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SKETCH_PAD © Press Release |
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Principal Ackerman to Chair County's New Sustainable Planning Committee  PRESCOTT, AZ– Catalyst
Architecture's founding partner Matthew
B. Ackerman, LEED AIA was
appointed to chair the newly formed Yavapai County Sustainable Planning
Committee.The committee is a public-private venture charged with assisting the P&Z Commission in researching and developing various strategies for ‘greening’ county planning and zoning ordinances. Initially the committee will be working to create Residential Conservation Subdivision guidelines. According to the 2000 Census almost 90% of housing in Yavapai County is detached single-family units (as compared to 78% on average statewide). With a statistic like this, it is an important move on the part of the county to provide sustainable guidelines to potentially burgeoning subdivisions– curtailing greater loss of the county’s natural landscape and agricultural heritage. It is the intent that the Residential Conservation Subdivision be an optional alternative to conventional subdivision planning. This subdivision planning option will be encouraged through various governmental incentives– not the least of which is greater public awareness that will increase demand for environmentally and socially-conscious housing and neighborhoods. The conservation guidelines will encourage innovative site plans designed to generate contiguous open space and preserve natural and cultural features as well as providing opportunities for greater community health and safety. In addition to land-use issues, the guidelines will directly and specifically concentrate on water conservation and management as well as energy conservation and alternative energy sources. Beyond the residential conservation subdivision the sustainable planning committee - with Ackerman at the lead - will work to advance innovations in mixed-use development; public transportation planning; waste management; regional economic renewal and local food production. A tandem Yavapai County P&Z committee is working on ‘greening’ local building codes. Throughout the next several months and beyond, these two committees with weave together their efforts to formulate a regionally and environmentally responsive set of regulatory guidelines. The two committees on sustainable planning and green building are targeting presentation for review and adoption of specific action items by the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors at their joint session at the end of October. With a background in Urban Design, Matthew B. Ackerman, LEED AIA brings over 20 years of design experience in mixed-use, master planning, commercial, and custom residential work. He is current chair of the Grand Canyon AIA Chapter of COTE (Committee On The Environment), and is an Advisory Board member of CAZREN (Central Arizona Renewable Energy Network), as well as the Yavapai College Construction Technology Committee. Matt was the first U.S. Green Building Council LEED™ accredited architect in Yavapai County. |
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