Incorporating water efficiency technologies becomes standard practice for master-planned communities throughout the country.
John Ritter, chief executive officer and chairman of Focus Property Group in Las Vegas, NV, describes himself as an “oxymoron:” He’s a developer, but a “hippie at heart.” Ritter strives to design communities with desert landscapes that create appeal while providing water efficiency. Focus Property Group’s companies engage in property investment and master planning through creating communities throughout the Las Vegas metropolitan area as well as in other southwestern markets.
Two of Focus Property Group’s latest endeavors—Inspirada and Kyle Canon—exemplify the company’s commitment to environmental sensitivity. New design concepts eliminate water-wasting front yards by moving the homes closer to the sidewalks. The front porch has been “returned” to home design to bring recreational space up front. The new communities will use 35% less water than a conventional master plan. A central neighborhood park within each village further increases water efficiency.
Mountain’s Edge, another Focus Property Group master-planned community, is the first in southern Nevada to embrace drought-resistant measures from its inception. Plants, trees, shrubs, and ground covering are drought-tolerant, requiring minimal water to thrive, but still provide large shrub massing and color to enhance aesthetics. Water conservation extends to the community’s landscape through guidelines for homebuilders developing the master plan. An agreement by the community’s builders eliminates front-yard turf in favor of drought-tolerant landscaping. Turf usage is limited to schools and parks.
As a master planner, Ritter first introduced water efficiency by changing the way he structured roadways, parks, and paseos. He then introduced the idea of drought-tolerant landscaping to homeowners and found while most wanted to do it, they didn’t know how to do so in a way where it would look good. So he built a desert demonstration garden as a project. It’s located behind the Mountain’s Edge Home Search Café where potential homebuyers gather to research home-buying options.
The garden showcases drought-tolerant tress, plants, and shrubs that exemplify not only beauty, but also desert adaptability. Classes are hosted at the garden by landscape architects and gardeners so residents and community members can learn how to landscape their own yards to maximize water efficiency.
The garden has reaped “tremendous results” and has attracted thousands of visitors, including Mountain’s Edge residents, Las Vegas area residents, water district representatives from throughout the world, and the media. But Ritter had to take his efforts a step further. People were willing to create drought-tolerant landscapes, but were having difficulties finding the plants they needed. Focus Property Group created partnerships with local nursery chains. In exchange for their willingness to expand drought-tolerant offerings in their stores, they were invited to market their products through Focus Property Group’s efforts. Additionally, Focus Property Group has produced a landscape guidebook, “Legendary Landscapes,” detailing hundreds of drought-tolerant plant species for water-smart, attractive yards.
“We had to address that issue,” Ritter points out. “When people do it, they see how great their yard can look and they have color and shade.”
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Photo: Focus Property Group |
| The garden at Mountain’s Edge helps save 200 million gallons of water a year. |
Ritter believes he has a responsibility to the environment through his work.
“I think we as developers—particularly in our kind of business where we’re essentially building cities—have to be stewards of natural resources,” he says. “We can’t pretend like we don’t live in the desert. [Other developers] tend to build projects as if they existed in California or Hawaii. To us, it’s extremely important to respect the land we’re developing and the natural resources we’re using. We try to lead by example and teach as we do it.”
But business is business. “We live in a world of large corporations; we’re run by the bottom line,” Ritter points out. “If you can prove to business you can do the right thing and still be profitable, then you’re in the sweet spot.”
Change is hard, Ritter concedes. “People want to do the same thing they’ve always done unless they’re compelled to change or see a need and take it upon themselves to change,” he says.
Ritter promotes the idea through media interviews that a company can do the right thing and be profitable at the same time. Sales trends back that up. In 2006, Mountain’s Edge was ranked the second-fastest-selling master-planned community in the country.
Government entities are equally enthusiastic. In evaluating the water-saving measures at Mountain’s Edge, the Southern Nevada Water Authority determined the community will save an average of more than 200 million gallons per year compared to conventional master-planned communities of similar size.
Ritter concedes that building “green” is more expensive at the onset, although over time, there is a cost savings by using less water. “If you’re using a lot of turf, over time, you’re paying a lot of money to maintain and fertilize it,” he says.
