Adopt environmentally preferable covenant guidelines for new common interest communities addressing issues such as stormwater, native vegetation, growing food, clothes lines and renewable energy.
Common interest communities are condominium associations, homeowner associations, housing cooperatives and the like. Cities can adopt guidelines governing the content of these homeowner covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&R) or other forms of deed restrictions to ensure that they allow, for example, installation of rain gardens, prairie grasses, clothes lines, and renewable energy technologies.
Guidelines allow native vegetation, raingardens and renewable energy installations.
Guidelines allow larger-scale food production areas.
Guideliness allow dividing large houses into multi-family units.
Implementation details: The city has many different common interests communities within the area. There are groups that organize volunteer outings to remove invasives such as buckthorn, thus, allowing native vegation to grow back. There are groups that are focused on the many raingradens within the area. The city of maplewood even has a program in which volunteers will help residence set up and maintain raingardens in yards.
Raingarden Page
http://www.ci.maplewood.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=456
Implementation details: The City's Comprehensive Plan, Surface Water Management Plan, and Municipal Code guide development and stormwater management. Where feasible raingardens or infiltration basins are encouraged to meet requirements. The Environmental Quality Committee may recommend native vegetation and renewable energy systems.
no. 3 
Best Practice Action 5
