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'Green' housing set for Pinal
Everything else is going green these days, so why not housing developments
Two large projects that are still in the planning process in the Maricopa-Stanfield area could be Pinal County's first truly green housing developments.
Vizcaya, located about a mile north of Stanfield, has received planning approval from the county and is in the engineering stage. Desert Gardens, at Warren and Miller roads just south of Maricopa, has yet to receive county approval.
"I think this is going to be the direction that development goes," said Nick Labadie, a planner with Rose Law Group in Scottsdale, consultants to both project developers.
Labadie said some people's reaction has been that the environmentally friendly designs are too good to be true. Others are suspicious of new concepts, don't want that kind of project as a neighbor or maybe don't want a neighbor at all.
"It takes some understanding and cooperation from municipalities," Labadie said. "There are some things we have to do differently. It takes some acceptance from whoever is giving the approvals. It's kind of an acceptance of 'this is new and here's why it's better.'"
Vizcaya will implement standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, a third-party reviewer that has created a certification process to ensure that green really means green. LEED has become the standard for green development.
For the Vizcaya project, that means some new ideas to reduce the development's environmental impact.
"All the open spaces and sidewalks are connected so you don't have to drive," Labadie explained. "Ninety percent of the dwelling units will be within a half-mile of active open space (such as large playing fields). That doesn't include pocket parks - those are in all the neighborhoods and are very close.
"It also uses crime prevention through planning, using certain design ideas to deter crime." Those include placing landscaping so as not to provide hiding spaces.
Desert Gardens, if eventually approved, would include "a lot of things that haven't been done," Labadie said, such as a community garden, public equestrian trails throughout the approximately 200-acre site, solar lighting in public areas and landscaping designed by the Arizona Desert Botanical Gardens.
Labadie said that green developments aren't necessarily more expensive to build.
"You know, it's not. It can be if you don't know what you're doing," he said. "There's a lot you have to look at to make it work, but in the end it's definitely possible to do it without adding cost to the homeowner, builder or county."
The impetus for both Vizcaya and Desert Gardens came from the developers, Labadie said.
"They were committed to going a little greener than the status quo," he said. "At this scale, this is very new in Arizona. I think the end result will be a little more commitment to environmental responsibility."
It's likely to be a year or more before any houses go up for sale in either project, but Labadie thinks the unique nature of the communities will make those houses an easier sell in a tough real estate market because they offer something different.
