managed for biodiversity purposes also can protect developed urban and rural areas from natural disasters, can improve the general health of the human community, and can provide recreation opportunities and other public amenities. Green infrastructure initiatives should engage and incorporate the expertise of professionals from all relevant disciplines.

Principle 6: Green infrastructure is a critical public investment
The functions, values and benefits of green infrastructure are available for everyone. Creating interconnected green space systems benefits communities by providing land for resource protection and restoration, recreation and other public values. More important, strategic placement of green infrastructure reduces the need for some gray infrastructure, freeing up public funds for other community needs. For example, one third of weekday trail users are commuting in major urban areas with trail systems such as Washington, D.C., Seattle, Wash., and Tampa, Fl., greatly reducing the need for road construction and other expensive transportation infrastructure. Recognizing the public benefits of green infrastructure is an important first step in providing adequate funding. For all of these reasons, green infrastructure is an appropriate and necessary use of public funds.

The new accounting standard, GASB-34, may be one method to incorporate green infrastructure into a city or state’s budget, by highlighting the economic trade-offs between built and natural infrastructure. It is also important to tap resources in state and federal agencies for planning and management activities, including protected public lands that can serve as building blocks for a viable green infrastructure.

Green infrastructure provides a diversity of public and private functions and values that address both natural and human needs and benefit the environment and communities. These benefits need to be documented, both in terms of their ecological values for people and the environment and their economic values to society. Just as all forms of built infrastructure are promoted for the wide range of public and private benefits they provide, we need to promote green infrastructure systems actively for the wide range of essential ecological, economic and social functions, values and benefits that accrue to people and nature. Green infrastructure initiatives describe and define the values and functions of interconnected networks of open space in a context that enables citizens to understand the ecological, human, and economic benefits.

Principle 7: Green infrastructure involves diverse stakeholders
The stakeholders of green infrastructure initiatives have diverse backgrounds and needs. Community buy-in is better than mandates or regulations, because community support is lasting and sensitive to the economic value of the land, private property rights and responsibilities, and local home rule. Successful green infrastructure efforts forge alliances and interrelationships among various organizations — both public and private

By necessity, green infrastructure projects incorporate the experiences and programs of diverse public, private and nonprofit partners. For this reason, it is critical to provide open forums that bring together key individuals, organizations and agencies to coordinate and help guide the activities that will make green infrastructure a reality. To be successful, green infrastructure initiatives must excite people, engage them at the start, and keep them involved. It is important to involve participants in the creation of a shared vision that can help drive the process and forge consensus. The community should be engaged in seeking ways to build on its history and existing assets and to extend the benefits into underserved and growing areas.

Successful citizen involvement programs go beyond traditional methods of engaging citizens to find informal and creative ways to get their attention. Among the strategies that might be effective are placing greenspace maps in post offices, libraries, schools, city hall, etc., to invite input, and working with the media to get out the message. Techniques include direct mailings to landowners, marketing posters, news releases and newspaper stories, public surveys, public hearings.

WHY DO WE NEED TO PLAN FOR AND PROTECT GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

Green infrastructure is a critical part of a sustainable city and region for a number of reasons:

Green Infrastructure Saves Money

Green infrastructure performs many of the same services as gray infrastructure, such as stormwater management, flood control and water quality, but often at a reduced cost and more reliably.
Cost savings is critically important, as the USEPA, General Accounting Office and American Society of Civil Engineers agree that the nation needs to spend between $300 billion and $1 trillion to fund drinking and wastewater needs over next 20 years.

Green Infrastructure Supports Sustainability

Wetlands, parks and other types of open spaces are a critical component of the sustainability of a region. Just try to imagine a neighborhood or community without a park or trees. Hard to do, isn’t it?
If treated as infrastructure, however, open spaces and recreational areas could be treated as an investment, not an expense.

Green Infrastructure Better Uses Limited Resources

Governments not only spend less to install and maintain most green infrastructure, green infrastructure provides a host of ancillary benefits, such as increased recreation and open space, community building opportunities and better air and water quality.

