Sustainability plan questions

I read Stacy Gittleman’s excellent essay on Sustainability in your recent (October) issue with great interest, though it raised some questions that I wonder if somebody could answer.

Given that sustainability plans must balance “population and economic growth with green space preservation,” and understanding that tearing down small houses to build bigger ones is economically advantageous, when I see lovely, mature trees being chopped down to accommodate large footprints that also eradicate lawns and gardens, I wonder if a sustainability plan should limit the amount of green space these houses consume?

As Gittleman defines sustainability, it calls for “increasing native plantings” as well as “increasing the diversity of housing options to a range of income levels.”

My second question has to do with better information and opportunities to change out lawns to native planting. I live in a small house with big front and backyard lawns and a copse of trees, ferns, and bushes at the back of my property. A few years ago, I decided to grow in a quarter of my back lawn, but a city of Birmingham official spotted it and told me that I had to cut it back because it was over eight inches tall, and an unsightly jungle of curly-leaved dock and other “weeds” that were not in any way native plantings.

Being elderly, I couldn’t do it myself, and I didn’t know what kind of company could undertake it. I wonder if that is why we see so few native plantings replacing Birmingham’s lawns? Might our sustainability plan include guidelines for creating such lovely green spaces?

Dr. Annis Pratt

Birmingham MI