Conscious Choice: Conserving Community

September 1999

Conserving Community

Prairie Crossing and Tryon Farms are national role models of green housing

by Travis Stansel

When my family moved to San Rafael, California, from Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1982, we moved from a town with a library, stores, basically anything you’d need within walking distance to a subdivision with faux-poetic names and winding roads butted up against the Coast Range Mountains. Beautiful? Potentially. Unfortunately this subdivision featured all of three home designs: two ranches and a two-story, all of which greeted the street and each other with the blank face of a large garage.

It was a totally typical California subdivision. But it was more than that. It was the eighties and it was progress. Who needed to be near the center of town when the mall was a mere thirty-minute drive away?

Beginning in the 1950s, subdivision after subdivision arose in the first inner rings of suburbs around cities like L.A. and Chicago. Shaped by the automobile, they have been moving outward ever since, toward the outer limits of suburbia, leaving trails of highways and strip malls in their path. The blandness of identical houses along the winding streets can be almost unbearable, and for those who don’t drive, going anywhere is a burden. Public transportation is rarely an option.

Environmentalists have long been aware that suburban sprawl leads to pollution and more automobile congestion. Now even business leaders are beginning to recognize that the typical suburban development is bad for business, the environment, and the entire region. The Commercial Club of Chicago, a group of business and civic leaders, put out a report recently stating that low-density suburban development costs municipalities more for infrastructure than clustered, higher-density development. Sprawl development encourages excessive automobile usage and increased travel between home and work; a loss of wetlands and increased flood risk; and a loss of open space, including farmland (northeastern Illinois has lost 440 square miles between 1970 and 1990. This represents an area equal to twice the land occupied by the city of Chicago).

But there are other ways to do it. The archetypal eco-suburb is Village Homes near the university town of Davis, California. Built in the 1970s, all of the homes in Village are solar powered, and they face out to bike and walking paths rather than roads. Cars are stored in car ports and are driven only on narrow roads behind the homes. Bike paths connect to paths in Davis and an abundance of fruit trees shade the homes to a cool temperature, rendering air conditioning, even in the hot Central Valley summers, unnecessary.

The clincher is that the developer made money on the project. The homes now routinely sell for 20 percent more than nearby standard subdivisions and are in such demand that word of mouth sells a home. The mystery is that with a successful track record, Village Homes has never been duplicated.

But two recent developments near Chicago are attempting to combat the suburban malaise and preserve a bit of the natural habitat. Prairie Crossing in Grayslake and Tryon Farms in Michigan City, Indiana, both call themselves "conservation communities" and have gone to great lengths to preserve the land in the path of suburban progress.

Prairie Crossing

Driving into Prairie Crossing, the first thing I notice is that it has the feeling of a young small town rather than a regular subdivision. It’s not completely the village it could become; as of yet it’s missing such necessities as a general store, which the developers say is coming. The trees are young, and many houses are still shells of their future selves, but there is a good deal of variety in the colors and shapes of the houses themselves, which sport designs based on nineteenth century farmhouses.

It was not originally meant to be this way. In the beginning, the land that is now Prairie Crossing was part of a 2400 acre development that was zoned for seven dwellings per acre.

Eve Lee, sales and marketing director at Prairie Crossing, says "the county realized that if this development were to go forward, there’d be sixty-thousand people in the center of Lake County, with no plan for sewers, water, roads, or schools."

The county filed suit, and a settlement allowed for a scaled-back development of the property. It was divided, and the 700 acres that Prairie Crossing now occupies was set for a development of 1600 homes, just over two per acre.

Publishing executive Gaylord Donnelley lived on a farm nearby and was alarmed at how even those smaller plans would affect the character of the area and the village of Grayslake. So he purchased the land and formed Prairie Crossing Corporation in 1987. The original plan for the site was a farm-like development of homes on seven-acre lots. When Donnelley passed away in 1992, his nephew, civic leader and business executive George Ranney, Jr., took control of the project with his wife Vicky.

The Ranneys are quite a team. George is the former president of Inland Steel Industries and currently the head of Chicago Metropolis 2020, an influential civic organization that is promoting regional solutions to issues such a investing in public transportation, financing public schools, and preserving open space. Vicky has done significant work in the social justice field, raised three children, and as a historian edited the papers of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Setting out to build homes that would be integrated into the land while preserving open space and agricultural use, the Ranneys first changed the overall focus into a project that would cluster homes into a more compact area, keeping a larger expanse of continuous open space. The homes are situated on quarter- to a half-acre lots, smaller than nearby subdivisions. This places the homes closer together than in most developments, and at the same time, reduces infrastructure costs.

