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Anna Maria Island Restoration

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? Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020 ?

A historic holiday island in Florida was succumbing to bland residential development with little regard for sustainability. In this case, it took a visionary leader from the private sector to turn things around. David Randle sums up six lessons from Anna Maria Island.

Anna Maria’s Pine Avenue Restoration Project:
A Model for Sustainable Stewardship

As Anna Maria Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast became popular with tourists, retirees, and second homes, the town was in danger of losing its past charm, historic character, and its limited commercial district on Pine Avenue.

Pine Avenue’s history reaches back more than a century. In 1911 a steamer would bring tourists from St. Petersburg across the mouth of Tampa Bay to the City Pier on Anna Maria. Guests would walk the Pine Avenue promenade to the bathhouse on the other side of the island, where the beaches are. Later, that bathhouse became today’s Sandbar restaurant.

By the turn of the millennium, however, the spotty commercial district on Pine Avenue was languishing. Four lots had been converted from business to residential. When seven more lots went up for sale, Sandbar owner Ed Chiles, already an established leader in the community, and local businessman Mike Coleman became concerned. They could see the potential loss of the island’s business district, which neither thought the community could afford. Ed came up with a plan to buy the five lots and resort the historical nature of Pine Avenue.

Pine Avenue, Santa Maria.

The plan was to find 20 people who would each contribute $500,000 for this $10 million project, which Mike would supervise. The response was less than Ed had hoped. Only one other person was willing to come up with the $500,000. Not to be discouraged, they financed the project by leveraging $1 million they did have.

After meetings with private citizens and elected officials, a new vision was born for Pine Avenue. The consensus was that two story historic cottages would be the best way to reflect the culture, heritage, and nature of their town. The idea was to recreate the old historic promenade walk so that present and future generations of guests could experience a taste of Old Florida.

While the project was underway, it received a large boost from two more entrepreneurs. Mike and Lizzie Thrasher had recently retired from their business in the U.K. and took up residence in Anna Maria Island, where they had vacationed previously. The Thrashers purchased two of the lots from Ed and Mike and collaborated on supporting the restoration by creating the Green Village, a solar business district.

The Pine Avenue Restoration project is now complete. It includes historic architecture in sustainably designed buildings with boutique and retail shops on the first floor and tourism units on the second. Some of the project’s major sustainability features include:

  • Building Construction used insulated concrete forms to develop buildings that use very little energy and can withstand 250-mph hurricane winds. The buildings were certified at the platinum level by the Florida Building Council. Construction manager Mike Coleman said one of the best compliments he received was when he overheard two women visitors commenting on “how good a job they did in fixing up these old buildings,” not realizing that the buildings were in fact brand new. Mike knew then that they had succeeded in restoring the historic sense of place.
  • Energy Efficiency inside the building includes tankless on-demand hot water systems, energy-efficient appliances and lighting.
  • Native Plantings were initiated by landscaper Mike Miller, another vacation visitor turned resident. After settling in, he became disenchanted with his too-lush garden of exotic plants, inappropriate to a barrier-island environment. He went through a personal transformation that turned him into a champion of native landscapes. He calls his approach “sense of place development.” Mike says, “Rather than change out the sand in order to accommodate exotic plantings, we plant natives for which the sand is the intended home. Rather than hardscapes and lawns that encourage runoff into our water bodies and, ultimately our precious Gulf and Bay, we leave sand wherever possible and create rainwater storage for capture and re-use.”
  • Edible Gardens are placed all along Pine Avenue. The gardens were developed in partnership with ECHO, international experts on tropical agriculture. The ECHO edible gardens grow food on Pine Avenue year round. Local restaurants use some of it. The gardens have inspired residents to create gardens in their homes as well.
  • Permeable Walkways have replaced concrete sidewalks on Pine Avenue. Guests and residents alike can stroll on them through the edible gardens and native plants. In the event of a tropical storm or hurricane, the combination of native landscaping and permeable walkways is estimated to reduce flooding by as much as 50%.
  • Transportation – The Pine Avenue redevelopment has spurred some rethinking of transportation. Pedestrian pathways, bicycles, and golf carts are the norm for getting around town. Island visitors are encouraged to use a free trolley.
  • Rainwater is gathered and stored in a 9000 gallon reservoir and used for both landscaping and the waste water system.

  • Solar panels shade a parking area, a win-win in sunny, hot climates.

    Solar Business District: The Historic Green Village shopping center includes both historic building restoration and new construction. Solar, geothermal, energy efficiency, and rainwater collection have helped the village to become one of 100 developments worldwide that have achieved the Net Zero Energy Buiilding Certification and LEED Platinum certification. The village produces more electric energy than it uses, sharing the excess with others on Pine Avenue outside the village. The Village goes even further in the preservation of historic buildings, including a lodge and the greening of their supply chain as well.

