News

Coachella Residents Envision a Healthier Future
On February 9, 2012 Coachella community members attended the Fiesta de la Salud #2; the second of three community workshops on the City's General Plan Community Health and Wellness Element. Raimi + Associates worked with the City, the Riverside County Health Department, the California Endowment and numerous community groups to put on the meeting. The purpose of this workshop was to encourage Coachella residents engage in interactive exercises designed to allow community members to help develop the City's General Plan Health Element. To learn more about the Fiesta de la Salud #2, please read the article or watch the video by Coachella Unincorporated.

R+A to Co-Write LEED 2012 Reference Guide
As a follow up to our previous work writing the 2009 LEED Reference Guide and Pilot, Raimi + Associates will be working with Criterion Planners, the Agora Group, and the U.S. Green Building Building Council throughout the spring and summer of 2012 to write the "Location and Transportation" section of the LEED 2012 Reference Guide. This will include describing implementation best practices, necessary calculations, credit concepts, and example case studies for around 40 credits from LEED-ND, LEED-NC, and the other LEED Rating Systems.

Santa Clara County Health Element Kick-off
Yesterday, December 12th was the official kick off meeting for Santa Clara County's Health Element Raimi + Associates has been contracted by the County of Santa Clara to develop the County’s first General Plan Health Element. The Raimi+Associates team includes Brian Fulfrost and Associates, Nelson Nygaard, and Public Health Law Policy (PHLP). We are excited to be working in the heart of Silicon Valley on one of the country’s most ambitious community health planning projects to date!


Raimi + Associates Presents at American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting
At the 2011 APHA Annual Event in Washington D.C., Raimi + Associates' Matt Raimi and Beth Altshuler will be presenting on how to incorporate public health into the physical environment through city planning. We'd like to invite you to come see our presentations. Matt and Beth will be presenting Monday, October 31, 2011 at the Renaissance Room: Congressional Hall A in the Washington Convention Center. More details are below and here. 

Raimi+ Associates Presents at Sustainable Redevelopment & Green Remediation Policy and Technology Forum
On November 1st 2011, Raimi + Associates’ Aaron Welch will be presenting at the Sustainable Redevelopment & Green Remediation Policy and Technology Forum in San Francisco at the Le Meridien located at 333 Battery Street . Aaron will be discussing brownfields development and remediation and a case study on San Francisco’s Treasure Island.


Aaron Welch Named Co-Chair of USGBC NorCal’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee
Aaron was selected out of a large pool of nominees to serve as the Northern California Chapter’s Sustainable Neighborhoods co-chair for 2012. Aaron will be responsible for representing USGBC and LEED-ND to communities around California and setting the Chapter’s sustainable neighborhoods agenda for 2012. If you think you’d be a good candidate to serve on his committee promoting LEED-ND, smart growth, and good urban design, give him a call!

Raimi + Associates Teaches at UC Riverside Extension
Starting September 22nd, Raimi +Associates' Matt Burris is teaching a new city planning course with colleague, Chris Gray at the UC Riverside Extension. The course looks into how suburban sprawl has contributed to the obesity of our nation and how cities can design for more healthy communities by shifting land use patterns, reducing automobile dependency, urban design, and much more. Details about the "Public Health and the Built Environment" course can be found here.

Raimi + Associates Presents at Cal APA 2011 in Santa Barbara
Raimi + Associates presented on a variety of topics at September's 2011 California APA Conference in Santa Barbara, from careers in sustainability, to the intracacies of Floor Area Ratio, to LEED-ND basics presented gameshow-style! We would like to thank everyone who attended our staff's many successful sessions. If you missed out and are curious, contact DJ Harris at dj@raimiassociates.com for a copy of any of our session presentations, as follows:



Raimi + Associates Conducts LEED-ND Design Charrette for LISC and NRDC 

From August 17-20, Aaron Welch of Raimi + Associates conducted a 4-day LEED-ND design charrette for the existing, redeveloping Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood in inner Indianapolis, Indiana. The project was funded by the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) with support from the U.S. Green Building Council. It was a pilot collaboration between LISC and NRDC, providing a model for similar green community development work throughout the country. The work conducted by Raimi + Associates and Agora focused on assessing the existing neighborhood with LEED-ND, creating policy recommendations for the neighborhood, generating a credit-by-credit guide for how the neighborhood could achieve LEED-ND certification, and local capacity building. The project continues Raimi + Associates’ commitment to expanding LEED-ND’s application in existing neighborhood planning, retrofit, and development.

