RGS worked with Landis Homes to design approximately 40 acres in the south portion of their 114 acre campus. The master plan included six, three-story hybrid apartment buildings with lower level parking, 70 independent living cottages and 72 garden apartment-style homes. The LEED Gold certified project features rain collection barrels, native drought tolerant landscaping, rain gardens and porous asphalt for promoting stormwater infiltration and pollutant removal. The centerpiece is the floodplain restoration which removed 27,500 cubic yards of legacy sediment.

Redesigned Floodplain Accommodates for Future Development
Through a partnership with LandStudies Inc, RGS designed the restoration of Kurtz Run, a stream that runs through the eastern portion of the Landis Homes property that had slowly degraded over time because of human activity. Restoring the stream and floodplain to its natural state eliminated the need for more traditional stormwater detention basins on the South Campus and allowed for the most efficient use of the property’s available land.

Navigating a Complex Permitting Process
Landis Homes placed trust in RGS to navigate a sensitive municipal process and a complicated Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approval. The design team advocated for a new, innovative best management approach to stormwater design, and helped to educate both the DEP and the Municipality on how the stream and floodplain, in its intended natural state, provided both stormwater management and water quality benefits, which ultimately lead to the approval of the design.

Floodplain Restoration Maximizes Usable Land
The restoration of the floodplain allowed two traditional stormwater detention basins to be removed and replaced with 11 additional cottages, maximizing the site’s useable land. This approach demonstrated how creative environmental solutions can also serve economic benefits to site development projects.