Green Is the New Granite July 2007
Sustainable features are the hottest thing in master planned communities.
By Joe McElroy
Roof-top gardens, permeable parking lots, organic farms — all fine ideas, and just a few of the techniques that enhance modern master planned communities. But public-sector planners reviewing these large-scale developments must determine what's real and what's just hype. And when the words "green" and "sustainable" are used to tout everything from cars to carbon-neutral weddings to kitty litter, that's no small matter.
"Some developers really are doing better. Unfortunately, others are using the buzzwords but not really following the principles," says Robin Green, the aptly named developer of Hidden Creek at the Darby, a highly praised, 600-acre master planned community near Columbus, Ohio
Do they measure up?
One way to evaluate today's proposals for tomorrow's master planned communities is through the prism of past success stories.
ne example is The Woodlands, north of Houston. Designed by Ian McHarg, among others, The Woodlands has been an economic and environmental success, according to Frederick Steiner, dean of architecture and planning at the University of Texas in Austin.
"I haven't seen anything better," he says, pointing to the success of The Woodlands' drainage patterns and protection of environmental resources, which were inspired by McHarg's Design With Nature, first published in 1969.
Started in 1974 and now in its eighth phase, The Woodlands entcompasses 28,000 acres. It is home to approximately 80,000 residents, who can enjoy its 108 forested parks and 150 miles of hiking and bike trails. The development's 1,300 businesses provide 40,000 jobs.
Today's developers echo McHarg's message of building within the parameters dictated by a site's natural features, that is, adjusting to the land instead of forcing the land to adjust to the developer's pro forma.
"Begin with the land; let the environment — including water, woods, and topography — show you where to put the road pattern and how to handle storm water drainage," advises Green. At Hidden Creek — where storm water is filtered through a series of wetlands — 230 acres along Little Darby Creek have been preserved in perpetuity.
The development's roads are also narrower than usual, although Green says that wasn't easy to achieve. "Anything that reduces the amount of impervious surface is good," she says, "but the typical zoning ordinance calls for roads that are often too wide."
Madison County, Ohio, ordinances called for 30-foot-wide roads with curbs and gutters. By working closely with the county to address concerns about drainage, layout, and other issues, Green eventually was allowed to build curving 18-foot-wide roads that flow with the land, not to mention 12-foot cul-de-sacs with green space in the middle. She also convinced fire department and school officials that their vehicles could navigate the narrow roads.
Green, former executive director of the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, also notes that developers who truly want to do sustainable development — and the planners who encourage them — must learn how to respond to skeptics.
Hidden Creek is now well accepted, but early on, she says, "I used to joke that the word 'no' was the starting point for most of my negotiations." She says she would respond by "taking apart what their reason is for the 'no' and then figuring out the best way to protect the environment, with both sides still getting most of what they want.
Roadblocks
In an economy where managers often are hired and fired based upon quarterly earnings reports, it can be difficult to obtain financing for sustainable developments, which tend to start slowly but build momentum over time.
Christopher Leinberger, a developer who now heads the real estate program at the University of Michigan, views compact, walkable development as a form of sustainability. He notes that neither Harbor Town in Memphis nor Seaside in the Florida Panhandle — both new urbanist mecccas — set the world on fire when lot sales began in 1984. In fact, the developer sold just 20 lots, at $15,000 each, during the first two years.
"However, when a fully built out, human-scale street system emerged, potential buyers could see the value of what was being created," Leinberger says. By 2000, lots were fetching well over $1 million, according to Leinberger.
Investors and developers also worry about the potential for excessive construction costs if they go green. "Sometimes people assume it's expensive to do sustainable development," says Robin Green. "But it's really not, because moving dirt is one of the most expensive things developers do. They could save money if they would lay out their roads and drainage systems to fit with the land."
Green and urban
Many developers complain that typical post-World War II zoning codes, which emphasize separating land uses, prevent them from producing more imaginative and more sustainable urban developments. But most master planned developments are reviewed as planned unit developments, a zoning classification that provides some regulatory relief. Leinberger says that today it's neighbors, not city hall, who are likely to object to higher density, mixed use projects.
Leinberger believes that the "walkable urbanity" that he espouses offers an improved quality of life that can help defuse opposition. Given half a chance, he believes, many people enjoy walking through interesting, well-designed, safe urban spaces. Walkable urbanity is a key to the success of areas such as Boston's Back Bay and Chicago's North Michigan Avenue, he notes.
