The plan for the Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm includes the creation of a community with a small carbon footprint and built-in plan for water resource management.
When they heard property along New Hampshire’s Nubanusit River was for sale in 2003, Shelley Goguen Hulbert and her husband Robin were concerned.
“What if it got purchased and developed poorly?” she asked. Originally the home and dairy farm of former Governor John Steele, and the land around it, was a wildlife refuge that nearby residents could visit for outdoor recreation. The idea of a generic housing development or a shopping center didn’t sit well with Hulbert. She knew she had to do something.
Hulbert lived on a farm with her family, growing her own food and striving to live a green lifestyle. Now, with the availability of this tract of land, the idea of a co-housing, pedestrian community intrigued her. So, in August 2004, Hulbert and her husband headed a group who bought the property. The plan, Hulbert says, was to create a community that would leave a minimal carbon footprint, and where neighbors could not only get to know each other, but also actually interact on a regular basis.
“We bought the land to keep it from being developed, but we’re technically developers,” Hulbert laughs. “The difference is this isn’t the kind of development a typical developer would try.” Instead, it is a commitment to the land, to the environment, and to the people who will live in the community.
With an anticipated Spring 2008 completion date, Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm in the town of Petersborough will consist of 29 environmentally designed homes, a common house, office space, and a working farm. The goal, Hulbert explains, is to live close to the land while building a neighborhood.
“It’s an intentional community,” says Michael Bruss, Bruss Construction, the construction manager and builder of the development. “The residents will be expected to participate.” Everyone who lives in Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm will share farming chores and in the upkeep of the property. There will be regular neighborhood meals. The community is also designed to be pedestrian friendly. Vehicles are to be parked on the outskirts of the neighborhood, which will encourage walking, slow down the speed of every day life a bit, and provide a safer environment. “Walkways, by default, encourage interaction among neighbors.”
The neighborhood will also keep connected to its roots. The original Steele homestead, still standing on the property, is being renovated as office space for the members of the community. Similarly, the cotton mill Steele, built in 1824 approximately a mile from the farm, is also being green-renovated to include condos, office space, and a café.
Nubanusit Neighborhood is an integrated design project, according to Bruss. All of the parties involved came to the table together so that everyone would be on the same page from the beginning. The ultimate goal, says Bruss, was to develop a thriving community using a minimum amount of land (in this case about 4 acres out of 120 available). To do this, the homes need to be small and compact. In addition to the seven single-family homes, there will be seven duplexes with a farmhouse look, and two buildings with four units each. The homes range in size from an 863-square-foot one-bedroom condo to a 2,000-square-foot single-family home. In the first of many water conservation efforts, the smaller homes will have one bath, while the larger residences will have either 1.5 or 1.75 baths.
“The two-story homes will have an open-floor concept downstairs with a shared bath upstairs,” says Hulbert. Most homes today, she continues, are larger than most families really need, with rooms that are rarely ever used. For example, the typical new home will include a family room, an eat-in kitchen, and a formal living room and dining room. However, because most families tend to spend the bulk of their time in just a few rooms—the family room, kitchen, and individual bedrooms—the other rooms are, most of the time, unused, energy-wasting spaces. “The bigger the home, the greater the resources needed to take care of them,” Hulbert adds. With that in mind, these homes are designed for maximum living.
In New Hampshire, where winters are usually snowy and frigid, a good heating system is a necessity. Most Northeast heating choices, like oil or coal, have a negative impact on the environment. The design team at Nubanusit had to come up with a solution on how to best keep residents warm through the winter, while sticking with its sustainable objectives.
The answer turned out to be a community heating system fueled by wood pellets that come from a local company. “Having a central heat plant allowed us some flexibility to come up with heating solutions,” says David O’Neil, one of the architects on the design team, from the firm of O'Neil Pennoyer Architects.
“The whole neighborhood will be heated by hot water,” says Hulbert. A centrally located heating plant will be constructed, and the hot water, heated by the wood pellets, will be cycled through and pushed back to the plant through the underground piping distribution system. The heavily insulated underground piping keeps the water at a steady temperature, making it more efficient.
