Leytham, A New Traditional Neighborhood

[Herb]

Hello all.

It is great to watch the discussion unfold. Here are some observations to advance the discussion.

New urbanism (NU) in general and traditional neighborhood development (TND) in particular make no statement in their guiding principles about the style of the architecture in the built environment. No particular architectural style is "mandated." That is why in new traditional neighborhoods you will see a wide a range of architectural styles. If I knew how to post pictures here I could SHOW you! <grins . . . .

GRID is exactly right when he says, "Not everyone wants to ditch the backyard deck, and the pool, and trade it in for a front porch to sit around and drink lemonaide with their neighbors on a hot day." Market studies confirm that those who are inclined to buy in a new urbanist community comprise about 25 percent to 33 percent of all home buyers.

Round that off and say that 70 percent of home buyers will always want their car-oriented, sub-urban sprawl. I have always known this and in fact this is exactly what has me so excited. If you are extremely conservative (or pessimistic, depending on your view point) and cut that 30 percent who want to live in a new traditional neighborhood in half, and then cut it in half again, and then cut it in half yet a third time and then still a fourth time, you STILL get 3.75 percent of home buyers wanting to be in a new traditional neighborhood. Information provided by MarketGraphics, Gene Grave's market research firm, shows that the size of the new home market in Omaha is 3,600 units per year. 3.75 percent of that new home market is 135 sales a year, and that is a LOT more than the annual sales in any conventional subdivision in Omaha.

MarketGraphics' research further reveals to us that (as of the fourth quarter of 2006) there are 20,400 developable lots in Douglas and Sarpy Counties. Those are fully improved vacant lots on which a house could be built. These are ALL conventional subdivision lots. Let's look at the relative demand equations: Omaha's first new traditional neighborhood at 168th and State Street (see http://www.whatsnewonstatestreet.com) will have about 450 single family lots competing for 135 buyers. That is a 3.3 year supply of lots. The 20,400 conventional subdivision lots will be competing for the remaining 3,465 buyers (3,600 annnual new construction units less 135 who want to live in a new traditional neighborhood). That is a 5.9 year supply. So even if the expected demand for homes in Omaha's first new traditional neighborhood is over stated by nearly 90% (i.e. 3.75% rather than 30%), absorption will still be about twice as fast as for the conventional subdivision lots.

I am utterly convinced that a well designed and well executed new traditional neighborhood will do extremely well in our market. And part of that design and execution is attention both to the architectural styles that people crave and great execution of the rich traditional architectural details that bring those styles to life.

Herb

[RockHarbor]

GRID, those are some common misconceptions.......

1) the most common is that New Urbanism or by the correct name (TND...Traditional Neighborhood Development) is just a sentimental development style. It is actually quite the opposite. What is more sentimental than pretending to be living in a rural farm setting at the end of a cul de sac (ie present day suburban development)......I wish I had the article because it articulated it much better.

2) New Urbanism can only be done in traditional/historical housing styles. It can be done in pretty much any housing style.

3) New Urbanism can only be done in a traditional grid network. As you will see with New Herbanism it is supposed to leave the land in tact and the streets are supposed to conform to the existing landscape.

I actually like the grid network better because it allows one the opportunity to take multiple routes to get somewhere.....thus lessening the traffic on each road.

Thanks for explaining all that.

You know, out west, they build the new houses so close together anymore, that they are basically built saving as much land space as "new urbanism" does. And, while not built on a perfect grid, they are built with streets that don' t deviate too far from a grid (basically a grid distorted with a few cul-de-sacs, connecting streets, and a few meandering lines). Zoom down on Phoenix or Las Vegas, and you will see the houses are packed super tightly together, forming a "microchip" pattern on the desert floor. So, why is "new urbanism" really needed there? The only thing I can think of is pulling business work center closer to the homes to save gas and commutes.

[Big E]

GRID, those are some common misconceptions.......

1) the most common is that New Urbanism or by the correct name (TND...Traditional Neighborhood Development) is just a sentimental development style. It is actually quite the opposite. What is more sentimental than pretending to be living in a rural farm setting at the end of a cul de sac (ie present day suburban development)......I wish I had the article because it articulated it much better.

