Land Development
N at i o n a l A s s o c i at i o n o f H o m e B u i l d e r s v o l . 24 , N o . 4 , Fa l l 2 0 1 1
The Pinehills
A Rural Setting for a
Mixed-Use Community
Published by the National
Association of Home Builders
www.nahb.org
Plus:
Retooling Neighborhoods
Private Water/Wastewater Systems
A Successful Land Trust Project
Future
for
Re
positioning
Neighborhoods
Success
B y M ichael K. M edick
T
he market for housing and residential develop-
ment remains stubbornly anemic. Unsure where the
bottom of home prices lurk, many potential homebuyers are playing a wait and see game. Other buyers
seek a bargain in this shaky market, but cannot qualify for a
mortgage or sell an existing home.
Due to these anemic conditions, builders and developers are
still struggling with the existing market conditions. Some are doing
extensive soul searching as they seek out new pathways to success,
and one of those pathways is looking at current plans and repositioning them to fit better into the current desires of home buyers.
The Markets
Consumer traffic levels vary by region as well as intra-regionally
in some areas of the country. Some positive signs of home sales
are being seen in these smaller areas, but sales are down significantly across the country in other areas.
When qualified buyers do commit, they want significant price
concessions and inventory that is available immediately. Unfortunately for the builder, carrying too many speculative homes on
the balance sheet is not a strategy for making bankers comfortable.
Recent census data published by USA Today illustrates
changes in the last decade’s suburban growth patterns. The outermost ring of suburban growth in a region, which is often referred to as the exurbs, added approximately 6.7 million people
during the past decade, making it the fastest growing segment of
the metropolitan region. Despite trends towards urban infill and
smart growth, these figures reconfirm America’s six-decade-long
growth phenomenon of development along the farthest reaches
of many metropolitan regions.
Still, in some regions, the rash of residential foreclosures has
hit the outer-ring suburbs hardest. Many developments, begun
during the latter half of the last decade (since 2006) have simply
stopped, leaving an abundance of partially constructed homes
The wide-shallow lot allows a house to appear larger on the streetscape. The lot square footage may be the same—e.g., 64 feet by 78 feet as
opposed to a long lot of 40 feet by 125 feet—but what can be seen from the street is much greater—38 percent more of these houses is visible than
what could be seen with the narrow-long configuration.
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A Better Plan for the New Economy
A
BEFORE
AFTER
property located in Louisiana shows what can be done
by rethinking the way the property is laid out to take
advantage of the changed market. The original site plan
had 377 lots that were similar in width and depth (about 80 feet
by 180 feet). All lots were conventional, front-loaded properties
with garages and no alleys. A parkway would have passed through
the center of the property. The houses backed to that parkway
and a fence ran along each side. Detention ponds met site
minimum requirements of 66 acres, but were isolated to the north
of the site with some on high ground. A school, church and YMCA
were located in the center of one of the residential areas.
The after image shows repositioning to include 725 dwelling
units comprised of 295 front-loaded lots (ranging from 75 feet
by 180 feet to 60 feet by 130 feet), 357 alley-loaded lots (ranging
from 40 feet by 120 feet to 60 feet by 130 feet) and 73 townhomes
(ranging from 20 feet by 110 feet to 28 feet by 120 feet). The
variety of lot sizes and types provided a better assortment of
product offerings and multiple price points, allowing the developer
to sell in a range of prices. The parkway remains in the proposed
location, but was redesigned to allow houses with alleys to front
onto the street. The lanes run along one path of travel and have
parking along the street and a planted medium.
The ponds have been reconfigured to use the lowest ground
on the site and to work more naturally into the existing contours.
The requirement for 66 acres of pond area is maintained. The
new arrangement enhances the neighborhood plan by providing
greater public access to the waterfront and maximizing the
number of lots with water views. A trail system around the ponds
will tie into the pedestrian network of sidewalks throughout the
community. The green space is the same minimum requirement,
but it has been reconfigured and distributed throughout the
community to create a series of neighborhood parks.
The church, school and YMCA have been relocated to front on
the parkway and create a civic presence within the community.
The wide-shallow lot configuration can also accommodate front-loaded garages along the perimeter of the property.