“The units are placed relatively close together, so the pipe links aren’t too significant,” says Bruss. “Then it is forced hot water heat. Because the homes are so well insulated, the placement of the heating panels is less important to the building. We’re using radiant panels instead of thin-tube radiation, a more European-style heating.”
The domestic hot water will also be serviced by this piping system unless the resident opts for solar heating. Also, the heating system is a closed loop system, which means the used water is recycled back to the boiler for heating. “In the summer, we’ll shut off the boilers. They will be climate-indicated to signal when to turn them back on.”
Using this heating system was a major commitment by the developers from a financial standpoint, says Bruss. “They could have saved several hundred thousand dollars by putting in natural gas furnaces in each unit. But, they made a commitment that they did not want nonrenewable sources for heat, or hot water on the site.”
Shutting down the boilers in the summer will save money and sources. However, because the hot water for the neighborhood will also be coming from the heating plant, the design team looked to another renewable energy source for help. Solar panels will be installed to heat the water during New Hampshire’s sunny months. In addition, each unit is designed to allow for the installation of solar panels for domestic hot water. It will be up to each homeowner on whether or not to install them, but Bruss believes that each home will have the panels within two years. (Not installing them now, but planning for them helps to keep initial building costs down, he says.)
Not only is the combination of wood pellets and solar energy as fuel sources good for the environment, it is also good for the bank account of the homeowners, after the initial installation costs. Hulbert anticipates that the largest home in Nubanusit will spend approximately $900 a year on heat and hot water costs, a significant savings compared to more common heating options. (In the Northeast, the average annual cost for oil heat and hot water is nearly $2,000, while gas heat is around $1,200 a year, according the US Energy Information Administration.)
The one area that the design team was unable to compromise was with the water and sewer hookups. Although they looked at various systems to create the most efficient use of water, this was the one area where the local government stepped in. Due to regulations, Nubanusit had to hook into a Petersborough water/sewer system.
“We looked into gray water recycling,” says Bruss, “but we chose not to do it when the town said we’d still have to hook up to the sewer system. It would have created redundant systems. That made any other water efficiency choices cost-prohibitive.”
However, the group tried to compromise wherever possible to save water. Low-flow, dual-flush plumbing systems were installed. “That cuts water usage in half,” says Bruss.
In the average home, for example, toilet flushing is responsible for up to 40% of the building’s water usage. The standard toilet is 3.5 gallons per flush. The toilets installed in the Nubanusit homes flush at either 1.3 gallons or 2.5 gallons, depending on the waste elimination. These toilets can save over 11,000 gallons of water per year for a typical family of four. Also, the showerheads and other faucets are fitted with valves that control water flow.
Hulbert says that, while no one will be asked to specifically conserve water, she believes the residents will do what they can to cut down on water use naturally. “The people are making a conscious choice to live this lifestyle and they are aware of water issues.” She adds that the residents have a healthy competition going to see who uses less water each month. Peterborough requires each building to have its own water meter, so the residents are able to track their water usage, and encourage each other to use less.
Considering the scope of this project, it is perhaps surprising that the water/sewer issue was the only real issue with Peterborough’s zoning. “The town’s zoning is progressive, so we didn’t have to jump through a lot of hurdles to create a mixed-use development,” says Hulbert. “We did choose to not fight the one issue, the composting toilets, because we didn’t want to create any extra hurdles.”
The development team also decided they wanted to commit to conserving a mile of land along the river to remain natural frontage. Hulbert acknowledges that riverfront property is in high demand and many developers are able to make a lot more money building homes along the water. Hulbert, instead, sees the value of the river to the farm, the community, and to the woodlands. “Preserving the farm land supports the river,” Hulbert explains. “And it also ultimately supports the community in growing food.” Also, by not developing the land along the river, the plant life allows for natural water conservation, which will feed the well and provide natural moisture for the farm.