  • Local and Sustainable Food – The anchor for this project is the Sandbar restaurant, known for its environmental commitment and sustainable practices. The Sandbar recently purchased its own farm to insure that it could get the type of produce it needs. Its seafood is sustainable, much of it purchased from the nearby Historic Cortez fishing village. In addition the Sandbar has joined with the Gulf Shellfish Institute to encourage production of shellfish used in their restaurant. The restaurant sometimes also taps the Edible Gardens and its own onsite garden. Other sustainable practices include oyster shell recycling to help restore reefs; elimination of plastic straws, lids, and bags; composting for use by the farm; and a program to put invasive lionfish and wild boar on the menu. The menu also features Grey Striped Mullet, a local heritage seafood that dates back to the Timucuan and Calusa Native Americans who once inhabited the island. The Sandbar has also teamed up with START and the Mote Marine Lab to find solutions to the challenge of intermittent red tides that can shut down businesses.

Lessons from Anna Maria Island

  1. Local leadership – It takes a person with passion and leadership like Ed Chiles for change to succeed. This project may not have happened without him. Good management is needed to implement the vision, and Mike Coleman played a critical role, paying attention to the details necessary to bringing the vision to fruition.
  2. Green planning – It’s important to incorporate environmental features in the initial design – less expensive than adding them later. For this project, green planning made the construction less costly, lowered ongoing operational costs, and increased the value of the end product.
  3. Community support – Rallying local support helped clear political hurdles and brought more people into the project.
  4. Openness and flexibility – Allowing the project to grow organically without controlling of every aspect enhanced this project greatly. Examples include willingness to collaborate with the Thrashers and their idea of the Green Village, utilizing Mike Miller’s expertise in native landscaping, and getting local government support for features like the permeable walkway.
  5. Networking – Ed Chiles is a co-founder of the Blue Community Consortium, a UNWTO Affiliate and member of the UNWTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories. He is also on the boards for START and the Gulf Shellfish Institute. All three of these groups were invaluable in supporting and expanding the sustainability and heritage preservation vision of the project.
    The relationships also have proven to be allies for the business to share the Anna Maria story, to find solutions to the threats of red tide that can shut down business, and the increased sourcing of shellfish for sustainability. When asked about the greatest success of this project, Ed said “I believe the most important component of the combined projects is their contributions toward elevating the discussion and implementation of sustainable practices in our community.”
  6. Sustainable supply chains – A key element of success for this project was building relationships for a sustainable supply chain. While not every restaurant can purchase its own farm, there are ways to negotiate with farmers to ensure supply needs are met. Building relationships with the local fisherman has helped to insure a good supply of sustainable fish, and local aquaculture – replicable in many places around the world – helps relieve overfishing while creating jobs and strengthening the local economy.

The future of Anna Maria

By 2011, the Pine Avenue Restoration project was a success. Challenges and threats of course remain, such as the red tide events that come and go, as well as such global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and economic ups and downs.

Aware that there will not always be an Ed Chiles, the community has begun to think about future transitions. Given all the networking that has occurred, coupled with the highly competent team in Ed’s organization, the chances for continuity are strong.

One thing that makes Pine Avenue so attractive for an educational model is that within a 15-20 minute walk, a visitor can see and experience all of the sustainability features I have listed. Anna Maria Island serves as a global model for sustainable tourism and continues to attract interest from around the world. View their Sustainability Management Plan and consider a visit someday yourself.

Is This French Ecoresort a Game-Changer?

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[Above: Accommodations at the Villages Nature ecoresort, a collaboration by Euro Disney and its French partner, Pierre et Vacances, owner of Center Parcs Europe.
Photos courtesy Villages Nature]

France’s Villages Nature Blazes a New Trail for Sustainable Tourism

Over the course of four visits to the new Villages Nature resort outside of Paris, I have become convinced that the world now has a new model for sustainable resorts and their neighboring communities. On each visit, I developed a deeper appreciation for the design, the sustainability features, and the inspirational model Villages Nature represents.

My first visit, May of 2017, was during construction. Frank Heatherton, the Master Planner for the resort, gave me a tour. He shared a design that I believe is a potential game changer for sustainable tourism as it provides a high quality resort and tourism experience while mitigating the issues defined by the science of the Nine Planetary Boundaries put forth by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

Villages Nature launched on October 10, 2017. During my second visit, at the inauguration, I had the opportunity to speak with Joe Rohde, the Walt Disney Imagineer who contributed to much of the design of Villages Nature.

Part of the 300-acre Villages Nature resort.

“What were the key goals of Villages Nature?” I asked.