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The Village of Magnolia Square
is designed as a Traditional
Neighborhood Development
with narrow lots, which is being
retooled to accommodate
wide/shallow lots to address
marketplace conditions. The
aesthetic, overall density and
neighborhood design remain
intact, while modifying the
master plan to address the
buyers’ requirements.
and vacant lots. One of the pathways developers are looking at
in reaction to the markets is rejuvenating stalled projects and
responding to development opportunities as economic conditions improve. However, to take advantage of this pathway
requires community repositioning and new ways to respond to
the stagnation of the marketplace.
Despite the constraints and obstacles the market is facing,
there is much a land developer can do to reposition an area and
make neighborhoods stand out.
This home, which won
a builder's showcase
award, illustrates the
traditional lots.
What’s Being Done
Within the development industry, there seems to be two divergent thoughts on where to go. One idea is to stay the course and
wait the market out—the thinking being, now is no time to begin
experimenting. However, to engage in this line of thought belies a
certain reality. That reality is that many homeowners today have
realized their house may not be the cash machine they once envisioned. The sheer abundance of comparable resale houses in the
marketplace has sapped the equity from residential investments.
Some also believe the recent turmoil in the housing and financial markets has changed consumers’ desires and tastes considerably—changes that may be here to stay. That’s why to succeed
today and into the near future may require new home communities that have adapted to the recent changes in consumers’ desires
as well as the market constraints. In fact, a land plan created over
eight years ago is most likely now obsolete. For example, attempts
to put smaller houses on larger, upscale lots is not a sustainable
12 FA L L 2 0 1 1 L A N D D E V E L O P M ENT N a t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n o f H o m e B u i l d e r s
building program anymore; however, given the expense and headaches associated with replanning these neighborhoods, some developers tend to avoid the unavoidable necessity of repositioning.
The tools to be successful in almost anything begin with the
ability to acknowledge the problems and seek common-sense
solutions based on time-tested principles. Although no one has
a crystal ball to accurately predict where the housing market will
be ten years from now, we do know that based on the experiences of the past several years, getting back to a robust sales pace
will be an ongoing process of improvement.
That ongoing process needs job growth, a reduction in the
unemployment rate, selling through the foreclosure glut and an
easing of lender requirements because these are all significant im-
The site plan for a portion of The Village of Magnolia Square has been
repositioned to allow wider lots and more lakefront properties.
Existing lot configuration of The Village of Magnolia Square is narrow
and long.
pediments to a healthy housing industry. Housing has historically
been the prime driver of economic recovery in prior downturns.
This time, however, conditions seemed to be stacked against housing with exceptions in certain bright spots on the horizon.
Meanwhile, pent up housing demand continues to grow. Daniel Levitan’s article “A New Reality for Creating Successful Residential Communities,” in the Summer 2010 issue of Land Development
suggested the “Millennials” or “Echo-Boomers” will “replace their
parents’ generation in size of housing market demand.” Levitan
correctly reports that this new influx of potential homebuyers will
be significantly “different from their predecessors.”
Success in the future will require that the marketplace fulfill
housing desires in value-driven locations with creative, multidimensional lot and product offerings. Prior formulas for development will not have great success without significantly retooling the components of planning a residential neighborhood.
The value of the property must be built through the diversity
of the community design, offering multiple products at varied
pricing; basically, something for everyone.
A Project Example
The Village of Magnolia Square, a 510-unit Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) in Central, Louisiana is one
community that is rethinking its original strategy. The town
founders, Jimmy Nunnally and Steele Pollard, are responding to
both the changed market conditions and new buyer preferences
while maintaining an initial goal of developing a multi-faceted,
mixed-use community. They are also expanding their sales and marketing opportunities by offering a wider range of product options and price
points. For example, a recent release of lake lots at The Village
of Magnolia Square raised the bar for upper-end lot prices to
$97,000, a move that was tremendously successful—all 12 lots
were immediately sold. Given the purchaser’s obvious desire for
waterfront homes, then, the developers are redesigning the next
phase of the master plan to add a significant lake feature.
The lake creates a water amenity as the focus for new lot
opportunities within the next phase, including “opening” the
land plan up to lots that remained unsold from an earlier phase.
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Each new lot is individually priced to reflect its inherent value
based on size, location and access/view to the lake. With this
wide range of price points and product offerings, The Village
of Magnolia Square appeals to a spectrum of potential buyers
with a multitude of income levels.
Prototype houses and lot types at The Village of Magnolia
Square have been repositioned to accurately attract a significant
portion of the Central, Louisiana market, which is the family
buyer. With an excellent public school system within the development’s jurisdiction, plans for a new series of homes illustrates how
families can envision life in their new houses and neighborhood.