Ritter has also taken his water-efficient measures indoors, with ‘water-smart’ homes that feature low-flow fixtures and water-efficient devices. But the largest water efficiency gains are realized on the outside: Ritter points out landscaping is the largest area of residential water waste. To address that, he’s looking to incorporate weather-sensitive irrigation controllers in home yard design. Such systems sense when the landscaping requires water and respond accordingly.
Wastewater reuse is another practice Ritter seeks to incorporate in future home designs. In an upcoming master-planned community supported by groundwater, Ritter seeks to set up a system whereby wastewater generated in a household would be pumped to an artificial wetland and piped back to the houses for outdoor irrigation. Two separate sets of pipes would be needed for the outflow and the incoming irrigation water. Not only does the plan maximize water resources, but it also provides the added benefit of attracting birds to the artificial wetland area.
Southern Hospitality
Meanwhile, in Charlotte, NC, the Sanctuary—built by Crescent Communities in Raleigh, NC—is racking up awards for its environmentally sensitive features. Featuring 187 homes on 1,300 acres bordering Lake Wylie in Charlotte, NC, the Sanctuary’s lodge was the first recreational facility in North Carolina to be certified by the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Additionally, the Sanctuary was the first residential community in the world to receive Audubon International’s Three Diamond designation, the highest level of certification in its Gold Signature Program. The honor is based on wildlife protection measures; efforts to ensure water quality and use of native flora and fauna, as well as green building practices; and site design.
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Photo: Focus Property Group |
| Master-planned communities’ designs can reflect the desert atmosphere. |
Crescent Communities has created its own program to promote green building, with a green leaf as a logo. A single leaf represents a certain measure of “green” building practices, while three symbolizes the ultimate. “We have a couple of homes that have been three leaves and a number that have been two leaves,” says Martin. “The builders have seen the value of it.”
The property upon which the Sanctuary sits originally had been designated for a hotel, a commercial marina, and golf courses. “We realized that to do that with the topography we had and the tree cover, we’d have to ‘grade the world,’” points out James Martin, a senior project manager for residential land development with Crescent Communities.
Those plans were bagged and in 2001, the company responded to a market shift toward demand for larger home sites. “There also was a growing demand in the market—how large it is arguable—of folks who are more interested in green building concepts,” he adds.
Crescent Communities changed its plans to divide 1,350 of the 1,850 acres of the land into 187 home sites, with the average acreage per property at 5.4. “With that, we wanted to start the process of educating our builders and property owners about green building techniques,” Martin says.
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Photo: Focus Property Group |
| A colorful drought-tolerant landscape |
Crescent Communities has a featured-builder program in all of its communities. Twenty builders are permitted to build at the Sanctuary. While someone can buy a lot there, they must use one of the featured builders. Some of the builders have grasped the “green” concept 100% and have taken hold of the Energy Star building process and committed it to every house they build, says Martin.
In order to educate others on green-building techniques, Crescent Communities started the process in-house. When Crescent Communities built its sales center, it did so with an eye to showcasing green-building techniques. “The idea is to try to show off certain things so perhaps people would say, ‘I’d like to incorporate this into my home when I build it,’” says Martin.
Water efficiency features abound inside the sales center. All hot-water pipes are insulated to reduce heat loss while water is traveling from the hot-water heater to the end user. “You’ll get hot water quicker so you don’t let it run and run until it heats up,” Martin notes.
Another feature is a hot water recirculating system—otherwise called “on-demand hot water”—that allows hot water to be readily available to the end user. “We’ve all stood at the sink and turned the hot water on to wash our face or take a shower and wait a few minutes before it heats up because it’s on the other side of the house in the hot-water heater. All of that water is wasted,” Martin says.
The system is equipped with a timer. Since the sales center is not occupied other than from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., there is no drain on the power to get hot water through the system since no one is using it, Martin adds.
In the bathroom, faucets use no more than 1.5 gallons per minute; kitchen faucets run no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. All faucets feature reducers. Dual-flush toilets are another water-efficient feature. Federal laws since 1995 mandate that all new toilets could flush no more than 1.6 gallons of water. “You don’t need a full 1.6 gallons for liquid waste,” says Martin. “You hit one button for liquid waste and it just flushes a gallon per flush. Another button will flush the full 1.6 gallons for everything else.”
