QuikTrip Corp. volunteered to be the one of the first to comply with a new city tucson ordinance that takes effect in June and will require all new commercial developments to obtain at least half of their water for landscaping from Tucson’s annual rainfall of 11 to 12 inches.

Thickets of native trees shade the street in front of Brad Lancaster’s downtown home, a patch of urban greenery that owes its survival to the strategic management of concrete. Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman visited Lancaster’s home and left convinced that the example was worth emulating. He helped push through one of the West’s most progressive rainwater ordinances that, starting in mid-2010, requires new businesses to meet at least half their landscaping water needs with rain.

Sisters Melissa Shaner and Jennifer McCaig knew if they held on to their prom dresses long enough, they would one day find a use for them. And so they did: Shaner and McCaig started Cinderella’s Closet in May to distribute prom dresses and shoes to high school juniors and seniors. The sisters came up with the idea about four years ago, and it took off in March after Shaner had lunch with City Councilman Rodney Glassman.

The Tucson councilman was the driving force behind his city’s requirement that commercial buildings harvest rainwater and that homes use “gray water” plumbing. While numerous governments, businesses and non-profits promote such measures, Tucson kicked it up a notch in September 2008 by making gray-water plumbing mandatory for new construction beginning next June. Councilman Glassman has spoken about his proposals to city councils in several other Arizona communities. Among them was Avondale, whose Environmental Affairs Commission said this year that gray-water recovery should be one of that city’s top “green” initiatives.

Long dependent on wellwater and supplies sent hundreds of miles by canal from the Colorado River, this desert city will soon harvest some of its 12 inches of annual rainfall to help bolster its water resources. Under the nation’s first municipal rainwater harvesting ordinance for commercial projects, Tucson developers building new business, corporate or commercial structures will have to supply half of the water needed for landscaping from harvested rainwater starting next year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 office recently selected Ward 2 Council Member Rodney Glassman, and City of Tucson staff who worked with him on Tucson’s Rainwater Harvesting Ordinance, to receive its 2009 Environmental Achievement Award in recognition of their exceptional work and commitment to protecting the environment.

City-TUSD proposal allows after-hours usage by residents

Residents around 12 Tucson schools will soon have new neighborhood parks at their disposal, if the city and the school district approve Tuesday.

Both the city and Tucson Unified School District will consider an agreement to open 12 schoolyards after school hours, on weekends and during the summer. Two schools are located in each of the city’s six wards.