Eco-Friendly Communities are Surprisingly Retro

A family bikes in Issaquah Highlands in Washington, one of America's greenest residential communities. Photo: Issaquah Highlands

The decision to live in one of America’s emerging eco-friendly housing developments isn’t strictly about reaping energy savings or protecting the environment.

Surprisingly, what a growing number of eco-friendly housing developments share is an old-fashioned sense of community: homes with welcoming front porches that encourage neighborliness, roads and sidewalks that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Locals gather on village greens and frequent farmers’ markets, local restaurants and shops.

As the demand for greener, more energy-efficient homes and sustainable living swells, home buyers from gen X to baby boomers are opting to live in eco-friendly communities, whether they are downtown infill projects, walkable suburban retrofits, smart growth projects, transit oriented developments or sustainable communities designed to quell ex-urban sprawl.

"Green is something consumers really want and is the emerging trend of how people are going to live," says Ben Schulman, communications director for the Congress for the New Urbanism, an organization that promotes eco-friendly communities. "These communities tend to keep their value more than ex-urban sprawl."

Feeling Centered
“Even in a suburban setting, you can have a real town center that people can use and walk to versus a strip mall,” says Scot Horst, a senior vice president of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

“If you find a place like that, people are happy,” Horst says. “Buildings and neighborhoods are spaces that define who we are.” In 2010 the USGBC created a checklist for sustainable or green communities, LEED for Neighborhood Development, with 155 communities registered. Another 101 participated in a pilot program.

From a development called Mueller in Austin, TX to Serenbe outside Atlanta, in many ways these smartly planned, transit-oriented, eco-conscious communities are raising the bar on quality of life. Some are urban-infill projects, built on repurposed rail yards, Navy yards and defunct airports; many are geared to affordable housing.

Mueller used to be a place to catch a plane. Now you can live, work and play there. The former municipal airport’s 700 acres are being redeveloped and transformed into a pedestrian-friendly urban village with a town center, parks, hundreds of LEED-certified buildings and a green hospital. Its 660 energy-efficient homes have diverted 9,002 tons of construction waste from landfills and saved more than 900,000 annual kilowatts. Reclaimed water is used to sprinkle lawns. Mueller’s public art includes solar–collecting sculptures that return energy to the grid.

Thirty minutes from Atlanta, the hamlet of Serenbe has 200 homes, a 20-room inn, art galleries, boutiques, three restaurants and a 30-acre organic farm that feeds a thriving Community Supported Agriculture program and Saturday farmers’ markets.

Tucker Berta, a spokesperson, said the 40,000 acre community, including at least 70 percent preserved open space, “was built because of a concern for urban sprawl and traditional development” swallowing more land. When complete, Serenbe will have “1,000 rooftops.”

Echoing small towns of times past, the 7,000 residents of Issaquah Highlands in Washington State, one of the greenest residential communities in the United States, live on narrow, tree-lined streets designed to encourage walking.

“At its heart, it set out to recapture the sense of community life prevalent when most Americans lived in small towns along quiet streets, waved to their neighbors on their front porches, and walked to the store, school and diner,” said Chris Hysom, director of community affairs for Port Blakely Communities, the developer. Its newest 10 “zHomes” incorporate “zero impact living” with technologies that are “cost effective, practical and deep-green.”

Eco-sensitive homebuyers aren’t just seeking solar homes with energy efficient appliances, bamboo flooring and electric car chargers. Many also want to live in like-minded communities. Following are five standout sustainable green communities.

Community: Mueller
Location: Austin, TX
Number of Homes: 660
Green Features: Industrial brownfields turned urban infill project. Sustainable, LEED certified, environmentally friendly infrastructure, parks, open space, green-building practices.

Mueller, in Austin, TX, was converted from an airfield into green community. Photo: Garreth Wicock | flickr

The runways, parking lots and industrial brownfields of the former Mueller municipal airport in the midst of Austin, TX were transformed into a pedestrian, bicycle and mass transit- friendly urban village with a town center, 660 green homes, a green hospital and hundreds of LEED-certified buildings. The town’s public art sculptures double as solar collectors.

Community: Serenbe
Location: Chattahougee Hills, GA
Number of Homes: 200
Green features: Land preservation, organic farm, energy efficiency, green building, walkability, sense of community

Serenbe in Chattahougee Hills, GA is an innovative 200-home community. Photo: Serenbe

To stem urban sprawl outside Atlanta, Serenbe is the first hamlet in the 40,000 acre city of Chattahougee Hills, where at least 70 percent of the land is dedicated to preserved open space. Among the 200 green homes are 15 new tiny solar “nests” with geothermal heating and cooling. Trash from each household is recycled as compost for the community’s 30-acre organic farm.

Community: Issaquah Highlands
Location: Washington
Number of Homes: 3310
Green features: Sustainable, LEED-certified, green building, land preservation, walkability, and sense of community

A woman reads in an Issaquah Highlands park. Photo: Issaquah Highlands

Two decades ago, five-acre lots for single-family homes sprawling across 2,200 acres were the initial blueprints for the community now known as Issaquah Highlands. Instead, Port Blakely Communities, the developer, created a high-density urban village that now has, concentrated on 780 acres, 3310 green homes with another 440 to be built, a shopping and commercial district, more than 10 miles of hiking and biking trails and more than 20 planned parks. Two thirds of the land is permanently dedicated open space. The high density and proximity to schools, shopping and the YMCA help reduce car trips – and gas emissions.

Community: Prairie Crossing
Location: Grayslake, IL
Number of Homes: 359 single family homes; 36 condominiums
Green Features: Land preservation; green building, organic farm, sense of community

Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, IL. is one of the nation's first eco-friendly communities Photo: Prairie Crossing

Started in the 1990s, Prairie Crossing is one of the nation’s first conservation communities. It includes a wind turbine-powered 100-acre organic farm where residents buy vegetables, eggs, flowers and honey as well as volunteer and send their children to farm camp. Though the architectural style is traditional, its 359 single family homes, many with neighbor-friendly front porches, were built with green construction techniques and sited to protect the environment, native vegetation and wildlife of the Midwest. Thirty-six condominiums are set around a town square, near shops and steps from commuter train lines to Chicago. More than 60 percent of the 677-acre community is protected open land, with 10 miles of trails. With emphasis on a “sense of place” and “sense of community” the renovated century old Byron Colby Barn functions as a community center, concert and social event space.

Community: Pringle Creek
Location: Salem, OR
Number of Homes: 130
Green Features: Net zero energy residences, LEED-certified shops, work spaces, parks, porous asphalt street system to manage rainwater; car sharing, edible landscaping, sense of community.

Pringle Creek, near Salem, OR is tiny now but has big growth plans. Photo: Pringle Creek

Started five years ago on 32 redeveloped acres in the Willamette Valley, three miles from downtown Salem, Pringle Creek now has 16 residents but plans to grow to 300. A ground source geothermal loop will eventually heat and cool 70 homes, the community center and café. Blueberry bushes and 300 apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach and cherry trees fill two acres of orchards and community gardens contribute to creating an abundance of food through edible landscaping.