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The District’s Office of Planning and Deptartment of the Environment have initiated a new sustainability project, and FORCE is looking for members that are interested in participating and/or representing FORCE. The program is called the Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Pilot Project (NSIPP). This project is an opportunity for residents to define sustainability in a way that is meaningful to them and their neighborhoods. Once sustainability is defined and the community creates a vision for itself then goals and objectives can be set to reach that vision. In turn, neighborhood sustainability indicators can be identified to track the community’s progress towards reaching its goals and its overall vision.
What could these indicators look like? If the community’s vision includes making the neighborhood more bicycle friendly then two valuable indicators that might track progress would be the number of bike racks available and miles of bicycle lanes. If the community’s vision includes the quality of water bodies (like Rock Creek and other streams), then valuable indicators might include level of pollutants in the water, the percentage of pervious surface, and/or the number of new trees.
DC is targeting ANC 3F (Van Ness, North Cleveland Park, Tenley, Lower Chevy Chase) for the pilot of this project and plans on expanding this to the entire District in the future. Go to www.sustainable-dc.com to find out if you are in the pilot area.
There was an initial public meeting on Saturday, November 14, where citizens provided initial suggestions for what indicators might be included in the project. They are looking for more input from citizens until January when they will host the first of two meetings where citizens will vote on which indicators to track.
If you are interested in acting as FORCE’s representative please contact
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For more information on this project or if you live in the area and want to participate go to: http://www.sustainable-dc.com/
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