A prominent U Street block has been selected to go green with the help of a Colorado nonprofit.
Living City Block, a group spawned by the think tank Rocky Mountain Institute, chose the area between U and V streets and 13th and 14th streets for its next redevelopment project, in which it will help businesses and building owners outfit their neighborhood to be more environmentally friendly.
“We would envision a hyper-resource-efficient neighborhood, thriving businesses and super-low energy bills,” Living City Block’s Llewellyn Wells said.
The group works with community members and government officials to adopt energy-saving methods that would cost more if done individually, but can be cheaper if done in a group.
“We call it tunneling through the cost barrier,” Wells said. “It’s a very quick payback. When you do things as a group of building and business owners, you have a lot more purchasing power, and you can do a lot more deep changes.”
The nonprofit is waiting for funding for its new project, but Wells said he was “very confident” Living City Block is on its way to D.C.
The U Street block was selected with the help of local-sustainability advocates, who chose the area because of its recent cooperation on a waste management project.
“The consensus was we needed a catalytic project that would help bring everybody together to showcase what is possible,” said Scott Pomeroy of the U Street Neighborhood Association. “So when we were introduced to Living City Block, it made a whole lot of sense.”
Community members said the area has a track record of environmental concern.
“It’s not all of the sudden these people are swooping down from Denver,” said Natalie Avery, executive director of the MidCity Business Association. “It emerged from the grass roots from a community with a deep history of collaborating around key city issues.”
After finding funding, Living City Block’s next step will be developing a model for the neighborhood and convincing owners that going green will be best for business.
The project would take between four to six years, Wells said.
U Street would be Living City Block’s second project. Its first project is in Denver’s LoDo district, where 80 percent of businesses have agreed to participate.
