SILVER SPRING, MD – Streetscapes and public rights-of-way are valuable real estate, and not just for moving motor vehicles. To improve the quality of street edges and gain some of that value, Montgomery County planners are designing options to retrofit our streetscapes.
The Planning Department conducted a year-long project on how to better design street edges to capture and treat runoff and make them appealing and safe for pedestrians and cyclists.
The Department’s October 20 speaker series event will feature Peg Staeheli, a national leader on restoring natural systems and designing streets for people who worked with planners on the Complete Streets project. President of SvR Design Company, a Seattle-based civil engineering and landscape architecture firm, Staeheli will discuss how to transform public rights-of-way so they can achieve their full potential. Her presentation will look at strategies to achieve multiple goals by integrating the tenets of Complete Streets with the need to improve water quality.
Presentation highlights will include state-of-the-art approaches, lessons learned, and future directions for integrating innovative approaches into land planning and site design. A question-and-answer session will follow Staeheli’s presentation.
The Department’s streetscapes project has resulted in plans for retrofitting sample road sections in suburban and urban areas. Planners are working with County agencies and the County Council to establish policies to encourage environmentally sensitive practices along county roads, incorporating requirements for such elements as sidewalks and bike lanes, planting strips and urban planter boxes.
The presentations are part of the Planning Department’s speaker series – free, informative sessions about ways to forge great communities. Continuing education credits (AICP credits) have been approved for planning professionals.
Who:
Montgomery County Planning Department, featuring Seattle landscape architect Peg Staeheli
What:
Complete Streets: Redefining Expectations for our Urban Investment
When:
7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 20, 2011
Where:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
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