In addition having the roads “lay lightly” on the land within the boundaries of Bundoran Farm, we took care to minimize any impacts to properties adjacent to or downstream from us.  Roads and related storm water drainage systems have been designed so the post-development storm water runoff is equal to or less than pre-development runoff.  For individual homesites, in accordance with the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, additional storm water management measures are required if the impervious surface area within a Development Zone exceeds 7,000 square feet.

Given the modest size of the homes built to date at Bundoran Farm, impervious surface areas have been kept to a minimum.  Any Low Impact Development (“LID”) measures implemented by Bundoran Farm Owners/Stewards have been done by choice and because they are right thing to do for the environment and their personal lifestyle.

Recently we had the pleasure of seeing the two rain gardens the Tompkins installed on their recently completed home off of Hightop Drive.   The Tompkins’ goal was to affordably, effectively and attractively handle the rainwater coming off the roof of their home without relying on gutters.

Dorothy Tompkins sums it up this way:

“The one that is finished was actually pretty easy.  The one in back was fairly easy also, but has a longer drainage ditch leading to it. One reason they were easy is that our soil right around the house is quite sandy and drains beautifully.  You want all the collected water after a rain to drain within 72 hours, preferably sooner, to prevent mosquito breeding.  It seems to drain out in less than 12 hours so far, because of the sandy soil around it.  I dug a small pit more like a hole, and put coarse (concrete) sand in the bottom then added some native soil, peat moss and compost.  There are some native plants that do well, certain ferns, Clethera, Cardinal Flower, Ilex verticillata (Winterberry) in rain gardens.“

For those looking for Charlottesville VA real estate where they can live sustainably,  we have In order to create a resource for LID measures and other sustainability design and construction concepts, we created the Bundoran Farm Green Book – A Property Owner’s Guide to Sustainable Design & Development.  This companion document to the Bundoran Farm Pattern Book contains a well of information to assist designers, owners and builders in making sound decisions to achieve their personal sustainability goals.

In addition to providing an overview of the project vision and a brief history of the property, Hay goes on to describe how the vision is being fully realized as development activity proceeds.

“When you enter Bundoran Farm, you will see cattle grazing peacefully on acres of pasture and cattails swaying gently around the ponds. Gravel farm roads cross gurgling streams on well-constructed bridges with timber railings, and meander off into the woodlands. Tasteful wooden road signs mark the routes at each fork in the road. It is difficult to believe that you are actually in a residential development – a preservation development – and at the same time, on working farm.

Using the Tillman House built by Maple Ridge Group as an example, Hay also goes in great detail how the homes are designed and built in an environmentally friendly manner. All house built at Bundoran Farm are required to meet EarthCraft standards, the green building standard for residential construction in Virginia.

“Homeowners are encouraged to build homes with a scale and style that complement the landscape of the region. An example is the Tillman House. It is designed by Russell Versaci, one of the several architects and design professional in the Bundoran Farm Guild.

The site plan for the Tillman house was designed to protect and nurture the land. Non-permeable surfaces such as asphalt driveways were avoided to prevent runoff. Instead, permeable surfaces create a rain garden, keeping the rainfall on the property.

During construction, Maple Ridge implemented a recycling program for all the debris created in the process. Steve Nicholson, Maple Ridge’s managing partner, added that their company-preferred building practice exceeds the demand of the EarthCraft standards.”

Hay concludes the article by speaking with Fred Scott whose family stewarded the Bundoran Farm land since the 1940’s. “Scott feels that he has place his family homestead in good hand and insured its future.”

Virginia Sportsman Magazine – June – July 2010

Situated on a knoll over looking Plank Road and the  surrounding protected pastures and forested ridges of this Albemarle Virginia rural real estate, the Heimgartner’s homesite is perhaps one of the most visible in all of Bundoran Farm.   We felt extremely blessed when the Heimgartner’s purchased this homesite and began to explain their vision of what they intended to build and shared with us images of houses they want to use for models and precedents for their home.  Talk about exceeding expectations.

