Posted: January 28, 2011

The Grandy Village Learning Center was built to comply with LEED standards.

By Danielle Walker

danielle.walker@insidebiz.com

Last week, the Elizabeth River Project in Portsmouth honored businesses and organizations for their environmental stewardship in the region.

Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority was a top-level honoree for its work at Grandy Village, a $4.1 million project that involved an ecofriendly renovation to the community along the Elizabeth River.

The 44-acre community, next to the Chesterfield Heights neighborhood in Norfolk was built in 1953 and reopened as a mixed-income housing community last fall, with 341 units.

The development features a learning center built to comply with the LEED certification requirements set by the U.S. Green Building Council. NRHA partnered with Norfolk Public Schools and the STOP Organization to educate preschool children about riverfront ecology at the learning center.

"In 2001, we did a master plan for that community," said Russell Carlock, a senior architect for NRHA. "We met with the residents, people from the city, civic leagues, etc., and talked about how we could do this. We started saving up money and making a list of things to do."

Other organizations that have supported NRHA's educational and community activity initiatives at Grandy Village include the city of Norfolk's Planning Department, Bureau of Environmental Services and Department of Public Works, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, The Elizabeth River Project and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Virginia Department of Forestry were also among supporters.

The renovated community, completed in June 2010, has a number of environmentally sound features, including foam insulation in the walls. Trees along the shoreline were preserved, Carlock said.

NRHA was honored by the Elizabeth River Project on Jan. 27, at ERP's annual River Star Business Recognition Luncheon, which was held at the Renaissance

Portsmouth Hotel. ERP is a nonprofit whose mission is to restore the environmental integrity of the Elizabeth River.

At the luncheon, BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair was announced as ERP's first "River Star Hall of Fame" recipient, for its completion of eight wildlife habitat projects over the last 10 years. BAE projects included installation of rain gardens to absorb runoff and creation of oyster reefs and wetlands, as well as other ecofriendly initiatives.

Another high-level honoree recognized at the luncheon was Luck Stone Corp., a crushed stone production company headquartered in Richmond that has sites throughout Hampton Roads, other parts of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. Luck Stone is family-owned and has been in operation for more than 80 years.

Mark Williams, the terminal manager of Luck Stone's Gilmerton distribution yard in Chesapeake and Berkley distribution yard in Norfolk, said the sites sell stone for products primarily used for road construction.

"We deal with the transportation side of things here," Williams said. "We deal with storm water discharges on the sites and we've done a lot of recycling improvements to the sites."

Luck Stone has been interacting with the Elizabeth River Project since 2008, Williams said.

The yards also sell products for sand and turf, and have done baseball fields in Chesapeake and golf courses in Richmond.

Many of their jobs include filtering waste products out of runoff water before it makes its way into the Elizabeth River, Williams said.

They've also planted 38 trees at the Berkley yard, and about 24 trees in the Gilmerton yard, with hopes of planting more.

Williams explained another way the Gilmerton yard in Chesapeake had been upgraded in an environmentally friendly way.

"We basically turned a storm water drain into a flower garden," he said.

The process included filling the drain with a Luck Stone product called BioFilter to filter out waste in the water before planting. nib