VODA Landscape + Planning

VODA’s been involved with an exciting new project, one of Salt Lake City’s future Great Places, the Sugar House Streetcar Greenway.  Many groups, municipalities, and organizations have been working for years to see this project come about, and everyone’s excited to see the project finally under construction.  We’ve been working with the great design team at CRSA to develop documents for the construction of the greenway space along the new streetcar, which will also be home to Parley’s Trail, connecting major recreational facilities such as the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Sugar House Park, and the Jordan River Parkway.

Streetcar Alignment 2012- Construction Begins

The Streetcar Greenway will be home to Parley’s Trail, the Sugar House Streetcar line, community gardens, and many public spaces that will bring vibrancy and energy to the neighborhoods along the corridor.

Additionally, VODA’s been working with a group of University of Utah students to develop sustainability education features along the greenway corridor. The students have spent the last school year working on the initial concepts for “The Green Line: A Sustainability Corridor.”  The Green Line would brand the entire corridor of the streetcar as a sustainable place, with individual installations demonstrating various aspects of sustainability, including energy sustainability, food sustainability, transportation sustainability, and environmental sensitivity.  With a strong Sustainability brand, the Green Line can influence development throughout the neighborhoods along the corridor, encouraging more efficient and sustainable building patterns.

University of Utah Honors Students behind the Green Line, Nicole Zinnanti, Darrell Henrickson, TJ Owens, and Jeff Williams

Last night the Salt Lake City Council approved $6.8 million in funding for the greenway element of the Streetcar Corridor.  With construction on the streetcar finally underway, we could see the park and streetcar operational as soon as 2013.

Many people easily associate sustainability with energy efficiency, recycling, biking, public transportation, solar power, hybrid vehicles, and even shopping at local businesses, but few readily associate sustainability with food.  How and what we eat as a community has a major impact on long-term sustainability.  “Eating locally” is more than just a pleasant aphorism for the wealthier among us, it is an absolutely essential goal for any community wishing to encourage a healthier population, create local jobs, and support local business.

One of the largest ecological detriments of the industrialization of food in the last 50-years is the cost of transporting food hundreds of miles from where it is produced to where it is consumed.  Government subsidy of food production, as well as major petroleum subsidies have made it feasible to transport food economically from places as far away as China and Chile to North America for American consumers.  Events of the last few years have exposed the inherent un-sustainability of this kind of food system, and the interest in local food in America has skyrocketed.  The numbers of farmers markets and community gardens continue to increase from year to year, and more and more of the population is seeking ways to reduce their dependence on industrialized food and its deep dependence on subsidized fossil fuels.

This year VODA has been involved in two pro-bono projects supporting new community gardens in the Salt Lake City area. The first is the Artspace Garden located at the Rubber Company building in west Downtown Salt Lake.  Last spring, the site for the garden looked like this:

This was basically dead space behind the residential building. With great sun exposure, and existing fencing, the Artspace community saw this as an ideal spot for a small community garden for its tenants. After a few weeks of planning and organizing, the group had constructed deep garden beds and support trellises for the community garden:

Today we’re nearing the end of the growing season here in Salt Lake, but the community garden has grown significantly, and brought together a group of people around the idea of local food production:

Another project VODA’s been working on is the Sugar House Community Garden, built on top of neglected tennis courts adjacent to the Sugar House business district in the south east corner of Salt Lake City. Here’s where we started in the spring:

After several weeks of planning and fundraising, we had beds constructed for lease by  community members:

After a long summer of hard work and care from Sugar House gardeners, we’ve got a beautiful, productive garden:

Its been a productive year for many community gardens in Utah, and the Sugar House Community Garden has enjoyed support from a wide range of community members, from elected leaders down to individual community members donating time and labor into ensuring the long-term existence of the garden.

VODA worked with LYRB and Salt Lake County planning and economic development staff to create  a new “Best Practice” document to guide future economic development in the region. This document was added to the Best Practices document developed in 2008 by VODA, CRSA, and others for inclusion in Salt Lake County’s Township General Plans. The Economic Development Best Practice focuses on specific funding mechanisms that will best assist local governments in ensuring development is guided and sustainable.   In 2010 the Township General Plans were awarded a “plan development” award by the Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association.

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VODA worked with the Artspace organization and Wasatch Community Gardens to help craft a new community garden in downtown Salt Lake City. VODA applauds any effort to improve the neighborhood, and to build a stronger sense of community in our city.  As landscape architects, we support programs that will educate the wider population of the city on issues of land stewardship, environmental sustainability, food security, and quality public spaces. This project was a prototype for future community gardens to be sponsored at Artspace’s other properties in the downtown area. VODA helped to facilitate public meetings, design, and cost estimation.

VODA’s been working recently with a grassroots group of citizens determined to turn a community eyesore into a community asset.  With a highly visible corner of Sugar House occupied by long-unused tennis courts, this group is planning to create the Sugar House Community Garden on the space once occupied by the Fairmont Park Tennis Courts.

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In June 2010, a Chevron pipeline running through the foothills above Salt Lake City began leaking raw crude oil into Red Butte Creek. The spill lasted only a few hours, but dumped an estimated 30,000 gallons of oil into a creek running through residential areas, public parks, and natural areas.  VODA was hired by Carbaugh & Associates and the city of Salt Lake to assist in facilitating public meetings that would determine what actions the city could take to prevent future spills, and how to deal with similar accidents in the future.

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Working on a team at CRSA, VODA worked with the public, elected and appointed officials, and Salt Lake County planning staff to create  new general plans for Millcreek, Kearns, and Magna Townships.  An innovative new format was selected early in the planning process to make the document more understandable to the general public, as well as more useful for officials and staff responsible for implementing the plan within the Townships. In 2010 these three Township General Plans were awarded a “plan development” award by the Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association.

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Working on a team with CRSA, VODA staff designed the low water-use landscape for this cutting edge project. This LEED Platinum certified facility is located on previously developed land adjacent to a restored wetland complex and nature preserve. All plantings used on the site are native and require little to no water. Rainwater is collected in above ground and below ground cisterns and no potable water is used in the maintenance of the landscape. Boardwalks are constructed from recycled material and pervious paving facilitates stormwater infiltration.

Working with the University of Utah, Mark Morris of VODA assisted Wasatch Community Gardens with a systems analysis in 2005. Using mapping and design programs, Mark worked with WCG to understand the populations that were most benefiting from the community gardens, and how a redesign of the Fairpark Garden might improve efficiencies. With four community gardens in Salt Lake City, Wasatch Community Gardens is the city’s largest community garden organization, and also offers workshops to educate home gardeners in how to increase their own food production. Read more about this project »