Seminar: Conservation Design

In addition to conserving land and preserving rivers and streams, promoting sustainable development is a priority of The Conservation Foundation. The Foundation met with a group of professionals from northeast Illinois in January 2008 to discuss the implementation challenges. The meeting resulted in the development of a list of considerations in order to successfully implement conservation design principles including stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs).

An understanding of the limitations of conservation design principles needs to be established.
Long-term maintenance of best management practices (structural and non-structural) is an on-going question.
Education is needed to overcome homeowners? concerns and gain greater public acceptance of natural areas, appropriate maintenance and maintenance costs.
Current ordinances are not conducive to application of this development approach.
Local governments and developers may not be on the same page.
The balance between the costs and benefits of these principles needs to be reached.
The market impacts and opportunities of this approach need to be confirmed.

SEMINAR BROCHURE
To better understand the sessions that were offered and the topics covered at the seminar, click here for a copy of the seminar brochure.

RESOURCE MANUAL
The Resource Manual is intended to provide both documents and internet links to items complementing the topics covered in each of the seminar sessions. In many cases, summary pages are procided with a link for the user to view the full document. The information provided should be used to better inform seminar attendees and to share with other contacts (including the general public). It is a manual of tools and resources to successfully advocate for and integrate Conservation Design principles and stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) in our communities.

Introduction and Table of Contents

Conservation Design Primer

Ins and Outs of Conservation Design

Steps to Public Acceptance of Natural Areas

Putting Conservation Design & BMPs into Local Ordinances

Short and Long-Term Management of Natural Areas

BMP Maintenance Strategies

Championing Conservation Design in Your Community

Integrating Community Education

Case Study - Prairie Crossing: Lessons Learned-The Economics and the Process

SEMINAR SUMMARY ARTICLE
For a summary of the presentations from the seminar, please click here.

PDF VERSIONS OF POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS GIVEN AT THE SEMINAR

Presenters have given permission to made PDF versions of their presentations available for those wanting to reference information they presented. Please respect copyright laws and the time they took to prepare the information and graphics. If you would like to use any information or graphics presented, please contact them to ask permission. (Their contact information is included on the files provided here.) Thank you.

Welcome (portion presented by Paul Colgan, Attainable Housing Alliance on behalf of NIHBA) Conservation Design Primer
Ins & Outs of Conservation Design

Steps to Public Acceptance of Natural Areas

Putting Conservation Design & BMPs into Local Ordinances

Short and Long-Term Management of Natural Areas

BMP Maintenance Strategies

Championing Conservation Design in Your Community

Integrating Community Education

Case Study-Prairie Crossing: Lessons Learned - The Economics and the Process

The seminar was a collaboration between The Conservation Foundation and the Northern Illinois Home Builders Association. It was supported by DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Chicago Wilderness Corporate Council, the Illinois American Planning Association-Chicago Metro Section, Waubonsee Community College and Valley Industrial Association.

It was made possible by grants from Chicago Wilderness, the Community Foundation of Grundy County and the Grand Victoria Foundation.