Environmental Program Guide for Sustainable Land Development

Originally presented at StormCon 2023. Purchase all 28 sessions here.

This is an environmental program to guide land development practices in a more sustainable direction by implementing the use of low impact design techniques. Focusing on commercial and industrial style site designs, the administration of the program is through point allocation. The Town of Mount Pleasant is a coastal community surrounded by sensitive ecosystems. The mission of this program is to improve environmental standards and put meaningful incentives in place to direct land development practices in achieving more environmentally sensitive site design. Following the vision of the town’s comprehensive plan and the direction of its strategic plan, the guiding principles used in the creation of this program are to instill a fair standard reachable without creating a financial hardship, be equitable in allocating value, and produce a meaningful outcome that instills a sense of pride in the community. Therefore, it is vital to establish incentives for higher achievement. These incentives mark thresholds that open a variety of options for exceptions to the land development standards. Although it is important to address stormwater runoff, this program also raises other environmental impactful features. It gives value to addressing other elements of the environment by using the potential from numerous cumulative benefits through its guidance of re-development projects for decades into the future. It is the intent of this program to focus more on the types of development anticipated over the next 20 years by tailoring criteria towards enhancing a full range of environmental site design techniques. Collectively, and over the course of time, this approach will address a wider range of environmental sectors while achieving the goals of our Strategic and Comprehensive Plan. Using the nationally accredited LEED program for our methodology, this program is segmented into four “impact categories.”

About the Presenters

Marissa Noble is a Project Engineer for the Engineering & Environmental Division of the Engineering & Development Services Department at the Town of Mount Pleasant, SC. She holds a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University specializing in Hydrology. Marissa is a Professional Engineer in the state of SC, and has 7 years of experience in land development civil engineering, including private sector consulting and local municipal work.