November 10, 2009: Rebecca Stack from the District Department of the Environment (DDOE) spoke about the city's RiverSmart Homes program to lessen storm water runoff from residential properties. Residents make online applications to initiate a property audit to determine suitability for subsidized runoff abatement programs. The abatement programs include the following:* Shade Trees -- resident pays $50 per tree
* Rain Barrels -- resident pays $30 per rain barrel
* Rain Gardens -- resident pays $75 for a rain garden
* BayScaping -- resident pays $100 for native plant landscaping
* Pervious Pavers -- DC pays difference between concrete and pervious pavers.
Greg Woods invited members to drop by the William Penn House at 515 East Capitol Street SE to see their Backyard Rainscape, which received a grant from DDOE and would be appropriate for many Capitol Hill yards.
Stack also discussed the RiverSmart Rooftops program in which the city pays $3 to $5 for each square foot of green roof installed by residents on qualified properties.
Vira opened the meeting, Ruth introduced the speaker and EJ discussed five-minute member presentations to open coming meetings:
