Developers Take a Cue from Nature
Imagine a developer buying 1,100 acres and leaving nearly 70 percent of it in its natural state. It’s happening in Wilkes County, where a community of about 325 single-family homes will eventually be nestled in the midst of pristine Blue Ridge Mountains real estate.
“We’re actually leaving about 750 of those acres as green space,” says Bill McDonald, sales manager for Cielo Falls, a development of luxury log homes northwest of Wilkesboro. The plans leave room for fishing ponds, naturally maintained streams and nine miles of low-impact walking and hiking trails that wind through a nature preserve.
“As recently as today, I heard someone say that in the next 10 years, if people aren’t building green, they won’t be building,” McDonald says. “We just feel that we’re ahead of the curve.”
Environmentally conscious design is applauded in Wilkes County.
“There’s such a rich heritage here, and we don’t want that destroyed by overdevelopment,” explains Fran Evans, director of Wilkes Vision 20/20, a long-range planning initiative that was started in 1998. The original plan was redrafted in 2008 to reflect emerging objectives, and sustainable development is one of them.
“We do not want to look like some of our adjoining counties that have come in after the fact and have houses on all the ridges,” Evans says. “And there’s the question of water. That’s a big thing, making sure that we can sustain the growth that we have.”
Each home at Cielo Falls will be equipped with a rainwater harvesting and purification system and a 10,000-gallon underground storage tank. “Instead of tapping into the underground water that’s there, we want to maintain the integrity of the streams,” McDonald says. Cielo Falls also features star-gazer-friendly outdoor lighting that minimizes glare and doesn’t pollute the night sky with unwanted ambient light.
Also boasting dark-sky lighting
is Laurelmor, a 6,200-acre resort straddling the border of Wilkes and Watauga counties. Laurelmor, the first mountain development for Florida-based Ginn Resorts, features a host
of environmentally friendly initiatives, including a pledge to eventually turn over about 2,500 acres to the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust.
The developer is working with North Carolina State University faculty and students to monitor its erosion-control procedures and with the Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council to test measures to control
the wooly adelgid, a non-native insect threatening America’s eastern hemlock trees, says Bob Oelberg, vice president
of planning and natural-resource management for Ginn’s Eastern Mountain Region.
Located at the transitional point between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Piedmont, Ginn Laurelmor has attracted the attention of Audubon Society members, who are monitoring more than 230 species of birds there.
Oelberg says the development encourages homebuilders to adopt energy-efficient designs and forbids the use of invasive exotic plants in landscaping.
Laurelmor also is designated as a Firewise Community, a recognition that requires steps to minimize wildfire risks.
The emphasis on environmentally friendly design has made its mark on the public sector, too. By September 2009, a new rest area and visitor center built by the North Carolina Department of Transportation will open on U.S. 421 in Wilkes County.
“It is what we call a green rest area,” says NCDOT’s Mike Pettyjohn.
The $9 million, solar-heated project should nab a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, which awards the coveted LEED recognition to sustainable buildings. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
At the new rest area, rainwater will be collected and used to flush the toilets, and much of the vegetation will be left undisturbed on the site. In addition, contractors were encouraged to use recycled materials throughout the building process.
