Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008 - (Page 30)

VISIONARY FINALIST Going Green Florida development informs public while offering sustainable lifestyle. By Rob Kundert (Editors note: This is the first of a series of articles that will feature the 2008 Visionary Award finalists, which were announced in May by Sustainable Land Development International.) Bonita Bay Group saw an opportunity in a stretch of agriculturally impacted shoreline along the Orange River in Southwest Florida, near Fort Myers. Located a half hour northeast of the development company’s first community, Bonita Bay, the corridor was an untapped amenity and ripe for a concept the company wanted to pursue, one that incorporated eco-restoration and a new building ethic. The result is Verandah, an environmentally sensitive, sustainable community that spans more than 1,450 acres, of which nearly 1,000 acres have been set aside as open space. At full build-out it will accommodate an estimated 1,700 homes. Two golf courses and an amenity center, as well as a commercial area for shopping convenience are already in place. “In Southwest Florida, everybody is focused on the Gulf of Mexico and the Bays, but this river is a great amenity and we just think that corridor has a lot of potential,” said Dennis Church, the firm’s vice president of planning and development. The community’s neighborhoods include a diverse mix of housing products, from large and small, single-family homes to multi-family residences with a main amenity area called River Village, where residents can gather to socialize all connected by a series of trails and sidewalks. There’s even a series of boardwalks that wind through some of the slough areas. 30 June 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today “For a long time, since Bonita Bay started (in 1983), we have been doing horizontal development in what people now call ‘sustainable’ or ‘green,’ as a matter of course,” he said. That work ranged from analyzing ecosystems and restoring the water management regime to installing dual water systems and clearing exotics and evasive species. “The company has an environmental ethic. It’s one of our core values. It’s part of our brand,” he said. At Verandah, the developer decided to go vertical as well horizontal, applying sustainability concepts to homes. Before the buzz When planning began for Verandah in 1999, the company formed partnerships with experts in the field of sustainability at a time when the concepts of sustainability and green building were not yet at the level of public awareness that they are today. “We’d monitor what was going in the market, the publications and what the next wave of buyers would be looking for,” he said. “You can’t just do what you did on the last project. You have to figure out what is the unique selling proposition for the next one and how to position it.” There were concerns that the sustainable path the company wanted to take may not be attractive to enough buyers. If people were unwilling to spend more for an Energy Star light bulb that would last longer and use less electricity, would they pay the hundreds or thousands of dollars more for high-efficiency appliances, HVAC or air-filtration systems? It was considered a risk. “Some buyers would rather have granite counter tops than the higher efficiency air conditioning equipment,” Church said. However, the company was committed to educate the public and its builders about the importance of green building. Sustainability was coming. Dr. Pierce Jones, who founded the University of Florida Energy Extension Service’s “Build Green & Profit” program, was brought in to develop green guidelines for single-family homes that conserve water and electricity and improve indoor air quality. “We worked with the University of Florida, which has a green training program for builders. We brought in their training people and all of our builders for a two-day, certificate workshop,” Church said. “The builders were exposed to green building and green development. That started to raise the bar.” Dr. Jennifer Languell, a member of the Florida Green Building Coalition and

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Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008 Contents Our Voice Editorial Board SLDT Resources Where Rubber Meets the Road Integrated Planning: The Key To Developing Sustainable Planned Communities Win-Win For College and Community Industry Spotlight: Transoft Unique Organization, Unique Opportunity New Preferred Provider Comments from the Austin Conference Welcome New Members New Knowledge Project Articles Books Going Green Business Management Risk Management Surveying and Mapping Industry News Products/Services Showcase Advertiser Index Classifieds The Last Word

Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008

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