Working with Keith Scott of Rosney Architects, the Heimgartner’s have designed a home that is ideally situated for this Charlottesville property.  It pays tribute to and builds off the rich legacy of the vernacular architectural traditions of the Central Virginia landscape.  Building the house will be T.L. Goode Homes of Charlottesville.

With the recent groundbreaking, we look forward to seeing Heimgartner’s home rise from the ground and be a wonderful addition to the Bundoran Farm landscape. We are excited we had the chance to play a small part in the Ken and Ida getting their dream house.

Ken and Ida Heimgartner review their house design with Keith Scott, Toby Goode, and Leif Riddervold

Heimgartner Residence Groundbreaking - Toby Goode, Keith Scott, Ida & Ken Heimgartner and Joe Barnes

The Edge, Hard at Work, but Thinking About Land

Reading the article, I recalled cruising along the Pacific Coast Highway, below the hills in question, with a friend of my wife, a recent arrival in Los Angeles.  ”Up there,” he gestured, “I just want to get a little piece of land up there and build a house, with a view and a breeze…”

“Great,” I replied.  ”You get a few million together, find the spot, and we’ll design the home.  Then get another million together.  When we’re through the public approvals process in twenty years, you’ll have an excellent spot to retire.”  He got a condo in Venice, I think.

In its stated aims, Edge’s proposed community follows principles of LID (low-impact development), though no mention is made of community legal structures and other complexities of a more typical Conservation Development, let alone the common-use and agricultural provisions of the Preservation Development model employed at Bundoran Farm.  Rather than challenge the plan, however, the debate has focused on the appropriateness of any development, however well-done, on this site.  That is clearly for regulatory agencies (and possibly courts) to decide, but this situation points up a very common problem in American land use.

The fundamental problem of our common tools for land conservation in the United States is that, in economic terms, they do not align incentives.  In this case, conservation of the hills in question no doubt confers a small benefit on everyone who drives the PCH (a few less houses in the view), but the cost of regulation is borne disproportionately by (an admittedly rich) guitarist-developer.  At the same time, the benefit of conserving this specific parcel accrues disproportionately to the (presumably slightly-less-rich) landowners in Malibu below.  In a free-market we’d expect that the Malibu folks would band together and lay out the cost of securing privately-owned land in their viewshed.  But we’d be wrong.  Our greatest successes in conservation, like the tax-credit driven development-right purchases which power open space protections in Virginia, are, despite their success on the ground, piling up an imbalance of costs and benefits.  As we get more and more serious about protecting land, at greater scales, some of these imbalances will need to be addressed.  At the Baldwin Center, we investigate models that, among other things, do that.

We often talk about Bundoran Farm, and other Preservation Development projects, primarily in terms of their day-to-day qualities: a walk in the woods, a protected view, a preserved agricultural heritage.  Just as important is an underlying economic concept which is disarmingly simple: “Like that view?  Buy it.”  Each owner of a homesite here becomes a steward of a slice of common-use land, of viewshed or natural resources, of productive agricultural land or forest.  In this way, conservation advances with development, and without subsidy or externalized costs.  The sum of many individuals making this commitment in one spot is, I’ll claim, remarkable.

As we found at our fall symposium, the model employed here is by no means the only solution, and it cannot address every landscape type or market.  But the search for more sustainable models for preserving (and funding) farmland is an important area of research and debate that we hope to foster in our little barn.  Next time they’re at JPJ arena, we’ll definitely invite the lads from U2 to come out for a visit.

“A good home must be made, not bought.”

Taken a bit out of context, this assertion is, when you think about it, pretty radical.  We buy homes, like we buy cars and home theater systems, though usually with a bigger loan, and always with more of both fear and hope.  We imagine the lives we will live there, and weigh the impact of bedrooms, half-bathrooms, views and porches, neighborhood schools, even trees and neighbors not likely to last as long as our occupancy.  We renovate, but relatively few of us ever have the chance to make a home for ourselves.  Statistically, even those Americans with net worth greater than ten million dollars, even people for whom “custom-made” is customary, only rarely build themselves a home.