Such toilets are not inexpensive, but they do save water, Martin notes. “Over a day of flushing in a fairly busy sales center, that’s quite a water savings,” he says.
All appliances are Energy Star–rated, such as the high-efficiency dishwasher that uses less water but more heat to clean.
Crescent Communities also installed rain barrels connected to gutters behind the sales center. A spigot is located on the outside of the barrel from which water can be drawn and used to irrigate planting beds. “If you want to fill up a watering can, you can do that at the rain barrel, but instead of turning on water you’re paying for, you’re using the rainwater,” Martin says.
Crescent Communities also built an amenities center at the Sanctuary. The 8,000-square-foot building is divided into 4,000 heated square feet and another 4,000 unheated square feet with porches and covered areas and three pools. “We have the first LEED-certified building in Charlotte,” says Martin. “We’ve gotten a good bit of knowledge out of that.”
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Photo: Focus Property Group |
| Water use calculations factor total annual use, rates of application, local plant water requirements, lot size, landscape design, and type of indication system used. |
Crescent Communities pursued 30% water reduction through such efforts as lower-flow faucets and reducers. As for landscaping, “All of the plants we use are mostly indigenous to this area; they’re used to the rainwater we normally get from the sky and not what we throw on it,” says Martin. “That should reduce the amount of water needed for irrigation for species that are not indigenous to this area.”
There are few irrigated areas at the Sanctuary, Martin says. “We had a lot of grassy areas we had to clear from the road and put in seeds and straw to get germination to where it looks nice, but yet all of that can’t be irrigated,” he says. “If we did, it would be such a drain on the water, which is all from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities. That would be too expensive to do.”
Martin says it’s been a challenge convincing homeowners a water-efficient landscape can also be attractive. “The only restriction we have with all of our property owners is that within the first 50 feet around their home, they can plant what they want, but outside of that, they have to go with native planting,” Martin says. “It vastly limits how much irrigation you have to put on that lawn; plus, it adds to the overall look of that piece of property. There is some beautiful tree cover out here and when you limit your clearance and put your home in the middle of it, there’s that filtered view from the road and you’re surrounded by trees.”
The amenities center stands as an example of indigenous planting, but Martin says, “For me to say every single thing is native, that’s really hard to find. We did a combination of native and things that didn’t require a lot of water.”
For instance, Crescent Communities chose zoysia for the sod. “If you do fescue, it requires a good bit of water to maintain,” says Martin. “Zoysia turns brown in the winter and goes dormant, yet people accept that. It still looks nice and you don’t have to use near as much water.”
Rain gauges at certain irrigation points are another water-efficient measure being used by some of the builders at the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is not one of those developments people will pass by and remark on the well-manicured landscaping, but Martin notes, “There are country clubs for that sort of thing. There is a time of the year with the rain and cooler weather where the grass is wonderful,” he says. “Come July and August, there’s going to be some brown.
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Photo: Focus Property Group |
| Homeowners have an array of water efficient fixtures to choose from. |
“The seeded areas will grow every year and spread and develop a deeper root system from the rain that falls from the sky, not from what we throw on it.”
Like most land developers, Crescent Communities has found itself in the position of educating homebuyers on the benefits of such “green” practices as water efficiency. While the Charlotte area does not have the same types of water concerns as would be found in the arid Southwest, for example, developing water-efficient homes is a recognition that “there’s a segment of the population that is interested in this and wants this in their development and their community,” says Martin.
“A lot of people who have bought here and our builders are willing to try some things,” says Martin. “They want to see the benefit of it and at the end of the day, they want it to look good. They want it to make sense.”
The biggest learning curve is “that you don’t have to live in an adobe hut and have wild things growing all over your house to be ‘green,’” says Martin. “There are little things you can do,” he says. “If everybody does these little things, look at the difference you can make.”
In some cases, it costs more to build green at the onset, although savings are realized down the road. But Martin says that’s not a concern with those who are buying houses at a certain price point.