2) New Urbanism can only be done in traditional/historical housing styles. It can be done in pretty much any housing style.

3) New Urbanism can only be done in a traditional grid network. As you will see with New Herbanism it is supposed to leave the land in tact and the streets are supposed to conform to the existing landscape.

I actually like the grid network better because it allows one the opportunity to take multiple routes to get somewhere.....thus lessening the traffic on each road.

Thanks for explaining all that.

You know, out west, they build the new houses so close together anymore, that they are basically built saving as much land space as "new urbanism" does. And, while not built on a perfect grid, they are built with streets that don' t deviate too far from a grid (basically a grid distorted with a few cul-de-sacs, connecting streets, and a few meandering lines). Zoom down on Phoenix or Las Vegas, and you will see the houses are packed super tightly together, forming a "microchip" pattern on the desert floor. So, why is "new urbanism" really needed there? The only thing I can think of is pulling business work center closer to the homes to save gas and commutes.

GRID: without the focus on the pedestrian scale and the de-emphasis of the automobile, density is useless (unless you're talking about NYC density, and even then I'll argue the point). You can pack 2000 sqft 3-car garage homes as tight as you want, but if no one bothers to focus on the foot, you've got a suburb. Period.

-Big E

[Stargazer]

Sadly, until there's more every day amenities downtown, to most residents, it's little more than an 'urban suburban' neighborhood itself. Let's face it, aside from the benefit of being able to walk to a nice dinner in the Old Market/enjoy a stroll in downtown parks (don't get me wrong, a VERY nice benefit)... many downtown residents just pull out of their garages and commute to work/shopping, in the same manner suburbanites do.

Hopefully sooner than later, there will be a grocery store, a movie theatre, every day needs retails, etc, etc... closer to downtown residents... than the amenities I have from my 168th Street location.

If it can be viable for a prospective grocer, retailer, etc... there will certainly be benefits in a development like Herb's... even in the middle of nowhere (as long as everyone has a hybrid like Eric). Heck, in resource consumption/long term utilities/infrastructure maintenance alone it has to be an improvement. If we think this sewer separation is going to bankrupt us... just wait a few more decades when we have to repair all of these suburban streets/sewers/pipes.

[RockHarbor]

BIG E: Gotcha. Wasn't thinking along those lines. Thanks... :-)

[redfield]

The density of a TND can be considerably more dense than today's standard issue subdivisions.

[Herb]

You Can Save 43% by Ditching One Car . . .

So, folks, there I was at 32,000 feet flying to the regular semi-annual meeting of The Realty Alliance, reading the April issue of “Spirit,” the Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine. There, in a section called “The Numbers,” was this tidbit:

“A study commission by the American Public Transportation Association calculates that it costs that it costs a household $14,276 annually to transport two workers to their jobs. If one partner sells a cars and commutes by bus or train or street car or bicycle or walking or working at home in a new urban live/work unit [italics added], the household’s total expenditure for commuting drops to $8,025 – even after transit fares are added in. The lion’s share of the savings comes from the costs of owning, insuring, and fueling a second car. In comparison, the study found that the average U.S. household spent approximately $5,800 on food and $6,900 on mortgage interest in 2004, the data that was used in the January 2007 study.”

Little by little, in many ways and in many places, a new consciousness is taking shape in the country. Can you feel it too? The balance is tipping in favor of more sustainable development and building practices.

[DTO Luv]

Since I gave up driving, albeit a little forced, I have not missed as much as I thought I would. I do have more money to go out and put towards other things.

[Herb]

Your New Urban Factoid(s) of the Day . . . .

Buyers Want It All Within Walking Distance

The next hot market could be homes in walkable neighborhoods designed for the 75 percent of families that don't have any school-age children. Christopher B. Leinberger, a Brookings Institution fellow, says up to 40 percent of Americans want to live in urban places where they can walk to restaurants, shop, jobs, and entertainment.

Source: Daily Real Estate News, April 9, 2007

Yours for the dense, walkable, mixed-use neighborhood,

Herb

[Herb]

I have not been posting recently because I have been concentrating on all the requirements for submitting Omaha's first new greenfield traditional neighborhood development (TND) for the approval and entitlement process. And last week was a big week.

