By Molly Parker
Staff Writer

Just over a year ago, J.R. and Holly Kramer brought home a new son and they wanted a home to match their family lifestyle.

Randomly, J.R. Kramer struck up a conversation at the 2005 Annual Sustainability Awards Event with Verdi Group architect/builder David Hill, who told Kramer he should consider Oak Terrace Preserve in North Charleston. 

“We were one of the first to buy, and we were one of the first to move in,” said Kramer, who has lived in his Earth-friendly home since February with Holly and their 15-month old son, Elias.

“We like the sense of community and all the parks and the fact that it’s so easy to get around,” he said. ”

Oak Terrace Preserve is a unique development both for the fact that it is a neighborhood owned by the city of North Charleston and is a sustainable community smack dab in the middle of an urban core. After more than three years on the drawing board, families just began moving in this year. 

As of mid-October, eight homes had sold, two sales were pending, 12 were for sale and another dozen were under construction, said Keith West, spokesman for The Noisette Co., which is acting as the development manager on behalf of the city. The neighborhood is located not far from the former Navy base that Noisette is hoping to redevelop into an urban

community.

Part of the company’s commitment to the area included creating a blueprint for redeveloping the Navy base and the 2,700 acres surrounding it, most of which is included in the historic Park Circle, the heart of old North Charleston. 

A few miles from this development, the old North Park Village, the state’s largest public housing project, was torn down and recently replaced with a mixed-income community called Horizon Village.

“For a long time the values were declining in this part of town, but it has turned around,” said Art Titus, Noisette’s director of operations.

Oak Terrace Preserve replaces what was Century Oaks, originally built as temporary

housing for shipyard workers and their families, but that in recent years had melted into a rundown, largely revolving rental community.

“Time had taken its toll on the houses,” said Elias Deeb, the development’s project manager.

The long-term goal is to build 300 homes and 74 townhomes on the 55-acre plot. The short-term goal is to have 101 homes built and occupied by sometime in 2009, Deeb said.  

One of the features of the neighborhood is that all the homes will be EarthCraft certified, a rating system developed jointly by the Southface Institute and the Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association in which points are assigned for items such as energy efficiency, waste management, indoor air quality, site planning and the use of energy efficient lighting and appliances. Homes must earn a minimum 200 points to qualify.

Other green aspects of the project include the preservation of some 400 of the site’s 700 live trees, plans calling for the creation of 17 pocket parks cutting down on the need for large yards that require water and take up valuable space and the installation of bioswales, which are shallow depressions running parallel to the streets that are filled with natural shrubbery, a type of stormwater management system.

Molly Parker is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her directly at mparker@setcommedia.com.

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