While the residential areas of the development will need to use the city water hook ups, there is no such requirement for agriculture. There will be a well on the property that will be used in the barn and for watering plants. The river will be the primary source of irrigation water for the farm, says Hulbert. Water will also be retrieved from rooftops and saved from rainstorms. The barn, once built, will have a significant roof on it, and will be in direct relation with the farm fields. However, she adds, “irrigation isn’t as necessary when you grow organically. We’re constantly building up the soil so it retains moisture. And also, we live in a climate without significant drought. In my growing experience, there may be one or two weeks a year when we need to supplement with water. So it’s a combination of the climate and growing techniques; water for the farm should not be a problem.”
It appears that the design team has been successful in its attempts to create a sustainable community. According to Bruss, the New Hampshire-located Jordan Institute, a science-based, non-advocacy, non-profit organization is certifying one of the residences for LEEDs for Home. “It will easily be certified gold,” Bruss says, “and possibly get a platinum certification.”
While building, the contractors paid very close attention to the materials used. “All of our building choices were intentional choices. We might land on a lot of choices that are standard for the industry, but we make sure that’s the right thing to do,” says Bruss, whose company has a long-standing reputation and commitment as green builders. In fact, Bruss Construction built New Hampshire’s first LEED certified building. “We’ve been doing green building since the ‘70s,” Bruss adds. “We’ve always been involved with conservation issues, and we’ve been involved with projects that gained us some notoriety in this area.”
Because this is to be a green, sustainable community, special care was taken in the planning and construction stages from the beginning, and an environmental infrastructure was developed early on. “It was important that the collaboration took place right away,” says O’Neil. “You can’t easily add green ideas into the project later on.”
“One of the main thrusts was to use quality resources,” he says. “We used resources that will allow future green systems to be employed.”
“We pay close attention to the materials,” says Bruss. “We use things that are natural, renewable, or recycled.” The materials used for building produce as small an impact on the ecosystem as possible, such as using local products. The window glazing, for example, came from a nearby Canadian firm.
Inside the home, all the appliances will be high-performance, EnergyStar verified. According to Bruss, the energy savings in the Nubanusit homes will outperform standard energy use by 30%, and will cover everything from heating and cooling to lighting. The floors will be tile, rather than green-unfriendly carpeting or linoleum.
The walls of the buildings are thick and well insulated, designed to keep in the heat during the cold New England winters, as well as keep out the heat in the summer. “Air infiltration is very low,” says Bruss.
Green building, however, doesn’t come cheaply. For example, the recycled or renewable materials often come at a higher price than standard building materials. The fixtures for the low-flow dual flush toilet fixtures cost about $50 more than a typical toilet.
But early collaboration with the design team can allow the opportunity for counterbalance to simplify, says O’Neil. “When you have to put in tons of money in one area of the design,” he explains, “you can use different strategies in other areas to save money.” For example, since heat will rise, the homes are designed with that in mind, rather than using artificial methods for heat distribution.
Even with the efforts to balance more expensive green initiatives with cost-saving strategies, the homes in Nubanusit, despite being smaller than typical new construction, are at the upper-end of housing costs in the Petersborough area.
The team had some obstacles with the overall financing of the project. “Banking in New England doesn’t recognize the benefits of high-performance buildings,” says Bruss. “Some of the methods and materials used required more education than normal.”
Additionally, Hulbert says, the government provides little incentive to build homes with minimal environmental impact. “The maximum tax rebate is about $7,000 for going to sustainable heating systems.”
But, Bruss adds, cost is a little obstacle in the grand scheme of things. As the area learns more about how to build green, the market will grow, and overall building will become more cost-efficient.
Residents of the Petersborough community for the past 14 years, Hulbert is excited to move into this new phase of her life. She and her family will be among Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm’s first residents, where they will share their farming expertise with their new neighbors. Sadly, however, the family will be without the person Hulbert considers the real inspiration for the development.
“I always like to acknowledge my daughter, Callie, who died of cancer,” Hulbert says. “She was an amazing force in this project.” Callie loved the idea of a green neighborhood and saving this beautiful riverfront woodlands, and though she passed away before the development came to fruition, Hulbert says her daughter’s memory and enthusiasm provided strength for getting through the challenging times.
“It takes a few burning souls with a belief,” says Hulbert. “We have an amazing team working on this project. It’s been such an inspiration.”