Last Monday, May 14th, I (or more properly my engineers at Lamp-Rynearson and Associates) submitted to the city Planning Department all necessary documents and plans required to get on the City Planning Board's agenda for preliminary approval at the June 6th meeting. Those required submittals included the dimensioned plot plan with phasing shown, the grading plan, the storm and sanitary sewer plan, the paving plan, the draft subdivision agreement and the zoning regulation together with the regulating Transect plan. All of this will receive scrutiny from the city Planning Department staff as part of the process leading to final approval of the neighborhood. The June 6th meeting of the Planning Board is the first of four public hearings in the entitlement process leading to final plat approval for the project. Some aspects of the original plan as conceived by PlaceMakers during the charrette last September had to be modified. Some street geometries had to be modified pursuant to Public Works Department policies and comments based on their preliminary review of the initial plan. The no-build area containing the creek and the wetlands had to be expanded a bit. But all-in-all, the vast majority of the details of the plan and all of its spirit remain intact. I will provide updates here as we continue to move through the approval process.

Then last Tuesday I left for Philadelphia to attend CNU XV, the fifteenth annual meeting of The Congress for the New Urbanism. The Congress ran from Wednesday through noon on Sunday and was attended by about 2,000 architects, planners, developers, attorneys, engineers, artists, journalists, and new urban denizens of all stripes. I attended sessions from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm and continued my education in smart growth, new urbanism, traditional architecture, work-force housing, land use planning, traditional neighborhood development and a host of other topics. Over the next several weeks I will share some of what I learned in a series of posts. It was all very exciting, very stimulating and in some ways also very provocative and very thought provoking. Things are going to change and they are going to change faster than we think, They have to.

[Harpoon]

Good for you Herb, Omaha's 2nd new urbanist neighborhood located 13 miles away from the city center should be a good one (I would classify Aksarben as the first).

[Herb]

Harpoon, thanks for your observation that my post was not precise when I said, "I have not been posting recently because I have been concentrating on all the requirements for submitting Omaha's first new traditional neighborhood for the approval and entitlement process." What I should have said was ". . . Omaha's first new greenfield traditional neighborhood . . ." Askarban Village is an urban redevelopment project, the first of its kind and my project is a greenfield TND, the first of its kind. Thanks for pointing this out and I will amend my posting accordingly.

Best, regards, Harpoon,

Herb

[Coyote]

Herb,

I am looking forward to hearing what you learned from this conference.

A few of us were talking this evening at the streetcar forum about the process you have to go through to get this approved. It was mentioned that some of the cities codes are a little behind the curve and needs to be updated. I would imagine that almost every city where new urbanism is being developed that there is a city planning learning process with new codes and regulations written.

[ricko]

Kudos,Herb!


Thanks for introducing New Urbanism to the Omaha area. I grew up in a neighborhood (old urbanism, I guess) in the eastern third of omaha in the 50's and 60's. My family had one car and after 5 years of use, it registered only 6,000 miles. Distances: 2 blocks to school/church, 3 grocery stores within 3 blocks; 2 drug stores within 4; dry cleaners, bank, dentist, doctor, restaurant, bus stop, ball field ,playground, dairy store, several bars, barber, hardware store, rec center, florist, gas station/body shop, shoe store, appliance store(mom's), butcher, women's hair salon, insurance office, bakery(2), all within 1/3 of a mile from home (I'm not exaggerating, and I'm probably forgetting a few). Several of the proprietors lived above or behind their businesses. It was a safe neighborhood where neighbors watched each other's kids (and yelled at us when we needed it) and homes. Crime wasn't a stranger, but violent crime was almost nonexistent (unless you counted kids bullying each other and occasional domestic violence). The elderly who were still ambulatory had a degree of independence since they could walk to basic services (most didn't own cars anyway). Taking the bus Downtown or to Peony Park was the norm if we wanted to leave the neighborhood (yes, white people took public transportation at one time, and without shame). I'm not saying it was ideal---racial/ethnic divisions were much more pronounced then---de facto segregation was all too real---people were much more suspicious of anything out of the norm, rigid conformity ruled the day, and extended family obligations could be suffocating (the reasons I left Omaha for school and later for work). Omaha has come a long way since then, but I think the suburban lifestyle, like everywhere I've lived, has a tendency to alienate people from each other by virtue of distance. Spontaneity's is something that young people in the last 40 years have lost---parents feel obliged to sign their kids up for a dozen organized activity groups (soccer, ballet, gymnastics, golf, whatever) and their days are scheduled down to the minute, and I think that the distances between people in the current suburban setting have created the necessity for this stressful, over-organized life. The nexus of social life has shifted from the neighborhood to organizations created to fill the void. The concept of a pick-up baseball game with the neighborhood kids, or just goofing off, is as foreign to them as Burmese folk dancing (sorry, I have this tendency to ramble off topic---must be early altzheimers).