Having built my own home (without benefit of net worth), I’ve always found this statistic a little sad.  For me, making a home was an exercise in understanding myself and my wife, the way we work, live and sleep, an enumeration of what we hold dear, and of what we can do without,  almost a plan for the people we wanted to be.  We stood on a ladder on our homesite, to figure out the view from our “bedroom,” and imagined our children, not yet born, and where their swingset might be.  For a couple who’d previously imagined life in terms of the next academic degree, or the next six months at work, the creation of something permanent and personal was a rare opportunity for introspection.

My work at Bundoran Farm has given me  a front row seat as the first residents of this community have thought, re-thought, and ultimately committed to building the home of their dreams.  The first two new homes have now been occupied for about six months, and the difference between them couldn’t be more obvious.  One home, nestled into a forest preserve, is half the size of the other, which peeks over the shoulder of its pasture site to a 270 degree view of rolling farmland.  If you met these two couples at a party, you’d never guess that their visions might diverge so dramatically.  Of course, the magic of this process is that each of these two homes looks as if it were meant to be there, and the owners seem at home in a way that suggests many years’ connection to their land.

A second building boom is currently underway, with at least three homes being designed, and another pair of homes under construction.  Again, these two owners would look pretty similar on paper: accomplished professionals with a seemingly limitless affection for nature, and once again, their visions of home couldn’t be more different.  I’ve attached some images below of these two homes, both on Hightop Drive, to illustrate what we at Bundoran Farm find so fascinating.  The first home, on Maple Hill, is a charming, clean-lined and well-sited (check out the view from the front door) farmhouse being built by Abrahamse + Co., and the second, “Woodhill,” being built by Artisan Construction, is a smaller, highly sustainable home perched on a hillside amidst Bundoran Farm’s most impressive poplar forest (look closely, these trees are giants).

As with so many other elements of life, the endpoint of building appears to be subordinate to the depth and quality of this process of consideration, discovery, design and execution.  Both the homes underway are already obvious successes for their owners, and for the community: at once respectful, sustainable and exciting.   It’s hard to express the gratitude we feel, as stewards of this land, toward the owners, designers and master builders who have taken the vision of Bundoran Farm and extended it into the incredibly personal and unpredictable world of home-making.

Sandy Haussman’s reports on this new model of conservation development we refer to as “Preservation Development.”  In addition to providing as high level overview of the development concepts, you can hear first hand comments from Fred Scott, the previous owner of Bundoran Farm, Mary Tillman, one of Bundoran Farm’s Founding Stewards, Bob Baldwin, Jr., Bundoran Farm’s co-general manager, and Ed McMahon, a Senior Fellow with the Urban Land Institute.

To add pictures to these great verbal descriptions, I encourage you to check out our website or better yet, drop by for a visit at 5005 Edge Valley Road.

The Bundoran Farm team suggests that this might be a perfect accessory for Bundoran Farm residents.  We realize the difficulty we’ve created with the relatively steep climbs here, and console cyclists with the fact that these grades helped us to preserve the surrounding landscape for your touring enjoyment.

Still, going for a nice tour on Edge Valley Road is  so much more appealing with a little help for the climb back up Derry Lane…

The Piedmont Virginian is a lovely magazine focusing on history, culture and preservation of Virginia’s rural heritage.  It’s always a good read, especially when they do the occaisional feature on Bundoran Farm or someone we know in the Charlottesville area.  This winter, Thomas Randolph has begun a fascinating new feature callled Deep Background.  In each article, the author presents a painting of a Virginia scene, and an essay showing how much we can learn about a landscape, an historical period, a farm operation or an ecological community from just one image. 

In the first (Winter 2009) feature, a seemingly simple horse-barn scene is unfolded to explain, among other things: why barns are red, why a horse barn might have a silo, why a fence is painted green, and a number of other conclusions about the history of a Mellon family property in Hunt Country. 