“An extra thousand here or there for an initiative they believe in won’t impact that as much as if you were trying to incorporate that into a $150,000 house,” he says. “Just the economics of it makes it an easier pill to swallow. But at the end of the day, it’s either important to the buyer and they want to incorporate it or it’s not. I don’t know how you overcome that when it’s not. You have to constantly plug it.
“We did not know what the take would be on marketing the Sanctuary with the efforts we’ve done because we’re used to developing luxury, high-end communities,” says Martin. “When we had the first-year sales, out of 81 private preserves, we sold more than 50 to the builders on one day and then we sold more than 20 on a retail draw. We did really well that first year and in years after that. We were pleasantly surprised.”
Turning the Rockies Green
McStain Neighborhoods in Louisville, CO, has been experimenting with and instituting “green” building techniques before the word green was popular, notes Jeff Medanich, the company’s manager of building sciences. “We are a pioneer green builder,” he says. “We have 100% Energy Star–rated homes. They are considered high-performance homes. We average 40% more efficient than a conventionally built home.”
For instance, McStain Neighborhoods teamed up in 2004 with the Masco Corp.—one of the world’s largest manufacturers of home improvement and new construction products—to construct a water conservation house to test-run “green” concepts. McStain Neighborhoods is affiliated with the Colorado Built Green Program and recently aligned with the Denver Water Board as a participant in the EPA’s Water Efficiency Benchmarking Study, being administered by Aquacraft.
According to the EPA, the study will help establish voluntary targets for builders who want to provide homebuyers with alternate water efficiency options; develop criteria for water-efficient homes based on water-using products and building design or on average gallons used per resident per day; and create special certification marks to help consumers identify water-efficient new homes.
Results are intended to help states and water utilities make local decisions on establishing water-use criteria for new homes, planning water efficiency programs, and projecting future needs. The project seeks to demonstrate how advanced technologies, such as water-efficient landscape designs, weather-based irrigation controllers, and high-efficiency toilets and faucets, can reduce water use below current levels. The relationship between household indoor-water use and variables that include the number of residents, home size, and types of fixtures and appliances present will be investigated. Outdoor water use will be quantified from total annual use, rates of application, local plant water requirements, lot size, landscape design, and type of irrigation system controller.
Other states involved in the study include Utah, North Carolina, Oregon, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Florida. “The commitment from the builder is to build 20 homes over the course of two years that will include water conservation devices,” says Medanich.
In the bathrooms of newly constructed homes, McStain Neighborhoods is using high-efficiency toilets such as the VitrA’s Evergreen high-efficiency toilets that use 1.2 gallons per flush, well below the mandated 1.6 gallons per flush. McStain prefers high-efficiency toilets over dual flush because the former outperforms the latter and many people do not understand how to properly use a dual-flush toilet, Medanich says.
“People don’t realize there are two levers. Some of the manufacturers of the dual flush use one lever you press down for one flush and pull up for another and people don’t realize that, so they don’t get the efficiency out of them that they had intended,” he adds.
High-efficiency toilets are subject to maximum performance testing that studies the waste removal performance measure of toilets, or the amount of water needed to sufficiency flush a specific measure of matter. The toilets must flush 350 grams or more to qualify for the toilet efficiency rating. “With dual flush, sometimes the efficiency is gone,” says Medanich. “Even if you use 1.1 gallons per flush but you have to flush it twice, then you’ve doubled your water.”
Low-flow showerheads that use 1.6 gallons per minute or fewer are used in the bathrooms. Some homeowners complain they don’t get enough flow from reduced-flow fixtures and cannot rinse the shampoo out of their hair, Medanich notes. But current technologies akin to the type used in automobile windshield wiper systems allow for a greater distribution of less water, creating an increased volume that addresses the problems with rinsing soap and shampoo.
In order to meet the EPA study requirements, McStain utilizes bathroom faucets that run 1.5 gallons per minute and kitchen faucets at 2.2 gallons per minute. “There was talk about leaving kitchen faucets out of the equation, not thinking they were responsible for as much home water use, but we’re convinced that they are,” says Medanich. “People tend to leave their faucets running in the kitchen as they’re rinsing a pot. If you’re going to reduce that gallons per minute but still get the same effect, it can have a great savings on the water that’s being used in the home.”