I want to thank you for introducing Omaha to Georgian/Williamsburg revival architecture--at least that's what it looks like when I see the plans. I think it's one of the most graceful styles of home design---and it never goes out of fashion. I also think that the New Urbanism is socially responsible ( a concept that has fallen out of favor lately) in the sense that it will cut down on gasoline consumption, bring people closer together, and also for the reasons already mentioned above. It may not be for everyone, but hopefully will be attractive to enough people to make it work.


Good luck!

[TitosBuritoBarn]

I was there the Tuesday it was recieved in the planning department and helped take apart the plans and distribute them to the necessary departments. Looks good! Although the woman who assigns addresses was a bit stressed about the incredibly curvy roads.

[Herb]

TitosBuritoBarn,

Thanks for those comments. As to the lady who names streets . . . I would love to sit down with her and chat with her as she approaches her task. Could that be possible? When she looks at the plans in detail she will find that some lots are within the alleys and do not enfront a street. Other homes sites face greens rather than streets. These home will have access only from the alleys. Her naming assignment will be a bit more complicated than that for a conventional subdivision. I would be very willing (and in fact eager) to sit down with her and walk her through the plan so she can more easily see how it functions. If you can facilitate that I would appreciate it.

Yours for streets that create a wonderful public realm,

Herb

[Big E]

Kudos,Herb!


Thanks for introducing New Urbanism to the Omaha area. I grew up in a neighborhood...

Wow... it almost sounds like you're describing a city. Didn't your parents know you can't raise children in a city? ;)

-Big E

[Stargazer]

"Hey son, run down to the Whole Foods and pick us up a gallon of milk" oh wait

[Big E]

Hey, if it's Whole Foods or Cubbies, I can still get Roberts milk for $14 a gallon. ;) So there. Or I can have D'Shawn get me milk at the All Nations.

-Big E

[Stargazer]

By the way, I did finally get myself one of these newfangled LCD displays. When I focus on it really carefully, it all most feels like I'm living in a SoMa row house... at least until my kid's run in the room and I'm reminded that I live in the suburbs.

[Big E]

What are these "kids" of which you speak? I have heard of them, but they are apparently scared off from downtown by gunfire and bilingual public educations.

-Big E

[Herb]

Ricko Part 1

Ricko makes some very perceptive observations that are right on point. I want to address them one at a time in a series of posts.

Ricko says,

I grew up in a neighborhood (old urbanism, I guess) in the eastern third of Omaha in the 50's and 60's. My family had one car and after 5 years of use, it registered only 6,000 miles. Distances: 2 blocks to school/church, 3 grocery stores within 3 blocks; 2 drug stores within 4; dry cleaners, bank, dentist, doctor, restaurant, bus stop, ball field ,playground, dairy store, several bars, barber, hardware store, rec center, florist, gas station/body shop, shoe store, appliance store(mom's), butcher, women's hair salon, insurance office, bakery(2), all within 1/3 of a mile from home (I'm not exaggerating, and I'm probably forgetting a few). Several of the proprietors lived above or behind their businesses.

That sort of “Old Urbanism” is just exactly what the “New Urbanism” is all about a mix of uses, residential, commercial, recreational, civic all in close proximity; pedestrian friendly; residential with commercial and retail, not only in the same neighborhood, but also on the same block and even within the same building. The new urbanists call one type of those mixed use buildings, “live/work units.” It is all coming back again.

