I want to thank Carrie Larson of Pullman & Comley for drafting this blog that I have the privilege of posting.
Bridgeport’s newly-adopted Master Plan incorporates many incentives for green development, but they have yet to make their way into the zoning regulations. As noted in the new Master Plan, Bridgeport’s land is classified as 86% developed and most of the City’s wetlands have either been impacted or destroyed by development. The Master Plan envisions Bridgeport as a leader in environmentally sustainable land use practices. Some of the green building goals included in the Master Plan include: reducing carbon emissions by 10% by 2020; remediation and redevelopment of brownfields sites and encouraging redevelopment of these sites instead of development on currently undeveloped properties through the use of incentives; promotion of environmentally friendly building design and construction; fostering the use of clean and renewable energy sources by creating incentives for homeowners and businesses, expanding and upgrading parks and open spaces; reducing the heat island effect by revising the zoning regulations to permit parking areas to be constructed out of pervious paving materials; provide incentives for the use of green roofs, green building techniques and create development scorecards to provide incentives to developers utilizing green practices and providing public green space .
The Master Plan would require that all new public facilities and schools be constructed using green construction practices.
“A green approach too all aspects of the city life, from energy to development to recreation, will make Bridgeport a leader in the region and enhance its attractiveness as a place to live, work and play.”
The City does have new zoning regulations in draft form that incorporate some of the green goals and policies delineated in the new Master Plan. One of the most significant, new portions of the draft zoning regulations includes the newly-proposed downtown village districts, all of which include incentives for green initiatives. Those include a new section on adaptive reuse (Section 4-11-1). Some of the incentives included are: In the newly-proposed downtown village districts, floor to area (FAR) bonuses for buildings certified to meet LEED standards (or its equivalent); FAR bonuses for the creation of new public open space or rehabilitation of existing open space. Any buildings of historic significant in the downtown village districts are also to sell air rights.
The City of Bridgeport also just signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement – whereby Bridgeport agreed to strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol through the use of anti-sprawl land use regulations, urban forest restoration projects and public information campaigns. As part of this, the City is in the process of hiring a sustainability initiative program manager and establishing, in conjunction with the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, a Sustainability Community Advisory Committee.
