Condos without fertilizer? Water flows through Oak Park Terrace the way it way it does in so many neighborhoods in Florida. Rain hits the rooftops, lawns and parking lots. Gravity pulls the water down a drain. Then it runs into our waterways, carrying fertilizers and other pollutants it has picked up along the way. In the case of the Oak Park Terrace condos in Vero Beach, it’s a short trip via a ditch along 18th Street to the Indian River Lagoon — just a few hundred yards. Mark Borak, a member of the condominium association board at the 1970sera complex, did some back-of-the-envelope calculations. He discovered his 11.5 acre neighborhood was responsible for 5 million gallons of water a year into the lagoon. That’s just water running from the parking lots. The rooftops and lawns add to that. Borak thought there had to be a better way. A landscaping project gave him an excuse to find it. The 55-and-older community had saved $10,000 to revamp its entryway. It could have spent the money the usual way, with irrigation-dependent plants and carpets of fertilized sod. “People come down from up north and say, ‘You have to have a hedge, and you have to have some grass,’ ” said Borak, who is 72 and splits his time between Vero Beach and Duluth, Minnesota. But that’s not what Florida looks like. Not the real Florida. Borak called his local agriculture extension office, which put him in touch with Robin Pelensky of Vero Beach-based Surlaterre Landscape Architecture. With the neighborhood’s input, Pelensky came up with a plan that could limit Oak Park Terrace’s impact on the lagoon. See SAMPLES, 7A COLUMNIST EVE SAMPLES Article Continued Below See SAMPLES on Page A07 SAMPLES from 1A It includes: A variety of native plants, from Florida native wildflowers to holly trees; Rain gardens, which are low areas of landscaping planted with native shrubs and grasses to hold and cleanse water; Gutters on the neighborhood clubhouse that will collect water in a rain barrel for irrigation; Cutting out parts of the curb so rainwater can flow into a recessed median that will be landscaped with native plants - instead of down the road and to the Indian River Lagoon; Removing a concrete patio and replacing it with pavers that allow water to filter back underground. The ideas come from an increasingly popular school of thought called low-impact development thats gaining traction from Sarasota to Los Angeles. The total costs are a little bit higher, but in the long run, they end up saving money, Pelensky said. Oak Park Terrace expects to get its entryway done within the $10,000 budget, but the rest of the project will be paid for over time, as the community can afford it. In the meantime, Borak enlisted students at the University of Floridas landscape architecture department to design seven courtyards at Oak Park Terrace using low-impact design principles. He hopes his neighborhood can become a demonstration project for the region. He also expects it to slash the neighborhoods $1,600-a-month lawn maintenance bill. Some of the plants included in Pelenskys designs require mowing just once a year. Were not going to be paying for people to run around with lawn mowers and Weed Wackers, Borak said. Fertilizer wont be needed either, and irrigation will be dramatically reduced. You look at the lagoon and say, Jeez, its so huge. What could I do thats going to have any kind of an impact? But, actually, just a few people getting together can have an impact, Borak said. In this case, it can be done with no red tape. City officials like the idea. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of runoff into the lagoon is probably a good idea, said Bill Messersmith, assistant city engineer for Vero Beach. Borak hopes his modest neighborhood can help show others whats possible. This could be a real groundswell, he told me. We could actually do something. It wont revive all the seagrass in the lagoon or stop the damaging releases from Lake Okeechobee. It wont preclude the need for the large government restoration projects, particularly the reconnection of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. But it sure beats sitting around and doing nothing while the Indian River Lagoon suffers. Eve Samples is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects her opinion. Contact her at 772-221-4217 or eve.samples@scripps.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:11:47 +0000
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