 Dawn's reflections on a still pool, the delicate impression of a wildflower, a sliver of silver water hidden in a forest glade, the remnants of autumn and the austere attraction of winter. The beauty of nature moves us all. It makes the places we live and play more attractive, more valuable, but all too often creating those places takes a terrible toll on natural beauty. Nature is often fragile, and when the heavy equipment needed to build our homes and apartments moves recklessly through a natural area, that beauty can be destroyed forever. But that doesn't have to happen. With vision, planning and teamwork, it's possible to conserve the natural beauty of a site and still create places for people to live and play. And everybody wins. The developer, the community, the residents, the land itself, when a commitment is made to building with nature. This is the story of two developers in Indiana who made a commitment to building with nature. The results are CP Morgan's Williamson Run Community near Indianapolis and the Buckingham Company's Bradford Ridge Apartment Complex in Bloomington. Both winners of Global Relief for New Community Awards, a program sponsored by American Forests and the National Association of Home Builders to recognize conservation efforts during development. And both are models of how to create communities in harmony with nature. We were attracted by the beauty of the site and weren't detracted by the obstacles of taking that site and developing it into a community like we have have done. We actually saw the the obstacles of taking a densely wooded site and making it preserving it enhancing it. We saw those obstacles as a challenge that we really couldn't walk away from. Building with nature is more complicated. It takes more time and more planning, which may cost more initially. So why should a developer conserve the natural areas on a site? One important reason is that people want to live there. A recent survey conducted for home builders found that natural open spaces and best-pocket wilderness areas along with hiking, jogging and bike paths are among the most desirable and saleable features for a new community. How long has it been since you back on the nature walk? I think it's important for our children to be able to experience some of this nature and we spend time on the nature trail. We walk around and try to identify different kinds of animals. We found snakes, we've seen muskrats and turtles and frogs and I think it's good for the kids to have that so close to their home. There's no question that having these woods so near to our home was a major factor in us building here with CP Morgan at Williamson Run. Where's the other birdhouse? Just about three or four weeks ago my daughter was sitting in the dining room looking out the window and and my wife was working on the computer and she said that she saw three deer in the backyard. My wife didn't believe her at first and when she kept pestering her she looked out and sure enough there were three deer out there two two does and a fawn and that was quite an exciting experience for my child to actually get it to see a piece of the zoo in her own backyard. The first steps toward creating that experience are taken long before any earth is moved or any designs are drawn. To successfully build with nature you must carefully plan every detail of the project. That planning begins with an environmental analysis where the developer architect engineer and resource expert walk the site noting how to best conserve the natural setting. And that again is is key to the success of the project obviously in terms of what's left and how does it read? Does it read wooded? Does it read disturbed and and it's planning at this stage in terms of the things that you're pointing out whether it's the amount of excavation that needs to be done whether it's the siting of the particular buildings whether it's the initial site plan layout bill all of that depends on all of us to try to anticipate and make some contingencies now instead of being on site at the time that the machinery is running and trying to deal with those problems as they arrive. Pre-planning is key. Exactly. The reason a forester is an important part of the team that develops a site in the woods if you will is because he generally understands what the trees need what's realistic and what's unrealistic in terms of encroachment and in some cases because there's no alternative we have to put a utility or we have to put a road or whatever in a certain area and certain compromises need to be made and only someone with the training to understand what is doable and what is not can you expect a successful result. To me the most important thing to bear in mind when developing a wooded area is not tree preservation but tree conservation that's not to say that we don't preserve trees we do indeed but we conserve the forest and part of tree conservation is not only preserving what is there but it's adding to on an ongoing basis so forest conservation is not only saving what we start with but adding to it with additional plantings as you go along. Areas of special interest in the environmental analysis should be streams and wetland areas wildlife habitat the topology and soil conditions and stands of mature trees that can be left undisturbed understanding the site's environment means that plans can be made with the environment in mind. Planning is critical to developing a site if you know all the goals up front and the ideas that the developer wants to achieve and work closely with with the developer the architect and and then the various utilities up front go over all the problems and then try and solve them in advance and get that into the plan up front presents a we can solve that problem more effectively and and and get it so that it works smoothly in the future. So Paul could you maybe or Christie explain to us the construction process or construction sequencing that would be required so that we can make sure that we have the right soils there and that also the elevation of that shelf is appropriate to create a wetland. Once the first draft of the plans are drawn a crucial meeting takes place at Schneider Engineering in Indianapolis all of the people involved in the creation of the Williamson Run community engineers landscape architects utility representatives and natural resource consultants meet with the developer to look over those initial plans and share their insights and their requirements it's a vital step in the planning process. Well it matters a great deal and we need to be brought in at the beginning to eliminate or reduce future problems if our engineers can be involved with the planners of the development we can locate where the facility should be we can help plan where our easements should be where the facility should be located and ultimately that will result in lower impact less impact and less contact on our part in the future with the residents. Bringing in the different utility companies so we can lay out the utility corridors is very useful we can we can work with them in locating the the the power lines the gas lines and so on and even the lines that go directly to the homes working with the landscape architects and biological