By considering ecological needs in the context of human activities, and protecting the green infrastructure network using a range of approaches (including acquisitions, property protection agreements, conservation easements, and incentive-based programs), green infrastructure programs benefit everyone. Native plants and animals, unique and significant landscapes, water reserves, and other natural resources are better protected. Conservation funds are better spent and conservation programs are more effective. Businesses (including developers, agriculture, ranches, and forestry) know which areas can support full or limited private uses, which are for public use, and which require the highest degree of conservation stewardship. Local and tribal governments understand the broader context of, and receive support for, their planning and conservation efforts. Residents and visitors enjoy more opportunities for outdoor recreation, higher property values, healthier communities, potentially lower costs for public services and built infrastructure, and cleaner air, water, and land.

WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

GREENWAYS
Greenways are privately or publicly owned corridors of open space which often follow natural land or water features and which are primarily managed to protect and enhance natural resources.

RAINGARDENS
A rain garden is a man-made depression in the ground that is used as a landscape tool to improve water quality and reduce flooding. The rain garden forms a "bioretention area" by collecting water runoff and storing it, permitting it be filtered and slowly absorbed by the soil. Additional benefits: increased tourism and opportunities for physical activity; increased property values.

WETLANDS RESTORATION
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. In addition to capturing and slowing water and improving water quality, wetlands provide valuable wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities (hunting, fishing, bird watching). They help protect communities from flooding and drainage overflow and provide valuable wildlife habitat. Additional benefit: costs less to maintain than traditional forms of landscaping.

TREES
Tree windbreaks reduce residential heating and cooling costs by 10-50 percent. They reduce air pollution. Unlike sewers and built infrastructure, trees appreciate in value and require less maintenance as they age.

GREEN ROOFS
Depending on rain intensity and greenroof soil depths, runoff can be absorbed between 15 to 90 percent, thereby considerably reducing runoff and potential pollutants from traditional impervious roofing surfaces.
Overall building energy costs can be reduced due to the greenroofs’ natural thermal insulation properties— structures are cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

SWALES
Swales typically have several advantages over conventional storm water management practice, such as storm sewer systems, including:

the reduction of peak flows;
the removal of pollutants,
the promotion of runoff infiltration, and
lower capital costs

POROUS PAVEMENT
This reduces impervious areas, recharges groundwater, improves water quality, and eliminates the need for detention basins.

NATIVE LANDSCAPING (XERISCAPING)
Native landscaping attracts a variety of birds, butterflies and other animals, supporting biodiversity. Once established, native plants do not need fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides or watering, thus benefiting the environment and reducing maintenance costs.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INTO THE LAND-PLANNING PROCESS?

Just as there are many benefits to green infrastructure, there are many benefits to utilizing a green infrastructure approach to conservation and development planning. Green infrastructure planning:

Recognizes and addresses the needs of both people and nature;
Provides a mechanism to balance environmental and economic factors;
Provides a framework for integrating diverse natural resource and growth management activities in a holistic, ecosystem-based approach;
Ensures that both green space and development are placed where most needed and most appropriate;
Identifies vital ecological areas and linkages prior to development in suburban and rural landscapes;
Identifies opportunities for the restoration and enhancement of naturally functioning systems in already developed areas;
Provides a broad, unifying vision for the future that diverse people and organizations can buy into;
Enables communities to create a system that is greater than the sum of its parts;
Helps provide both communities and developers with predictability and certainty; and
Enables conservation and development to be planned in harmony, not in opposition to one another.
[Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st Century, Mark A. Benedict, Ph.D. & Edward T. McMahon, J.D., Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse Monograph Series, May 2005, p. 16]

HOW IS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL LAND CONSERVATION?

(G) reen infrastructure differs from traditional conservation efforts in the following ways:

It focuses on the protection of connected natural ecosystems as the framework for both conservation and development.
It recognizes that physical linkage between green space elements is key to sustaining natural ecosystems and landscape processes.
It emphasizes the importance of planning and protecting green infrastructure before development.
It recognizes the need to connect green space elements across multiple jurisdictions, scales and landscape types.
It focuses on the creation of a green space vision that excites and engages people and guides implementation actions.
It considers the needs of both nature and humans — addressing both the environmental effects of proposed development and the economic well-being of a community.

