Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Green Stormwater Infrastructure
(GSI) is a set of tools and practices
that mimic natural methods of storing,
infiltration and/or filtering stormwater.
Infill development
Infill development is the process of
developing vacant or under-used
parcels within existing urban areas
such as Amherst Street or Main Street
that are already largely developed.
Land Use
Broad term encompassing all the
different ways that people use or
develop land for economic, residential,
recreational, conservation and
instituitional purposes
Land Use Code
Regulations that determine what,
where, and how redevelopment
or development can take place in
the city. While land use policy is an
important tool for comprehensive
planning, it must be coordinated well
with other citywide initiatives, policies
and capital investments, and also be
adaptable to change.
Location quotient
Ratios that allow an area’s distribution
of employment by industry, ownership,
and size class to be compared toa
reference area’s distribution - for
example, across the nation.
Low Impact Development (LID)
Land planning and engineering design
approach to manage stormwater
runoff as part of green infrastructure.
Placemaking
Approach to planning, design and
management of public spaces that
focuses on the needs and desires of a
local community.
Public Realm
Publicly owned places and spaces
that belong to and are accessible by
everyone including municipal streets,
lanes, squares, plazas, sidewalks,
trails, parks, open spaces, waterfronts,
public transit systems, conservation
areas, and civic buildings and
institutions.
Remediation
(Site)-remediation is the process of
removing polluted or contaminated
soil, sediment, surface water, or
groundwater, to reduce the impact on
people or the environment
Resiliency
Resiliency embodies a community’s
ability to recover and resolve from
future shocks and stresses to its
social, economic, environmental and
technical and infrastructure systems.
Resilience for a place and community
also means not losing what it means
to be a community, and being able
to essentially maintain the same
functions, systems and identity.
Retrofit
Changing the building systems or
structure after its initial construction
to improve amenities or performance.
Right of Way
The legal right of a pedestrian, vehicle,
or bicycle to proceed with precedence
over others on the road.
Comprehensive Master Plan
Transit Oriented Development (TOD)
Type of development that encourages
and maximizes residential, business
and leisure space within walking
distance of public transport. TOD aims
to create integrated urban places
designed to bring people, activities,
buildings, and public space together.
Scenario Planning
Urban planning process to support
decision-making that helps urban
and regional planners navigate the
uncertainty of the future in the short
and long term. Scenario planning
enables communities to analyze
multiple plausible versions of the
future in the face of future change and
challenges.
Urban Design
The process of designing and shaping
the physical features of cities including
streets, buildings, parks and public
spaces.
Zoning
Zoning laws regulate the use of land
within a municipality. It controls
the ways in which the land can be
developed and what purposes the
zoned land can serve. Zoning is what
keeps a residential district residential,
acommercial district commercial, an
industrial district industrial, and so on.
Zoning Overlay District
Overlay districts are a land use
planning tool used to create a special
zoning “layer” placed on top of
the base (primary) zoning district.
The overlay district standards may
supplement or supersede those of the
underlying base zoning districts.
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