As a developer, Leinberger played a major role in the revitalization of downtown Albuquerque, where green techniques have been used to help create a de facto master planned community — a redeveloped downtown complete with housing, office, retail, and entertainment.
"A lot of the best work is being done in existing cities," says Fritz Steiner. He points out that urban master planned communities, which reuse land instead of paving over rural areas, have a leg up in terms of sustainability compared to cornfield subdivisions.
One example is SouthSide Works, a mixed use urban village developed on a 37-acre former steel mill site less than two miles from downtown Pittsburgh. It includes retail, restaurants, a movie theater, office space, and 83 apartments. A central square provides a focal point for these uses. The developer, Pittsburgh's Soffer Organization, has plans for a hotel, more multifamily housing, and an outdoor performance space.
In-town redevelopment efforts like this one get sustainability points for cleaning up brownfield sites, restoring historic structures, and reducing the need to drive.
The past several years have seen greater cooperation between environmentalists and new urbanists, who've had their differences in the past. Some new urbanists dismiss "green" advocates for thinking plants are more important than people. The greens respond by saying new urbanists are willing to allow natural areas to be destroyed for the sake of maintaining urbanist design principles.
Steiner notes that some West Coast new urbanists, notably Peter Calthorpe, tend to be greener than their East Coast counterparts, who are more grounded in older, dense cities.
Steiner promises, with a smile, to "green them all up a bit" next spring when the Congress for the New Urbanism holds its annual conference in Austin.
'Blank slate'
Of course, developers of "blank slate" master planned communities have more elbow room to try cutting-edge green techniques. Prairie Crossing, a 677-acre "conservation community" north of Chicago, includes an organic farm that provides produce to community residents as well as area customers.
In Lee and Collier counties, Florida, Sid Kitson, the developer of the 17,000-acre Babcock Ranch, has been quoted as saying, "When we started this, we wanted to create the most environmentally sustainable community in the state of Florida." Similarly, in unincorporated southern Orange County, California, the developers of Ladera Ranch have vowed to keep 1,200 acres as open space. The 4,000-acre master planned community, which was started in 1999, is divided into six neighborhoods.
The greenest is the 406-acre Terramor neighborhood, whose single-family houses feature rooftop solar panels. Houses in this neighborhood also include hookups for electric cars and floors made from recycled tires. Water-based paint covers the exterior walls. The storm water drainage system is based on a series of manmade wetlands, eliminating the need for pipes or culverts. According to the developer, residents are willing to pay $1.50 to $3.50 more per square foot for the neighborhood's green features.
Now look at Noisette, a 3,000-acre "city within a city" in North Charleston, South Carolina. Local developer John Knott has billed it as a sustainable community ever since he teamed with the city in 1995 to buy the soon-to-close, 400-acre U.S. Navy base that forms the heart of the development.
Like the developers of Ladera, Knott believes that a key element of a green, master planned community is an environmentally friendly storm management system. Noisette includes bioswales — landscaped road medians and backyard rain gardens that allow surface runoff to be filtered through soils and native vegetation. Pervious pavement steers storm water into recycled concrete basins below the sidewalks, where it is treated before flowing toward the Cooper River.
As one might imagine, the Noisette property had plenty of environmental problems after 100 years as a military base. Agricultural use had further degraded the environment. Early research showed that large areas of urbanized watershed that once absorbed 85 percent of rainfall had been destroyed. Storm water runoff from pipes and ditches was causing flooding and drastic seasonal differences in water table levels.
To address these issues, the developer is implementing an eco-restoration effort. During the three- to five-year remediation phase, exotic plants are being replaced by native species. A nature preserve surrounding Noisette Creek, along with conservation and drainage easements, all help to protect wild areas.
Checklist
Whether the project is in the Midwest (Hidden Creek), on the West Coast (Ladera Ranch), or in the South (Noisette), green-minded developers say a proposal touted as sustainable should answer 'yes' to the following questions:
• Is the development in a location that makes sense, or is it in the middle of nowhere?
• Is there a commitment to solar access? A topic that received a lot of attention following the 1973 oil embargo, it now has been largely forgotten. Most homes should have a north-south orientation to reduce heating and cooling bills. There's a reason that farmhouses usually have evergreens to the north and deciduous trees to the south.
• Is there an effort to make the homes energy-efficient through effective use of insulation and other techniques? Energy Star designation is a plus. • Does the development include low-impact design features such as porous paving?
• Is the community walkable, or does it provide some sort of public transit?
Joe McElroy is the president of McElroy Associates, a public policy and marketing communications consulting firm in suburban Chicago.