Iler Planning and City of Doral Receive Statewide Award for Innovative Green Plan
(Doral, Florida) Iler Planning and the City of Doral received the 2009 Outstanding Innovation in Planning Award from the Florida Planning and Zoning Association (FPZA) for Iler’s cutting-edge Green Master Plan created for Doral. The FPZA presented the award at their annual conference in Tampa on June 12th.
Iler Planning, the Jupiter-based urban planning firm, helped Doral prepare the plan and was a co-recipient of the award. Doral only became a city five years ago and its visionary Green Master Plan is the only comprehensive and community-wide approach in Florida. It provides for a sustainable future of greenhouse gas reduction, resource conservation and immediate and long-term budget cost savings. The Green Plan utilizes the 10 Guiding Principles of Sustainability which address all of the ways a community can impact greenhouse gas emissions and resource conservation. These include reduction in vehicle travel, more green spaces, incentives of solar and wind power, making city government sustainable, bringing back local community agriculture and aggressive outreach to residents and businesses. Iler Planning initially developed Doral’s first Comprehensive Plan and their Land Development Codes which allowed for the Green Planning overlay.
Doral recently received recognition for its business climate from BusinessWeek who said that it is one of the best small cities in the country – and the best community in Florida – to start a business. This is the second recent national recognition for this young city, which came in at 51 in the nation and No. 2 in the state in a report published by CNN Money last summer that named the Top 100 U.S. cities to live in and launch a new business. “It goes to show that we are one of the premiere places to do business in the country,” Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez said. “In this case, we are the premiere place to do business in the state.”
In selecting Iler Planning and Doral, the FPZA Selection Committee made these comments on why the Green Plan stood out: “The Green Plan is a sustainable plan with a comprehensive approach that focuses on real implementation. It breaks down a very complex topic into easy-to-understand principles, and adds the all-important outreach to residents and businesses to show them how they can be more sustainable in their daily activities. The Green Plan contains many resources that readers can investigate to get more information. It is not a question of if, but a question of when, most communities will need to prepare a Green Plan like this to be competitive in the future global marketplace. The strong implementation program in the Green Plan was impressive and includes a scorecard for Doral so they can track the green benefits and cost-savings in the future.”
The Doral is moving rapidly to put its Green Master Plan into effect. This summer they are amending their Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code to incorporate green principles and standards. Additionally, Doral is seeking certification from the Florida Green Building Coalition as a Green Community and moving ahead with plans to makes its new police station an energy-efficient, LEEDS-certified building.
