Green, affordable living for all
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Conservation & Diversity Project leads drive for sustainable communities

An affordable, green, sustainable community is taking shape in the rapidly growing Town of Spring Lake.

Ammie Jenkins, executive director of Sandhills Family Heritage Association, discusses Balsawood plans. The association, with offices near the development, runs several programs that will be an asset to the subdivision, including a farmers' market.

Building designers, engineers, local officials, energy efficiency experts and landscape architects recently gathered to work on plans for a 3.59-acre housing development that will provide 23 low-cost homes designed in harmony with the landscape and with an eye toward energy efficiency.

The Balsawood subdivision, in Cumberland County near Fort Bragg, is one of 10 conservation-based affordable housing (CBAH) projects across the state that are being designed with technical assistance and other support from CTNC.

Nestled between Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base in northwestern Cumberland County, Spring Lake has steadily grown since the end of World War II.  With the U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Army Reserve Command scheduled to relocate to Fort Bragg by the summer of 2011, affordable housing is greatly needed in the area.

“There’s no reason we can’t create affordable, energy-efficient homes in communities that provide attractive open spaces for people to get outside and enjoy,” said Barry L. Williams, coordinator of the Conservation and Diversity Project. “Balsawood will make it possible for people of limited means to live in a beautiful neighborhood that encourages healthy, sustainable living and a connection with each other and with nature.”

The Conservation and Diversity Project is a partnership of the N.C. Community Development Initiative, the Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program, and grassroots groups including North Carolina’s 25 land trusts. It seeks to broaden the population and communities that are involved in and served by land and water protection efforts.

David Maurer, principal of Tightlines Designs, describes house designs (on floor) to charrette participants.

Balsawood, being developed by the Kingdom Community Development Corporation, is next to the nearly 100-acre Mutzberg tract that Sandhills Area Land Trust is acquiring in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Army, the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and the Town of Spring Lake. That tract will become the Little River Park, which will provide much needed recreational space for nearby residents.

Balsawood is being built on the site of an aging mobile home park whose remaining residents are being relocated with the county’s assistance. The new community will be designed to make the best use of the site’s natural features, with front porches facing a large, central open space and a circular street providing access to the rear of the homes.

The community will have 17 single-family houses and six townhomes, and will be available to families that make 80 percent or less of the area’s median income. The homes will include green features that include passive solar orientation, geothermal heat pumps and Energy Star appliances.

The Balsawood community will replace this aging trailer park - residents say they're happy to see it go.

The site design was completed by Coaly Design, which specializes in urban site design, conservation land planning, and greenway design. The company worked with a civil engineer from the Town of Spring Lake and 50 participants in a charrette – a design planning meeting – held Dec. 1. Tightlines Designs developed plans for the homes, which will range from 1,075 to 1,200 square feet and sell in the low $100,000s.

Participants in the charrette heard from local officials, architects, engineers and others who specialize in green, affordable housing, then spent the bulk of the day working in four expert-led groups – civil engineering, landscape architecture, energy efficiency, and building design – before integrating their ideas into a final plan for the development.

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