And it also leaves open land that might have been built on. Prairie Crossing will build only four hundred homes and leave 60 percent of the land open. Whereas most nearby subdivisions consider open land fodder for the golf course monster, Prairie Crossing keeps native vegetation in prairie reserves and organic farming on the agricultural land.

"All the houses that we’ve built so far look out onto open land of one kind or another, either pasture or wetlands and prairie or village green," says Vicky Ranney. The lots "feel bigger than they are because you look out onto common land. Individual lot size is not as significant because we have 360 acres of common open land."

A bonus of Prairie Crossing’s location is that across Route 45, the eastern boundary of Prairie Crossing, is the 2,500-acre Liberty Prairie Reserve. Plans are in the works for a bike, pedestrian, and bridle path under the road to connect the two areas.

When first planning the homes, the Ranneys sent architects into nearby towns and farms to get a feel for what they were looking for. While the homes are not exact replicas of farmhouses, they evoke the same feeling.

"What we set out to do was to have the architecture fit with the land and fit with the history of Lake County and the existing farmhouses in the surrounding area," says Ranney. While the homes look traditional, they are built with interesting design initiatives that make the homes more energy efficient without raising the cost.

One problem frame houses share is heat loss through the wooden studs. At Prairie Crossing, the architects used two-by-six studs instead of the traditional two-by-fours, allowing them to be placed further apart, reducing heat loss as well as the amount of lumber used. The thicker walls allowed more insulation, further reducing energy use.

The homes are estimated to operate on fifty percent of the energy of a comparably-sized home and are built to standards developed by a Department of Energy program called Build America, which offers economic as well as environmental benefits.

They range in price from $239,900 to $427,900, putting them at the high end of the general market but directly in line with other subdivisions in an upscale part of Lake County. Under Build America, buyers qualify for an "Energy-Efficient Mortgage," allowing them to figure utility bill savings into the income-payment ratio. This allows a buyer to qualify at a lower income than the mortgage would normally require because of the lower utility costs. In addition, one-eighth of a percent is shaved off the cost of the mortgage.

"It means that they (homeowners) can afford a little more house than they could if it weren’t energy-efficient," says Lee. Prairie Crossing is the first entire community in the country to qualify.

Vicky Ranney says that while some of the energy-efficient appliances cost more on the outset, it averages out to save money in the long run. It’s "not very much more expensive, we figure about a thoudand dollars more, but what you get is a house that is much less expensive to operate over many years."

Despite Prairie Crossing’s far suburban location, public transportation into the city is readily available. Currently, there is one Metra station nearby that takes riders to O’Hare or Union Station downtown. The station is about a five minute drive or bicycle ride away. Another, closer station is set to open, with construction beginning soon.

"We were emphasizing building near the train station," says Vicky Ranney, noting that the average suburban home has at least two cars. "We figure people in Prairie Crossing could live with one less car, and one member of the family could commute by train."

Another as-of-yet missing link is the presence of any retail business, but that should change soon with the opening of a general store near the train station that would give Prairie Crossing what Ranney calls a "sense of a town center."

One problem that has been plaguing many newly developing suburban areas is flooding of highly developed paved areas. Rainwater that used to soak into the ground has nowhere to go. The Prairie Crossing site is specially graded so that storm water first moves through bluegrass, then through prairie vegetation and into a small lake. This keeps water levels in the lake from vacillating wildly. It also prevents flooding and allows for stable vegetation growth.

Another benefit is the quality of the water. Typically rainwater travels down a road into a gutter, through a pipe and then into a retention pond. By the time the water reaches the retention pond, it contains road salts and other pollutants.

With a natural filtration system, pollutants are washed out of the water, and by the time the water reaches the lake, it is clean enough that residents can swim in it; the Illinois Department of Natural resources is even using part of the lake for a hatchery to breed endangered species of fish.

This plan also saved Prairie Crossing money in initial infrastructure costs. Michael Sands, environmental team leader at Prairie Crossing, said it "saved us somewhere around $1.8 million over the cost of the whole development by not putting in traditional curb and gutter storm sewers."

