Green Building: Going…Going…Green!

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XIV. SUMMARY

Let me try to tie this all together. HomeTown is a community that is as culturally and environmentally sustainable as the general housing market will accept and the regulating authorities will allow. The primary environmental sustainability features presently include:

• Higher housing density which saves land and leads to cultural sustainability
• Houses with a good solar orientation
• Lower "embodied energy" and long term maintenance of street and utility improvements
• Use of native plants and grasses
• Recycling of construction waste.
• And house heating cost of $200 per year.

Cultural sustainability is achieved by designing according to timeless patterns that nurture the human spirit. The focus is on designing for the nurture and safety of children and permitting their safe, unattended use of ever greater realms; because when you draw children together in play and friendships you automatically draw the parents into neighborly relationships. We have accomplished this by using the concepts of CoHousing and Traditional Neighborhood Design overlaid with proven European traffic calming measures wherever cars go.

The result is a community that 2/3 of the market will be strongly attracted to, but can't find anyplace else in Chicagoland which results in high perceived value and high profitability.

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