Today I visited a number of "preferred builders" to produce a video series of my favorite builders and communities. Why not? Builders have their "preferred Realtors." To get started I had to evaluate which builders and communities to feature, which made me think through green community criteria. Maybe by reading this you too will be inspired to make videos, know your communities, think about quality of life, and quality of construction.
(Videos will be uploaded Friday to my weekly green newsletter blog)
COMMUNITY NATURAL ENVIRONMENT & AESTHETICS
I am not a tree hugger, nor am I afraid of progress. It's just simply about management of natural resources. There are communities that I know who strive to prevent growth and businesses and having worked in commercial development for many years what I can truthfully say is this - development is going to happen, with or without the support of a municipal government, so what can be done to maintain the quality of the community is determine by the support of the municipality.
The communities I chose are The Woods of Frederick Creek, Stillwater Ranch, & Kallison Ranch for my first series.
- Frederick Creek - The developer left many of the trees in tact, built around them in some cases, built a community park/pavilion using recycled wood from the homes being built, and provided trees and low water landscaping. Two green builders provide homes here.
- Stillwater Ranch - The community has secured 4 green builders and has left a fair amount of green space. It was a ranch, and flat, so really, anything is an improvement over scrub brush and dead trees.
- Kallision Ranch - This is a Lennar community and I haven't been out there in awhile. Much to my surprise, they are using recycled wood framing for landscaping mulch & clean fill. What impressed me more is Lennar's commitment to green; they are incorporating solar power and spray foam insulation.
DRIVING IMPACT
- Frederick Creek, being 23 miles outside of Loop 1604 and considered far, far northwest San Antonio has the greatest negative impact on our roads. But they are close to schools and every day shopping so they get credit for that. I kept them on the list because they are highway miles, interstate at that, so there is a lesser impact compared to a city street or county road.
- Stillwater Ranch & Kallison Ranch are adjacent to each other, virtually. They too are outside of Loop 1604. I give then credit for making an ugly ranch nicer, and for being close to new shopping, dining, etc. Culebra road, the main road, is going to be part of the proposed 211 loop and will become a main artery in time making it easier to get to either 211 or 1604, major infrastructure here.
- I will need to look for an "infill" project later to do a better job in this category.
BUILDERS
- All 3 communities feature green builders.
- Frederick Creek features Ryland homes with their Houseworks green branding. Armadillo Homes has finally caught onto the green idea and embraced it with e3power branding.
- Stillwater Ranch has 6 builders, 4 of which are using cellulose or spray foam insulation, Imagine Homes is a 3 time Green NAHB award, impressive. The others are Chesmar, Woodbridge, & New Leaf Homes. I'm not keen on DR Horton Homes since there is no commitment or differentiation at this time. Lynnwood is an unknown; no model, no contact information at this time.
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