While some of the Prairie Crossing homes have traditional lawns, residents are encouraged to use natural landscaping and native plants, and above all, reduce the amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides they use. While this idea is new for many residents, it’s an idea that Vicky Ranney hopes will be instilled, not through coercion, but instead through a slowly developed respect and appreciation for what the land around has to offer.

"People enjoy the land and they find ways to preserve the land in their everyday lives. No one has to participate in the community-supported garden but a large number of people do. I think there’s a link here between enjoying the fruit of the land and responsibility."

The fruit of the land is plentiful thanks to an emphasis on working the agricultural heritage of the land into the development of Prairie Crossing. The community garden gives residents space to grow vegetables on their own plot. Three times a week the farmer’s market sells organic produce grown on the property along with eggs from the free-range chickens and honey from on-site beekeeping.

Near the entrance to Prairie Crossing is the Byron Colby Barn, a barn that was moved from elsewhere on the property and now serves as a community center, a space for weddings and a center for meetings of local conservation groups, among other events. It is just one place on the property designed to "create an opportunity for community to happen," according to Eve Lee.

Community happens because there are opportunities for it to arise, such as at the thirteen-stall horse stable and farm where residents can keep pigs and goats and similar animals. There are concerts in the barn and on the Village Green, and in the spring and autumn some of the prairie is burned to kill off alien vegetation and provide nutrients for the soil. In addition, a charter school is planned on the property.

What is next for Prairie Crossing? The Ranneys are now proposing a revision to the original Prairie Crossing Plan that could make the community even more environmentally friendly than before. Under the proposed plan, they will develop a transit oriented town center within easy walking distance of the train stations. Village scale commericial development, such as a village market, bakery and deli, would let people walk to the store rather than add to the high number of car trips usual in the suburbs. "It makes sense to locate development near existing mass transit, and to cluster houses and shops to save open land, says Vicky Ranney. "Prairie Crossing is hoping to do this in a way that is good for the environment and for the quality of life of everyone who lives here."

Tryon Farm

At the other end of the Chicago Metro region is another "conservation community" currently under development, Tryon Farm in Michigan City, Indiana. The brainchild of architect Ed Noonan and his wife Eve, Tryon is in the beginning stages of building a village in the middle of a working farm, with other smaller clusters of homes built into the surrounding forest.

The original owner of the property was Charles Tryon, who farmed the land in the late 1800s. When Tryon moved to California the land was purchased by Walter Werner, who at ninety-eight years of age still lives on the property. His grandson and great-grandsons still farm the property today, making four generations of Werners who have worked the land.

Ed and Eve Noonan purchased the property in 1990, but didn’t begin building until about one and a half years ago, and at this point there are seven homes built. Still, the land exudes the quiet and stillness of a rural area.

Just before arriving at Tryon Farm, you pass an alfalfa field and horse pasture that will remain as they are. Smaller than Prairie Crossing at 170 acres, Tryon is nonetheless preserving 60 percent of its open space. Homes will be clustered in seven groups to preserve open space and promote a sense of community.

Resident manager Dan Rybicky says that Tryon is trying to "make community happen organically without shoving community events down everyone’s throat."

Residents can gather at bonfires at a circle near the edge of the forest or at the community garden. They can take part in group events, such as a furniture-making workshop held recently. There is also a plan to show films in the old barn.

The homes are simply designed and reminiscent of old barns. In the front of the settlement is one building that looks like a large barn, but it is in fact a new building housing three side by side loft homes with downstairs garages and upstairs living spaces.

The built homes range in size from one bedroom attached loft-style homes from about $140,000 to free-standing three bedroom, two-story homes in the mid $200s. Plans are in the works for a number of studio homes in the forest where residents can design the floorplans to suit their own needs. These are expected to start at $88,000.

The variety of home sizes and styles was done in part to increase the diversity of the community. Tryon is only two miles from Lake Michigan, so it was always assumed that some of the residents would be purchasing second homes for weekend getaways.

Thanks to the numerous windows and skylights, even on a rainy day the white interiors of the built homes are bright. They all face out onto open space, whether it’s the alfalfa field, forest, or wetland. Windows are pointed away from neighbors for privacy.

As one of the architects on the team that designed the homes, Noonan says his intention is to "make these places spatially interesting, so on a rainy day you can enjoy being in a bright place or in the winter you can enjoy being inside."