The list of available fixtures and fittings that can be used for water efficiency in homes is extensive, says Medanich. In the kitchen are Energy Star dishwashers that use 6.5 gallons per cycle or fewer. McStain Neighborhoods uses all Delta Faucet Co. fixtures that feature aerators for faucet installations in its homes. Medanich credits Delta for being a leader in the production of water-efficient fixtures. In the laundry area, McStain is using horizontal access clothes washers, such as the Whirlpool Duet Sport. The washer saves two-thirds more water than a top-loading machine.
“It’s not like these are hard-to-find items,” he says.
On the outside, McStain utilizes WaterWise landscaping practices, such as xeriscape landscape design, native plants, and low-water consuming plants. “That’s in our design guidelines when we set up our homeowners’ associations,” Medanich says. “We provide them with a list of approved plants for their landscape design. Through that and the use of ‘smart’ irrigation controllers, we can reduce the landscape water consumption by 40%. We have found that landscaping water use consumes at least half of the water on a residential basis. If we can cut that by 40%, we’re seeing huge impacts on water conservation.”
In addition to such landscaping measures, evapotranspiration (ET) units are being utilized to measure out the water. “Some of the ET controllers we’ve used are Web-based. There’s an Internet service that the homeowner has to subscribe to in order to take full advantage of this water-conserving aspect,” says Medanich. “Or they’re also tied to weather satellites. That controller has an antenna on it and receives data on a continual basis from a series of satellites. You have to subscribe to a service in order to take advantage of that. One we use is the WeatherTRAK system and that has its own weather station onsite.”
ET controllers are becoming a more affordable standard option for homeowners, he says. “When we first started using these three years ago, they were $1,000. We can get them retail now for less than $400,” he adds.
The WeatherTRAK system has a controller that lets the operator program crop co-efficients. “You can indicate what you’re growing, what the weather requirements are, what the slope of the ground is, what the soil condition is, and whether it’s clay or sand or silt, it will calculate how much water percolates through it. It also will indicate what the slope is for run-off purposes—a steeper grade has more run-off,” Medanich says.
The outdoor weather station features a built-in rain sensor and also measures temperature and humidity on a 24-hour basis, he adds. “It knows if it rained yesterday and what the temperature was and what the watering requirements are today,” says Medanich.
McStain also works with Colorado State University, which hosts a sod farm where researchers study hybridization of various grass types. “They’ve developed a drought-tolerant bluegrass and a drought-tolerant fescue and blends of the two and we’ll use those sods,” says Medanich.
Another measure McStain Neighborhoods has taken is to have a certified landscape architect do a water budget for a standard lot in an effort to achieve a 40% water-use reduction goal. McStain Neighborhoods also belongs to the LEED program and limits the amount of turf by encouraging hardscaping or patio decks, thus promoting an outside living area. In building its “green homes,” McStain does not utilize standard mark-ups for its standard options. “We promote these upgrades,” says Medanich. “We do a different mark-up on these green initiatives. We charge less than we would just to promote the use of them.”
Addressing why water-efficient building practices are more the exception than the rule, Medanich replies: “Water is too cheap. I had this very conversation with our water board. We were in a seven-year-long drought and had mandatory water restrictions. People conserved because they had to and the water board lost all kinds of money. So this becomes an economic decision. They have to raise rates in order to compensate for conservation. As bad as that sounds, it’s the truth.”
When Medanich came to the West from the East 14 years ago, he was told the biggest limiting factor to growth in the West was water. “It has been for years and will continue to be. There’s only so much water,” he says. “A municipality can only provide only so many water taps. If a builder says because of our conservation steps we’re going to cut in half the amount of water the normal residence uses, now they’ve got twice as many taps as they can sell. That generates income for the community.”
While builders such as McStain are ahead of the process, Medanich predicts a time in the not-too-distant future where such measures will be mandatory.
“Water use, water allotment, water conservation: These are going to be things we’re all going to learn to live with, and the sooner we get onboard, the better.”