FGCU Green Space: Pleasing, Functional, Fleeting?

By Seth Tanenhaus

Florida Gulf Coast University’s campus was designed to preserve the natural environment and to protect the university from extreme weather events.  But continued development could change that, according to experts such as FGCU environmental science professor Win Everham, Ph.D.

Undeveloped land accommodates plants and animals and facilitates stormwater runoff because of its topography.  FGCU’s green space includes marshes, swamps and wetland areas. The term “green space” also includes manmade green areas such as the library lawn, though they are, technically, developed.  Green space advocates like Everham say such spaces are still beneficial.

“If you gave me a choice between a central green that was paved and a central green that has turf grass and native oak trees planted in a circle, I know exactly where I’d want to be,” Everham said.

 FGCU was designed with green space in mind from the very beginning.  Kevin Erwin was the consulting ecosystem ecologist for the campus’ design.

“The philosophy that went behind my design concept was an ecological restoration of the property,” Erwin said.  “[This involved] restoring the water table, the natural wetland and upland habitats and focusing a concentrated design of buildings and infrastructure on those areas on the property that were the most heavily disturbed.”

Another concern, Erwin explained, was that the design not impact the hydrological flows of surface water.

“In effect, it was a restoration design with the university put within it,” he said.        

Thanks to the Wetland Protection Act, there were costs associated with interfering with wetlands.  According to Erwin, the permitting agencies at the time required land developers to assess their impact on wetlands and how they would compensate for it, a process known as mitigation.  These provisions needed to be kept in mind when FGCU was being developed.

The prevailing trend in water management at the time of FGCU’s planning was to get water off the land as quickly as possible.  Emerging evidence shows this to be a flawed method. When water rushes off the land too fast, it floods areas downstream. Erwin noticed these consequences while conducting his initial study of the property.

“The land upon which FGCU was designed was heavily disturbed,” Erwin said.  “It had been impacted by drainage and pre-mining activities and was heavily infested by [invasive species].”

To combat this, Erwin decided to try something different from previously existing water management designs in the region.

“The design of FGCU actually established what the historical water levels in the area were in order to restore the wetlands on the site,” he said.  “[I could] then design a water management system that used those wetlands in conjunction with lakes and upland dry storage areas to treat the water and encourage it to flow in more of a natural pattern again.”

This water management system took the form of canals with control structures near key FGCU wetland areas.  Each control structure contains a horizontal piece of aluminum set at a particular elevation.  According to Erwin, the structure is designed to flood the wetlands to that desired elevation for a set amount of time, called a hydroperiod.  Extra water freely flows past the structure in order to prevent flooding upstream.

“It’s a very fine balance between upland and wetland on the campus,” Erwin said.  “The water management design has proven itself to be well-done and spot-on because in the 20 years since the campus design was implemented and the roads and the buildings have been put in, we haven’t had any issues with regard to flooding and the wetlands are restored and healthy again.” 

This design philosophy allowed the campus to withstand two extreme weather events in 2017: hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The storm system that became Harvey dumped 10 to 15 inches of rain on campus, according to Everham. Less than a month later, Irma dropped another 10 to 15 inches.

Everham compared FGCU’s green space to a sponge that absorbed all of the extra water. 

“We didn’t flood on campus, and we didn’t shove a whole bunch of water really fast downstream and cause a flood in Estero,” he said.

Irma had a bigger impact on Florida than did Harvey. Though it was only a Category 2 storm by the time it reached FGCU, the eye passed right over the campus.  Everham was unconcerned about the storm’s winds, however, arguing that the major threat of hurricanes is water— storm surge and rainfall.  

Everham cited 2018’s Hurricane Florence –a Category 1 storm– as an example of how much of an impact rainfall can have.

“[Florence] moved really slow, and I heard numbers of 3 feet [of rain.]  You put 3 feet of water on FGCU, we’re going to have flooded buildings.”

Irma moved much faster and dropped much less rain than Florence did.  Everham, who was on campus when Irma hit, believes that FGCU could have opened the day after the storm passed.

“Post-hurricane, two things prevent you from going back to normal: power, and where the water is,” Everham said.  “We got power back on pretty quickly, maybe just by chance, but you can’t go to work if the roads, parking lots or buildings are flooded.”

One prevailing myth about FGCU is that there is a provision in the settlement with Ben Hill Griffin III, who sold the land that was developed into FGCU, that 50 percent of the campus must be preserved as green space.  Everham said that if this were the case, some of the land currently being developed would still be marked as conservation land.

Erwin wasn’t aware of any such provision either, though he did say that the design of the university allocated a significant amount of green space for conservation land and water storage.

“Any change in those locations and that ratio between development and conservation space would cause problems,” he said. 

“That idea of 50 percent of the campus [being required as green space] was, to the best of my knowledge, made up by some of us who thought we didn’t want to see the campus get too developed,” Everham said.

Currently, FGCU is adding several new academic buildings, clearing space for modular buildings in the South Village area, and paving a road between the South Village and University Village areas.  Everham estimates that when the current development is done, the university will be at around 50 percent green space.  

Everham estimated that between 10 to 20 percent of many modern developments is green space.  Green space comprises less than 5 percent of some older developments.  The less green space a development has, the more money there is to be made –at least in the short term– from building on it.

Much of the land currently being developed on the campus was previously marked as conservation land.  While there was no explicit requirement that this land remain undeveloped, this change still took Everham and other founding faculty of the university by surprise.

“There was no conversation about that,” Everham said. “It suddenly became viewed as ‘look at all these cool places we can build,’ because they’re not required to be protected.”

While Everham said he believes that much of the development on FGCU’s campus is practical, he also believes that the effects of climate change—more frequent and more intense storms—necessitate more green space.

“[This development] makes us less resilient to changes that are coming,” Everham said.  “A 3-foot rainfall is an extreme, but it might be something landscapes experience every other year as storms become more wildly erratic.  If that’s true, let’s plan for them.”

Erwin disapproves of FGCU’s continued development, citing it as not only shortsighted, but also irreverent to how the university was allowed to exist in the first place.

“I can’t think of any good reason for sacrificing conservation areas for development,” Erwin said.  “It was the overall design of the university itself that helped get it through a rather controversial permit process 25 years ago, and to go back and make changes to that plan now would be ill-advised.”

FGCU’s construction was approved because of the design’s focus on restoration and conservation of the land. When FGCU was being proposed, the area had practically no development, according to Erwin. 

Although there are no legal provisions that require FGCU to have any particular amount of green space, Everham believes that the university should not keep trying to maximize its development with no regard to its remaining green space. 

“We shouldn’t just follow the law. We should model some better practices,” he said.  “Having more green space worked for Irma, and it’s a good model for everybody else.”

Everham said he believes that the short-term benefits of FGCU’s continued development are not worth the potential loss of the university’s long-term storm sustainability.

“I will say with confidence that the more of these green spaces we turn into buildings, the more likely we are to flood in the future,” Everham said.  “If I’m completely wrong and we don’t see another 3-foot rainfall for 200 years, then we’d end up with more green space.”

And Everham said he believes that more green space is always a good thing.

“All green space… positively impacts our psyche,” Everham said.  “I think being able to walk outside after a tough day and sit down on the grass helps us.”