“We were trying to create utopian idea,” he responded. “Often sustainable architecture is executed in designs that are so modern-spirited they do not necessarily connect with a broad popular audience. This is a danger, because sustainability will mean nothing unless it is adopted by that broad audience. Our goal was to romanticize sustainability, to make it aspirational, to make it approachable, to make it poetic.”

“Then what were the key design strategies used to accomplish this?”

“We settled on symbolic language that infuses the entire site,” he said. “One in which circles and fluid forms are used to represent nature, and angular orthogonal forms represent human enterprise. These two are woven through each other to create harmonic compositions. In addition we treated the entire site as a metaphor of a garden. Gardens require our stewardship and care. Imagining the world as a garden allows a picture of nature in which human agency is always present. So landscapes of the park are all various exclamations of the idea of gardens, from vast natural forms like an English estate, to formality inspired by French classicism, the narrative mystery of Chinese gardens, and so on.”

From these conversations, I learned that despite Villages Nature paying no specific attention to the science or framework of the Nine Planetary Boundaries, the resort was operating with real promise to significantly address all nine of them. Here a new model for sustainable tourism for the world has been born, using Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework along with the expertise of the Walt Disney Imagineers and other team members like Thierry Haua.

The resort includes five themed areas:

  • The Aqualagon—a 9000 square meter water park.
  • The Promenade—an array of restaurants featuring local and organic food and shops featuring nature discovery items along with items to improve health and well being.
  • The Forest Legends—a playground with games designed to help families reconnect to nature.
  • The Belle Vie Farm—literally a farm-to-table opportunity coupled with ways for people to learn about growing their own food and cooking it.
  • The Extraordinary Gardens—four gardens themed to Earth, Fire, Air, and Water that provide games to learn the One Planet Living process and a meditative garden walk to connect with nature.

Map of Villages Nature shows the five themed areas, housing, and the pool..

My third visit I learned that the resort received the World Hospitality Award for “Best Initiative in Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility.” I also invited Villages Nature to participate in a pilot program for the new Blue Community Certification that includes the GSTC criteria, the 12 blue community strategies to protect, enhance, and restore coastal habitat and marine environments, and the One Planet Living framework.

From Marie Balman, the director of corporate social responsibility, I learned about the company’s commitment to operating in ways that benefit guests, employees, and other stakeholders. To date the resort has:

  • 40% of its supply chain from local businesses within 100 kilometers,
  • 82% of its employees from the local area,
  • had visits by 300 students from local schools,
  • and created 600 jobs.

My fourth visit was for Villages Nature’s one-year anniversary conference, on Leadership and Governance for Sustainable Tourism, co-hosted by Blue Community. We were able to present the Blue Community Certification to the resort. The certification has four levels, and Villages Nature achieved the highest.

I further learned more of its sustainability features:

  • The 18-kilometer geothermal system that heats not only all of Villages Nature but also 30% of the two Euro Disney theme parks. The system reduces CO2 by 9,000 tons a year.
  • A construction process that reused all excavated soil and diverted 98% of construction waste away from landfill.
  • A composting system that includes participation of waste separation in every cottage—zero waste to landfill.
  • A biodiversity plan that protects 72 species and brought back an additional 23.
  • The planting of 28,000 trees and 430,000 plants.
  • Water conservation efforts that keep the resort from ever tapping the aquifer.

In conclusion I offer you a few thoughts and impressions from my friends and colleagues who visited Villages Nature with me:

“Villages Nature lets you enter in the magical world of a sustainable park that is beautifully designed. It is a park planned to let you think and learn about sustainability while you have fun and experience it individually as well as with your friends and family. It is very inspiring, and leaves you something beautiful inside. The Extraordinary Gardens and the Aqualagon were my favorite worlds. The Belle Vie Farm, was where I had my favorite food experience: a unique breakfast sitting surrounded by tea pots.” —Silvia Barbone

“Villages Nature provides the perfect environment for family, friends, and guests to explore ways to ‘power-down’ in meaningful and fulfilling ways without compromising comfort or enjoyment.” —Rebecca Tobias

And from Joe Rohde:

“First of all, this is a place for a family to be together with each other, to experience the restorative calm of nature, and to have fun. After that, I hope people take time to imagine that this world they have experienced here could be built anywhere, in many climates, in many styles, and could become a model not for a utopian getaway, but for their own living communities.”

Villages Nature is nothing short of reinventing sustainable tourism.

We at Blue Community are now implementing projects in Florida where existing resorts are becoming more sustainable by integrating the Villages Nature model of the One Planet Living framework, the Blue Community strategies, and PM4SD (Project Management For Sustainable Development) skills.

Let us know if you want to bring this to your resort or community.