Governing Council

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Council |Judges | Committee | Process | Application

The The Greater Triangle Stewardship Development Awards program is a nascent partnership of regional agencies, local governments, and industry associations that has formed to recognize developers that go beyond compliance in their efforts to protect water quality, preserve natural habitats and open space, use green building techniques, enhance the fabric of the community, and educate the public about their efforts.

Council Representatives & Program Parters

Organizations who agree to be a Partner to the Program are awarded a seat on the Council. All of the these local governments and organizations have approved resolutions of partnership.


Upper Neuse River Basin Association	Sarah A. Bruce Executive Director sbruce@tjcog.org
Watershed Education for Communities and Local Officials North Carolina Cooperative Extension	Christy L. Perrin Program Director christy_perrin@ncsu.edu
Chatham County	To be determined
NCDENR Division of Soil & Water Conservation	Shelly L. Baird CCAP Coordinator shelly.baird@ncdenr.gov
Home Builders Association (HBA) of Durham, Orange & Chatham Counties; HBA of Wake County	Frank Thomas Director of Government Relations frank@hbadoc.com
Triangle Land Conservancy	Jeff Masten Director of Conservation Strategies jeff@triangleland.org
Green Home Builders of the Triangle	Frank Thomas Director of Government Relations frank@hbadoc.com
Town of Butner	Melissa Hodges Director of Planning mhodges@butnernc.org
NC Source Water Protection Program	Amy Axon Hydrogeologist amy.axon@ncdenr.gov

Review Judges

A slate of independent review judges will be selected by the GTSDA Program Governing Council with recommendations from the Technical Committee. The Judging Panel shall be comprised of professionals in the fields of engineering, natural resources sciences, planning, architecture, landscaping, and others as deemed necessary by the Technical Committee, based on the applications under consideration. The GTSDA Program Governing Council will make the final determination of recipients of the awards based on recommendations from the Judges' Panel evaluations.

Technical Committee

After the August applications deadline, the Technical Committee will meet to review whether the submitted applications are eligible for consideration under the current GTSDA Program cycle.

The Judging Process

The Judging Panel will evaluate how well applicants meet the specific criteria established in several principle areas as established by the Technical Committee based on all the information submitted in the application as well as site visits and applicant presentations. Each application will be judged on the overall creativity, design, and mitigation of environmental impacts of the land development project. Primary emphasis will be placed on the specific criteria applicable to each specific project. A standard evaluation form will be used to rate the degree to which a project meets relevant criteria. If a project has been reviewed in the past and did not receive recognition or received a Development Design Recognition award, the Judging Panel will also review the evaluation notes from the prior judges and any substantial changes to the project since it was last reviewed. The Judging Panel will make recommendations to the Governing Council on which projects should which type of recognition under the GTSDA Program.

After site visits have been conducted and judges have submitted their project evaluations, the Technical Committee will meet to go over the judges’ recommendations and make final recognition determinations.
After determinations are made, the Technical Committee will notify applicants of their final decisions on recipients of recognitions at least four weeks prior to the Awards Banquet and/or prior to the RSVP deadline. After the Awards Banquet, all eligible applicants will receive a letter thanking them for participation in the program and any recognition materials not conferred at the banquet. The letter will include all of the recommendations submitted from the Judging Panel. Click here for additional information on the judging process.

The Application

Please click here to download the application and to learn about additional criteria for this program. Applications shall be accepted at any time up to the deadline of the year for which the project is being considered. For this year's application schedule, please visit the application page. Any applications submitted after the deadline will be considered for the following year’s GTSDA Program cycle. In order for applications to be complete, they must contain all information listed on the application checklist and must include a project narrative that demonstrates how the project meets the evaluation criteria.

Please contact us if you have questions about the criteria, Governing Council or program details.