Rain Barrels & Rain Gardens

Perhaps no other community in Central Virginia is as serious about mitigating the impacts of development on storm water and runoff than we are in Roseland. Water capture and re-use is integral to how we view building and street design. We see roads and rooftops as opportunities, not problems.

Central to our stormwater management efforts is reducing the amount of rainwater runoff that occurs in the first place. It doesn't make sense to design roads with landscaped medians that shed water into the storm sewers, then spend money on bringing irrigation to those same medians. Instead, we want to let nature do what she does best.

Similarly, instead of watching rooftop runoff pour from the downspouts, we can collect that water for use by the plantings around the house, drastically reducing the amount of water that we need to buy from the county to keep the landscape green.

Pervious paving in alleys and on parking lots can dramatically reduce the impact to the Swift Creek Reservoir, one of our principal sources of drinking water. It also helps keep the groundwater levels closer to predevelopment conditions, another important element of environmental stewardship.

Green roofs in Old Town and North Park provide not only a way to reduce runoff in the densest part of Roseland, but it also provides meaningful space that can be used by companies or residents as extra living and social space.

Living walls, which are often simply retaining walls or building sides that are "alive" thanks to the addition of appropriate plantings, help further clean the rainwater while providing a wonderful aesthetic to those that see them.

All of the environmental innovation that we do in Roseland is about doing the right thing for our streams, rivers, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. We believe that great communities can go hand-in-hand with environmental leadership. In Roseland, seeing is believing.