Landscape Architect Articles

Site Selection Heals a Torn Community: Compromise from Chaos06-21-08 | News

Site Selection Heals a Torn Community: Compromise from Chaos

By Stacy Lee, The Interdesign Group

The Franklin, Indiana community strongly supported the need for a new high school, but conflicts erupted over potential sites. The school board turned to InterDesign, the Indianapolis multidisciplinary firm hired to design the school, to broker the impasse and identify the most ideal location. Twenty-eight sites were reviewed and whittled down to three finalists. The new Franklin Community High School did get built! Here is the school?EUR??,,????'?????<

Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to provide guidance and strategic counsel during volatile planning projects. Building a new high school, for instance, which seems fairly straightforward, can be controversial. Proof of that is Franklin, Indiana. Located 22 miles south of Indianapolis, this growing suburb prides itself on being a small city with small town warmth and personality. But, when opinions differed regarding the proposed location of the new high school, the warm, friendly community exploded, and a volatile debate erupted.

Analyses that met the minimum criteria for easily buildable acreage for the new high school were conducted at sites in Franklin, Indiana, 22 miles south of Indianapolis. The local Thoroughfare Plan shows the location of the three sites making the final cut.

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The Franklin community strongly supported the need for a new high school. Some community members believed the board?EUR??,,????'?????<

The new board recognized the issue had become extremely emotional and that any site selection would be viewed as having political overtones. For site selection assistance, the board turned to InterDesign, the multidisciplinary firm based in Indianapolis that was designing the high school.

InterDesign landscape architect Bill Moldenhauer and his team developed and guided the school board in site qualifying criteria, identifying potential properties and completing a 17-step site analysis evaluation, including hundreds of borings to determine drainage adequacy, subgrade stability and weightbearing integrity for the three site finalist. Site 14 (pictured) was the winning locale.

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Challenge

Design development documents for the new Franklin Community High School at the eastside site were basically complete when the new board was elected. The challenge was to find a new school site better suited than the original proposed site favored by the previous school board, and the new southwestern site favored by the new school board. The site would also have to accommodate the design development layout, as schedule and budget would not allow for building redesign to address the site specific requirements at a new site. To add credibility to site selection, a new high school master plan showing how any preferred site could be developed was also required.

InterDesign landscape architect Bill Moldenhauer recalls being skeptical and worried about finding a site that could satisfy everyone and accommodate the building for 2,000 students already designed for the initial location.

The relationship of the selected site to utilities and vehicular access is illustrated here. The purple line indicates the existing sewage line and the purple dot is the lift station. Lift stations contain pumps, valves, and electrical equipment necessary to pump water or wastewater from a low elevation to a high elevation to a collection system of pipes. The green vertical line indicates a secondary street.

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The early stages of the school?EUR??,,????'?????<

Providing Objective Help

Challenged to find an objective, impartial evaluation method, Mr. Moldenhauer and his team developed a data-driven approach with the hope that it would simplify the decision and mend the rift in the community.

Pedestrians rule! A wide brushed concrete walk connects to the athletic complex (Grizzly Fields) entrance. The positioning of the walk almost completely eliminates any contact with vehicular traffic. There is only one vehicle crossing of this connector, a gated service drive that is locked during sporting activities.

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The master plan located the field sports complex, high school, and parking on the less rolling and higher northwestern portion of the property. The main vehicular entry takes visitors down and over wooded Powell Creek, then up a hill to the main school entry. A community/school trail system winds through the complex passing through a wetland stormwater management laboratory and the educational tree identification plantings.

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The Seven Site Criteria

Site size must accommodate the buildable needs of the client, but also ensure future growth. Site owner must have clear title to the property and be willing to sell. The site must be in the Franklin city limits or within Franklin Township.Site must have good traffic flow to handle vehicular traffic for the high school, community and emergency vehicles.There must be no environmental hazards on or near the site. Direct access from the site to legal drains for stormwater management.

Access to and sufficiency of utilities to meet the needs of the school, including?EUR??,,????'?????<

The varsity baseball field is one of five lighted fields clustered around the exterior athletic complex gateway entrance and a multi-use concession/restroom building. A 300-foot buffer (at minimum) between the lighted sports fields and the perimeter property helps reduce light-spillage onto neighboring property.

Encouraging Public Participation

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As the three-month site selection progressed, public meetings allowed interested parties to see how the sites were being reviewed.

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One of the identified sites that seemed to satisfy the selection criteria stood out as an excellent possibility, unfortunately, the site fell from consideration because the owner had no interest in selling. However, there was a sizable chunk of land across the street, and that owner was willing to sell. The team added the site to the list, which eventually became one of three finalists.

ABOVE & BELOW: The main visitor entry to the school, schematically rendered, versus the main entry after the build out.

Continued Scrutiny

Paring down the list of potential sites from 28 to three proved fairly easy. However, deciding on a final site to recommend required additional analysis, conceptual master planning and community consensus. A 17-step site analysis was undertaken to determine which of the most appropriate sites was superior site for the Franklin community.

Measured considerations and evaluations of the proposed properties were undertaken and studied, including multiple land appraisals, geotechnical assessments, utility examinations and state code evaluations. Even archaeological surveys were completed to ensure no antiquities existed on the properties. The result of the assessments culminated with a public presentation of the entire site analysis to solicit comments from community and taxpayers about the prospective sites.

Following additional public meetings at which geotechnical engineers compared the soil characteristics of each of the finalists, all of the stakeholders agreed on a site for the new high school.

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Solutions for a Community

The approved site trumped the eastern site by having contiguous buildable land versus being separated by multiple highways. It also exceeded both eastern and southwestern sites by providing more property for future building and sports field expansion. The geotechnical analysis also discovered the southwestern site required mediation for wet soil conditions.

The preferred site was selected by a criteria and data driven analysis versus local political pressure or school board influence. With the very public and detailed site analysis, divisiveness in the community over the school site ebbed and support grew for the identified, measurably superior site.

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Adaptation

The Franklin Community High School project is not unique in its troubles. Often landscape architects find themselves in the middle of community battles over project locations and environmental impact, security and safety issues. The landscape architects from InterDesign in Indianapolis who developed this criteria-based, community-engaged process served as mediators and facilitators. The outcome of their hands-on solution to this community problem was three-fold: a superior site for the community of Franklin, Indiana, a mended community and recognition from the Indiana Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for a well-executed, innovative approach that serves as a model for future projects.

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