Edgewater Visioning

The city of Edgewater had a visioning session on Saturday, 6 September at the community center. The vision was for what Edgewater should look like in 20 years. The folks who are bringing you “Restoration” sponsored it as a freebie to the city. Although the scope of the process started with the city center and about a half-mile around it, it soon encompassed the entire city. There were about 40 people in attendance, about 8 or ten from the company itself, many city council members and city staff were also present. Most of the others were not identified and I could not determine their affiliations.

Thankfully, most of the people indicated an interest in preserving the Turnbull Hammock, possibly putting trails in it, and also in maintaining the quality of the Indian River Lagoon.

We brainstormed the type and location of the city center, the location of shops and restaurants, the type of riverfront and tourist area, parks on Riverside Drive and other places, etc.

My inputs to the process included:

•   The new center and Riverside Drive must be able to accommodate 50,000 residents (20K present, 18K from Restoration, and the rest from all the other developments to be allowed in the future) without the feeling of being overcrowded.

•   The city should maintain the safety and security of all its citizens.

•   Alternative energy and decreased watering should be the norm.

The participants were amenable to these suggestions.

The next meetings will on 27 Sep where the company will present a proposal based on the inputs from the first meeting.

With this visioning process and the prospect of Restoration looming in our future, it is incumbent on us to press the city council to start now to require the use of green technologies in all future developments. If the city does not start now, they never will. And the builders of the projects will not be required to use those technologies in Restoration

We need to start building a list of sustainable technologies we want the city to enforce in future developments and press them to start now.

Here is the start of a list:

•   Buildings that are constructed in such a manner that the residents will be able to survive without air conditioning during extended power outages from hurricanes, etc., and that will not require gas or diesel generators to power them.

•   Water capture systems for using rainwater for internal use as well as irrigation.

•   Xeriscaped yards and streets.

•   Water conserving fixtures in the homes.

•   Solar and Wind power to provide at least ten percent of the electricity and or water/heating.

NOW IT’S TIME FOR YOUR INPUTS. SEND ME AN EMAIL. We need to start the process of getting the city on board before the city forgets what they talked about.

Don