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A ‘green’ scene
New North Charleston neighborhood to showcase sustainability
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Oak Terrace Preserve, the Noisette Co.’s 55-acre residential development under construction near the former Navy base in North Charleston, will be more than just a “green” community, one of many ecologically and environmentally focused enclaves that have sprung up across the nation.
What makes Oak Terrace Preserve special is that the development, being built where a blighted neighborhood known as Century Oaks used to be, will be a thoroughly green neighborhood in an urban area, a rarity in the United States.
“It could be the first green community in that setting,” said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting sustainable communities.
Being located in an urban setting makes Oak Terrace Preserve “doubly green. It’s a green project and it’s in the right place,” McMahon added.
The development, to consist of 303 single-family houses and 74 townhouses, each built with recyclable, energy-efficient, sustainable materials, is in the right place because its urban location reduces automobile usage for its residents, who will be within walking distance of schools and within a short driving distance of the shops and restaurants in the city’s revitalized Olde North Charleston Business District on East Montague Avenue, McMahon explained.
McMahon pointed out that Homestead Preserve in Hot Springs, Va., Prairie Crossing near Grayslake, Ill., Daybreak in South Jordan, Utah, Terramor in Ladera Ranch, Calif., and other notable sustainable communities are located far from urban centers. Residents must rely on their automobiles to get to shopping areas and workplaces.
Single-family homes at Oak Terrace Preserve will be two- and three-bedroom affairs ranging from 1,200 square feet to 2,200 square feet. Prices will start in the $200,000s and end in the $300,000s. Townhouses will be priced just below the single-family houses, said Art Titus, Noisette’s chief operating officer.
The development’s overall design, its tree-management program, its storm water management and its sustainable houses, in addition to its location, make Oak Terrace Preserve the very model of a sustainable community, said the Noisette Co.’s Elias Deeb, the development’s project manager.
Civil engineering firm Davis & Floyd Inc. worked with landscape architects from design firm Burt Hill to prepare the site.
Key to the neighborhood’s design are two-way streets, one-way back alleys and a number of small parks. Because residents must drive along the alleys to access their garages, traffic flow along the streets will be smoother. The streets will include sidewalks, giving pedestrians easy access to the development’s 17 parks, Deeb said.
About 400 of the site’s 700 live oaks, pines and other trees have been preserved. Ailing trees had their roots injected with special nutrients. Contractors must get permission from Noisette to remove any tree for homebuilding, Deeb said.
“Bioswales”—low areas of land filled with native vegetation—will collect storm water runoff. The vegetation will filter the water as it seeps into the ground and enters the water table.
A drainage system will move standing water from the bioswales to the small parks. Drainage pipes move excess water to retention areas just off the site, where vegetation removes silt and deposits from the water. The drainage system then transports the filtered water to nearby Filbin Creek, which is being restored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Deeb said.
All of the homes must meet sustainable standards set by EarthCraft House, an Atlanta-based program for healthy, environmentally friendly homebuilding. Insulation quality, energy-efficient appliances, the use of recycled and natural-content building materials, durability, waste management, ventilation and moisture control are among the requirements for which the homes are inspected.
Each requirement has a certain number of inspection points. Houses must score a minimum of 200 points to pass EarthCraft inspection.
Even the construction process is done with sustainability in mind. Leftover lumber is fed into a chipping machine, and the wood chips are then spread on the ground to prevent soil erosion. Waste material is sorted for recycling instead of being deposited collectively in dumpsters. That way, the waste material avoids being dumped in a landfill, Deeb explained.
Homebuilders say green homes are no longer just for the wealthy. Homebuyers with shallower pockets are more environmentally conscious than were previous generations and they are eager to shave a few dollars off their energy bills.
“We think green homes are a trend because of rising energy costs,” said Amy Hill, president of Ladson-based Verdi Building Systems, one of Oak Terrace Preserve’s homebuilders. “We’re bringing green building to the mainstream market.”
“Green building provides a real benefit to the homeowner and creates value,” said Ted Terry, general manager of West Ashley-based Brentwood Homes of South Carolina Inc., which has built 200 EarthCraft houses and is building EarthCraft-certified homes for Oak Terrace Preserve.
Home construction at Oak Terrace Preserve began last fall and will be completed in 2009, Deeb said.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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