In doing all of these things, green infrastructure also helps provide a framework for development, ensuring that developers, citizens and communities capture the cost advantages of location and create and protect community amenities.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING A GREEN-INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN?

A series of public meetings in different parts of town will be the first step in this process. Collecting and distilling public comment will follow. A group of stakeholders (members of the public, the development community, environmental groups, non-profit and community groups, business people, and state and federal agencies, and City staff) will research the situation and report to City Council. Halff Associates, who developed the Parks & Recreation Department’s master plan, will use this input, along with their professional knowledge and skill to devise this plan. City Council will hold additional public hearings before the formal adoption of any policy or plan.

WHO WILL BE INVOLVED IN EACH STAGE OF THE PROCESS?

Public input is central to the plan process. It is important to find out what types of open space El Pasoans want and will support. When residents are kept informed of what is happening, misinformation is kept to a minimum if not completely eliminated. So, public meetings will be held in various venues across town. Additionally, interested persons can contact us through e-mail.

A key group of stakeholders (members of the public, the development community, environmental groups, non-profit and community groups, business people, and state and federal agencies) will assist City staff and any outside consultants to lay the groundwork, develop a plan, and keep people informed. City staff from various departments (e.g. Planning, Parks & Recreation, EP Water Utilities, City Attorney) will provide input as is appropriate. Any City policy requires approval from our City Manager and City Council. Additional public hearings are a mandatory part of the process.

HOW WILL PUBLIC INPUT BE USED?

Public input is an integral part of this course of action. It will be the basis for the plan. Determining the types of open spaces residents want is one of the preliminary tasks. The City of El Paso will amalgamate the responses from a series of public meetings

HOW LONG WILL THE PROCESS TAKE?

We have approximately four months to develop a plan for review.

WHAT IS THE OUTCOME OF THIS PROCESS?

City policy and guidelines for preservation of open space and coordination of open space will result in a wide-ranging green-infrastructure plan.

WHAT IS / ARE THE BENEFIT(S)?

By developing and implementing a comprehensive open-space-management plan, we will take a giant leap forward in determining what areas to preserve and where to allow the various types of development for the betterment of our community. This is a prime quality-of-life issue. The plan will also assist in looking for grants and money from other funding sources, such as the state and federal governments.

WE’RE IN A DESERT. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT IN EL PASO?

Each bionetwork has its own particular part to play in our community. The desert lands have vibrant communities of animals and plants. From the mountain foothills to the Rio Grande’s banks, we have a variety of open spaces. We also have wetlands and lakes that are important to the survival of native and migratory animals.

THERE IS LITTLE OPEN SPACE ON THE EASTSIDE OF TOWN. HOW WILL THE PLAN HELP?

This plan will be a comprehensive examination of the need for open space and how best to manage it. There are as-yet undeveloped areas of the Eastside where these ideas can be incorporated.

WE HAVE HAD PLANS BEFORE. HOW WILL THIS EFFORT BE DIFFERENT?

This will result in a comprehensive plan, directing and coordinating the efforts of the City government. Ultimately, it will be El Pasoans who decide how important this is.

THERE IS TALK OF A NEW QUARRY IN THE NORTHEAST MASTER PLAN AREA AFTER THAT PLAN WAS ADOPTED BY CITY COUNCIL. HOW CAN WE BE SURE THE CITY WILL FOLLOW THIS PLAN?

City Council and the City government are sensitive to the needs and desires of El Pasoans. The best way to ensure this is to be engaged in the process and make your wishes known.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

Attend the public meetings. Talk to your neighbors, friends, and acquaintances about these issues. Communicate with your City Representative. Make your ideas, attitudes, and concerns known.

Material taken from various sources, including Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st Century, Mark A. Benedict, Ph.D. & Edward T. McMahon, J.D., Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse Monograph Series, May 2005, and several green-infrastructure websites.