Mike Beezhold, Lenexa's Watershed Manager, talked on the show about Lenexa, KS's award-winning stormwater projects, Lake Lenexa's artistic dam (below), and then Mike and Deb O'Bannon mixed it up a little on the triple bottom line. And...we had our first promotion with a give-away of tickets to the Riverfront fireworks display for July 4th. Listen to the podcast.
Patty Noll shared the history and details of Kansas City's award-winning Stream Buffer Ordinance. The stream buffer defines three zones along a stream: the streamside zone (25 feet from the stream bank), the riparian zone (from streamside zone to the limit of the 100-year flood), and the outer zone (75 feet from the riparian zone limit). She explained the development within the outer zone allows denser development with fewer required parking spaces, so that developers can use the developable area more effectively since they can't build in the streamside nor riparian zones. Listen to the podcast.
Vincent Gautier, AICP expanded his discussion of events and development on the Missouri River waterfront. Celebrate the 4th of July on the river! Listen to the podcast.
Rick Besancon, P.E., an engineer with Burns & McDonnell discussed streambank stabilization. He gave a paper recently at the ASCE Environment & Water Resources conference on "green" bank stabilization. Stabilization is needed to protect property (including roads and bridges), prevents erosion and high sediment content in streams. The method he shared uses downed trees to stabilize the bank and allow resedimentation and stabilization. The photos below are before/in construction and after two years. Listen to the podcast.
Vincent Gauthier, AICP is the Executive Director of the Port Authority of Kansas City, MO. He described the development of 120 acres along the Missouri River, including Berkeley Riverfront Park and the Riverfront Heritage Trail and some important cleanup of that area. Listen to the podcast.