Opening Keynote

Green Infrastructure: How to Design & Engineer a Better Site

Edward Callaway will discuss how Callaway Gardens evaluates the land for both environmental protection and appropriate development. Charles McMillan with AEC Engineers will discuss how to take an initial development concept through its next stages while keeping both environmental performance and green certifications in mind.

Edward Callaway, Callaway Gardens
Charles McMillan, AEC Engineers

Lunch

Community Design Charrette
An eco-charrette for Strathmore Estates, a 44 acre mixed-use, affordable housing development in Savannah, GA. Participants will be part of planning teams and have the potential to gain knowledge on sustainable development while applying their creativity and knowledge to an actual project that is in its planning process.

Darrel Daise, City of Savannah Community Housing Services Agency
Martin Fretty, City of Savannah Department of Housing
Robin Haddock, Mercy Housing Southeast
Shannon Kettering, ECOS Environmental Design Inc.
Robert Reed, Southface

Certifying Your Development: An Overview of Available Community Programs in the Southeast

Community program experts from Audobon, EarthCraft Communities and USGBC LEED will provide overviews of each program's community criterias and processes. Representative developments from each certification program will be presented along with developments that are integrating multiple certification programs.

Kevin Fletcher, Audubon International
Gray Kelly, EarthCraft Communities
Jennifer Henry, USGBC LEED for Neighborhood Development

Building Coalitions for Smart Growth & Sustainability
Master Speaker—Jim Durrett, Executive Director Livable Communities Coalition

The Livable Communities Coalition consists of citizens, organizations, institutions, and businesses all aligned to help the community address the opportunities and challenges of growth and development. The Coalition advocates four principles:

• Support greater densities and mixed use development in appropriate areas;
• Integrate transportation investment with appropriate land use;
• Increase housing choices;
• Ensure that greenfield development is designed to achieve a sense of community, provide more housing choices, leverage infrastructure, and conserve natural resources.

What does it take to change a region’s development patterns? How can citizens, environmental organizations, civic officials, policy makers and developers access tools and partners to help make a difference? Jim Durrett will discuss how and why the Livable Communities Coalition (LCC) was created and how it works to support market change in the face of continuing growth in the Atlanta Region. Tools for appropriate Greenfield Development, the benefits and impact of density, Tax Allocation Districts, public involvement in the development process, local government support and project case studies will be presented at this session.

Jim Durrett, Executive Director Livable Communities Coalition

Non Traditional Approaches to Green Housing Development

Large community developments have increasingly more options for how buildings can be constructed that may make the "site-built / stick-built" approach to homebuilding a thing of the past. Haven Homes will discuss the modular building approach several developments are using exclusively. Other alternative construction methods, including structurally insulated panels (SIPS) and insulated concrete forms (ICF), will also be explored.

Tim Watson, Haven Custom Homes