Yours for the walkable, mixed use neighborhood,

Herb

[nebport5]

Herb:


I'm very much excited for your State Street development and can not wait to see it become a reality. In particular, I like how you will incorporate the existing topography into the master plan. This leads me to wonder what vegetation principals exist for the State Street plan as well as with new urbanism and TND in general? Although I do not know the area well, from pictures it doesn't look like there is an abundance of trees in the 168th and State area. I think one of the major failings of suburban neighborhoods is the practice of clear cutting and starting over with a few strategically placed saplings. Personally I think a great deal of the charm of older neighborhoods beyond architecture and proximity is very much the mature trees and varied vegetation.

[cdub]

Trees definitely help those older neighborhoods. Its worth noting though that most of those neighborhoods started out pretty bald themselves :)

[Stargazer]

Pretty bald? You mean totally bald. That is one of the biggest misconceptions the 'urban' people have... in thinking that neighborhoods like Dundee spared this forest of trees. It was totally devoid of trees when they developed it. There's a Dundee book at the library (can't recall the title) which shows numerous photos from around the neighborhood when it was first developed. Look it up... it's eye opening. The only departure which I don't like in today's suburban developments... is the reluctance to put trees between the sidewalk and the street. Even in Regency, you can see beautiful canopy of trees emerging (when I was a kid... they were 2" diameter 'twigs').

[Herb]

Stargazer is exactly right. I too have seen pictures of Dundee when there were no trees at all. This area is, after all, part of the Great Plains. Time and nature will provide if we but start the process. "Street trees," i.e. those planted between the street and the side walk are expressly provided for as part of the design principles of the new traditional neighborhood. The SmartCode, a form-based, graphical unified development and zoning model regulation developed by DPZ, which will, in abbreviated form, form the zoning and development regulation for this new neighborhood, defines in graphical form the "Public Frontage" as the "area between the curb of the vehicular lanes and the Frontage Line [think front lot line here]. Elements of the Public Frontage include the type of Planter, Curb, Sidewalk, street tree and street light." "Planter" is defined as "the element of the public streetscape which accommodates street trees. Planters may be continuous or individual." Planter is synonymous with "planting strip" or "tree yard."

Street trees are a vital component of creating the streetscape that helps to define the inviting and welcoming public realm in the new traditional neighborhood and they are mandated throughout.

[Herb]

To put a cap on the street trees discussion and for those of you who are urban-planning geekazoides (and you KNOW who you are), I thought I would provide more information on the SmartCode. Remember that the SmartCode, calibrated for our area, is the form-based zoning and development regulator for the New Neighborhood on State Street. This may be way more information than the average reader will care to know, but here it is for the true new-urbanites that lurk within.

To find out more about the SmartCode go here: http://www.smartcodecomplete.com/learn/downloads.html

The following (although somewhat re-arranged) is from that site:

The SmartCode is a blueprint for places where true community, in all its complexity, can prosper. The SmartCode is a unified land development ordinance for planning and urban design. It folds zoning, subdivision regulations, urban design, and optional architectural standards into one compact document.

The SmartCode is considered a “form-based code” because it strongly addresses the physical form of building and development. Conventional zoning codes are based primarily on use and density. They have caused systemic problems over the past sixty years by separating uses, making mixed-use and walkable neighborhoods essentially illegal.

A product of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), it efficiently delivers what municipalities, planners and developers are increasingly searching for -- the means to maximize choice, quality-of-life, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship and adaptability over time -- providing a truly practical solution to the challenges of municipal growth.

Because the SmartCode enables community vision by coding specific outcomes that are desired in particular places, it is meant to be locally customized (also known as “calibrated”) by professional planners, architects, and attorneys.

Important: The SmartCode is not a building code. Building codes address life/safety issues such as fire and storm protection. Examples of building codes include the IBC, IRC, and ICC documents.

The SmartCode supports these outcomes: community vision, local character, conservation of open lands, transit options, and walkable and mixed-use neighborhoods.

