Green Development Potential: Leed-ND Assessment St.Paul Ford Plant Redevelopment Scenarios

professional paper for the fulfillment of the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning degreeThe City of St. Paul has an opportunity to layout a vision for a truly unique and progressive urban redevelopment project on the site of the Ford Manufacturing plant in the Highland Park neighborhood. The notion that this prime real estate can be a national example of integrating sustainable practices has been a key value present throughout the early stages of the planning process. The challenge is how to assess each scenario for the trade-offs and criteria that defines sustainability. The need to find a common vision or definition of sustainability is critical to benchmarking and measuring strategies for future development. As the City of St. Paul continues to refine and develop the vision for the site, and regulatory practices that can procure that vision, a key step is establishing a strategy for comparative analysis of potential development scenarios. The intent of this paper is to aid the City of St. Paul and the Ford Site Taskforce in their efforts by providing a standardized comparative assessment of each of the five development scenarios to help frame the discussion for sustainable development opportunities as the public planning process continues to evolve and play out for the Ford Plant site. This side by side comparison will help define and identify opportunities, challenges, and unknowns in the various schemes so that outside consultants can begin to weigh and value the trade-offs and benefits within each scheme. It is intended to be a supportive document that when used in conjunction with the other processes and inquiries into the potential future use of the site, can augment possible policy and actions steps. The heart of the report utilizes the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ for Neighborhood Development (ND) as a tool for aiding the City of St. Paul’s Planning Department in assessing the preliminary development scenarios proposed as a part of the long term planning process for the St. Paul Ford Plant site. This assessment looks at all 5 development scenarios and finds commonalities and distinctions amongst them