What is the Village Score Project?

The village^SCORE project will reduce GHG through its use as a tool to measure, quantify and monitor the impact of proposed and existing development upon the creation of walkable neighborhoods. The factors that have been used in the analysis are primarily based on: Reduction in vehicle miles travelled (VMT). Development of useable Pedestrian and Bicyclist connections.

The existing WalkScore Application is designed and operated by the Front Seat organization; the CRA has access to that data. The village^SCORE project will build on the present WalkScore application to generate ‘Heat Mapping’ and position itself to quantify GHG impacts. The estimate of potential GHG reduction is based on a walkable community reducing the vehicular miles travelled. A reduction in VMT is also exponentially related to increasing the density of jobs and housing. Increasing density from 3 du/acre to 12.5 du/acre (as defined in the County’s adopted Community Redevelopment Overlay Districts) would potentially reduce VMT, VOC, PM10 and CO₂ each by more than 30%.  For this project a lower short term (3 years) gain is anticipated, although longer term the target of a 30% reduction is deemed achievable. 

Walkability, VMT, and Village Score

The village^SCORE project is intended be a demonstration and replicable project that would enable better community planning and the development of communities that would, by design, reduce Greenhouse gas emissions. The village^SCORE mapping tool would assign a color to each part of the area to be analyzed based on the Walk Score of the surrounding properties. A spectrum of red to green will be used to represent the range of Walk Scores, red being an indication of a car-dependant though to green, which will indicate a ‘walkers paradise’ that should affect the potential of making non-vehicular miles trips and reducing VMT. Proposed development projects will influence neighboring WalkScore through the provision of additional services.