Archive for the ‘Site Development’ Category

Coho Cottage Photos

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Fall is here and we are building out two more cottages – an Ellis Cottage and a Plumrose Cottage.  We are also in the midst of building out the interior of the Coho Cottage!  Photos are worth a thousand words so check it out:

For specific information on the individual cottages or to arrange a tour please contact Sam Hawkins at sam@talktotucker.com.

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Building the not so traditional neighborhood

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Since the USA Today article came out on Ross’ new book, Pocket Neighborhoods, we have had all kinds of visits and phone calls from fellow developers and builders.  Developing and building a pocket neighborhood is quite a bit different than developing a typical residential subdivision.  Before one starts, there needs to be a clear understanding of master-planning and understand the layering characteristics of a pocket neighborhood.  Then one needs to think about location.

The first question that is asked is always about size and sells price.  That question needs to be asked much later in the process.  The first question should deal with the site criteria and site location for this type of project.

When we first decided that we were going to develop a pocket neighborhood, we went and studied several other pocket neighborhoods.  We did not look at the details of the neighborhood itself, but studied what elements were close to or surrounding the neighborhoods.

Location, Location, Location.

What we found wast that the neighborhood could be near assisted living, multi-family developments, and regular residential neighborhoods as long as the homes blended to our cottage style.  From our investigations we defined our “needs” and our “wants”

We defined the needs as a safe location; an infill site; the ability to zone as needed; near a thoroughfare; utilities to the site; one and half acres minimum with a four acre maximum having 3 acres develop-able.  Also, we did not want to be near “production” type residential development.   Then we defined our “wants” as near an amenity such as a church or shopping; near assisted living and near a quality multi-family housing development.

Three years later we settled on a 27 acre site in Carmel, Indiana.  Our site is being developed in phases of 5 or 6 acres.

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Eco-Smart

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Jean Wodarek and our team of engineers at Williams Creek Consulting have done an awesome site design.  They have gone beyond sound fiscal responsibility in their design.  Our site is eco-smart.

They have designed a site that meets all our goals of being a good neighbor. 

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Sustainable Site Engineering

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

We are in the process of designing our site improvements.  Our Inglenook Development is an infill site.  That is, it is located in an area that has already been developed.  Houses have been demolished and we are getting ready to clear undesirable trees.  We first looked at saving trees, but this part of the site had been previously harvested about 40 years ago and according to our arborist only scrub trees remain.  We will be able to save trees on future phases.

As this area was first developed, the developers used open ditches to collect storm water and these ditches drain into ditches that flow south into Marion County.

When we first studied our site we felt that we did not want to impact already stressed systems and that there were ways to address our challenges.  Based on these thoughts, we have partnered with Williams Creek Consulting to provide a civil/site design that utilizes Low Impact Development philosophies to accommodate the site constraints.  The basic strategy is to address water quality and minimize problems from storm water runoff and water table depletion – by implementing strategies that mimic the sites existing land-use.

So as part of Williams Creeks’ design tool box, they are looking at Bio-retention cells.

• Vegetated swales
• Disconnected impervious surfaces
• Cistern collection systems
• Reducing roadway surfaces
• Permeable pavement surfaces

Bio-retention cells are rain gardens.  Rain gardens are typically landscaped with native plants and grasses that are selected according to their moisture requirements and ability to tolerate pollutants.

Vegetated swales function as alternates to curb and gutter systems.  They use grasses or other vegetation to reduce runoff velocity and allow filtration.

Disconnected impervious surfaces directs water flows collected from structures, driveways and roads into localized detention cells in lieu of combining it in drainpipes with other runoff.  Disconnecting the flow limits the velocity and overall amount of water that must be handled.

Cistern collection systems are rain barrels.   These can be above ground or below ground. These are used to collect rainwater from roofs and other hard surfaces.

Reducing roadway and driveway surfaces helps increase the amount of permeable land area.  In addition the narrowing of the road helps control the speed of traffic making the neighborhood a more pedestrian friendly area.

Permeable Pavements surfaces allow water to flow through the pavement.  By mixing permeable and impermeable surfaces we can reduce runoff.

We are looking to have Inglenook’s site improvements designed and submitted to our friends in Carmel’s engineering department before Thanksgiving.  Please check back and we will have more updates on our progress.

Have a great day!

Tags: Sustainable Design
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