Business View Civil & Municipal Apr-2023

111 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 and other environmental features into North Port’s Wellen Park community, and other master- planned communities in the city are expected to follow suit. Currently offering incentives for sustainable development, the city is also rewriting its land development codes to reflect an emphasis on these environmental initiatives. Reducing impervious pavement and finding new ways to use and store stormwater are also priorities, and part of the city’s holistic approach to sustainability and resiliency. Educating residents is also key, as Mayor Langdon relays, “We have a lot of people moving here from the north. And we try to help people understand that having acres of green golf course-worthy grass is not the best approach to life in Florida. We try to get people to embrace what I fondly call a Florida Lawn, which I define as ‘anything that looks green from the street is fine with me’. The chemicals and the irrigation needs are very damaging to both our water table and the chemicals that ultimately run off into our swale.” As for what is drawing people from the northern parts of the country, City Manager Jerome Fletcher quips, “I would think that the weather is the main driver of people from the New England area down here.” On a more serious note, he continues, “I believe that the pandemic has shown us that as people decide to reprioritize their decisions, they want to work and live in a place that is more consistent with a better quality of life, and that’s what our area of the country has to offer.” NORTH PORT, FLORIDA