A colleague at the office sent this link to a new report from Western Resource Advocates titled “New House New Paradigm — A Model for How to Plan, Build, and Live Water-smart.” The Stapleton development at the old Denver airport is featured along with a new project (Sterling Ranch) that will take advantage of legislation passed last year that allows 10 pilot projects for utilizing rainwater catchments (H.B. 09-1129). From the WRA release:
The Intermountain West is the driest region of the United States, and it is also the region that experienced the most explosive growth over the past decade. Though many western rivers already have more claims upon their flows than there is water flowing in them, the pace of development continues unabated. In the report New House, New Paradigm, Western Resource Advocates provides an innovative take on how new housing development should proceed: water conservation and efficiency must be built-in to the process of planning, building, and living in new communities in the West.
Water conservation is not new to the West. What is new is a coordinated effort throughout the development process to create and inhabit communities that are designed to abide with the region’s lack of water. A number of community developments have already taken this approach and their success serves as a model for future development. New House, New Paradigm shows why their approach is succeeding and how other planned developments can learn from these models.
New House, New Paradigm executive summary (0.4MB .pdf file)
New House, New Paradigm full report (3MB .pdf file)
More conservation coverage here.