This is a kind of parlor-game version of the exercise the design team did in Southern Albemarle County when we conceived the Bundoran Farm project.  Our version took about a year.  Studying this landscape, we tried to understand why a place like this looks the way it does.  Why it feels special to cycle or drive through this valley.  We looked at images like the one above and asked a lot of questions:

How do we know we’re “in the country?”  Why are farm roads so much more attractive than subdivision roads?   Why were they built this way?  What’s the visual difference between decorative fencing and working agricultural fencing?  How do you know where to go?  How do you know who owns this land?

I submit you can answer these questions and more, simply by considering the image above.  I personally have a list of  ten conclusions about Bundoran Farm, but would be delighted if a reader comes up with one I haven’t thought of.  I’ll post my list in a couple of days. 

 Or you could just drive by and say “isn’t that pretty?”  And know that this landscape became this way, and will stay this way, for a reason.  And that’s really the point.

I am not an attorney, a legislator or a homebuilder.  Please confer with your tax advisor and building professional regarding your project’s eligibility for these incentives.  Do not staple this blog entry to your tax return.

The first and easiest step is to consult with your homebuilder, who may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $2,000 for constructing a green home that meets certain specifications.  This builder credit may affect the feasibility of some of the refinements below, if your builder is knowledgeable enough about the law.

Second is a one-year tax credit of up to $1,500 for building envelope improvements (to existing primary residences only) like windows and doors, insulation or roofing, installed by December 31, 2010.  The one-year cap is significant, but can be doubled if your construction runs through two tax years (purchase your roofing in December and windows in January).

Also falling under the category above are upgraded HVAC systems, including split systems rated “Tier 3″ by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, geothermal units and “Tier 2″ package systems.

For those of you with more ambitious carbon-neutralizing goals, the federal government has decided to reward your outsized ambition with a third type of credit for alternative energy.  Significantly, this credit has no cap, and simply covers 30% of qualified expenses for the installation of active solar and wind power systems.  This larger credit is also available for new construction of primary residences.  Considering that a good wind system could cost you upwards of $20,000, this credit also appeals to those for whom free money is too good to pass up.

As with many of the serious financial decisions we make when we build homes, no single factor usually guides the decision.  Initial installation and operating costs must be balanced against operational payback, maintenance, and the all-important “cool factor.”  Still, the numerous incentives out in the tax code now may sway your decision.  If so, you’ll want to be sure to have the team on board to not only design and install these types of improvements, but also to help you navigate the ensuing paperwork.

Happy green building…

Recently, however, as so many fast-growing communities have begun to understand their fiscal situation after the financial crisis of 2008, we see more and more articles like THIS.  This week, no fewer than three newspapers have covered the budgetary conflicts between farmland and open-space conservation measures, and other budgetary priorities.  When governments are flush, the common value of farm and forest lands are clearly a priority the public values, and one we’ll pay to preserve.  When choices become tougher and, as in this linked article, we must discuss land conservation in the context of laying off Deputy Sheriffs, well, there’s a reason they call them “basic services.”

What’s interesting about this article, about Grand Rapids, is that the elected officials are looking at the problem regionally.  One board member counts the 25,000 acres the community wants to preserve, multiplies it by $4,000 per acre (presumably the going rate), and says, with a resignation obvious even in newsprint, that he’s looking for a hundred million dollars.  His conclusion is that the only place to find funds like that is government, and therefore the project is in peril.

We look at the same numbers, and the magnitude of the problem, and the importance of farm and forest lands to the public, tell us two things:  First, we cannot fail in the effort to conserve our productive land and agriculture.  Second, and more important, the effort cannot come from government alone, or from charity alone, or from the good intentions of legacy landowners.  In fact, the “hundred million dollar problem” in Grand Rapids leads us to the opposite conclusion: private-sector development like Bundoran Farm and other similar communities must be part of this solution.