Aaron Welch Delivers LEED-ND Webinar to HUD, EPA, DOT

On behalf of the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, D.C., Aaron Welch recently delivered the first half of a national webinar series to over 100 staff people from multiple national and regional offices of the federal Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Environmental Protection Agency. The webinar provided an overview of LEED for Neighborhood Development content and implementation strategies, with a particular focus on the agencies’ increasing coordination under the White House’s Sustainable Communities Partnership. The second part of the webinar series, in late July, provided case studies from across the country of innovative applications of LEED-ND in community development. Aaron teamed with Jessica Millman of Agora Consulting in Skaneateles, NY on the presentation. Jessica is the chair of USGBC’s LEED-ND Core Committee and a frequent collaborator with Raimi + Associates. 

South Gate General Plan Update Awarded Participation in the Beacon Award

The City of South Gate has been accepted to participate in the Beacon Award: Local Leadership toward Solving Climate Change program. This award was based on the City's General Plan 2035. Raimi + Associates' completed the City of South Gate's Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Climate Action Plan as part of the City's general plan update. The Beacon Award recognizes and celebrates cities and counties that adopt policies and programs that address climate change; reduce greenhouse emissions and save energy; and promote sustainability.

New Addition to the Berkeley Headquarters

Raimi + Associates is welcoming a new member to their Berkeley headquarter, Danielle "D.J." Harris. D.J. will be serving as the Project Assistant for the office, providing her quantitative and analytical knowledge as well as administrative organizational skills. She's a Bay Area local and recent Cal Poly City and Regional Planning graduate with substantial experience in transportation planning and community participation. 

Natural Resource Defense Council Publishes R + A’s Citizen's Guide to LEED-ND

Raimi + Associates is pleased to announce the national publication of its Citizen's Guide to LEED for Neighborhood Development. The guide is a plain-English introduction to LEED-ND as well as a toolkit for creative community-level LEED-ND implementation. It includes a Sustainable Neighborhood Development Checklist – with every LEED-ND standard and threshold organized by topic – that can be used to assess and inform development projects, zoning and planning work, policy and funding standards, and even existing neighborhood retrofits. A resource page and free download is available at www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/leed.asp. Aaron Welch of Raimi + Associates will be discussing the Citizen’s Guide in presentations and webinars throughout the summer and fall of 2011. Read more here.

SF Board of Supervisors Adopts Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island Design for Development

The Design for Development for San Francisco's Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island was adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on June 7, 2011. This follows a comprehensive review and technical edit completed by Raimi + Associates, a period of public comment on the resulting public draft, and additional revisions completed by Raimi + Associates. Over the next 15-20 years, the Design for Development will guide creation of one of the most innovative and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods in the entire country, on an infill site within the City and County of San Francisco.

International Boulevard TOD Plan Wins APA Grassroots Project Award

R+A’s International Boulevard Transit-Oriented Development Plan for the City of Oakland recently won the 2011 Northern California APA Section Grassroots Project Award. The award reflects the interactive, community-based process that informed the Plan. The project also received recognition from the State APA and was presented an Award of Merit. Raimi + Associates would like to thank Sargent Town Planning, Transform, the City of Oakland, and particularly the residents of International Boulevard, without whose insights and efforts this project could not have happened.

West Hollywood General Plan Wins APA Grassroots Project Award

The West Hollywood General Plan, for which Raimi + Associates was the primary consultant, recently won the 2011 Los Angeles Section APA Award for Innovation in Green Planning as well as Small Jurisdiction Comprehensive Plan. R+A’s work promoted green building and sustainability, standards for walkable urban design, sensitive transitions between corridors and neighborhoods, preservation of West Hollywood’s diverse, bohemian character, and a focus on design solutions for change areas of the City.

R+A’s International Boulevard TOD Plan Adopted in Oakland

The International Boulevard Transit-Oriented Development Plan, created by Raimi + Associates in collaboration with the City of Oakland, Sargent Town Planning, TransForm, community stakeholders, and a team of sub-consultants, was approved by the Oakland City Council on March 1, 2011, pending completion of CEQA documentation. The TOD Plan focuses on physical improvements and design solutions that can support transit-oriented development while improving quality of life and economic opportunity along the corridor. It has received broad community support and promises to spur revitalization along a crucial north/south urban corridor in south Oakland for years to come. The TOD Plan is available on the City of Oakland's website, at http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/ceda/documents/report/oak025737.pdf.

Raimi + Associates LEED-ND Projects Continue to Receive National Recognition

The R+A-led effort to achieve LEED-ND Gold for planning and design efforts in the existing SALT District neighborhood of Syracuse, NY was featured in USGBC's January 2011 Neighborhood Development Update. It also received top billing in a series of best practice studies published in late 2010 by NeighborWorks America. Read more about the Syracuse SALT District project here. Station Park Green, another R+A LEED-ND Gold project, is commonly featured as an exemplary case study in USGBC LEED-ND resource and education materials LEED-ND homepage. Station Park Green achieved full entitlement in the summer of 2011. In addition, Hercules Bayfront, for which R+A has directed the LEED-ND Gold certification effort, was designated as one of only 13 Catalyst Projects for the California Sustainable Strategies Pilot Program administered by the State of California.