The plans for the houses work in concert with the lots. For
example, using the garage as a privacy barrier from adjacent lots
created a useable rear yard. Meanwhile, driveway space is being
marketed as possible patio, pavilion and basketball court. In this
way, a family-buyer can imagine how a flexible plan/lot configuration can accommodate a growing family for years to come.
Finding the Value
As the Magnolia Square project shows, today’s market requires
maximizing the potential value of each individual lot within a
master-planned community. Both the square footage of homes
and those of lot sizes are decreasing to drive down prices. As
single-family lot widths shrink to 40 feet and less, the house
itself is forced to become exceedingly deep and narrow. Yet no
matter how large the house may be, the perception of size along
the streetscape appears small in such a configuration. To attract
potential customers through the front door, the street presence
must match the asking price.
Meanwhile, using a wide, but shallow lot configuration rather than the conventional narrow lot provides many benefits to
the developer and homebuilder. While it may appear that a narrow lot fixes the need to maximize density and lower costs, the
narrow lot configuration often requires an equivalent amount of
land to achieve the same density. But the wide/shallow lot allows
the footprint of the house to be more compact and economical as compared to the deep foundation necessitated by narrow
limitations on the lot width. The exact same square footage of
house and lot can be achieved on the wide/shallow configuration, providing a significantly larger first impression along the
streetscape. In the new economy, that could be vitally important
to maximizing the perceived value of the home.
For such lot configuration, the housing product
should offer maximum flexibility. For example, lot
sizes must allow a variety of floor plan options. Developing a “base” floor plan to allow multiple consumer options is the next generation of production
efficiency. A sales team armed with the ability to “grow
a house” through flexibility can reduce the portfolio
of individual floor plans necessary to initiate development in a new or repositioned community.
How to Provide that Flexibility
Reinventing a portfolio of home plans suitable for
today’s real estate market requires a commitment to
The base plan serves as the catalyst to generate multiple options based on square footage,
buyer’s needs and other considerations.
Multiple options reconfigure the basic plan with an owner’s suite as either a ground floor or second floor option.
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No matter how
large the home is,
the perception of
size is affected by
what is seen at the
street.
becomes 2,700 square feet. A full secre-evaluate yesterday’s products. Simply
ond floor and the base plan evolves to
shaving square footage from a pre-exista five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath
ing plan series in an attempt to downfamily home of approximately 3,200
size for the market is not enough to sucsquare feet. And all of this could be ofceed in the new building environment.
fered on the same lot size.
Potential buyers are even more careA portfolio of four base plans with
ful today with how they spend their
five options for each base can create a
homeownership dollars. At the same
series of 20 different plans. Add three
time, consumer studies show that most
front elevations for each of those opconsumers still want maximum space;
A
neighborhood
gathering
place
within
Magnolia
tions and the portfolio expands to 60
but they look very carefully at how
Square will ultimately become a village commercial
different homes.
much square footage they can acquire center.
A sales team provided with a series
for the lowest possible price. While it
is clear that square footage must be reduced to get prices to of these “growing base plans” has a tremendously advantageous
marketable levels, that may mean more focus on maintaining way to show the customer how that builder or developer has just
neighborhood quality and aesthetics. Builders should respond the right plan, on the appropriate-sized lot, to suit their family
to the square footage problem by creating floor plans that can needs at a value other communities may not be offering.
While we all know there are no design solutions that are always
transform with customer’s needs and desires. But they also need
guaranteed to work, creating new planning and architectural opto pay attention to the communities where the houses lie.
As an example of what can be done, the base floor plan of tions gives a builder/developer a competitive edge. We may not
a new plan series could begin with a modest single-story, two- be able to predict what is happening with the housing market in
bedroom, two-bathroom plan of approximately 1,500 square the near future, but consistently outperforming the competition
feet. The simple addition of a third bedroom on the main level is always the best way to survive and thrive in a new economy. LD
would transition the plan to a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half
Michael Medick is an architect and town planner at CSRS,
bathroom, single-family home of approximately 1,800 square Inc. where he leads the firm’s land planning and urban design
feet. Add a partial second floor under the roof and the base plan studio. CSRS has successfully consulted with builders and
becomes a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, 2,400-square- developers to reposition communities. Reach Medick at
foot house. With an addition of a bonus/flex space, the house [email protected]
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