The town of Forest Heights is an environmentally active, small urban municipality incorporated in 1949, with a population of approximately 2,600 residents located in Prince George's County.  In 2008, Forest Heights was awarded funding through the Coastal Communities Initiative (CCI) to develop a comprehensive plan to become a more green community.

The objectives of this project were to: 1) develop a master plan for the town municipal building and grounds to reduce stormwater runoff into the Oxon Run and ultimately the Potomac River; 2) to review and modify existing codes and ordinances to achieve greater environmental benefits through reduced polluted runoff; and 3) to hold a series of workshops with elected officials and citizens to raise awareness of how the Forest Heights residents can reduce their human imprint and participate in the reduction of non-point source pollution.

A conceptual design to reduce stormwater runoff at the source to zero runoff in a one-two year rain event at the Municipal Complex was accomplished through the assistance of Low Impact Design Studio and Raztec Associates.  This year Forest Heights installed a 'vegetated' green roof on top of their Town Hall as well as 110-gallon rain barrels that were affixed to the building.  Solar panels are next the next installation to offset the energy usage of the building. Further retrofits are pending funding for construction from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, to be announced in mid-October of this year.

The University of Maryland Law Center in Baltimore provided assistance to Forest Heights by reviewing their codes and ordinances along with federal, state and county laws. Results indicated that the town only needed to adopt or reference existing county ordinances.  Updated codes adopted include: Article 3-Building and Construction Regulations, Article 11-Health, Article 15 Parking and Traffic, Article 16-Environmental Noise Control, Article 18-Vehicle and Motor Cycle Repairs and Article 19-Streets and Sidewalks.     

To accomplish the third objective, several workshops were held at the municipal building on topics that included: Energy Conservation; An Introduction to Rain Gardens; Making Forest a More Healthy and Beautiful Community; and a Chesapeake NEMO presentation on Urban Impact on the Chesapeake Bay.

Supplemental to the CCI project, Forest Heights is continuing to take a holistic approach in addressing its environmental sustainability and impact on the Oxon Run Watershed.  The most recent activity was the completion of an Urban Tree Canopy Assessment with assistance from the University of Vermont Spatial Anaylis Lab and through funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust.  This will help the town in developing its Urban Tree Canopy Plan.  Additionally, the town is continuing to rethink their stormwater system through their recent hire of Pennoni Engineering, who will survey their entire stormwater system.  The town will use this as a way to target repairs and plan for new green infrastructure.