Roswell mall will collect rain water for irrigation

Before putting $400,000 worth of landscaping in the ground, developer Robb McKerrow had to make sure the foliage would stay alive during drought conditions.

So before the foundations of Sweet Apple Village in Roswell were poured, thousands of feet of underground piping created a rainwater collection and filtration system for the future open-air mall.

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PHIL SKINNER/pskinner@ajc.com

Sweet Apple Village developer Robb McKerrow stands at the edge of a 60,000 gallon cistern that will collect rain water at the open-air mall.

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PHIL SKINNER/pskinner@ajc.com

A model of the development shows the pavilion that will sit atop the cistern.

GOING GREEN AND STAYING GREEN

• Construction plans for Sweet Apple Village call for 30 percent of the hardscaping to be pervious, so water will be able to flow freely.
• Cornerstone saved a handful of mature trees on the site and will create mini-parks using those green spaces.
• More than 300 types of flowers, trees and shrubbery are expected to decorate the grounds.
• The development company is investing nearly $1 million on road improvements in the area.

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The $21 million project is being built at the corner of Etris and Hardscrabble roads by Cornerstone Development Partners LLC. Locally owned restaurants and retailers are the target tenants in the mall. Koo Koo Bear, a local kids furniture and room decor shop and Tara Humata, a Mexican-themed restaurant, have committed to space. The first stores are expected to open in May 2009, said McKerrow, vice president of Cornerstone.

The nerve center of Sweet Apple Village’s water collection system is a 60,000 gallon underground cistern near the center of the development, and two retention areas on the eight-acre site. There’s also a filtration system that will clean the water before it is used for watering plants.

Retention ponds, cisterns and other water collection systems have become increasingly popular in drought stricken Georgia, said Gray Kelly, director of sustainable developments for Southface Energy Institute, an environmentally focused nonprofit based in Atlanta. Kelly said what McKerrow and other commercial developers in the area are doing isn’t new, but it is becoming more commonplace.

“Here in the South we like landscaping and color, and if we’re not going to be able to water it, this is a good option,” he said. “It’s not only a good citizenship deal, it’s a good economic deal for the developers.”

McKerrow estimates he’ll save approximately $80,000 a year on water. If that is the case, he said the $160,000 collection and filtration system will pay for itself in two years. He also estimates the development will save almost 2.2 million gallons of water per year.

The seven buildings that make up the development will have approximately 71,000 square feet of rooftop, which will produce enough water to take care of the landscaping after a moderate rain, McKerrow said.

When it rains, water from the rooftops will be directed through a series of gutters and pipes into the underground filtration and storage system. Once the water has been cleaned, it will remain in the cistern until it is pumped out to be used by the sprinkler system.

McKerrow said an inch to an inch and a half of rainfall could produce more than enough water to irrigate the landscaping for a week.

“We also had to think about what to do if it never rained again,” he said. “So, not that we expect anything like that, but we also dug a well in case there is a shortage.”

Roswell city officials are glad that developers like Cornerstone and McKerrow are taking a few extra steps to conserve water.

And environmental advocates like Southface and the Sierra Club are excited that more builders are incorporating such measure into construction plans.

“It makes me feel good that environment and sustainability issues are more mainstream now than they ever have been,” said Patty Durand, chapter director of the Georgia Sierra Club. “It’s really nice to see this shift.”