eoit to convene subcommittees in january
December 14, 2011
The Environment Omaha Implementation Team will be expanding its reach in January.
The team, comprised of public and private community leaders convened by Omaha by Design, is helping guide the implementation of recommendations outlined in Omaha’s new Environmental Element. Adopted as a component of Omaha’s master plan in December 2010, the Environmental Element contains more than 600 recommendations related to creating a more sustainable city.
In January, the team will host a series of subcommittee meetings to identify local groups that are currently addressing the document’s recommendations related to the natural environment, urban form/land use, urban form/transportation, building construction, resource conservation and community health. To help the subcommittees process the recommendations, John Hill at Lamp, Rynearson & Associates has volunteered his time to create a database that allows the content to be sorted in a number of ways, including common themes. For example, the urban form/land use subcommittee can call up all the recommendations related to density or mixed use or redevelopment.
Kent Holm, Douglas County Environmental Services, will chair the natural environment subcommittee meetings. Marty Shukert, RDG Planning and Design, will chair the urban form/land use subcommittee meetings. Daniel Lawse, Metropolitan Community College and Verdis Group, will chair the urban form/transportation subcommittee meetings. Jay Palu, Alley Poyner Macchietto Architects, and Garry Ruliffson, Omaha Public Power District, will chair the building construction subcommittee meetings. Marcella Thompson, ConAgra Foods, will chair the resource conservation subcommittee meetings. Mikki Frost, Alegent Health, will chair the community health subcommittee meetings. The recruitment of members for each subcommittee is under way.
The goal of the subcommittee meetings is twofold – to help the City of Omaha populate its ecoNetwork and to prioritize the recommendations that aren’t being addressed, said Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design.
“No single agency can tackle all 600-plus recommendations in the Environmental Element, but the city and the many groups that serve it can get the job done,” Spellman said. “Omaha is making progress on the green front, and it’s important to know who’s doing what so efforts and resources aren’t duplicated and successes can be shared across the community.”
Once the remaining recommendations have been prioritized, Omaha by Design will look at launching a series of implementation projects – some of which it will lead and some of which it will serve as a partner, Spellman said.
Mike McMeekin and Steve Jensen, members of the Omaha by Design Advisory Committee, are serving as co-chairs of the Environment Omaha Implementation Team. For more information about the process, contact Omaha by Design at 402.554.4010 or info@omahabydesign.org.