It prevents these outcomes: wasteful sprawl development, automobile-dominated streets, empty downtowns, and a hostile public realm.

It allows different approaches in different areas within the community, unlike a one-size-fits-all conventional code. This gives the SmartCode unusual political power, as it permits buy-in from all stakeholders.

The SmartCode is also a transect-based code. A “transect” is usually seen as a continuous cross-section of natural habitats for plants and animals, ranging from shorelines to wetlands to uplands. The specific transect that the SmartCode uses is based on the human habitat, ranging from the most rural environments to the most urban environments. This transect is divided into a range of “Transect Zones,” each with its own complex character. It ensures that a community offers a full diversity of building types, thoroughfare types, and civic space types, and that each has appropriate characteristics for its location.

The six T-Zones are: T-1 Natural, T-2 Rural, T-3 Sub-Urban, T-4 General Urban, T-5 Urban Center, and T-6 Urban Core.

The New Traditional Neighborhood on State Street comprises four of these T-Zones: T-1, the natural zone; T-3, the sub-urban zone; T-4, the general urban zone; and T-5, the urban center zone. The SmartCode requires that these T-Zones each make up a certain percentage (within a range) of the net site area of the TND.

To elaborate upon our discussion of street trees, you may wish to review, from the website shown above, Table 6, Public Planting, to see which types of street trees are appropriate for each T-Zone. See also Table 7, Private Frontages, to see by T-Zone and frontage type, just how street trees are arranged in the Public Frontage, i.e. that area between the lot line and the street. You can ready see, because the SmartCode is so graphical in nature, just how the street trees are arranged in the Planter or tree yard. You may also wish to review Table 16, Definitions Illustrated, to see how some of the terms are defined graphically. All of these are found in "Part II, Annotated SmartCode v8.0" at the URL shown above.

If you get so absorbed in the SmartCode that you are utterly lost and gone, just call me and I will talk you back down off the new urbanist, form-based code ledge. Happy browsing.

Yours for street trees and a whole lot more that make a place wonderful,

Herb

[guy4omaha]

(when I was a kid... they were 2" diameter 'twigs').

Geez, you're old!!!! :D

[DTO Luv]

I found out something kind of interesting this week. A friend of mine is an ice cream truck driver. He said all of the drivers hate doing the west Omaha routes. Why? The kids are all isolated in their fenced off back yards, they don't go out to the parks as much, and there aren't many gathering spots for groups of people and pedestrians.

Coincidentally the eastern routes of the city are coveted for the opposite reasons.

[nebport5]

I'm not so naive to think that the older neighborhoods in Omaha started off with big mature trees. What I'm suggesting is that when developing new or redeveloping older neighborhoods there does not seem to be much of an effort to save and utilize the existing trees. I've seen this practice all over the country of wiping out mature oaks and the like (especially in the south where trees are more abundant) only to start over with a few saplings. However, this isn't always the case. I have also seen, though not nearly as often, new neighborhoods being developed where in fact many of the lots included at least a few mature trees if there were an opportunity to include them. I realize the difficulty of developing such neighborhoods in this region of the country especially when many are converted from old corn fields. Still, there are a few newer neighborhoods in western Omaha that I've seen develop with no attempt to save the few existing trees. In a state that cherishes our trees (home of arbor day after all) I can't believe there is not a better effort to take advantage of what we already had. What a sad process it was to watch highway 6 widened from Elkhorn to Gretna where miles of beautiful trees were wiped out and burned.

[Herb]

Nebport5, thanks for your comments in this post and also in your post of May 25th. Using existing topography and sparing trees (when they exit) are completely interrelated. Most real estate developers are basically “terra formers” at heart and their engineers are their enablers. For example, on the 160 acres east of my project on State Street, something approaching 1,000,000 cubic yards of earth were moved. Elevations were taken up or down in excess of 20 feet. Shave down the high ground and put the dirt in the lower areas. That is the program.

Residential developers and their engineers move so much earth to get as many walkout lots as possible. If the engineers can come up with a grading plan that will produce 70% walkout lots, the developer is very happy. It does not matter really how much dirt has to be moved or in the process, how many trees have to be destroyed. Commercial and industrial developers do the same: they strive to make the land what is called, “developer flat.” Look at Village Pointe to see what I mean.