type of people they can they can help us determine what areas are the best suitable to to re to remain so we try to stay out of those areas. It's good for us to get involved at the onset just so that we can hear all the other issues understand the utilities and the infrastructure and know what kind of site constraints things that that the other that the rest of the design team is dealing with. I think what I would do would be to develop an educational program and emphasize the erosion control that would come down or the soil that would wash down if we were to remove the material. Creating a team early in the planning process helps solve environmental problems before the construction begins but the team's work does take time and money but it's time and money well worth the cost. It does take more time may cost money up front but in the long run it saves both you the developer as well as the homeowner money and the encouragement for economic sense is that we're able to sell these homes faster we're able to get a gain of premium on the home sites as well as the homes because of the natural beauty of the neighborhood it may take a few months or years longer to get the project through the planning process may cost some extra money through that process but in the long run when the project is all said and done we find it to be more profitable. And that profitability is available not only to developers of high-end single family homes. These are basically working families wage-earning families that that live in this apartment. Kenneth Seabrie is the architect who designed the Bradford Bridge Apartments to meet federal affordable housing guidelines. The the preservation of the the ecology or the preservation of the existing topography and the preservation of the trees is not a tremendously expensive thing to accomplish it just takes a little extra planning. I do believe it the the livability and the environment that that our residents are enjoying provides a stability to our resident base so we have fewer turnovers we have better resident retention and we have happier residents in general so those are all kind of intangibles but they do add to a better economic performance for this community and I believe that we have been able to generate value that exceeds the investment we made. All of the efforts to create a more beautiful and more profitable community can be undone in a few minutes if the construction crew is not made part of the team. It's important in your construction schedule to put time in there for preparing the site for the entrance of contractors we want to put up snow fencing to protect sensitive areas we'd like to have on-site pre-construction meetings to explain our goals to all of the contractors the bulldozer operator as well as his boss all of the goals for site development before they enter on to property it's important to schedule that time in again it doesn't take long for a bulldozer to do damage and to just destroy area of trees or a sensitive natural habitat which you've been spending months or years planning to save that area could be destroyed within a morning it's important in the construction phase to do effective planning and again to communicate and coordinate those goals effectively. It does no good for a developer to build with nature if the utility companies cannot deliver their services without damaging the natural areas. That's why utility needs must be considered in the planning stages and why it's also vital that utility rights of way are laid out on the ground during initial excavations. It helps the utility companies do their job with minimal damage to the natural areas. The only time that we have to deal with the tree is if it creates a problem for us and we don't want those problems it costs our customers money it costs everybody involved some type of expense and we try to eliminate those. If by working with developers and builders and others in the community we can reduce or eliminate some of those problems then everybody wins. Everybody wins when communities are built in natural settings. Some of the developers that we work with they have this tendency to want to go in and completely scrape the site rape the land and put in whatever they they feel would fit the their site constraints if they actually work with what's existing it ends up being a better product in the end it looks natural it has you have more natural terrain to work with I would highly recommend getting in to looking at the site and its natural conditions and using those as opportunities instead of seeing them as constraints and taking advantage of those opportunities can be summed up with three words vision planning and teamwork cooperation from your team members outline your goals outline your your desires and work with everybody involved from the city planners to your your architects your engineers contractor needs to be involved your excavation contractor needs to involve hire a environmental consultant and approaches because everybody has as value in the process and take the comments and proceed accordingly and you can you can develop a community that's not going to it's not going to really burden you with costs if you look at the and there's a more intangible reward as well I like to see what I've been able to accomplish and by driving into a community that I've worked on and seeing a big stand of trees that was saved and seeing the creek running through there that's left in its natural state is very rewarding for information about ordering the building with nature video and booklet right to building with nature post office box 814 Carmel Indiana 4603 2 the building with nature video and booklet were produced through the cooperation of the following partners citizens for green space the Indiana Urban Forest Council Hoosier Heartland Resource Conservation and Development Council CP Morgan Company Incorporated and the Buckingham companies this program was made possible with funding and technical assistance from the USDA Forest Service Urban Forestry Conservation Fund and the Urban Forestry Technology Transfer Fund the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry Indiana Michigan Power Indianapolis Power and Light Company Northern Indiana Public Service Company PSI Energy Incorporated Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company Muncie Delaware Environment Enhancement Project Schneider Engineering Incorporated Bolin Meyer Gibson and Associates Incorporated and the Indiana chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects the global relief for new communities award program is sponsored by American Forests and the National Association of Home Builders to recognize developers on outstanding environmental conservation efforts during development information about the program and how to order the book Building Greener Neighborhoods Trees as part of the plan can be obtained by writing global relief for new communities care of American Forests post office box 2000 Washington DC 20013 or call 202-667-3300 extension 236 or write to land development services the National Association of Home Builders 1201 15th Street Northwest Washington DC 20005 or call 800-368-5242 extension 351 this program is a production of photosynthesis