Again, energy efficiency is increased by the use of two-by-six studs along with tight construction and thick insulation. Noonan says that there was thought of going full-speed ahead into solar-powered homes built with straw bale walls, but for now he plans on experimenting with different systems to see what would be right for the area and the property.

One plan is to work with the architecture departments from Indiana colleges and universities. Noonan says the idea is to "get universities to work with us on‘What are the steps toward solar? What are the steps toward straw bales? What are the steps toward each of the elements that go for green?’ rather than having to go perfect green, right from the start."

Like Prairie Crossing, Tryon is accessible to public transportation to Chicago; a South Shore Line station is three miles away and the train takes riders downtown in about an hour.

One way in which Tryon combined economics and environmentalism was to eliminate sewers and put in its place an innovative system of reeds and other wetland plants to filter waste — including human waste — and rainwater. The plants absorb nutrients and add oxygen to the water, and after seven days the waste is cleaned and the result is clean water being fed to the fields surrounding the homes.

Residents are encouraged by the system to practice environmental awareness; they have to take into consideration the fact that many household chemicals such as bleach, pesticides, and commercial cleansers can hurt the plants that filter the water as well as the fields that eventually receive it.

Michigan City wanted Tryon to build on the existing sewer system, but Noonan spent six years negotiating with the city to approve his wetlands plan. In fact, Tryon couldn’t have been built without it. Noonan says he wouldn’t have been able to afford to build any houses with the infrastructure of a conventional sewer system.

Tryon has also created a number of wetlands and is in the process of adding more. Michigan City is even building one on the property to mitigate its own storm water retention problems, a sort of "barter" between the city and Noonan that he says has "led to relationships we might otherwise not have had."

Noonan acknowledges that many people who have come to visit are at first frightened by the lack of two-car garages and traditional colonial style-homes. "People who drift in looking for a subdivision are going‘what the hell is this?’"

But through a process Noonan refers to as "normalizing," he hopes that Tryon and other developments such as Prairie Crossing will help make the environmental aspects less of a dream and more of a reality. "Many different kinds of people can be here, civilized by a common love of the land rather than a bunch of rules — and what scares me is how few examples there are to help normalize this."

Resident manager Rybicky, a filmmaker from New York who came to Tryon to get away from the city, says "I believe that all projects, whether they be films or businesses or developments, stem from the people who start them; this project is very indicative of Eve and Ed Noonan in terms of the people it attracts and the aesthetics."

Normalization, to use Ed Noonan’s term, is what needs to happen. He says now that a precedent has been set, he would eventually like to see developers look at such projects and say, "yeah, this is not a big economic risk." He wants to "make people feel safer" in pursuing such projects that may have seemed risky before.

"I’m doing what my great-grandmother would have done if she wanted to save the farm; I’m putting in a new crop."

The Conservation Community Legacy

What will be the legacy of such developments? Hopefully it won’t be the case that Prairie Crossing and Tryon Farm are so far ahead of their time, as Village Homes might be, that it will take another few decades for the widespread reality of conservation communities to take hold.

Prairie Crossing’s Eve Lee says that Prairie Crossing exists "because we want to be a blueprint for other builders and show them that you can market a conservation community."

Mike Sands, Prairie Crossing environmental leader, says "by completing Prairie Crossing and achieving the same return on our investment, we’re opening the options and setting standards that planning commissions, village boards, and developers can aspire to." And there are already signs that it’s a trend in infancy rather than dormancy.

James Paul, owner of ALPS development, is beginning his second development in southern Will County, Canterbury Lakes, influenced by what he saw at Prairie Crossing. He’s working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Will County Forest Preserve District on ways to build homes while retaining many of the natural features of the area.

On the national front, journalists are also being inspired by the conservation community model. Prairie Crossing has been featured twice in the New York Times, in Popular Science, Landscape Architecture, and Builder Magazine. Closer to home, the Chicago Tribune Magazine recently ran a cover story featuring Vicky Ranney and Prairie Crossing.

Ultimately what’s behind the push for better planning and smarter growth is a realization that standard suburban development doesn’t work environmentally or economically. The words ecology and economy both come from the same Greek root, "oikos," which means home. What better place than home for them to come together again?

Resources

Prairie Crossing, Grayslake, Illinois; 847-548-5400

Tryon Farm, LaPorte County, Indiana; 800-779-6433

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