The only saving grace is that, here in our area, nearly all residential subdivisions are platted in the urban fringe on what was previously farm ground. Naturally there are no trees in the areas that were fields. (In fact the “working title” for the new neighborhood on State Street during the planning charrette was “Bean Field.”) The only trees on these farms are typically at the homestead or in wind breaks or in wetlands or along creeks. Some residential developers will try to spare trees wherever doing so is not too inconsistent with the “make more walkouts” principle. This is because trees are scarce here and people (i.e. home buyers) value them. But all the trees at the homestead on the ground easy of my project were destroyed. The fires burned for days. The trees were sacrificed because the homestead was on comparatively higher ground that the grading plan called to be lowered by about 15 feet. However the engineers for that project, the builder who has contracted for the lots, and an arborist and I walked the fence line between our two projects one warm day late last summer, and we identified every tree worth saving. We erred on the side of saving some very marginal trees that still may need to be removed.

The new traditional neighborhood on State Street will move less dirt than the conventional subdivision because we are trying to work with the natural topography, not fight it. This will let us use a lot less diesel fuel and reduce carbon emissions considerably. Running all those scrapers for several months has a major environmental impact. Sparing trees will not be an issue, because nearly all the land is either in prairie grass or is being farmed.

Working with the natural topography will produce a more sloping neighborhood and will create interesting and varied siteing possibilities for the buildings. The town architects who create the building plans and who site the buildings and who oversee construction will assure that the land is used sensitively and creatively to make a place worth caring about and loving.

Yours for respectful use of the land,

Herb

[Herb]

If you want to see more "developer flat" being manufactured, look at the Costco site at 122nd and West Dodge Road. See that fuel tank truck there to feed the nine scrapers running around?

Topography . . . what topography?

Herb

[Brad]

If you want to see more "developer flat" being manufactured, look at the Costco site at 122nd and West Dodge Road. See that fuel tank truck there to feed the nine scrapers running around?

Topography . . . what topography?

Herb

Here you go Herb

[Coyote]

And this used to be fertile farm land.
Can you imagine what farmers think when they see this valuable top soil buried to make a parking lot.

[Herb]

Perfect, Brad.

What a great photograph. Thanks!

How does one post photos here? I have a few that will illustrate the principles of residential grading practices in our area, but I don't know how to put them up. Can you help me?

Herb

[Brad]

Perfect, Brad.

What a great photograph. Thanks!

How does one post photos here? I have a few that will illustrate the principles of residential grading practices in our area, but I don't know how to put them up. Can you help me?

Herb

Thanks Herb,

I made a quick tutorial under the photography forum "HOW TO POST PICTURES" hope it helps, let me know if you have other questions.

Brad

[Herb]

Brad,

Thanks for this information. I am on registering on ImageShack even as I write this . . . ah the blessings of multi-tasking.

I looked in the FAQ section here but saw nothing on posting pictures. I think the information you posted in the Photography section on how to post pictures would make an excellent addition to the FAQ section.

Thanks again.

Herb . . . .

Watch out once I learn how to post pictures . . . . . <grins

[Admin]

We welcome and encourage pictures on our site Herb! Post away!

[Herb]

Brad,

I posted a picture here and it went up alright. But it was Gigantic, so I took it down right away. I will research how to resize the image. If you have any helpful tips, that would be appreciated.

Herb

[Herb]

Below are two pictures that show a lot. I took these pictures last summer during the grading for Hanover Falls, the 160 acre project just east of my project on State Street.

The first shows a cut of about 12 feet or so around the original farmstead. The house was left for a time on its own little mesa and illustrates well the depth of the cut in this area. That dark brown layer near is the top soil. Naturally all the trees around the homestead were sacrificed to the grading plan.



Of course all the "cut" dirt has to go to "fill" so the grading for the site "balances." A developer never wants either to haul dirt off the site or to bring dirt in, so cuts and fills have to balance. The fill here is about 18 feet.



You can readily see why there is neither topography nor trees. . . .

Yours for the respectful use of the land,

Herb